Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 18, 2026

Parlophone and Warner Music Group released Kraftwerk: Autobahn a little over a year ago, and now Kraftwerk's follow up to that iconic album is getting the hi res audio treatment, albeit without the animations that accompanied the music on the prior disc. The then still nascent use of relatively early synthesizers probably gives this outing an undeniably "quaint" feel, but those very electronic instruments allow for some really fun if maybe slightly kitschy surround activity courtesy of the Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes included. This album did not fare nearly as well as Autobahn, but it has some rather interesting material, and it's especially notable (no pun intended) for some evocative uses of a synth choir which may remind some of the Mellotron as used by the Moody Blues among many others.

The album's track list can be seen in screenshot 4.

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unlike Autobahn, which had a kind of whimsical video component, aside from a couple of very brief animations, this disc simply offers a static menu where only the song titles change. The two brief animations are first at disc boot up when a supposed old style CRT cursor and font spells out the band and album name, and then when Play is accessed the dotted lines seen in the screenshots emanate briefly outward from the atomic hazard symbol, after which they're stationary for the rest of the album. Screenshot 5 shows the main menu the disc boots to and the first three screenshots simply document how the only changeable element in the song title. Because there's no real video here other than the menus, I've left the score above blank intentionally.

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity features Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options. The surround tracks offer some really fun immersive effects, though rather interestingly the kick drum that begins the album emanates from around the soundstage and it's not until the scratchy static sound that's kind of like a, well, geiger counter (mixed with a motorcycle?) that the Atmos track in particular offers some midair placement. The first of many enjoyable "transformations" which are also mirrored in how the surround channels are engaged comes when Geiger Counter segues to Radioactivity and the increasingly frenetic kick drum morphs into almost a ping pong sound and then the pulsing bass synth, when some noticeable panning occurs. I'll just mention in passing how the opening synth riffs of Radioactivity have always reminded me somewhat hilariously of the great old early synth classic by Gershon Kingsley, Popcorn. A lot of the subsequent percussion effects can tend to emanate from the front and rear channels simultaneously as in the opening, but other weird quasi-sound effects like those heard in Radioland can flit around the soundstage appealingly. Actual vocals (as opposed to the synth choirs) can tend to be mixed rather far back, which probably makes any lyrics (in either English or German) somewhat subliminal, but which adds to a kind of quasi-wall of sound approach.

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the disc. A foldout leaflet contains credits, and the sleeve has an inner print reproducing the main logo with emanating rays.

Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even by the vagaries of the music industry, the fact that on the U.S. album charts Kraftwerk went from number 5 with Autobahn to number 140 with Radio-Activity may be one pretty salient indication of how this follow up to the band's biggest hit was met with a kind of collective "meh" at the time. That initial reaction is frankly not that hard to understand, but the album probably shows a bit more of its cheekiness now than it did then, and the "vintage" electronic instruments are kind of fun to listen to in any case, even if some of the sounds are undeniably goofy. Both of the surround tracks offer consistent immersion. For Kraftwerk fans at least, Recommended.