What's NEU!?

NEU! - a band a lot of people may have heard about, but may not have heard...

Quite how I first heard NEU! - sometime in 1973 - is lost in the mists of time, but it was probably courtesy of John Peel on the radio. However it happened, it set me off searching for their second album - the cleverly titled "NEU! 2". 

When I managed to get hold of it, everything about it was strange. The cover art was very minimalist, with the band name and title spray painted in grey and pink on a plain white background - graffiti before I was ever really aware of it. This was all very different to the often very colourful and garish Hipgnosis-style album covers that seemed popular back then.

However, it was what was inside - trapped in those black vinyl grooves - that was truly strange.

But who were NEU! and how did they come about? Comprised of the duo of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, they first met up in an early trio version of Kraftwerk, with Florian Schneider. They gigged only sporadically and recorded under the supervision of producer Conny Plank, but nothing came of the sessions. Schneider joined up with Wolfgang Flur, who was in an earlier quartet version of Kraftwerk, and so Dinger and Rother then formed NEU!, maintaining a working relationship with Plank, who's worth a screed of his own.

Rother, Dinger & Schneider in Kraftwerk - 1971

The album kicks off with the track which first alerted me to NEU! - the 11 minute long "Fur Immer" ("Forever"). On the surface, this is just a simple one chord vamp driven by the 4/4 drumming of Klaus Dinger and acting as an anchor for the other member of NEU! Michael Rother to layer guitars over.

This insistent drum beat has come to be known as "Motorik" and Dinger was one of its pioneers. Here's what he has to say about it:

...he did not have much time for critics who referred to his insistent drumming as the motorik beat. "That sounds more like a machine, and it was very much a human beat," he said. "It's essentially about life, how you have to keep moving, get on and stay in motion."

When you consider the constant rhythm of the human heart, what Dinger says makes perfect sense.

Both musicians contribute the electronics which are either applied to the guitars and drums or recorded separately. Quite what these effects are and how they're achieved is unclear, but I don't think they're coming from synths. They sound too organic for that. The track is mainly about textures, although melodic figures do creep in almost subliminally from time to time as snatches of tunes which are no sooner heard than gone forever. Are those sounds waves at the very end? 

"Spitzenqualität" ("Top Quality") follows. This is mainly Dinger with his Motorik beat again, merged with strange rushing sounds that sound like fast traffic on a distant Autobahn. It gradually slows down in fits and starts with increasing reverb on the drums.

The next track - "Gedenkminute (für A + K)" ("Minute's Silence (For A + K)") - is two (!) minutes of wind like noise relieved only by a bell tolling in the second half.

Back to the Motorik beat for side one's closer - "Lila Engel" ("Lilac Angel") - with Rother playing repeated guitar chords and distorted drones, and wordless chanting over the top of everything. It gradually builds up to a crescendo with Rother's guitar getting louder and dirtier until it all collapses with more chanting and guitar feedback.

Somehow it all hangs together with the unifying drumming of Dinger and the strange rushing Autobhan/waves/wind effects that seems to pervade much of the first side. 

However much I enjoyed the strangeness of side one, nothing could have prepared me for side two... 

The year before "NEU! 2" was released, the duo put out a single - "Super"/"Neuschnee". This flopped after receiving minimal promotion but Dinger and Rother decided to put the tracks on side two of "NEU 2". How they capitalised on the failed single to then produce side two is a different story depending on who you listen to.

According to Dinger, the duo had spent all their recording budget for the album on new instruments and the recording of side one:

When the money ran out, I got the idea of taking the single, play around with it and put the results on side 2 of the album.

Rother, on the other hand, claimed that side 2 was a bit of a poke at their record label for not promoting them with sufficient enthusiasm.

So, what exactly was so divisive about the second side? Well, it contains the two sides of the single - fair enough, I suppose. However, the remaining five tracks are versions of the single sides at different speeds, as a mangled tape version, or with wow and flutter. They're not remixes, but ready-made tracks that have been crudely manipulated to be very different from the originals.

So, artistic innovation or musical protest? Either way, opinion was divided - amongst fans, critics and between Dinger and Rother themselves. I have to say that I rarely play side two - it's side one and "Fur Immer" forever for me, although I sometimes continue onto side two if I'm in the right mood.

As you'd expect, virtually no video footage of NEU! exists, but here's some from 1974...

Neu made one more studio album - "NEU! '75" -  before splitting in 1975. Many fans and critics seem to prefer it to its predecessor, but I like the rough and ready experimentation of "NEU! 2", its overall organic vibe and the sound of the duo finding a way to sound like themselves. Regardless of their albums' respective merits, plenty of people like Bowie, punk in general and Gary Numan owe much to NEU!'s pioneering work, and the band's significance has grown over the years.

Although the duo collaborated from time to time, personal differences continued to get in the way and nothing further of note was achieved. Dinger died in 2008, but Rother continues to perform.

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