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- Date Released: January 1, 1975
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Rock
- Label: Gronland Records / Iris
The Krautrock duo’s final album.
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We Say...
Despite the sleek, mobile serenity of their sound, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, the German duo who comprised Neu!, endured a fractious and turbulent relationship. Their temperamental differences are writ clear on their third album. The first half of Neu! 75 is given over to the gentler Rother. “Isi” sets out in the group's trademark “motorik” manner — no verses, no chorus, just a sustained 4/4 beat bowling along a rich highway of opulent musical scenery. Like Kraftwerk's Autobahn, recorded the same year, it ironically reflects a sense of post-war West German prosperity, the sound of a nation at ease with itself. “Seeland” and “Leb' Wohl” are slower, almost absurdly luxuriant, ambient affairs, all distant, crashing synths and lapping waters.
Drummer Klaus Dinger is in the driving seat for the second half of the album and, while sticking to the continuous 4/4 principle, immediately strikes a more pugnacious chord. On “Hero” and “After Eight,” it's as if he's hanging his head out of the car window and screaming incoherently at passersby, in an uncanny prototype of the yet-to-come punk sneer. But it's on the prolonged “E-Musik” that he provides the high point of the album, driven by his silvery, studio-treated percussion, careering across the lanes on a delirious, picaresque journey that links Krautrock with later post-punk aficionadoes like Joy Division, the Associates and PiL. -
They Say...
After a three-year break, Neu! members Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother buried their differences temporarily, and reunited for another go at the "motorik" sound they had developed with their debut in 1971. The strange tension and presentation of Neu! 2 and the emergence of their former band Kraftwerk may have precipitated the reunion, but, whatever the reason, the end result proved worth the time, effort, and bickering it took to crank this one out. One thing that is noticeably different on 75 is the presence of synthesizers and the preference of them, it seems, over Rother's guitar. "Isi," which opens the album, features Dinger's metronymic percussion holding down the 2/4 rhythm and a trademark one-note bassline provided by a piano, but the gorgeous sonic washes and flourishes normally handled by Rother's guitar-slinging hands are now painted with a synth. "Seeland" offers a return to the six strings with what would in subsequent years become Rother's ornate "singing" style of playing. Dinger's rhythmic patterns here are deceptively simple. They create a long, trudging 4/4, syncopated every other line, and punctuated by a small ride cymbal at the end of each phrase as Rother's guitar provides both cascading single string notes and a shifting, pulsing bassline. It's a beautiful wasteland, this track; sparse yet full of melodic interplay and layered guitars and keyboards. The last track on side one is "Leb Wohl," an exercise in white noise, industrial textures, and natural or, "found" sounds, a piano and gorgeous, spare and intricate guitar chords. For side two, Neu! adds Dinger's brother, Thomas, and Hans Lampe on various percussions to allow Dinger to play guitar, piano, and organ, and to add some bottom end to the band's sound. The funny thing is they come off sounding more like a melodic punk band on "Hero," with Dinger's growling vocals being reminiscent of a young Mick Jagger on steroids. His Keith Richards-style chords stand in stark contrast to Rother's more lyrical approach. Perhaps this isn't such a surprise when we consider the Damned's first album was recorded in 1975. The ten-minute "E-Musick" becomes Neu!'s signature track for this disc, however. With distorted percussion -- courtesy of a synth and sequencer, as well as a drum kit put through a phase shifter, Rother's melodic synth lines are free to roam, wide and far, carrying within them a foreshadowing of his guitar solos a few minutes later. These long screaming lines, reminiscent of Steve Hillage at his best, with Dinger's wonderful rhythm backing and treatments of the instruments, provides a definitive statement on the Neu! "motorik" sound. This is music not only for traveling, from one place to the next, but also for disappearance into the ether at a steady pace. This may have been Neu!'s final statement -- at least in the studio; Dinger issued (without Rother's permission) an inferior live '72 album -- but at least they went out on a much higher note than Neu! 2, and in a place where their innovations are still being not only recognized, but utilized.
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| 01. |  |
Isi |
5:07 |
|
| 02. | |
Seeland |
6:54 |
|
| 03. | |
Leb' Wohl |
8:51 |
|
| 04. | |
Hero |
7:12 |
|
| 05. | |
E-Musik |
9:58 |
|
| 06. | |
After Eight |
4:45 |
|
06 Total Tracks, 42:47 Total Length
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Credits
- Michael Rother - Synthesizer // Michael Rother - Bass // Michael Rother - Guitar // Michael Rother - Piano // Michael Rother - Composer // Michael Rother - Keyboards // Michael Rother - Concept // Michael Rother - Electronics // Michael Rother - Stimme // Michael Rother - Group Member // Neu! - Producer // Neu! - Main Performer // Neu! - Artwork // Neu! - Cover Art // Klaus Dinger - Organ // Klaus Dinger - Guitar // Klaus Dinger - Percussion // Klaus Dinger - Drums // Klaus Dinger - Keyboards // Klaus Dinger - Vocals // Klaus Dinger - Synclavier // Klaus Dinger - Musical Director // Klaus Dinger - Concept // Klaus Dinger - Orgel // Klaus Dinger - Stimme // Klaus Dinger - Group Member // Thomas Dinger - Drums // Thomas Dinger - Photography // Thomas Dinger - Schlagzeug // Thomas Dinger - Group Member // Hans Lampe - Drums // Hans Lampe - Schlagzeug // Hans Lampe - Group Member // Konrad Plank - Producer // Konrad Plank - Tuning // Ann W - Photography
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