Tap any face to see why they're in the photo

Who shaped them

Neu!

Neu!

Since 1971 · Germany

Neu! formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 when Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, both briefly members of an early lineup of Kraftwerk, struck out to pursue a sound too rhythmically insistent for that group at the time. Their story

Full songs onSpotifyApple MusicYouTube
See them on the map

Press ▶︎ to play

Loading…

It really plays! Press the middle

Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: The Velvet Underground.

In front, left to right: Siouxsie & The Banshees, New Order, Stereolab, Mogwai, Squid, Joy Division, David Bowie, Cabaret Voltaire, The Radio Dept., Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Tortoise.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Neu! cover

Start here

Neu! (1972)

Hear it onSpotifyApple MusicYouTube

Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother distilled krautrock to its rhythmic essence on this debut — the steady, forward-driving 'motorik' beat Dinger devised on a cheap drum kit became one of the most influential patterns in rock history. 'Hallogallo' rides that beat for ten minutes of pure forward motion, guitars and effects drifting over it like landscape passing a train window. 'Negativland' shows the album's more abrasive, proto-punk side. Made on a shoestring budget and barely noticed on release, it became a foundational reference point for Bowie, Eno, and two generations of motorik-obsessed bands after.

Sleeve notes

Neu!

Neu! · 1972

Neu! formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 when Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, both briefly members of an early lineup of Kraftwerk, struck out to pursue a sound too rhythmically insistent for that group at the time. Their self-titled debut established what Dinger called "motorik" — a steady, forward-driving beat, played on a stripped-down kit, that removed the fills and flourishes of conventional rock drumming and left only relentless, hypnotic momentum underneath Rother's shimmering, effects-treated guitar.

The group recorded on almost no budget: Neu! 2 (1973) famously pads out its second side with manipulated, pitch-shifted versions of songs from the same sessions because the label wouldn't fund new recording. Neu! 75 (1975) split cleanly between Rother's ambient side and Dinger's more aggressive, proto-punk material, a preview of the different directions each man pursued after the group's tense dissolution — Rother into ambient collaborations with Cluster and Brian Eno, Dinger into La Düsseldorf. Neu! sold almost nothing on release and became, retroactively, one of the most cited influences in rock: Bowie, Eno, Stereolab, and virtually every band that has ever been called "motorik" owes them a direct debt.

Since 1971 · Germany

Played at

Düsseldorf–Cologne

Düsseldorf · 1968–1974

On the bill

Formed by two musicians who had just left Kraftwerk — the scene's one hard personnel link — and built the motorik beat that Dinger described as a way of removing everything decorative from rock drumming.

The whole scene