Kraftwerk - Minimum Maximum

This sense of arrival marks the 2004 live album Minimum Maximum. The two-disc set captures Kraftwerk in action (well, as much action as you get from four men stoically manning laptops), and acts as a career retrospective. Aside from the cheers from the audience, there isn't much "live energy" here (Kraftwerk might just as easily have played a pre-recorded DAT of the performance), but the music sounds as crisp, fully realized, and dazzling as ever. In fact, modified versions of "The Robots" and "Autobahn" arguably improve on the originals, while pieces from 2003's excellent Tour De France Soundtracks round out the track list nicely. In all, this is a superbly selected set of the band's epoch-defining music.