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Note: This review is very old and may no longer accurately reflect the author's views. Kraftwerk's first couple of albums as a duo (Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2, and Ralf und Florian) are nowadays all but disavowed by the band's founders and still-leaders, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. These releases show a very different side than the later releases that have since become the sacred cow currency of alternative popular music criticism. As such, these beginning albums are usually hailed as the 'true forgotten masterpieces' of the band. Whether or not you'd classify this as 'prog rock' depends on how liberal your definition is, but if it has something to do with extended pieces and experimentalism, then this one meets it. The minimalist feel here is firmly in the Neu!/Cluster/Harmonia camp of Krautrock (the common denominator for all being the engineer and producer Conny Plank). That being said, I find this debut to be vastly overrated, and quite frankly, rather boring. The compositions here are just a bit too unrefined, unoffensive, and unobtrusive for me to get really swept up into it. So, while I can appreciate how different this sounds from the later 'proto-techno gods' era of Kraftwerk, I have to say I must more or less concur with Hütter and Schneider's assessment. review by Joe McGlinchey — undated —