It’s common knowledge that Kraftwerk and Neu! were both products of the Düsseldorf musical scene, having been united in the early prog band Organisation; eventually Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger would split from Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider to create the two classic Krautrock bands we know today, but there is a fair amount of material featuring Rother, Dinger, and Schneider (no Hütter, who had returned to school to study architecture). A surprising amount of it was captured on German TV between 1970 and 1972.

Kraftwerk is one of those bands that has husbanded its exclusivity awfully well; just ask anyone (like me) who tried and failed to get tickets to their severely limited-attendance run of MoMA shows in 2012. The most design-savvy of Krautrockers, they are prime objects of collector fetishization. Collectors already know about the band’s precursor Organisation, whose 1971 album Tone Float routinely goes for more than $100 on Discogs.com (the CD is a lot more affordable). There’s no shortage of enthusiasts of Kraftwerk’s early, proggy phase, but the majesty of a big chunk of their early work recorded for video or TV should enhance just about anyone’s day.
 

 
Bootleg editions of Tone Float often tacked on an extra track that actually was among Kraftwerk’s first works—that’s why when you execute a Google Images search of the Organisation album cover, a good many of the results have both names on the cover. That track, misidentified as “Vor dem blauen Bock” (Before the Blue Goat), is in fact is a groovy instrumental number named “Rückstoss Gondoliere,” which comes from an appearance by Kraftwerk on the Bremen Beat-Club TV show on May 22, 1971. (I’m having a difficult time translating “Rückstoss Gondoliere,” the closest I can come is “recoil gondolier.” I think the word Rückstoss here signifies the backfire of a car—similar to a recoil—but this clip is often translated as “Truckstop Gondolero,” which I must concede is a great title.)

In this instrumental clip, through the use of video magic, “Kraftwerk”—here Rother, Dinger, and Schneider—are frequently framed as if sitting very tightly around a campfire or, if you prefer, a hookah. The music sounds very much of its time—Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” come to mind. In any case, much more that than, say, Gary Numan or somebody. Meanwhile, virtual stalactites and stalagmites swirl around them, and well, don’t bogart the reefer, man.
 

 
Here is Kraftwerk playing “Ruckzuck” live on the WDR television channel in 1970. Dig Florian’s righteous flute jam in this video. The song’s enduring popularity as an early Kraftwerk deep cut is richly justified. The bewildered expressions on the faces of the German Jugend only add to the overall effect.
 

 
Here’s another early version of “Ruckzuck,” only this time the band is Organisation. As a special bonus, Florian is wearing a shirt with his own face on it.
 

 
“Köln II” on the German TV show Okidoki in 1971.
 

 
“Kakteen, Wüste, Sonne,” 1971. Title translates as “Cactus, Desert, Sun.”