Latest releases reviewed

VARIOUS Come West Along the Road RTÉ ***

Traditional music has seldom bothered about visuals, but Nicholas Carolan (host of the TV series of the same name) trawls 25 years of archive footage: a who's who of the great, the good and the eternally revered. Snapshots of Nioclás Toibín and a youthful Martin Hayes mine two exceedingly rich seams of the tradition. So do images of The Bothy Band on full throttle. But a recording of piper Liam Ó Floinn, his listeners observing him as if he were some rare Amazonian specimen, is cringeworthy. Not for the casual fan, but essential viewing for those with an ear that straddles past and present. www.rté.ie

Siobhán Long

KRAFTWERK Minimum-Maximum EMI ****

Lets be honest, not a lot happens at a Kraftwerk show. The four 'Werkers stand stock still onstage and stare intently at their laptop screens. As the music booms away, for all we know they could be sending e-mails to each other about the latest electronic gizmos they've found on eBay. But while the idea of a DVD based around their recent world tour (the one which ended at the Electric Picnic last September) may not be one to cause palpitations and wows, Minimum-Maximum does the business in some style, thanks largely to Kraftwerk's attention to detail. Every aspect of Minimum-Maximum is impressive, from the laptop-styled box to the sharp simplicity of the visuals used throughout, especially those short films projected onto screens behind the band. Naturally, the most theatrical moments occur when the four are replaced by robot replicas for The Robots. Next tour, ex- pect to see those robots stagediv ing into the audience. www.kraftwerk.com

Jim Carroll