NEU! '75

Contrary to the two previous albums, this one doesn't provide experimental and post-rock compositions. Globally, it's a more easy listening work than NEU! 2.This release can be divided into two parts: The first tunes are marvellous meditative and dreamy compositions. With its calm and monotonous guitar melodic line, "Seeland" is a kind of reverie, translates into music a personal quest of solitude and quietness.The second and magical track played on the piano is a farewell. This pure introvert and spiritual musical moment finally let the place to have a really dissimilar world illustrated by captivated and aggressive proto-punk pieces. Personally I've difficulties to consider this album as the musical identity of a real band, I prefer to see it as individual works.with an ambient and meditative side directed by Michael Rother and a more noisy-punk rock songs side written by Klaus Dinger

Amongst fans this is simply known as "Neu '75" or the "Black Album". This was really the 3rd album released by these German pioneers of electonic space prog rock NEU! and IMHO is a simply killer album worthy of major praise. Without a question you need to have this album in your collection and now thanks to the folks at Astralwerks we can enjoy this in audio re- mastered brightness. NEU! in 1975 was Michael Rother (guitars, piano, synths), Thomas Dinger, Hans Lampe and Klaus Dinger (organ, percussion and guitar). This classic space rock album was recorded in the famous Krautrock kitchen of Konrad Plank studios.

All 3 classic NEU albums shine in different yet connected light : where the first album is an adventure in minimalism, "Neu! '75" is more colorful and slightly more accessible although just as adventuras. NEU! were obsessed with sonic textures with this album dripping in crystalline images and frosted by deep tonal analogue synthesisers and pristine lead guitars. This is the perfect headphone experience album for those who love to still sit and get totally wrapped up in an album from start to finish. A masterpiece !

The last of three classic recordings by the legendary Krautrock team of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger was actually a reunion (more accurately, a reconciliation) album, but unlike the desperate mess of their previous NEU! 2 this effort makes a virtue of its split personality.

It's still a schizophrenic affair: one half hippie sweetness and light, the other half proto- punk energy and aggression, and all it takes is one glance at the band portraits to see where the division falls (I'm assuming the original gatefold album sleeve art was reproduced for the long overdue "official" CD reissue). Rother was photographed in angelic soft focus, his ponytail carefully tied at his neck; Dinger is dressed all in black, sporting cool insectoid sunglasses (indoors) and clutching a cigarette.

The photos reflect their obvious stylistic differences, but the creative tension is, happily, all but invisible in the music. This is easily the most accessible album in the NEU! catalogue, the one most likely to appeal to listeners understandably nervous about exploring the more dangerous avenues of early '70s Krautrock. The first half of the album (Side One, for all you unreformed vinyl junkies) is especially easy on the ears, and points directly to the pristine beauty of Michael Rother's first few solo albums.

The opening three tracks actually work together almost like a 20-minute suite, beginning with the infectious motorik beat of "Isi", and continuing through the dreamy, majestic "See Land" to the narcoleptic nine minute sleepwalk of "Leb' Wohl". You'll notice how the energy level collapses from one song to the next, until by the end of "Leb' Wohl" the pace has slowed to an ambient metronome pulse of solo piano and distant surf, with Dinger muttering something in a semi-conscious whisper about lovemaking on a sandy hill.

After that the rest of the album is like a bracing slap in the face, presenting a barrage of over-amped guitars, pounding drums, and Dinger's patented adenoidal sneer (shouted more than sung). Want to know where Johnny Rotten learned his anti- establishment stage attitude? Listen to "Hero" and "After Eight".

Dinger added extra butt-kicking vigor to the rhythm section by enlisting two auxiliary drummers: brother Thomas, and Hans Lampe; all three would later join to form Dinger's next band, La Düsseldorf (a sort of NEU! lite, and highly recommended to fans of Post- Prog esoterica). The second half of "NEU! '75" is more or less a crude warm-up for the new group, with a similar mix of ringing guitars and non-stop 4/4 drumming, and the same assortment of weird tape noises, in this case sound samples from Side One, slowed down, reversed, and so forth. Not to worry: they're used only for atmospheric transitions, not as entire compositions (as in "NEU! 2").

Rother and Dinger would reunite (again) almost ten years later for one final round of the NEU! experiment, but I haven't yet found the heart to investigate any further. The group in its first, brief incarnation produced some unique and timeless music; why risk spoiling that legacy by listening to something from an entirely different musical climate that can't hope to match the original?

4.5 stars.This is my favourite NEU! album, even surpassing their debut in my opinion. It just blows my mind how influential this record was. The different styles like ambient, Proto-Punk and New Wave are all evident on this album. I can't imagine how many bands must have been influenced by their sound. The band (Rother and Dinger) had actually split up, but reunited for this final offering.The first 3 tracks are Rother compositions, while the final 3 are Dinger songs.The first half is mellow and the second half is quite aggressive. So why couldn't they get along ? Haha.

"Isi" has a great beat, with synths that sounds so eighties that you woudn't believe it was from 1975. "Seeland" sees the band slowing things down as percussion, gentle guitar and electronics drift along. This is very relaxing, and it ends with the sounds of pouring rain and thunder. "Leb Wohl" is a brilliant,ambient tune that features the sounds of waves rolling in as piano is gently and slowly played. Percussion joins in before the almost whispered vocals arrive.THE USE OF ASHES from The Netherlands along with many other like bands had to have been influenced by this piece of music.

"Hero" has an awesome beat as the drums are pounded steadily. The vocals are yelled in a Punk-like fashion,reminding me a little of Jagger. Very catchy. The beat stops 6 minutes in as the sounds of birds chirping carry on to end the song. "E-Musik" reminds me a little of CAN with that infectious beat. This continues for 7 minutes when it stops and is replaced by the blowing wind. Eventually we can hear the faint sounds of piano and percussion. "After Eight" sounds like "Hero" with the yelled vocals and uptempo beat. The guitar is raw as the drums pound away.

Influencial is the word, and that is what makes this such a special record. Well worth checking out to hear it for yourself.

Neu! ´75 is the third studio album from German Krautrock legends Neu! I´ve only been partially impressed with their first two albums which is mostly due to the tracks that IMO, are more sound experiements than real songs. It´s an aquired taste if you enjoy those avant garde experiements but I´m one of those that don´t. On the other hand there were some really great songs on those albums too with relentless driving krautrock beats and psychadelic elements. I enjoyed those songs greatly so I came to this third album with biased feelings. I didn´t quite know what to expect. Fortunately I´ve been positively surprised as Neu! 75 is by far their most accessible and exciting release out of the first three. It´s a quite varied album and we get to hear all the good sides of the band and very few of the bad ( the noisy sound experiments).

The story goes that Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother agreed on a compromise before recording the album. Michael Rother wanted a conservative soft approach to the music in accordance with the most melodic material from the previous albums while Klaus Dinger wanted a more edgy and raw sound. As a consequence of their musical differences the songs on side one of the original LP ( Isi, Seeland, Leb´ Wohl) are the most melodic while the songs on side two of the original LP ( Hero, E-Musik, After Eight) are far more aggressive and edgy. Klaus Dinger even shifts from his usual position behind the drums to guitar on the songs on side two while his brother Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe plays the drums.

Isi and Seeland are both melodic and pleasant songs. The piano and synths are a great addition to Neu!´s sound. Leb´ Wohl sounds like an early example of post rock to me. Very minimalistic and ambient with some soft vocals. Very repetitive but also greatly emotional. I usually don´t have the patience for songs like this, but in the context of this album it sounds great. Side two of the album starts with Hero which is a raw punk like song with shouting vocals. Proto punk if you will but still with that great relentless krautrock beat. Lots of distorted guitar on this one. E-Musik is the longest track here with it´s 10:50 minutes and probably the most experimental track as well. Great driving beat for the first 6-7 minutes and for the last minutes the dreaded sound experiments arise. But here it fits and even though this is my least favorite section of the album I´m not as annoyed by it as I was with the experiments on the first albums. After Eight ends the album with what I would almost characterise as industrial rock. I´m reminded of a band like Ministry or Killing Joke at times even though After Eight isn´t as heavy of course.

The musicianship is excellent. The choice of sounds and the skills of the musicians are very interesting and enjoyable.

The production is absolutely wonderful. Warm when it needs to be and raw and edgy when that is needed.

Neu! 75 has swept my feet away. It´s not that I don´t aknowledge the great importance and groundbreaking nature of their first two albums, but this one suits my taste so much more. A sure 4 star rating IMO.

Neu! 75 presents a reborn Neu! Gone are the proto-punk leanings of the previous two albums. The year is still 1975 but these guys had moved on to post-punk already.

Neu! was a duo of musicians originating from the original Kraftwerk line-up. While their first albums didn't betray such, Neu! 75 finds them in a very electronic mood. They must have been listening to some Cluster I guess. The opener Isi could as well have featured on Krafwerk's Radio-Activity from the same year. And it is by no means inferior. Beautifully atmospheric and melodious synth-pop, with that recognizable Neu!-beat.

See Land is slower and darker, but still rather melodious and with some Tangerine Dream alike guitars. Beautiful piece. Also Leb'wohl finds them exploring new ground, very sparse and ambient this time, and featuring some hazy spoken/half-sung vocals. The seas washes in and out to brace the atmosphere.

On Hero they are back with a full-on punk track again. It's simply unbelievably this album is from 1975. But this is not just an influential album, it was influential because it is so darn good and perfectly captured the anarchistic and rebellious spirit that was on the rise with the new generation of youngsters.

After the catchy punk anthem Hero, E-musik brings us in a more experimental vibe. The drum groove of Hero is processed through some effect device and repeated for 8 minutes. Only some minimal piano, synth and guitars add to the mood. Not the easiest listen here but still interesting. After Eight end the album with a continuation of the rock 'n' roll beat, and with decisively anti-melodic vocals. Add some guitars here and Lemmy could turn this into quite a Motörhead anthem.

An album with two faces from a band with the creative imagination of 20 others. It's not the most consistent listening but the recommended album to get an idea of what Neu! is all about.

One thing that really fascinates me about this record in particular is how ahead of their time this duo was. While Kraftwerk is praised as one of the pioneers in the ambient/eletronic/pop combination, Neu! is hardly ever mentioned. This record in particular had a great impact, not in terms of popularity, nor sales, but to several different artists (Bowie and Eno being the msot obvious ones). I can still remeber how different this album was at the time: one side of gentle, ambient/eletronic soundscapes; one side of low fi punkish rock. It was punk before punk! Even the vocals are much on the latter´s style.

While I´m not really a fan of the genre, I think that anyone interested in the history of music, its major influences and even for plain curiosity should listen to this CD. Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother couldn´t be musically more different and yet they released three seminal (although quite low budget) records in the first half of the 70´s. Neu!´75 is regarded as their best ever, and I believe it, even fi I haven´t heard the others. Well, you dont´have to, to find out that this is one of the most interesting and influential records of that decade. Groundbreaking. Rating: not one of the records I hear a lot, but it deserves at least four stars for its historical importance.

The late '60s to early '70s was a time of great political change in Germany that saw it become the economic superpower of Europe, and the self-confidence that accompanied this rise in influence and the counterculture's antiauthoritarian posture contributed to the country's new cultural identity. Krautrock's pioneering fusion of psychedelic rock and electronic music was concurrent with this period of activity and was influential on later generations of musicians, with Neu! in particular having a profound impact on punk and modern electronic music. ''Neu! '75'' was certainly well ahead of its time with its prescient mix of proto-punk and electronics, and has been cited as a major influence on David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, as well as on bands such as Ultravox, Hawkwind and Radiohead.

The Neu! aesthetic is a postminimal attraction of opposites with Michael Rother's trancelike melodies sitting cheek by jowl alongside the aggression and power of Klaus Dinger's relentless rhythms, all complemented by Dinger's pop art sleeve designs. Each half of ''Neu! '75'' seems to represent two separate evolutions of the band, with the first half featuring Rother's atmospheric soundscapes. From the opening bars of ''Isi'' it's obvious where OMD got the inspiration for songs like ''Enola Gay''. The slow-burning ''Seeland'' and the ambient ''Leb' Wohl'' that segue into one another are linked thematically, as well as physically, by sound effects of rainfall and waves and by a metronome that maintains a clockwork pulse throughout the two tracks.

On the second half of the album Klaus Dinger's brother Thomas and Hans Lampe played twin drums, which allowed Klaus to focus on guitar and vocals. His ragged singing on ''Hero'' is full of obscenities (''F*** the press/F*** the company'') and the song was particularly influential on a young John Lydon. Dinger had felt deep frustration following his bankruptcy and his break-up with the love of his life; he therefore gave vent to all his emotions, especially those associated with the music industry, on ''Hero''. Moving on to the other tracks, and guitars crackle and pop on ''E-Musik'' while phasing effects wail like sirens. This track and the proto-punk of ''After Eight'' are driven along by the kind of minimalist 4/4 ''motorik'' beat that Dinger himself preferred to call ''lange Gerade''.

Highly recommended, especially to those new to the Krautrock subgenre.

Neu! '75 isn't as cold or claustrophobic as their initial LP - but in many ways this is a lot better. Benefitting from a higher standard of production and a sound that is far more slick.

The album holds a certain atmosphere throughout and I'm reminded at times of elements of 'Joy Division' and and 'Cabaret Voltaire' lurking in the finished piece.

Neu! maintain that trademark, unwavering 4/4 drum beat - which is quite hypnotic; like riding on a train. Neu! created simplistic straightforward albums which were strangely engaging, mechanical and very Central European in sound. It all makes you wonder how Kraftwerk would have sounded if Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother had remained on board.

There's quite a few similarities with 'Harmonia's - Deluxe' album released during the same year.

Oh - and there's no coincidence that there's a track here called 'Hero', which Bowie used as a platform for one of his best known songs. This was recorded by him out of an admiration for the Neu! sound.

As many other reviewers have pointed out, Neu '75 is very much a two-headed beast. On one side, we're presented with great, laid back, cozy atmospheric music, very much in the ambient vane, culminating in the quiet and calm of "Leb' Wohl" with its waves, minimal beat and piano, and quiet vocals. This side of the album is, in my mind, nearly flawless. Dinger and Rother excelled at this sort of music, and I can only wish they would have made more of it.

Side two, however, is a bit disappointing to me, at least a couple of the tracks. I generally enjoy both Krautrock and post-punk stylings, but I can't help but think that "Hero" TOTALLY destroys the mood the album started to set on the first side. The track takes this side of the album in a decidedly punky direction, plus adds two more members (another Dinger and Hans Lampe) on percussion. Not a bad track, but not what I would have wanted to hear had I heard this album on vinyl instead of CD. "E-Musik" is a lot better, being somewhat of a compromise between the wonderful atmosphere of side one's music and the beat of "Hero" - the group sort of...warp the beat, and this track is pretty dreamy, in a motorik sort of way. Later on it backs off a bit and we get a sort of reprise of "Leb' Wohl" which I enjoy. Good track overall. "After Eight" goes back to the general style of "Hero" and like that track I wish it was more laid back.

Side one of the album is definitely at least 4.5-star material, some of my favorite (and I think most representative) of Neu!'s dreamy side. Side two is trickier; "E-Musik" is 4 star material at least, the other two tracks are 3-star. Overall, I'd definitely recommend one of Neu!'s first two albums as a starting point...probably their debut, since Neu! 2 toys around with a lot of tape manipulation/vinyl manipulation, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea. 3 stars for this album...still good, but doesn't match the heights of the previous two.

Neu! return to the high standards of their debut album with this one, which reflects the growing gulf between Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother's preferred musical direction. Michael Rother takes charge of side 1 and provides material more or less in line with what you'd expect from Neu!, with some additional ambient mellowness drifting in from the Harmonia side-project. Dinger's side, meanwhile, combines Krautrock rhythms and repetitions with aggressive proto- punk thunder, creating an intriguing musical hybrid.

Even though E-Musik drags on somewhat, and Hero and After Eight are basically two very slightly different takes on the same general concept, these compositions both expanded the Krautrock palette and also caught the attention of artists such as David Bowie, whose subsequent Berlin albums would be crucial in making sure a progressive/art rock attitude survived to become part of the post-punk/New Wave movement. I'd say this more than earns its four stars.

Influential!

Kraut legends Neu! consisting of Klaus Dinger on voice, percussion, guitar, piano, organ, and Michael Rother guitar, piano, synth orchestra, electronics, voice, made an indelible impression with their debut with some stark haunting compositions that are definitive to the Krautrock scene. This is their third album which is at times a very accessible project and at other times lunges deep into the avant territory of the first album. It begins with a surprisingly upbeat motorik electro pop sound on 'Isi'. The commercial sound is striking when compared to the dark drones and experimentation of the debut. It has a great melody and is reminiscent of early Kraftwerk.

'Seeland' is a darker sound with cold stark tones and an ominous guitar and spacey synth lines. The guitars are beautiful drawing in the listener with spacey textures over the hypnotic melody rhythm. The synth pads are laced with ribbons of sizzling electronics. The rain fall, thunder rolls across the heavens and leads to 'Leb' wohl'. This one is haunting and has a slow dreamy feel that entrances. The sleepy piano lines are accompanied by echoed vocals, sung as though half asleep, the beach sounds are part of the ambience. But if this one puts the listener to blissful sleep the next track is a rude awakening.

The album may be seen as an album with a multiple progressive disorder; one half is mesmirising ambience, with the other half, side two of the vinyl, a proto punk bolt of energy. Side one is Rother's ambient influenced instrumental dreamscape, side two is Dinger's aggressive punked up distortion nightmare.

Dinger's excursion into anger as an energy is helped with two supplementary drummers; brother Thomas, and Hans Lampe. This would be the backbone of the next project for Dinger with these members jumping on board, for the esoterica of La Düsseldorf. 'Hero' is the first taste of punk and really sounds extraordinarily like Johnny Rotten's vocals and the angst driven guitar sonics of the Sex Pistols. Dinger sounds better though and the time sig is a simple 4 on the floor with double percussion. I like the keyboard chimes on this and it is so jarring after all the sleepy music that it has to be one of the shining moments of the album.

There are tape noises that are put through effects machines to add a sense of weirdness to it all similar to the first 2 Neu! albums. It is followed by motorik hypno trance rhythms on 'E-musik' sounding rather like 'Autobahn' or other early Kraftwerk in places. The electro sounds augment this feel that is no holds barred Krautrock. The very sweet synthesizer swooshes are similar to early Gary Numan, who must have been influenced here, especially on songs such as 'Complex' and the synth punk of Tubeway Army's 'Listen to the Sirens' and 'Zero Bars'. The beat on 'E-musik' is electronica at its most entrancing, and this is an influential track for all these reasons. The one note or chord of E works well allowing jamming instruments to fade in and out. It ends with a haunting wind howling and a deep slowed down bassvoice. Simply stunning Neu! at their best.

The final track is 'After Eight' and we return to the proto punk, and listening to this may cause one to wonder did Neu! invent the punk sound that almost single handedly destroyed prog? Ironic, if so, but Neu! were pioneers and took incredible risks and are all the more infamous for this. This last track is reminiscent of Hawkwind's punk sound more than Sex Pistols or perhaps closer to Iggy and The Stooges.

This album is perhaps one of the better albums in terms of accessible music and an entertaining sound throughout. I am no fan of punk but on this album Neu! make it easy to digest due to the inventive structures. Rother and Dinger would reunite after a ten year hiatus to try their hand at another Neu! project but the album is nowhere near the legendary status of their first three classic 70s master works.

Sliding between effortless proto-ambient pseudo-electronica, minimalistic fingerspitzengefühl, brutalistic DIY and a cleansing, raw simplicity, Neu! '75 is a modernistic little cabinet of curiosities. It serves as a perfect bridge between the mid-to-late seventies' (often ambidextrous) juggling of clarity, simplicity and downright don't-give-a-damn and a fair bit of artsy, textural and often long-winded sonic experimentalism. Clean, tidy and seemingly restrained. The actual movement and development is all occurring outside where your normal focus lies. Just as it happens in life in general.

Bringing up the tired old Motorik sound is almost a bit of a cliché at this point, but you can't help avoiding it. Rather simple and repetitive rhythms hang heavily all over this album, deceptively anchoring the sound in a flat and effortless soundscape of wide open spaces and riveting, endless clarity. It's a cunningly clinical and intrinsically modernistic form of expression, that at first hides its full delicacies and warmth for the casual and fleeting listener. Give it just a tiny amount of well-deserved attention and time and layer upon layer of primitive sensuality and grace will materialize before your very...ears.

Space. Oh yes. Space more than anything defines an album such as Neu! '75. Breezy, airy and full of delicately silken touches, the impressionistic sounds slowly weave themselves into a tapestry of almost naturalistic beauty, when slow and restrained piano lines slide into sampled sounds of lazy and hazy summer afternoons and the ever restless (and occasionally threatening) seaside. There is an almost otherworldly quality to some of the compositions. Gleaming, shimmering, fleeting, rising and falling keyboard sounds that never try to fully flourish into melodic maturity, but rather hover and warble over a gradually shape-shifting sand dune of music. Slow, simple and gradual. Measured, clear and earnest. And inevitable, I guess. Guitars and bass stand out as melodic, but equally rhythmic focal points of an unclear and decidedly linear, but slowly evolving and gradually integrating set of sounds, perhaps with a hazy and wordless vocal line wearily tagging along for the ride.

Hero stands out as a more immediate bridge between the slight, but much loved, odour of over-ripeness of much of progressive rock and the sluggish, revivalist tendencies of primeval punk aggression and directness. It incorporates a slimmer, leaner form of the aforementioned qualities in an up-tempo exposé of ringing and hard-hitting lines of more in-your-face and reactionary musical ideas. Brawling with themselves, the vocals run around the music aggressively, challenging the music to join them for the ride in a raw, unfiltered world of urges and "baser" expression. I love it. After Eight joins the snarl, marrying that same steadfastness with a hissing, bubbling and unsettling form of rock reincarnation that I find very hard to resist. Post-rock, but in a completely different way than how it's envisioned today.

Loving this is not immediate. I grappled with the often proclaimed charms of Neu! for quite a while before I found the way into the heart of the music. Beautifully antagonistic ideas of near-industrial simplicity and effectiveness clashing with smoothly evocative and melodious romanticism. Couple that with an urgent release of brutal energy and, apparently, you've hooked at least one other listener.

Don't avoid this!

4 stars.

//LinusW