NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Neu!

Neu! (the German word for "new", pronounced [nɔɪ] "noy") were a German band, probably the archetypal example of what the UK music press at the time dubbed Krautrock. The band had minimal commercial success when active, but are credited with being a huge influence on a diverse group of artists, including The Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Gary Numan, Ultravox, Simple Minds as well as the current electronic music scene. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... In music, a band is a group of musicians, or musical ensemble, usually popular or folk, playing parts of a musical arrangement. ... Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental bands who appeared in Germany in the early 1970s. ... The Sex Pistols in 1977. ... David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) is a British rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, mixer, and actor. ... Gary Numan Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on March 8, 1958) is a British singer, songwriter, musician, composer and electropop pioneer. ... Ultravox (formerly Ultravox!) were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the early 1980s. ... Simple Minds is a British New Wave/rock band which had its greatest worldwide popularity during the mid-1980s. ... Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. ...

Note: the band always wrote their name NEU! in block capitals and with an exclamation mark, intending it as a Pop art slogan. Typographic conventions have meant this spelling is not used in this article. House I, created by Roy Lichtenstein in 1996, is designed to be an optical illusion. ...

Overview

Core members

Michael Rother is a guitarist, bassist, and keyboard player whose most notable contribution to rock history is having co-founded the German group Neu!. Born in 1950, Rother went to school in Munich, Wilmslow (England), Karachi, and DÃ¼sseldorf. ... Konrad Conny Plank (frequently spelled Planck) (born in Austria, d. ...

Collaborators

Musical style

Probably the most cherished element of the Neu! oeuvre is what is often called the "motorik" beat (a hybrid term combining the German words 'motor' and 'musik') - although the band themselves do not use this term, Dinger himself sometimes referring to it as the "Apache beat". At least one third of their recorded output is in the motorik form. Here they deconstruct the traditional rock song format, with its verses and choruses, intros and changes, stripping it down to a single minimalist 4/4 beat, which drummer Dinger repeats continuously throughout the entire track. Although on paper this might seem a recipe for monotony, in fact Dinger's discipline and flair as a drummer generates a very powerful, focussed groove, with a great sense of continuous forward motion (the analogy is often made with motorway driving). A division of early German electronic music. ... A division of early German electronic music. ...

In terms of traditional western and rock music harmonic form, Rother would complement Dinger's rhythm by eschewing chord changes, and instead opting for a harmonic drone – a single chord, layering numerous electric guitar overdubs. Timbral change takes over from harmonic change as the main focus of interest. Conny Plank was renowned as a producer for creating a working environment where musicians could be free to explore such experiments, and also as a master of timbral texture and spatialisation. Many other Neu! tracks are very slow and gentle, sketching out traces of a song in what might be called an 'ambient' style. In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. ... Konrad Conny Plank (frequently spelled Planck) (born in Austria, d. ... Ambient music is a loosely defined musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronic music, new age, rock and roll, modern classical music, reggae, traditional, world and even noise. ...

History

(1971-1975) Main career

Neu! formed in 1971 as an off-shoot from an early line-up of that other seminal krautrock band from Düsseldorf, Kraftwerk, whose early works were also produced by Conny Plank. DÃ¼sseldorf is the capital city of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and (together with Cologne and the Ruhr Area) the economic center of Western Germany. ... Album cover of Trans-Europe Express (1977). ... Konrad Conny Plank (frequently spelled Planck) (born in Austria, d. ...

Drummer Klaus Dinger had joined Kraftwerk midway through sessions for their eponymous debut album. Guitarist Michael Rother was then recruited to the Kraftwerk line-up on completion of the album. (Rother had been playing in a local band called The Spirits of Sound, the line-up of which also included drummer Wolfgang Flür, who would himself go on to join Kraftwerk two years later.) Michael Rother is a guitarist, bassist, and keyboard player whose most notable contribution to rock history is having co-founded the German group Neu!. Born in 1950, Rother went to school in Munich, Wilmslow (England), Karachi, and DÃ¼sseldorf. ... Wolfgang FlÃ¼r (born 17 July 1947) was a member of the Kraftwerk electro-pop group from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic drums. ...

Kraftwerk founder Ralf Hütter left the band at this point, and for a 6 month period, Kraftwerk consisted of a trio of Rother, Dinger & Florian Schneider. This line-up played sporadic gigs and made a live appearance on German TV programme Beat Club (recently made available on DVD). Attempted recording sessions at Conny Plank's studio were unsuccessful ("a difference of temperament", Rother was later to remark), and Dinger and Rother parted company from Schneider and began a new project with Plank: Neu! (Schneider rejoined Hütter and the pair continued recording the second Kraftwerk album with Plank.) Cover of the album Ralf und Florian. ... Florian Schneider-Esleben (born April 7th, 1947, Germany) is one of the founding members of influential and pioneering electronic music band Kraftwerk. ... Timbaland. ...

Their eponymous first album sold very little by our standards today (though 30,000 records was a lot for a band of their musical nature), yet is today considered a masterpiece by many, including influential artists such as David Bowie, Brian Eno and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. It included the Motorik benchmark tracks "Hallogallo" and "Negativland", and bizarre "songs" like "Sonderangebot". Neu! is an album by 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. ... David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) is a British rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, mixer, and actor. ... Brian Eno in 1977 Brian Peter George St. ... Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. ... Radiohead are a British quintet from Oxfordshire, England. ... A division of early German electronic music. ...

Their second album, Neu! 2, features some of the earliest examples of musical remixes. The band, excited to record another album, decided to expand their limits by purchasing several instruments. With the money they had left as an advance from the record company, they could only record half an album's worth of material. The company would not increase their advance because the first album did not sell anywhere close to well and the label did not see a reason to further finance what was most likely to become a flop. To rectify the lack of material, the band filled the second side with manipulated versions of their already released single, "Neuschnee"/"Super". (Side Note: "Super 16" is available in excerpt form on the soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino blockbuster, Kill Bill, Vol. 1) Neu! 2 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Stuidos, Hamburg, Germany, mixed in February 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios, Hamburg, Germany, and released in 1973 by Brain Records. ... A remix is an alternate mix of a song different from the original version, made using the techniques of audio editing. ... Tarantino as Mr. ... Kill Bill is the fourth feature film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino released in two parts: Volume 1 & Volume 2. ...

Dinger and Rother were both very different when they were left to their own devices, and this led to their final album of the 1970s, Neu! '75. Side One was Rother's more ambient productions which were similar to the first album, albeit more keyboard driven. Side Two (particularly the song "Hero") was acknowledged as important influence by many later involved in the UK's punk rock scene, with Dinger's sneering, unintelligible vocals searing across a distorted Motorik beat with aggressive single chord guitar poundings. Neu! 75 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded and mixed at Conny Planks studio between December 1974 and January 1975. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... A division of early German electronic music. ...

To aid with performing on the album, and more importantly, live, Hans Lampe and brother Thomas Dinger were enlisted to help execute more music than was possible by two men. Upon its release, and arguably to this day, Neu! '75 is the most diverse record available from the Krautrock scene. While this can be seen as a positive point, the differences in musical direction (as well as personal issues) not only isolated the Dinger/Rother duo, it isolated their already small fan base. Neu! broke up after the release of Neu! '75.

(1975-1984) Band inactivity

In 1974, Rother had already collaborated with German electronic duo Cluster, recording as Harmonia an album titled Musik von Harmonia. In 1975, he subsequently recorded a second Harmonia album, Deluxe, and further sessions followed with Brian Eno, which were not released until the 1990s. Cluster is a German musical group whose output prefigures ambient music. ... Harmonia was a 1970s Krautrock supergroup from Germany. ... Harmonia was a 1970s Krautrock supergroup from Germany. ... Brian Eno in 1977 Brian Peter George St. ...

Neu!'s song "Super 16," unwittingly, became the theme song to the 1976 martial arts cult classic Master of the Flying Guillotine by Jimmy Wang Yu. This would later prove to be a source of inspiration for the urban rapper Paleface Mandingo, and is reportedly being used as an instrumental to fine-tune his lyrics. Master of the Flying Guillotine is a 1975 Hong Kong martial arts film starring Jimmy Wang Yu, who also wrote and directed the film. ... Jimmy Wang Yu (born March 28, 1943, also known as Wong Yu-lung and Wang Yue) was a multi-talented Chinese actor, director, producer, and scriptwriter. ...

The two Dinger and Lampe formed La Dusseldorf, who were equally cited as influential David Bowie in a 1979 interview with a music magazine. David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947) is a British rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, mixer, and actor. ...

(1985-1986) Aborted come-back

Between October 1985 and April 1986, Dinger and Rother tried to rekindle the flame that was Neu! By adding more synthesizers and a slightly more commercial aspect to some compositions, the band sounded like a cross between their old selves and the recent new wave groups, and undoubtedly were torn apart again by personal and musical issues.

An example of the sharp contrast between Dinger and Rother was evidenced by such tracks as "Crazy", Rother's attempt at pop, and "'86 Commercial Trash", a Dingerian collage of dialogue and sound effects from Germany's television commercials of that year. The work that took place in these sessions would resurface in 1996 as Neu! 4, see below. Neu! 4 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded and mixed between October 1985 and April 1986 at Grundfunk Studio, Düsseldorf, Germany, Dinerland-Lilienthal Studio, Düsseldorf, Germany, and Michael Rother Studio, Forst, Germany. ...

(Conny Plank died in 1987. His studio is still run by his widow Christa Fast and his son.)

(1987-2000) Acrimony

Dinger and Rother did not work together during the 1990s, and indeed some degree of acrimony existed between them, not least due to Dinger releasing a couple of old substandard Neu! out-take recordings on the Japanese Captain Trip label, without Rother's consent:

In 1996, this label released the above-mentioned Neu! 4 recordings from the 1985-1986 sessions.

It also released Neu! '72 Live! (recorded in Düsseldorf on May 6th, 1972) whose title is misleading, as the "live" aspect of it pertains to the fact that it was an on-stage rehearsal of poor audio fidelity, and only of interest to Neu! die hards who want to hear their heroes, musically frustrated that they cannot reproduce their hypnotic studio sound on stage. Definitely not a place to start from in the Neu! catalog, and considered their weakest release, it is notable for the inclusion of Eberhard Kranemann, who was involved with Neu! precursors Kraftwerk as well.

Captain Trip was also responsible for the CD reissues of albums from Dinger's post-Neu! aspirations with La! Neu? and La Dusseldorf. la! Neu? were a German band founded by Klaus Dinger after the breakup of his first post-Neu! band, La DÃ¼sseldorf. ...

(2001- . . . .) CD remasters

The rights to the Neu! back-catalogue are jointly owned by Rother, Dinger and Plank's widow, Christa Fast. However, for many years a degree of acrimony and legal wranglings existed between Rother and Dinger, and they could not agree on licensing arrangements to make Neu!'s music available on CD. (In the ensueing vacuum, illegal and inferior quality bootleg CDs [mastered from old vinyl records] were distributed by an outfit calling themselves 'Germanofon'.)

Happily, this situation was finally resolved in 2001, when Rother and Dinger put aside their differences and entered a studio to transfer the three classic Neu! albums to CD, from the original mastertapes (reputedly mastering each album three times to make sure they sounded how they wanted the mass public to hear it). These were then released on the Astralwerks label, packaged with stickers raving about the albums from musical people of recent notice, again including Thom Yorke. Finally, the world was able to enjoy Neu! music without having to buy the discs illegally or track down rare, expensive vinyl. Astralwerks is an New York based record label which releases primarily electronic music. ... Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. ...

Neu! have not recorded anything new since Neu! 4, and are currently inactive. As for its members:

Discography

Albums

All Neu! albums on Brain Records were reissued in 2001 by Astralwerks. All Neu! albums on Captain Trip Records are currently deleted. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... Neu! is an album by 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. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Neu! 2 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded in January 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Stuidos, Hamburg, Germany, mixed in February 1973 at Windrose-Dumont-Time Studios, Hamburg, Germany, and released in 1973 by Brain Records. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Neu! 75 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded and mixed at Conny Planks studio between December 1974 and January 1975. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Neu! 4 is an album by Krautrock band Neu!. It was recorded and mixed between October 1985 and April 1986 at Grundfunk Studio, Düsseldorf, Germany, Dinerland-Lilienthal Studio, Düsseldorf, Germany, and Michael Rother Studio, Forst, Germany. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Astralwerks is an New York based record label which releases primarily electronic music. ...

Singles

1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ...

Samples

Neu! is an album by 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. ... Vorbis is an open and free lossy audio compression (codec) project headed by the Xiph. ...

Contents

Overview

Core members

Collaborators

Musical style

History

(1971-1975) Main career

(1975-1984) Band inactivity

(1985-1986) Aborted come-back

(1987-2000) Acrimony

(2001- . . . .) CD remasters

Discography

Albums

Singles

Samples

See also

Contents

Overview GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Core members

Collaborators

Musical style

History

(1971-1975) Main career

(1975-1984) Band inactivity

(1985-1986) Aborted come-back

(1987-2000) Acrimony

(2001- . . . .) CD remasters

Discography

Albums

Singles

Samples

See also

Overview