Neu!: self-titled (white vinyl) [GRONLAND]

Why you'll love it

This Grönland edition comes on white vinyl in a gatefold jacket. Neu! is a founding document of krautrock, and its motorik beat went on to shape David Bowie, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop and Thom Yorke.

This edition

• White vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Lyrics included

About the album

Leaving an early line-up of Kraftwerk is one way to start a band. Klaus Dinger (drums) and Michael Rother (guitar) did just that, headed into the studio in 1971 with producer Conny Plank, and came out with a record that still sounds like the road stretching out ahead of you.

"Hallogallo" is the big one: ten-odd minutes of Dinger's steady, forward-rolling drumbeat under Rother's chiming, shimmering guitars, the pulse people would come to call motorik. "Weissensee" settles into a slow, glowing drift, "Negativland" grinds and clatters, "Sonderangebot" hangs in the air like a cymbal that won't stop ringing, and "Lieber Honig" closes on a fragile, murmured vocal. Plank's production gives everything space and air, so the duo's two instruments sound like a whole landscape. Turntable Lab sums up its range neatly: early motorik rhythms, psychedelic passages and ambient drones, all on one record.

Half a century on, art rockers and electronic producers alike keep coming back to it. Plenty of bands have since built whole careers on the "Hallogallo" beat; Dinger and Rother rather generously left it lying about for them.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Brain / Grönland (cat# LPGRONX), a reissue of the 1972 album.