Deadstock find! Authentic copies of this controversial, now out-of-print book by former Kraftwerk drummer Wolfgang Flur. The founding members of Kraftwerk actually tried prevent this book from being published, and it's pretty obvious why - Flur doesn't have too many nice things to say about his former bandmates. Much of his dislike stems from the whole "man-machine" concept, as Flur has moved on to more organic projects since leaving Da 'Werk, but a lot of it comes from what seems to be straight-up shadiness on the parts of founding members Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider-Esleben. (At various points in the book, they make non-original band members sign contracts to join, try to squash public appearances by Flur, and even patent a drum controller that Flur invented!) A couple interesting quotes: "I felt a chill when I recently read an interview with Ralf... in which he said that he felt like a robot. I'd seen this development coming for a long time, that Ralf would no longer be able to escape from the same role that we all used to play... My rejection of what Kraftwerk has become is the direct result of the behaviour of two artists who became too robotic." Not your typical band bio, but definitely worth a read for Kraftwerk diehards. 287 pages.

reviewed by Chris Lemon-Red