Neu!: Neu! '75 [GRONLAND]

Why you'll love it

This Grönland reissue comes in a gatefold jacket, pressed in the EU. Q called it their masterpiece, NME gave the 2001 reissue a perfect 10, and "Hero" went on to influence John Lydon of the Sex Pistols.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

By 1974 the two halves of Neu! were pulling in different directions, so they did the sensible thing and gave each other a side. Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger met at Conny Plank's studio between December 1974 and January 1975, with Plank producing and engineering as ever, and made a record that splits neatly down the middle.

Side one is Rother's. "Isi" skips along on piano and the famous motorik beat, "See Land" drifts like weather over water, and "Leb' Wohl" (farewell) slows almost to a standstill. Side two belongs to Dinger, who moves to guitar and lead vocals while his brother Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe play double drums. "Hero" snarls like punk a couple of years ahead of schedule, and "E-Musik" rides a groove for close to ten minutes.

The Dinger brothers and Lampe went on to form La Düsseldorf, and David Bowie nodded to "Hero" with the title of his album Heroes. The closer, "After Eight," is a pun on the German for nine and has nothing whatsoever to do with mints. We checked.

Also at Kops: more Neu! on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Grönland (cat# LPGRONIII), a reissue of the 1975 album.