Kraftwerk: Triumph Of The Machines

KRAFTWERK'S MOST recent record, the long-waited Tour de France Soundtracks – their first album of new material since 1986's Electric Café, and a variation on their 1983 single 'Tour de France' – is a gleaming, sleek piece of work, a Mercedes of a record hand-tooled to perfection in the legendary Kling Klang studio. But in the 21st century, better electronic records are regularly dashed off in bedrooms with much less fuss by the likes of Four Tet, or roll off production lines in clinical corporate studios for Britney Spears and her ilk.