A live record of four Germans on keyboards doesn't sound particularly enticing any way you dress it up - a double CD as excruciating as last orders being called early. However, Kraftwerk have continued to defy logic for over 30 years, and 'Minimum-Maximum' is as complete and satisfying a live album as you are likely to hear.
The 22 tracks lifted from Kraftwerk's 2004 world tour are clear, direct electronic gems. You may have to go back to the 1970's for their best studio albums, but this serves as a simultaneous greatest hits collection and calling card for their live shows. 'Autobahn' and 'Neon Lights' are entrancing, all encompassing techno classics. Their genre hopping influence on music is unsurpassable - through pre and post punk, house and electronic - they have always pushed boundaries and have proved themselves as innovators, yet it is only when you trace the lines through this compilation you begin to reason how.
Tracks such as 'Trans Europe Express' and 'Tour De France' portray a sophistication and modernity that suggests the original studio recordings were limited by the standards of mid-1970's recording material - Kraftwerk's vision is closer to being realised in the realms of 21st century technology and the freedom of playing live. Music that was originally era defining gains an added muscle and clarity that takes Kraftwerk to a different level. This double CD deserves to be placed in the same bracket as Nirvana's 'Unplugged in New York' and The Who's 'Live at Leeds' as live albums that provide so, so much more than the norm.
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