Released 1973 Length 42:14 Neu! 2
(1973) Neu! '75
(1975) Artist Neu! Label BRAIN | Recorded January 1973 Producer Conny Plank, Neu! Neu! 2
(1973) Neu! '75
(1975) Release date 1973 | |
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Genres Krautrock, Ambient music, Proto-punk Similar Neu! albums, Krautrock albums, Other albums | ||
Neu f r immer
Neu! 2 is the second studio album by the krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios, Hamburg, Germany, mixed in February 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios, Hamburg, Germany, and released in 1973 by Brain Records. It was officially reissued by Astralwerks on 29 May 2001. Illegal bootleg CDs (with the audio taken from vinyl) from the Germanofon label were widely available in the late 1990s.
Contents
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 seemingly endless forward-driving vamping, propelled by Klaus Dinger's drumming and Michael Rother's layered guitar with its fluid lines and droning harmonic structure. It also features elements of ambient music and proto-punk, as well as psychedelic rock.
Side 2 of the record caused consternation at the time. Neu! had quite simply run out of money to finish recording the album, so side 2 is made up 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 has since pointed to side 2 of this album as being a prototype of the now ubiquitous multiple remixes which typically accompany any pop single release.
Track listing
All tracks written by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother.
Personnel
Songs
1Für Immer (Forever)10:46
2Spitzenqualität4:10
3Gedenkminute (Fur A + K)1:34