''Neu! 2'' is the second studio album by the
krautrock band
Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 and mixed in February 1973, both at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios in
Hamburg,
West Germany, and released in 1973 by
Brain Records. It was reissued by
Astralwerks in the US and by
Grönland in the UK and Europe on 29 May 2001.
Critic
Paul Morley included it in his list of the "5 x 100 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
Overview
This album further focused the classic Neu! krautrock sound,
with the 11-minute "Für Immer" in particular being the archetypal example of their style -- a forward-driving vamping, propelled by
Klaus Dinger's drumming and
Michael Rother's layered guitar with its fluid lines and
droning harmonic structure. ''
Pitchfork'' described the album as featuring a
proto-punk sound,
while ''
Fact
A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...
'' labeled it "
spartan psych-rock set to power-driven drum tracks."
Side 2 of the record caused consternation at the time. Neu! had quite simply run out of money to finish recording the album, so the second side consists entirely of their previously released single "
Neuschnee/Super", manipulated at various playback speeds on a record player, or mangled in a cassette recorder. Critics at the time dismissed this as a cheap gimmick and a rip-off. While it was indeed an
experiment born of desperation and necessity, it was entirely in keeping with Neu!'s
pop art aesthetics, taking a "ready-made" sound object and re-presenting it with a series of stylized manipulations, and also quite in keeping with the way Neu!'s music deconstructed and pared down the form of
rock music. Dinger subsequently pointed to side 2 as being a prototype of the now ubiquitous multiple
remixes which typically accompany any
pop single release.
Legacy
Ben Sisario of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described the album along with the band's other early albums as "landmarks of
German experimental rock," also referred to by journalists as krautrock.
"Super 16" appears in the films ''
Master of the Flying Guillotine'' and ''
Kill Bill''.
Track listing
Personnel
;Neu!
*
Michael Rother – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards,
zither, percussion, electronics, cassette recorder
*
Klaus Dinger –
koto ("Japanese banjo"), 11-string guitar, drums, percussion,
Farfisa electronic piano, vocals, electronics, record player
;Additional personnel
*
Konrad "Conny" Plank – producer, engineer
* Hans Lampe – engineer
References
{{Authority control
1973 albums
Albums produced by Conny Plank
Neu! albums