The following are 2 articles from the August edition of the British dance music technology magazine, Future Music. Thought you'd like to read them.

They invented music today, don't you know. Well OK, they've certainly been cited by many a cutting-edge musician as being THE most important and most influential band ever...which isn't bad considering they haven't written any original tunes(?) for well over 15 years and aguably done nothing half decent for two decades.

So when news came through to theFuture Music office of a new Kraftwerk album we...well...didn't really do much, as it looks like yet another ruddy rehash of old stuff. It's going to be based around the Tour De France (these people love cycling more than music, you see) so willfeature a new version of that single plus, by all accounts, some new versions of other Kraftwerk songs. So all a bit of a letdown really, and we had to laugh when we read somewhere that it's a rush release! We presume that means 'rushed' as in how The Blue Nile and Peter Gabriel rush out albums.

Anyway this leaves us asking more than a few questions. For instance, how can a band seem to get more and more important, the less new music they actually release? And what can they possibly release to live up to the hype? Will they ever release anything ever again? Answers on a post'kard' The hype and the emperor and his new clothes march on...

With news of a new album (OK, a rehash of old stuff) elsewhwere on these pages, it seems appropriate to revisit the German pioneers to question why it is they've reached the godlike status and muse over one of their best offerings from days gone by.

When tackling the 'Gods' bit it's all quite simple really. Kraftwerk pretty much invented pure electronic music, electro pop and dance music as we know it today.

They also produced some classic moments in the 70's and 80's leaving us with a couple of masterppieces of which 'The Man Machine' is one. The fact that they haven't made any decent music for nigh on 20 years has meant that dewy-eyed musicians (not to mention dewy-eyed music technology journalists) always cite them as THE band. They have the mystery (they don't talk) they have the studio (Kling Klang and it's closed doors) and the prolonged silence (both in words and music). All these have helped keep the icon status going, so God help them when they actually release a new album proper. Will we see them as charlatans they really are at last!?

Anyway, back to to the good stuff. The Man Machine was pure electronic cheese, but in the nicest and cleanest of ways. It had Sci-Fi (The Robots, leading to another common theory that Kraftwerk are indeed robots), space (Spacelab), high camp (just look at all the pictures), neon lights (er, Neon Lights) and an accidental Number 1. Yep, three years after it's release, The Model snuck into the the top of the UK charts and took everyone by surprise (although not me because I was in 'the know' and even had the German version of 'The Man Machine' by this time, I was so cool).

If kraftwerk are, as some now believe, a big teasing wind-up joke, sent to us by beings from the future - and I'm beginning to be the main exponent of this theory - then 'The Man Machine' was their punchline and they've been laughing at us ever since. Andy James