A concept album exploring themes of broadcast communications, Radio-Activity marked Kraftwerk's return to more obtuse territory, extensively utilizing static, oscillators, and even Cage-like moments of silence to approximate the sense of radio transmission; a pivotal record in the group's continuing development, the title track – the first they ever recorded in English – is their most fully realized electro-pop effort to date, while "The Voice of Energy" precipitates the robot voice so crucial to their subsequent work.

Considered by many music historians as one of the most important group out of Germany, Faust were certainly ahead of their time. They took their music to unsuspecting heights somewhere in between Can, Velvet Underground, Neu, LA Dusseldorf or Henry Cow but also much farther and can be considered as founding fathers of the Industrial Rock. Having made their debut in 71 in Hamburg, Faust will never stop their groundbreaking and will be always one step ahead of everybody else including the groups above mentioned and are the prime example of Rock In Opposition (RIO) along with Henry Cow. Faust is definitely not for the faint-hearted person and can only be recommended in small doses because it is very dangerous for the sanity of the average proghead.

La Düsseldorf is Klaus Dinger's side project after the scission of Neu! in 1975. In this musical adventure, Dinger is accompanied by Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe who also participated to the recording of the third and last Neu! The self titled album "La Dusseldorf" was released in 1976, venturing from avant-garde for concrete noises, manipulated sounds, pre-punk atmospheres. This album has a total disregard for musical convention, the musicians don't hesitate to mix without restriction a bunch of sounds taken from a great variety of musical styles (with pop accents, motoric "electronic" pulses, krautrock weird instrumentals and punk's eccentricity). After this original and diverse collection of experiments, the band recorded their second "Viva" in 1978…

The brothers Giorgio and Martin Koppehele wrote and produced for and with Plácido Domingo, Alan Parsons, Boy George, Midge Ure, Bro'Sis, Suzi Quatro, CC Catch, Shari Belafonte, Chris Thompson, Splash, Odyssey, Nicole, Michelle and Lou Bega. They wrote and produced for advertising jingles, dance projects, music for films, television series as well as for soundtracks and exhibitions such as the Titanic exhibition in Hamburg. The music of Lichtmond combines electronic music with ambient and rock elements that flow into each other. Alan Parsons called Lichtmond as the modern-day Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk.

Pinguin's only release, though they had previously made a record under the name of Talix. Originally released by Zebra records and the sound is strongly keyboard-dominated (organist Volker Plitz composed all the tracks), but there are enough furious guitar leads to satisfy the psych-lover. Similar to other Germans prog outfits like Frumpy, Subject Esq.

Emotional was released in the U.S. the same year as his breakthrough album, Falco 3, which included the hit "Rock Me Amadeus." It is hard not to consider that this album (on Sire, not A&M, the home of his hit record) was rushed to market to capitalize on his one-hit wonder status. Standout tracks include the title track, "Crime Time," "The Kiss of Kathleen Turner," and a follow-up to the banned song "Jeanny" called "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later." "Cowboyz and Indianz'" contains some interesting Star Wars allusions. Not essential by any means, even for somewhat serious fans. However, a surprisingly solid new wave album that is quirky and fun. A great used-record find.

Spacebox is the solo project of Uli Trepte (Guru Guru bass player, also member of early Neu! and Faust). Two albums have been released; "Spacebox" (1981) with Geoff Leigh and Catherine Williams as guests and "Kick Up" (1984) as a collective: it features an electric, eclectic, primitive "jazzy" rock "trip". These intriguing "obscure" German improvisations have been reissued by the Japanese label Captain Trip.

Continuing to work with Conny Plank, who once again provides a compelling job as producer and engineer, Kraftwerk went right ahead and named their new album after their two remaining members – an understandable enough move. Like the first two albums, Ralf and Florian still has not seen official re-release, for all that one can practically taste Kraftwerk's leap into the beyond on it. Given that this was the last album before the most famous lineup was formed and Autobahn was released, it's appropriate to listen to Ralf and Florian as a harbinger for the future, though perhaps all too easy. Take it on its own terms – a further investigation of electronic possibilities in a more open-ended, less constantly structured fashion than would be the case later – and Ralf and Florian becomes most enjoyable.