You have to be very, very patient to be a current fan of Kraftwerk, but I guess that doesn't matter when a band has achieved semi-mythical status. Last summer they released Tour De France Soundtracks, their first album in over a decade, with one single. Aerodynamik is the second, eight months later.
It's all you would expect from the arch-minimalists of robot pop - a smooth, scintillating, elegant wall of sound. True to the title, it slips easily through the brain without dragging at the mind, though you do find yourself trying to spot the differences in the various remixes on offer.
The real question is why does a band release singles at all at this stage? The crowd that made the accompanying Royal Festival Hall gig a sell out are bound to have the album already. But maybe Teutonic thoroughness rubs off and they'll have to add this to the collection.
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