>I don't know much at all about Kraftwerk except for the name.

While they were white germans, theyv'e actually had quite a massive impact on Hip-Hop and 80's electro. I hope you know that "Planet rock" is based on Kraftwerk-stuff, primarily "Trans-europe express". And "the man machine" (1978, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgpgngJp7pE ) has been sampled quite often, including one of my least favorite Jay-Z hits, "Sunshine".

Otherwise, this classic from the same album sums up the "futuristic" vibe pretty well I think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ

Anyway, not sure they will be your thing but they are an important act and worth checking out; their earlier stuff was more avant-garde/kraut-rock but "Man-Machine" and especially "Computer world" (1981) both have a strong proto-electro vibe. I personally prefer the former by a wide margin but the latter seems to be most Hip-Hop and techno fans favorite; probably because it sounds a bit more "modern" and less 70's. Still, the former was clearly a more innovative/futurisitic album (better songs as well IMO)-everyone and their grandmother was doing synth and electronic stuff in '81 even if Kraftwerk were still a bit of a leader I guess...