Neu!

About

The legacy of krautrock duo Neu! would be complete if the group had stopped at “Hallogallo,” the glacially unfolding 10-minute track that opens its self-titled 1972 debut. The song serves as the textbook for the genre’s throbbing, gently propulsive motorik beat, with drummer Klaus Dinger resolute and barely shifting for the song’s duration. As devoted Neu! fan Iggy Pop once said, “The guy has found a way of freeing himself of the stupid tyranny of blue, rock, all the conventions I ever heard.” Dinger and guitarist Michael Rother—both brief members of Kraftwerk in the pre-robotic early 1970s—rebooted rock music as something airier and more atmospheric, something linked to the vibrations of the universe as opposed to the emotions of man. Dinger’s beats ran past the boundaries of verse and chorus into infinity; Rother’s spiraling melodies drifted by as weather systems; and visionary producer Conny Plank ran the band through a gauntlet of echoes and delay. In the decades that followed, everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead took note. Thanks to Plank’s expressionist approach, <i>Neu!</i> was a textural marvel, its sounds floating from the gorgeous to the abrasive. Though the rhythm section of “Negativland” helped define post-punk, its jet-engine roar also presages Japanese noise and shoegaze. The beatless ebb and flow of songs like “Sonderangebot” and “Im Glück,” meanwhile, are simmering cosmic swirls that are part of krautrock’s proto-ambient legacy, dealing in smoky fogs of noise, backmasked weirdne, sitar-like drone, and a field recording of Dinger in a rowboat. And the closing track, “Lieber Honig,” is a barely-there love song. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →