Online Encyclopedia
Neu!
Neu! (pronounced "noy") is a Krautrock band. Their name translates to "New!" in German. They are little known outside Germany, but are credited with influencing a diverse group of artists, including The Sex Pistols and David Bowie, as well as the current electronic music scene.
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Core members
- Klaus Dinger (1971-1975, 1985-1986)
- Michael Rother (1971-1975, 1985-1986)
Collaborators
- Thomas Dinger (1975)
- Eberhard Kranemann (1972)
- Hans Lampe (1975)
- Uli Trepte (1972)
History
From the ashes of the first Kraftwerk lineup, Neu!, initially composed of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, (originally the aformentioned Kraftwerk's rhythm section until 1971) set out to create a rhythmic division of Krautrock/Kosmische entitled "Motorik" , or "Car Music". The reason Neu! is considered to be car music is due to its driving rhythm, repetitive beat, and single chord experamentalism combined with minimalism similar to the slightly more well known Krautrock group, Can.
Their eponymous first album sold very little by our standards today (though 30,000 records was a lot for a band of their musical nature), yet is today considered a masterpiece by many, including influential artists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead and David Bowie. It included the Motorik benchmark tracks "Hallogallo" and "Negativland", and bizarre "songs" like "Sonderangerbot". Also included was the widely considered low point in Neu!'s catalog, "Lieber Honig". With a beautiful acoustic guitar in the background, it sounds fine until Dinger's terrible off-key mumblings ruin an otherwise ambient piece. Luckily, these are the only vocals on the album.
Their second album, Neu! 2, features some of the earliest examples of musical remixes. The band, excited to record another album, decided to expand their limits by purchasing several instruments. With the money they had left as an advance from the record company, they could only record half an album's worth of material. The company would not increase their advance because the first album did not sell anywhere close to well and the label did not see a reason to further finance what was most likely to become a flop. To rectify the lack of material, Rother and Dinger expanded on what they did have by messing around with the master tapes. They sped up and slowed down some material, thus turning newly recorded songs like "Super", into "Super 16" and "Super 78" (the numbers meaning the RPM that the tapes were played at). Other methods were tried: a piece called "Cassetto" involved music being played through a cassette player that had low battery and eventually died. Due to the wonders of financial limitation and no commercial potential whatsoever, Neu! introduced the world to the concept of remixing already produced music in drastic ways that overall changed the feel of the music. (Side Note: "Super 16" is available in excerpt form as track 17 and in full form as track 23 on the soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino blockbuster, Kill Bill, Vol. 1)
Dinger and Rother were both very different when they were left to their own devices, and this led to their final album of the 1970s, Neu! '75. Side One was Rother's more ambient productions which were similar to the first album, albeit more keyboard driven. Side Two was the invention of punk rock, with Dinger's sneering, unintelligable vocals searing across a distorted Motorik beat with agressive single chord guitar poundings. To aid with performing on the album, and more importantly, live, Hans Lampe and brother Thomas Dinger were enlisted to help execute more music than was possible by two men. Upon its release, and arugably to this day, Neu! '75 is the most diverse record available from the Krautrock scene. While this can be seen as a positive point, the differences in musical direction (as well as personal issues) not only isolated the Dinger/Rother duo, it isolated their already small fan base. Neu! broke up after the release of Neu! '75. Rother was the only one that actually left, however. The two Dingers and Lampe formed La Dusseldorf , who were equally cited as influential David Bowie in a 1979 interview with a music magazine.
Between October 1985 and April 1986, Dinger and Rother tried to rekindle the flame that was Neu! for reasons unknown. By adding more synthesizers and a slightly more commercial aspect to some compositions, the band sounded like a cross between their old selves and the recent new wave groups, and undoubtedly were torn apart again by personal and musical issues. An example of the sharp contrast between Dinger and Rother was evidenced by such tracks as "Crazy", Rother's attempt at pop, and "'86 Commercial Trash", a Dingerian collage of dialogue and sound effects from Germany's television commercials of that year. The work that took place in these sessions surfaced on Captain Trip records in 1996 (without the permission of Rother) as Neu! 4, which is now out of print and extremely difficult to find. Captain Trip was also responsible for the CD reissues of albums from Dinger's post-Neu! aspirations with La! Neu? and La Dusseldorf .
In 1996, another Neu! album was released on Captain Trip without Dinger's permission: '72 Live . Recorded in Dusseldorf on May 6th, 1972, the title is misleading, as the "live" aspect of it pertains to the fact that it was an on-stage rehearsal of poor audio fidelity, and only of interest to Neu! die hards who want to hear their heroes musically frustrated that they cannot reproduce their hypnotic studio sound on stage. Definitely not a place to start from in the Neu! catalog, and undoubtedly their weakest release. Notable for the inclusion of Eberhard Kranemann, who was involved with Neu! precursors Kraftwerk as well.
For several years, official CD reissues of the first three albums were not produced because the rights were owned by German bootleg company Germanofon . After a lengthy court battle, Dinger and Rother won the rights to their music. They then went into a mastering facility and (story has it) mastered each album three times to make sure they sounded how they wanted the mass public to hear it. Then, in 2001, Astralwerks released them simultaneously, packaged with stickers raving about the albums from musical people of recent notice, again including Thom Yorke. Finally, the world was able to enjoy Neu! music without having to buy the discs illegally or track down rare, expensive vinyl. Neu! have not recorded anything new since Neu! 4, and are currently inactive as of this writing (September 2004).
Current projects
- Michael Rother currently writes and produces solo albums.
- Klaus Dinger currently writes and produces solo albums, as well as archival releases by La Dusseldorf .
- Thomas Dinger died on April 9th, 2002. Before this, he released a string of unsuccessful solo albums.
Discography
- Neu! (1972, Brain Records)
- Neu! 2 (1973, Brain Records)
- Neu! '75 (1975, Brain Records)
- Neu! 4 (1995, Captain Trip Records)
- '72 Live! (1996, Captain Trip Records)
All Neu! albums on Brain Records were reissued in 2001 by Astralwerks. All Neu! albums on Captain Trip Records are currently out of production.
Also recommended
- Can
- Faust
- Tangerine Dream
- Amon Duul II
- Ash Ra Tempel
- La! Neu?
- La Dusseldorf
- Cosmic Jokers