01	Hallogallo						10:07
	02	Sonderangebot						04:51
	03	Weissensee						06:46
	04	Im Gluck						06:53
	05	Negativland						09:47
	06	Lieber Honig						07:18

2001 reissue of 1972 album
Gronland / Astralwerks

Artist Neu!
Album Title Neu!
Date of Release 1972

Fresh after leaving Kraftwerk in the fall of 1971 for what they perceived to be a lack of vision, guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger formed their own unit and changed the face of German rock forever - eventually influencing their former employer, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk. The 1974 album Autobahn was a genteel reconsideration of the music played here. Neu! created a sound that was literally made for cruising in an automobile. While here in the States people were flipping out over "Radar Love" by Golden Earring, if they'd known about this first Neu! disc, they would never have bothered. Dinger's mechanical, cut time drumming and Rother's two-note bass runs adorned with cleverly manipulated and dreamy guitar riffs and fills were the hallmarks of the "motorik" sound that would become the band's trademark. On "Hallogallo, which opens the disc, the listener encounters a timeless rock & roll sound world. The driving guitar playing one chord in different cadences and rhythmic patters, the four-snare to the floor pulse with a high hat and bass drum for ballast, and a bass line that is used more for keeping the drummer on time than as a rhythm instrument in its own right. These are draped in Rother's liquidy, cascading single note drones and runs, so even as the tune's momentum propels the listener into a movement oriented robotic dance, the guitar's lyrical economy brings an aesthetic beauty into the mix that opens the space up from inside. The tense ambient soundscape of "Sonderangebot" balances things a bit before the slower-than-Neil Young "Weissensee" opens with a subtle industrial clamor and opens up into a lyrical exploration of distorted slide guitar aesthetics with an uncharacteristic drum elegance that keeps the guitar in check. "Im GlЭck" tracks a restrained, droning path through the textural palette of the guitar, treated with whispering distortion and echo. All hell breaks loose again on Dinger's "Negativeland" as an industrial soundscape eventually gives way to a bass and guitar squall as darkly enticing as anything on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. It's really obvious now how the JD's sound was influenced by this simply and darkly delicious brew of noise, bass throb, percussive hypnosis, and an oddly placed, strangely under-mixed, guitar. Rother's style had as much to do with not playing as it did with virtuosity, and his fills of open chords, stuttered cadences, and broken syntax provided a much needed diversion for the metronymic regularity of the rhythm section. Rother didn't riff; he painted a mix with whatever was necessary to get the point across. His mannerisms here are not to draw attention to himself, but rather to that numbing, incessant rhythm provided wondrously by Dinger. Neu!'s debut album was driving music for the apocalypse in 1971. These official CD reissues, remastered by Neu! with Herbert Gronmeyer, are the first official ones. Their sound is phenomenal and the strange dropouts and fades are intentional. They are worthy packages. Oddly enough, after a millennial change and a constant stream of samples being taken from it, and its influence saturating both the rock and electronica scenes, it still sounds ahead of its time. - Thom Jurek

1. Hallogallo (Dinger/Rother) - 10:07
2. Sonderangerbot (Dinger/Rother) - 4:51
3. Weissensee (Dinger/Rother) - 6:46
4. Im Gluck (Dinger/Rother) - 6:53
5. Negativland (Dinger/Rother) - 9:47
6. Lieber Honig (Dinger/Rother) - 7:18

Michael Rother - Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Producer
Klaus Dinger - Guitar, Drums, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer
Thomas Dinger - Photography
Fritz Muller - Photography
Conrad Plank - Producer, Engineer

2001 CD Astralwerks 30780
1973 LP Billingsgate 1001
2001 LP Astralwerks 30780


Neu!
self-titled
Astralwerks (ASW 30780)
Germany 1972

Michael Rother, bass, guitar, keyboards;
Klaus Dinger, guitar, drums, keyboards, vocals

Tracklist:
1. Hallo Gallo - 10:07
2. Sanderouwgebut - 4:51
3. Weinensee - 6:46
4. In Glьck - 6:53
5. Negativland - 9:47
6. Lieber Honig - 7:18


dom

Krautrock has always had a tenuous relationship with mainstream prog, or even more experimental forms. While much of the music seems to have the same sense of experimentation and willingness to journey into worlds unknown, there is rarely the crossover appeal for many prog fans - or, when there is, it seems a distinction must be made between what is "prog" and what is "Kraut". On the surface, I suppose there are quite a few differences between the two: Krautrock doesn't have the flashy instrumental exhibitions or overriding album concepts a lot of prog does, and classic prog rarely places so much importance on pure rhythmic pulse or trance inducement. However, it would be difficult to argue that these two musics don't exist in the same family. For all its reported grandeur, the music of bands like Yes and King Crimson doesn't necessarily aim for any higher purpose than the music of Can or Neu! - nor does it contain any more spiritual weight. Are those subjective claims? Of course, but determining what is and isn't prog will vary no less among listeners. I say Krautrock is great prog, and Neu! is as definitive a specimen as any.
Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger jumped ship from Kraftwerk at a very early juncture. In fact, it was so early, Kraftwerk's now famous trance-bot methods weren't even in existence yet. What the two ex-werkers took with them may have been the human touch, because immediately after their departure, things became a lot more mechanical for their former band. Rother and Dinger were instrumentalists (guitar and drums respectively, and both played keyboards), so it was only natural that their new band should focus on the performance end of the "motorik" beat. Theirs was still music for the Autobahn, but rather than streamlined and futuristic, it was somehow vulnerable and timeless.

"Hallo Gallo" begins the first album, and is arguably the definitive piece of Krautrock. As the percolating guitar line slowly rises from your speakers, the pulse rides alongside - silently at first, but gradually, eminently makes clear that it will forever be a part of this music. When the music arrives at the height of its crescendo (about 30 seconds in - maintained throughout the 10 minute duration), the subtle synth lines and guitar strokes betray Neu's intention to lull you into cruise control. It's actually a very simple idea, but one that for a time seemed capable only by a few bands in Germany, none of whom were more accomplished than Neu!.

This leads into "Sanderouwgebut", which is mostly ambient sound design, another of Neu's strengths. Faint sounds of water and spacey synth effects punctuate (if that's not too strong a term) sheer weightlessness, which in turn leads to "Weinensee", an almost Floyd-ishly restrained instrumental. The trance element is still there, but the tempo is about half as quick. If the first track was the initial hit, this one is the buzz on the way down.

Elsewere, on "Negativland", the duo gets more aggressive, even grating. An interesting aspect of much Krautrock is its influence on punk and post-punk music. Here, the band keeps up the pulse but adds some seriously processed guitar/noise and even some Suicide-before-Suicide synth screams. Krautrock's oddest legacy may have been that more than any other "progressive" music from the 70s, it was a major influence on punk (or more accurately post-punk). "Negativland" wasn't necessarily Neu's finest moment, perhaps because it was so atypically aggressive, but its sheer breadth of influence is another testament to Neu! and Krautrock.

Neu! only made three studio albums during their brief existence in the 70s, but they were uniformly excellent. It's possible that you could discern their "style" just by listening to this one (or any one of the others), but as with Can, Faust and Kraftwerk, to really get the full experience you have to hear all of them. Krautrock may not be every prog fan's favorite type of music, but there are few canons that demand as much dedication from the listener, and in the end, the trance can't work its magic unless you're there for the duration.





Neu!
Formed 1971 in Dusseldorf, Germany
Disbanded 1975

While little-known and relatively unheralded during their brief existence, the Krautrock duo Neu! cast a large shadow over later generations of musicians and served as a major influence on artists as diverse as David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Julian Cope, and Stereolab. Neu! formed in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1971 after multi-instrumentalists Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger both split from Kraftwerk. Recorded in the space of four days with Can producer Conrad Plank, the duo's self-titled debut appeared early in 1972 and quickly established their affection for minimalist melodies and lock-groove rhythms. While virtually ignored throughout the rest of the world, the album sold extremely well in West Germany, resulting in a tour with support from Guru Guru's Uli Trepte and Eberhard Krahnemann. Rother and Dinger returned to the studio in 1973 for Neu! 2, where a shortfall of cash allowed the duo to complete only two songs, "Super" and "Neueschnee," which they subsequently remixed at varying and disorienting speeds in order to flesh out a full-length album. After the record's release, Rother joined Dieter Moebius and Joachim Roedelius of Cluster to form Harmonia, but Neu! officially reunited in 1975 to record Neu! 75. After its release, they again disbanded; Rother continued on as a solo performer, while Dinger and drummer Hans Lampe formed La Dusseldorf. In the mid-'80s, Rother and Dinger reformed yet again, although the recording sessions, titled Neu! 4, did not officially surface until 1996. - Jason Ankeny


1972 Neu! Astralwerks
1973 Neu! 2 Astralwerks
1975 Neu! 75 Astralwerks
1996 72 Live! Captain Trip
1996 Neu! 4 Captain Trip
Gold Regen (Gold Rain) Captain Trip
Year of the Tiger Captain Trip

197 2 Originals Brain
1982 Black Forest Gateau Cherry Red



Artist Neu!
Album Title Neu! 2
Date of Release 1973

After the considerable success of their self-titled debut album, Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother set out ambitiously to record a follow-up. Virtually everything went wrong. The first of the artistic and personal differences that existed between them not only began to surface, but to flourish in the face of a nearly impossible studio deadline and overly tight budget. While the basic Neu! sound was not an issue, how to augment it was. As both a guitarist and a composer, Rother had already begun moving in the direction he would end up in with Moebius and Rodelius in Harmonia, and on his later solo recordings: a more unified, melodic, airy, and soaring sound that was full of light and yearning. Dinger, on the other hand, was looking for more anarchy, more chaos, and rock & roll dynamics. He wanted a music that was as dramatic and confrontational as he was. It's amazing this album turned out as well as it did. On top of all this, Neu! ran out of money in the middle of the project. Their plight was met by total indifference from the record company, who wouldn't advance them another mark. So they did what any normal self-respecting band would do: they simply re-edited and remixed two singles off the album and put them on side two to fill up the time. The end result is a perverse and controversial album, one that gives the middle finger to the label, and perhaps to the record-buying public as well. That said, the disc is a very worthy one as a whole; it's a beautiful bridge between the start repetition of the debut and the lush melodic textures of 75. The disc opens with one of the band's greatest tracks, the stunning "Forever." Guitar, feedback, pulse, and distortion equals motorik, the brand name for Neu! music. Rother's playing huge chords here, spun out of effects boxes and feedback squalls, and Dinger's drumming adds a tom-tom to the metronome of snare and hi-hat. The chords are darker, minor key flourishes added to a one-note bass throb. From here it gets abstract; nocturnal ambient soundscapes with no discernable instrumentation except for a warped drum palette to keep the big swathes of white noise company ("Spitzenqualitat" & "Gedenkminute") A guitar joins the sonic investigation on "Lilac Angel" as well as a pounded out drumbeat and a growled Dinger vocal. This must have been Neu!'s idea of a hard rock single. But side two is where things get strange. Having exhausted their budge they turned to re-releasing material in manipulated fashion. Needles dropping on records, playback roughs, backwards tape manipulation sped up or slowed down interminably, all with the unmistakable Neu! sound as a base. "Super" and "Neueschnee" are played back at various speeds. There is another track that concludes with a cassette tape being eaten by a player. This is one of the more out-there sides in the history of recorded music - the dark side of the optimism presented by Pink Floyd's Meddle...without half the effort! Over time, this great big middle finger to the music biz has weathered the storm very well. In fact, it now sounds as if it were recorded this way based on aesthetics rather than anger. But at the time it merely showed a duo that had worn each other out and had been dissed by their record company. A fine and disturbing listen, it should be sought out by anyone possessing Neu! discs on either end of this one. This is essential Krautrock. - Thom Jurek

1. Fur Immer (Forever) [Forever] (Dinger/Dinger/Rother) - 10:46
2. SpitzenqulitДt - 4:09
3. Gedenkminute (FЭr a + K) (Dinger/Rother) - 1:33
4. Lila Engel (Lilac Angel) [Lilac Angel] (Dinger/Rother) - 4:36
5. Neusachenee 78 (Dinger/Rother) - 2:35
6. Super 16 - 3:39
7. Neuschnee - 4:04
8. Cassetto (Dinger/Rother) - 1:49
9. Super 78 (Dinger/Rother) - 1:33
10. Hallo Excentrico! (Dinger/Rother) - 3:41
11. Super (Dinger/Rother) - 3:08

Michael Rother - Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Keyboards, Zither, Producer, Synclavier, Artwork, Electronics, Cover Art, Cassette Recorder, Geige
Klaus Dinger - Banjo, Guitar, Percussion, Piano, Drums, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer, Bandoneon, Farfisa Organ, Artwork, Electronics, Cover Art, Stimme, Plattenspieler
Hans Lampe - Assistant Engineer, Assistant
Conrad Plank - Producer, Engineer

2001 CD Astralwerks 30781
1973 LP United Artists 29500
2001 LP Astralwerks 30781


NEU
Personnel:
MICHAEL ROTHER g, b, pno, electronics, perc
KLAUS DINGER d, pno, v, banjo, g
(ULI TREPTE b) B
HANS LAMPE d C
THOMAS DINGER d C
ALBUMS:
(A)same (Brain 1004) 1972
(A)"2" (Brain 1028) 1973
(C)"'75" (Brain 1062) 1975
USA-issue of 1 exists on Billinsgate BG 1001. 1st Gwerman re-issue as Hallogallo on the "Rock On Brain" series, 2nd re-issue on black Brain 1981 on "1st recordings" series.

UK-issue exists on United Artists UAS 29396. There is also a sampler named Black Forest Gateau released in Great Britain on Cherry Red ca. 1982 with tracks from the two first albums.

Much heralded by British new wave and Kraftwerk fans, the group Neu from Dusseldorf was certainly an extraordinary duo with many brave and innovative ideas. Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger came together late in 1971. Dinger had recently contributed to the first Kraftwerk-album. In December 1971 they recorded their first album over four nights at Windrose Studios in Hamburg, with Konrad Plank producing. Tracks like "Hallogallo" were guided by a characteristic, repeating metronomic drum beat, as the basis for 10 minutes of harmonic guitar improvisations in just one key. This music naturally paid homage both to Kraftwerk's klingklang music and to Can's 'live in the studio' works. Other tracks had strange continuums of rural environment sounds, glissando guitars, peculiar vocals and sound effects. All together a rather naive and playful form of avant-garde music, resulting in a very original album!

However, Neu 2 (1973) merely repeated this formula. Side one had a classic Neu track in "Fur Immer", sounding very close to the previously issued "Hallogallo" On side two, the A and B sides of a 1972 single ("Neuschnee" coupled with "Super") were the subjects for tape manipulations of different sorts - slowed down, speeded up or dubbed (and with pre-recorded vinyl scratches and noises added)! If Capitol made nine US albums out of five UK Beatles albums, Neu taught the music business other ways to stretch a single all over an-LP's side! It's not a bad album, but a little superfluous when compared with their first. Attempts to present Neu live (with ex-Guru Guru member Uli Trepte on bass) in November 1972 were terminated after 6 concerts.

Michael Rother then began to work with the Cluster duo as the trio Harmonia, resulting in the albums Musik von Hiarmonia (1973) and De Luxe (1975). Klaus Dinger on the other hand used the spare time attempting to launch his own label, named Dingerland. This project was ill-fated, but he managed to release an album with the rock'n'roll group Lilac Angels.

Then, in 1975, Neu resurfaced as a quartet of: Rother, K. Dinger, Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe. Neu '75 was a brilliant album, succeeding in making their music more accessible. A charming and tuneful example of the very special "klingklang" Dusseldorf rock and a link between the early Kraftwerk works and the forthcoming neue Deutsche Welle. When Michael Rother went off to make a second Harmonia album and then pursue a solo career. Hans Lampe and the Dinger brother changed their name to La Dusseldorf, and explored the melodic Neu '75 sound further on their subsequent albums.



Neu! [Germany]
Neu (72), Neu 2 (73), Neu 75 (75), Two Originals of Neu (77, first two LPs on 2LP set), Hallogallo (80, first LP reissued under different title), Black Forest Gateau (82, comp.)

Spinoff of Kraftwerk, who started out in a much more adventurous style at first. Like Henry Cow, all their albums are easily findable as all the covers are variations on the same theme. NEU! is a duo of Michael Rother (guitars, keyboards) and Klaus Dinger (bass, drums, vocals, guitar and piano). The debut is a fascinating work of experimental Krautrock. The hypnotic "Hallogallo" is the most like Kraftwerk, but the emphasis is on guitars, not keyboards. The guitarwork can often be spellbinding, note the beautiful "Weissensee" and the heavy-metal-bordering-on-white- noise "Negativland". Required listening for Krautrock fans. I haven't heard NEU! 2. By the time of the last studio album, NEU! '75, they seem to be repeating themselves, note the similarity to "E-Musik" to "Hallogallo". They also add some punky new-wave overtones on "Hero" and "After Eight" (screaming vocals and raggedy guitars). Most memorable is the almost catatonically s-l-o-w moving "Leb'wohl", featuring some vocal mumblings by a most obviously stoned Dinger. Best song: "Seeland", which recalls the soaring guitarwork of "Weissensee". Black Forest Gateau is a British compilation drawing entirely on the first and last LPs. -- Mike Ohman

[See Dusseldorf, La | Kraftwerk | Phantom Band]





MUSIC FOR MIND & PANTS

Photograph: Peter Lindbergh
THE SHOCK OF THE NEU!
by Richard Mason (October 2000)

Did you buy Neu! 4? I did. Forked out big time. Saved up, just like when I was a kid. Got all excited about it too. Still got it? Me neither. Get much in trade? Don't ask. How many times did you play it? If you mean all the way through, didn't even make it once. My loss, but of course. Maybe it'll be duly heralded a 'maligned classic' in years to come; then we can all cast our minds back through the mists of time and have a fucking huge laugh at that dumb English git who just didn't get it. Maybe not. All that can wait anyway. The real deal, and the reason that I'm writing this, is that what we learned and esteemed rock critics care to refer to smugly as the 'proper' Neu! recordings are being officially reissued, at long fucking last.
By the time this article goes up it might even have happened. The last I heard was that they would come out some time in autumn, or, if you must, fall 2000 on the German Gronland label. As far as I know, it's still on the cards. It's hoped by potential investors everywhere that the inimitable original sleeve designs will be adequately reproduced and the sound quality will both represent an improvement on the 'notorious' Germanofen 'bootleg' CD releases and stem the tide of appalling prices being asked for the original Brain and United Artists vinyl by 'specialist dealers.' (Whether or not we'll get any, um, er, bonus tracks or not of course remains to be seen. I doubt it; ever the optimist.)

Before we go any further I'll do you the ultimate discourtesy of reminding you that Neu! was essentially a duo, namely Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother. I'll now trouble you to bear with me while I provide the URLs for their respective homepages:


http://www.gawl.de/Dingerland/
http://www.michaelrother.de/


And of course please don't let me deter you from dusting off that old binder that you keep in the attic containing your back issues of PSF and completely immersing yourself in our dearly beloved editor's windswept and interesting interview with Michael Rother from March 1998. You can stumble upon this sacred relic at the following URL:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/michaelrother.html

Perhaps I should have waited and put all that at the end. But I think it's only fair to point out as early as possible that there are two utterly different takes on the whole Neu! thang that emanate from the former protagonists. If you want their versions of how it was you know where to go now. Of course this situation is part of the whole Neu! 'myth' and part of the reason why it's taken so long for the material to be officially re-released. There may even be those twisted individuals who take some kind of bizarre delight in observing the infighting that has characterised the post-history of this group. Rest assured I'm not one of them. You may also take it as read that this piece has been compiled with absolutely no input from either camp whatsoever. I had originally intended to coincide its appearance with the CD reissues, but to be honest I can't wait for that. I'm going to have my say now. Neu! was/is/will be a big deal in the history of 20th. century music. Anyone who claims to know anything about 'good taste' in rock music loves them but why?
There aren't many true originals in any walk of life, let alone in contemporary bleeding music. Let's name some names. Just a few. Edgard Varese. James Brown. Derek Bailey. The Velvet Underground. Jimi Hendrix. Annette Peacock. That's enough. Some of these people proved to be hugely influential sooner or later. Some didn't. I think it's fair to say that Neu!, who are most assuredly not out of place in such a scheme of things in my opinion, fall into the former category. You could spend all afternoon citing the post-punk names who've either acknowledged their debt to Neu! in interviews (more on this soon) or who merely betray the influence through their utterly unprincipled plagiarism. I'll save you the ordeal of another list of names, we all know who they are and half of them aren't worth mentioning anyway. You may recall I finished the last paragraph with a question I've spectacularly avoided answering so far in this one. I know, but I really wanted to get this influence business out of the way. After all, what does it really matter how influential someone proves to be? Does it make their music any better or any worse (or, if you'll forgive the use of the following italicised words, any less vital or essential or groundbreaking - don't you just love those words? Where would we rock scribes be without them? Don't answer that:) because time has proved it to be 'the anthem of a generation'?

For decades now we've been plagued by sincere artistes who can't wait to tell us what music made them what they are today. I recall in the late 70s when John Lydon, in between inflicting his ludicrously over-rated and pretentious noodlings upon us lesser mortals, often used to honour us with his edicts from on high about what groups we should be 'into' (apart from his, of course) and like the good and faithful sheep we were we went out to our local emporium and bought Tim Buckley and Can and Captain Beefheart and Dr. Alimantado and Peter Hammill and Funkadelic and all the rest. Not that he was the only one, or even the worst. And nowadays you can't get away from it! Everyone in a band wants to tell you who's their favourite band and why and spend an age doing it! And of course they all simply adore Neu! And doesn't it show? Well, yes and no.

Whoever said imitation was the sincerest form of flattery never had to endure any Stereolab records. In case it slipped your attention, all this 'who were your major influences' bollocks well and truly gets my goat. All of this inherited wisdom ethic almost makes me hark back to my teenage years when my mates & I chose the bought records mainly because we liked the covers. This of course resulted in some horrendously misplaced purchasing power on my part (two prime examples that spring to mind are Fruupp and Secret Oyster - in case you don't know their stuff, believe me, you're better off) but then again if it hadn't been for such a policy I never would have heard Nuggets or Honey by the Ohio Players. I digress.

So why were Neu! so great? One reason for me is that their music was so simple, so natural and so easy to listen to and absorb. This might sound a bit of an odd thing to say. But for me it's true. Each of their pieces creates a mood so unique and evocative that you're drawn in and stimulated on different levels, which is obviously part of what they had in mind, hence the whole 'music for mind and pants' business. And it's so easy to enjoy their music; it's so emotive in many different ways, the icy melancholy of "Weissensee" and "Leb'wohl," the tranquil yet sinister brooding of "Im Gluck," the rage and spleen of "Negativland," "Hero" and "After Eight" and of course the irrepressible driving motorik (whatever the fuck that means) of "Fur Immer," "Isi" and "Hallogallo." If you take the music apart and look at it bit by bit it soon becomes apparent how simplistic the music is, not just because of the harmonic modality in some cases but also due to the basic nature of the arrangement and instrumentation.

I hope nobody thinks my use of the word 'simplistic' is intended in a derogatory sense. Far from it. One of Neu!'s primary attributes for me is their ability to know when to stop, when to say 'enough is enough'. Given the infamous history of Neu! 2 this may often in part have been a circumstantial necessity but I suspect not always; just as they were looking for the antithesis of the prevailing trend for messy detailed opulence in the record covers of the time with their glaring colours and advertising style logo (I'll refrain from all references to 'pop-art' as I haven't got a clue what that really means), they also sought a healthy and streamlined alternative to the aural malaise and overkill of the 'progressive rock' (and indeed some of the so-called 'Krautrock') that was their immediate contemporary. The music always seemed to be built up from a basic framework within the constraints of the individual tracks until the desired effect or ambience was realised - then stop. Such restraint is indeed rare in rock music, and this surely has a lot to do with why Neu! created such an impression at the time.

In considering the level of 'musicianship' you need to take into consideration the fact that a very different approach was being taken from most of the competition. They saw no value in technical virtuosity if it added nothing to the music. Even in the more uptempo tracks that most obviously resembled traditional rock or pop, the over-riding factor was the creation of a 'feel,' an individual ambience. This is where the melodic genius of Neu! came to bear. Their talent for harnessing exquisite strands of melody and matching them to a compatible rhythmic or other type of framework (perhaps most perfectly realised on Side 1 of the original Neu! '75 LP) was phenomenal.

There is almost an innocence (aural, rather than moral) about some of their recorded output; like their German contemporaries Cluster and Kraftwerk, their ability to balance sugar-coated melodies upon a rhythmic fulcrum and create a truly uplifting feel is beyond debate. Yet they could also produce some of the most chilling and threatening music around; the violent, almost psychotic sound of tracks such as "Negativland" and "Hero" has not only an edge but also a total lack of theatricality about it that sets it apart from, say the Stooges or heavy metal. There is an immediacy that negates their tradition; the absence of 'riffs', the lack of 'distance' from the listener, the sheer rawness of the methodology - all these factors set them apart from other 'influential' musics of the time. The vocals, an oft neglected aspect of Neu!'s music, exemplify this aspect quite clearly; the demystification of the singing process in order to get the emotive point most forcibly and honestly made. The pure desperation and dejection of the vocal on "Lieber Honig" and the crazed anger and rage of the vocal on "Hero" are two sides of the same coin. For me Neu! was always about the expression of emotions far more than the execution of ideas, hence in part at least the simplicity and immediacy of the music.

Indeed, experimentation, the leap in the aural dark, constantly outweighed the carrying out of any preconceived musical plan. The part played in this by Conny Plank is impossible to underestimate. From what we can gather, his close relationship with Neu!, his constant encouragement of their ideas, his enthusiasm for trying something different, his astute balancing and assuaging of the two very differing personalities and approaches in the group without compromising the overall sound and his utter artistic integrity was little short of vital in the realization of these recordings. And that doesn't even begin to cover his technical expertise as a producer, a factor so key in making these records as good as they were that it really merits some kind of investigation of Plank's career as a whole by someone with far greater knowledge of record production techniques than myself. But the clarity with which he rendered Neu!'s music, the separation he achieved between the voices and individual instruments (and, as a direct consequence, the space he created in the music, a vital factor in its power of evocation) and the depth and resonance of the sound he gave to those voices and instruments is clearly evident throughout.

Plank's role in the assemblage of the LP's must also surely be seen as crucial. And here we come to a recurring bugbear about the whole Neu! saga. How, I hear people say time and time again, can a group be regarded so highly when one-third of their recorded output was cobbled together on cassette recorders and as a result of slowed down and/or speeded up tapes? It isn't even a proper LP! Oh, really? Roll over Karlheinz Stockhausen and tell John Oswald the news. Then again, there are people who don't question the legitimacy of the method, but find Neu! 2 pales by comparison with the other LP's. I don't subscribe to that view. There's something quite liberating about hearing "Super" at three different speeds, and besides the LP is so firmly imprinted into my memory banks now it's impossible for me to imagine 'what might have been,' which I reckon is the key factor for a lot of peoples' objections to this LP. The sheer eccentricity and inventiveness of Neu! 2 for me enables it to take its place in the canon without a murmur of discontent; it may not be the one I play most but I couldn't ever rank it lower than, or even separately from, the other two LP's.

And of course those other 2 LP's have a considerable level of design about them; compare "Weissensee" and "Im Gluck" on Neu!, as well as the beginning and end of side 2 of the vinyl, and then "Hero" and "After Eight" on Neu! '75 for evidence of this. It's plain that Neu! saw each record like a work of art; I don't mean that in the usual 'pretentious rock musicians with ideas above their station' sense of the phrase but as a sincere observation on their way of working, to see each of the recordings as a separate entity with a peculiar structure and individual characteristics. Yet the packaging was clearly intended to show each record as having the corporate blueprint and (by now) immediately identifiable way of working and sounding. I feel sure somehow that Conny Plank's involvement in the musical side of this was of paramount importance; his presence and influence must have been a truly liberating factor in both the execution and molding of the music.

I can't let this section pass without inserting my own particular foible of praise; Conny Plank produced my favourite crash cymbal sound of all time on Neu! But of course it's his ability to let the humanity of this music shine through any technological considerations that enabled the records to sound they way they do. I really hope that they are not, if you'll pardon the expression, 'digitally remastered' or arsed about with in any other fashion upon their re-release; for me at least and I suspect for many other s too it would be a total travesty of the superb achievement of Conny Plank if they were 'brought up to speed with the 21st century' seemingly for the sake of it as seems to happen so often with re-released material these days. Caveat fucking emptor if they are.

Of course, chickens should not be counted with regard to all this. I wouldn't be colossally surprised, given the past history of all this (and there's plenty of it) if the reissues fell through and we were all once more to be indebted (pun intended) to the mysterious moguls of Gemanofen, they of the P.O. box in Luxembourg infamy. Stranger things have happened. But even if it hasn't happened by the time you're reading this, even if it doesn't actually happen at all, this group and the music they made are worthy of celebration and acknowledgement. As long I have a working record player I'll play my increasingly worn and crackly United Artists original LP's till I can't play them any more. Admittedly, I have played them more than usual as a result of wanting to write this piece; I also went to the length of recording all three onto cassettes so I could play them on my Walkman whilst riding my bicycle to and from work each day. You can't imagine what an uplifting feeling it is to cycle home on a sunny June afternoon through the park in central Oxford with "Isi" blasting forth in both ears. It may sound like a completely fatuous observation, but for me Neu!'s music is both stimulating and relaxing, like a nice cup of tea. Like that of Michael Hurley, their music keeps me sane and makes me smile. It works on a variety of levels; I always wanted to see how a dancefloor would react to Hallogallo or Fur Immer; I'm sure now there are establishments where such a phenomenon might be observed. 'Music for mind and pants' indeed.

For me, Neu! are one of the greatest bands ever, transcending as they do musical boundaries and listeners' levels of expectation in a way precious few other artists have done before or since. And yes, of course, yawn yawn, their degree of influence on their successors in rock's rich tapestry is such that it's practically impossible to evaluate, we all know that, don't we, yes. And of course I'm no better. All my ranting on earlier about how crap this whole influences malarkey is was just a smokescreen to try and cover up my own feelings of inadequacy about having been such a mindless sheep and just gone and done what some big flash rock star told me to do, i.e. go and buy a Neu! record. Yep, guilty as charged. Fact of the matter is, officer, I confess, the reason I bought the first Neu! LP was because it had a sleevenote by Dave Brock of Hawkwind, for me at the time the very zenith of cool and wonder. (The degree of influence that Hawkwind's patronage had on the U.K.'s reaction to several of the German groups in the 1970s got is another story altogether; another time, perhaps.) So I'm no better than anyone else. But isn't that always the way with your rock critic? Don't hold it against me. Just go off and buy those Neu! CD's if and when they appear. You'll be doing yourself a favour, whether you're hearing this extraordinary music for the first time or, like me, replacing old vinyl that's seen better days. Whichever it is, remember to utilize both mind and pants.