Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: Few albums have reshaped the landscape of electronic music quite like Autobahn. Originally released in 1974, Kraftwerk's groundbreaking fusion of synthesisers, sequencers and minimalist structure redefined what pop music could be. The title track, stretching over 22 minutes, was an ambitious journey through hypnotic rhythms, vocoder-treated vocals and shimmering electronic textures, concentrating on the feel of a never-ending highway ride. This anniversary edition brings a fresh dimension to the experience. Revisiting the original 16-track master tapes, Ralf Hutter and engineer Fritz Hilpert have crafted a Dolby Atmos Mix that expands the album's depth and spatiality like never before. This Blu-ray includes a 5.1 mix, a high-resolution stereo version and two newly edited 2024 single versions, plus a video of the 'Autobahn' edit featuring Kraftwerk's signature visual aesthetic. Packaged in a region-free Blu-ray with a 12-page booklet and an SDE-exclusive slipcase, this edition ensures that Autobahn can be experienced in a format worthy of its legacy.

Notes: Formed in 1970, Kraftwerk's contribution to the development of electronic music remains unsurpassed. Having inspired everyone from Bowie to Joy Division to Radiohead, this mysterious collective has also proven responsible for entire genres to emerge electronica, techno and synth-pop to name but three.

This DVD reviews the career and music of Kraftwerk, from their inception in the late 1960s through their most celebrated period in the mid-1970s, culminating with their resurgence during the 1980s. The film further explores how Kraftwerk both fitted into and pulled away from the electronic wing of what is often lazily referred to as Krautrock . Showing respect too for many of the groups German contemporaries from a similar impulse, and tracing the unfolding of electronics in German contemporary music generally, this programme presents a fascinating story previously untold on film.

Featuring exclusive and extensive interviews with ex-Kraftwerk members - Karl Bartos and Klaus Roder, German ambient and electronic musicians - Dieter Moebius [Kluster/Harmonia], Hans Joachim Rodelius [Kluster/Harmonia], Klaus Schulze [Tangerine Dream/ Ash Ra Tempel and Solo], Wolfgang Siedel [Eruption], Conrad Schnitzler [Kluster/Solo], Klaus Lohmer [engineer, Kraftwerk album] and many others. Also boasting further contributions from Electronic music experts and writers, and rare studio and live footage of the band, these all together make for perhaps the best film on the subject ever to emerge.

Notes: When they were creating and releasing their most influential albums in the mid to late 1970s, Kraftwerk were far from the musical mainstream - and yet it is impossible now to imagine the history of popular music without them. Today, Kraftwerk are considered to be an essential part of pop's DNA, alongside artists like the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, and Little Richard. Kraftwerk's immediate influence might have been on a generation of synth-based bands (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Human League, Depeche Mode, Yello, et al), but their influence on the emerging dance culture in urban America has proved longer lasting and more decisive. This collection of original essays looks at Kraftwerk - their legacy and influence - from a variety of angles, and demonstrates persuasively and coherently that however you choose to define their art, it's impossible to underestimate the ways in which it predicted and shaped the future.