The Year: 1972The Album: Neu!, Neu!
Who It Influenced: David Bowie, Joy Division, Stereolab, Tortoise, Radiohead, Liars
The old maxim with the Velvet Underground was that, though Lou Reed and co didn't sell many records in their day, pretty much everyone who bought one went onto form their own band. It's a half-comic idea that could easily be applied, in all earnestness, to Neu! (pronounced 'noy'), the cult German act whose legion of devoted followers include acts who've sold millions upon millions more LPs than they ever have.
David Bowie's entire 'Berlin period' was influenced by Neu!. John Lydon drew influence from Neu! for both the Sex Pistols (Side 2 of Neu! '75) and Public Image Ltd (Side 2 of Neu! 2). Joy Division and New Order leant heavily on the sort of spartan, driving rhythms Neu! specialized in. And, when Radiohead was first plunging into the experimental, Radiohead's Thom Yorke used Neu!'s approach to the studio as 'instrument' as a sort of guiding light.
Drummer Klaus Dinger and multi-instrumentalist Michael Rother had just jumped out of an early version of Kraftwerk to form their own band, in Düsseldorf circa '71, when they rolled tape on their debut. Characterized by two songs that play with a sense of repetition bordering on the mechanical ("Hallogallo" and "Negativland"), Neu! sometimes summons the mythical 'eternal highway,' and other times tours down the spookiest, freakiest of back-streets. It's an absolute classic, any way you slice it.
- Full review: Neu!, Neu!
Comments