''Neu!'' is the debut album by German

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

band

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

. It was released in 1972 by

Brain Records Brain was a Hamburg-based record label prominent in the 1970s releasing several important Krautrock records by bands such as Neu!, Cluster and Guru Guru. Many of its more prominent records are currently being reissued on CD by Repertoire Recor ...

. It was the first album recorded by the duo of

Michael Rother Michael Rother (born 2 September 1950) is a German experimental musician, best known for being a founding member of the influential bands Neu! and Harmonia (band), Harmonia, and an early member of the band Kraftwerk. Early life and educatio ...

and

Klaus Dinger Klaus Dinger (24 March 1946 – 21 March 2008) was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock band Neu!. He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of new wave group La Düsseldorf and brief ...

after leaving

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

in 1971. They continued to work with producer Konrad "Conny" Plank, who had also worked on the Kraftwerk recording sessions. Upon release, the album was largely ignored internationally but did well in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, selling 35,000 copies. In 2001, the album was reissued by Grönland and then licensed to

Astralwerks Astralwerks is an American record label primarily focused on electronic music owned by Universal Music Group. Its material is distributed via Capitol Music Group in the United States. The label was founded in 1993 and, in its early years, featur ...

for US distribution. In 2014, ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' named it the 36th best album of the 1970s.

History

Having broken off from an early incarnation of

and

quickly began the recording sessions for what would become '' Neu!''. The pair recorded the album in four nights in December 1971 in Star Studios in Hamburg, with the up-and-coming Krautrock producer Conny Plank, as Dinger had with Kraftwerk. Dinger noted that Plank served as a "mediator" between the often disagreeing factions within the band. According to Dinger, the first two days were unproductive until he brought his

taishōgoto The , or Nagoya harp, is a Japanese stringed musical instrument. The name derives from the Taishō period (1912–1926) when the instrument first appeared. It has also become naturalized in East Africa, often under the name ''Taishokoto''. His ...

("Japanese banjo") to the sessions, a heavily treated version of which can be heard on "Negativland", the first of the album's six tracks to be recorded. It was during these sessions that Dinger first played his famous "

motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock band ...

" beat. Two songs on the album, "Hallogallo" and "Negativland", feature this beat. Motorik is a repeated drumbeat with only occasional interruptions, perhaps best showcased on "Hallogallo". Dinger claimed never to have used the term "motorik" himself, preferring either "lange gerade" ("long straight") or "endlose gerade" ("endless straight"). He later changed the beat's "name" to the "

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

beat" to coincide with his 1985 solo album '' Neondian''. The band was christened by Dinger (Rother had been against the name, preferring a more "organic" title) and a pop-art style logo was created, featuring italic capitals. Dinger recalled Neu!'s logo:

Reception

''Neu!'' sold well for an underground album at the time, with approximately 35,000 copies sold. In 2001, '' Q'' described the album's motorik beat as "

's defining relentless rhythm" and an influence on

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

. In 2008, Ben Sisario of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the album and its successors as "landmarks of German experimental rock." The track "Negativland" provided the name for a later group of American musical satirists.

Track listing

Personnel

;Neu! *

– guitar, bass guitar, bowed bass *

– drums, guitar, Japanese banjo, vocals ;Additional personnel * Konrad "Conny" Plank – producer, engineer

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1972 debut albums Neu! albums Brain Records albums Albums produced by Conny Plank