Released 1972 Length 45:51 | Recorded December 1971 Producer Conny Plank, Neu! | |
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Genre Krautrock
psychedelic rock
electronic
ambient
noise Label Brain Records
United Artists Records (1972 LP)
Grönland
Astralwerks / EMI (2001 CD) | ||
Neu! is the debut album by German krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in December 1971 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios, Hamburg, Germany, mixed at Star-Musik Studio, Hamburg, Germany, and released in 1972 by Brain Records. It was reissued by Grönland on May 29, 2001 and then licensed to Astralwerks for US distribution. This was Rother and Dinger's first recording together after they left Kraftwerk in 1971. They continued to work with Konrad "Conny" Plank, who had been producing the Kraftwerk recording sessions.
Contents
History
Having broken off from Kraftwerk, Rother and Dinger quickly began the recording sessions for what would become Neu!. The band was christened by Dinger (Rother had been against the name, preferring a more "organic" title) and a pop-art style logo created, featuring italic capitals. Dinger recalled Neu!'s logo:
...it was a protest against the consumer society but also against our "colleagues" on the Krautrock scene who had totally different taste/styling if any. I was very well informed about Warhol, Pop Art, Contemporary Art. I had always been very visual in my thinking. Also, during that time, I lived in a commune and in order to get the space that we lived in, I set up an advertising agency which existed mainly on paper. Most of the people that I lived with were trying to break into advertising so I was somehow surrounded by this Neu! all the time.
The pair recorded in Star Studios in Hamburg, with the up-and-coming Krautrock producer Plank, as Dinger had with Kraftwerk. Dinger noted that Plank served as a "mediator" between the often disagreeing factions within the band.
The band were booked in to the studio for four days in late 1971. According to Dinger, the first two days were unproductive until he brought his koto ("Japanese zither") 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" beat. Two songs on the album, "Hallogallo" and "Negativland", feature this beat. Motorik is a repeated 4/4 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 beat" to coincide with his 1985 solo album Neondian.
The album also displays elements of electronic music, soundscapes, Industrial music, noise music and psychedelic rock.
Reception
Neu! sold well for an underground album at the time. According to Dinger, approximately 30,000 copies were sold.
The track Negativland provided the name for a later group of American musical satirists.
Track listing
All tracks written by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother.