NEU!

This is an essential slice not only of Krautrock, but of musical history. "Hallogallo", of course, is perhaps the main draw and the best-known of these works, with its instantly recognizable mechanical beat around which surprisingly delicate melodies frolic. The end result is something both propulsive and beautiful - a sublime combination. When I first heard "Weissensee", I thought I was listening to early Pink Floyd, only it seemed on the whole too fragile, the melodies too cleanly pretty. But then there's "Negativland" enveloping that trademark beat with feedback, noise, and obliquely screeching guitars and synths. Despite the generally lazy tempo (though at appropriate points it picks up and you know you're in for it), this is some seriously intense stuff, and definitely the most memorable track on the album for me. To tell the truth, I can live without the half of the album that I haven't written about; they're either ambient experiments with pure sound or, in the case of "Lieber Honig", a vocal track that boasts typical Krautrock vocals. In the end, with three tracks that, well, are obviously classic, and the rest of them that works as glue in an incredible way that holds it together as an album. And that's all they have to do.