Reflections: Neu!
When guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger formed Neu! in 1971, splintering off from the early Kraftwerk lineup, the German duo had only the loosest of musical goals. Sure, the band’s 1972 self-titled debut helped cement the Krautrock style, including a hypnotically repetitive 4/4 rhythm described by journalists as “motorik.” But Rother had no idea that this pattern—which most famously anchors their signature track, “Hallogallo”— would wind up becoming iconic. He and Dinger were basically painting landscapes, using references tied to imagery as much as sound.
“Because we left behind these classical structures of songs, like choruses, [the music] was like an open field that stretches out as far as you could see,” Rother recalls. “I’ve always felt this love for open spaces like the seaside. It relates to freedom, looking at the horizon.”
Before entering Star Studios with emerging producer Conny Plank, Neu! had “visions” of this music. “But I can’t truthfully say I had a clear idea of what would happen,” Rother adds. “This was the result of working in the moment and reacting: ‘OK, this is the fast track in E, and off we go!’”
Those visions, in the decades since, have reverberated throughout experimental music, inspiring giants like Brian Eno and Radiohead. And Rother has been revisiting that influence a lot these days: Since Dinger’s death in 2008, the guitarist has carried Neu! forward on his own—including a career-spanning, 50th anniversary box set, highlighted by a tribute album with remixes and reworkings by Neu! fans like The National, Idles, Man Man, Mogwai and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. It’s a vital piece of work, showcasing how the band’s buzzing rhythms and blissful soundscapes helped shape everything from modern post-rock to electro-pop.
The project’s impetus, naturally, was approaching the obvious half-century mark. Grönland Records—the home of not only Neu! but also Rother’s solo work and the catalog of his one-time Krautrock supergroup Harmonia—reached out with the pitch for creating Tribute.
“The idea was: ‘What can we do to add something for the fans?’” Rother says. “[The label] invited musicians to contribute their versions of Neu! ideas and sounds. That was the first step, and then we started asking ourselves, ‘Do we have any musicians in mind that we’d really want to have onboard?’”
Thinking back, Rother notes a few promising yet unexplored options: Iggy Pop (who covered Neu!’s “Hero” during a 2022 show in Germany, with Rother on guitar), Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore (who joined him onstage during a 2019 gig in London) and electroclash artist Peaches. But he ultimately let Grönland handle the recruitment, and the final results were eye-opening.
“The first piece of music that came in was from Stephen Morris [of Joy Division and New Order] and [Gabe Gurnsey],” Rother says. “They did a great sort of ‘nephew’ version of ‘Hallogallo.’ It’s very optimistic, very danceable, with a very positive atmosphere. I was already very happy, and then more and more interesting music came in.”
Taylor took almost the exact opposite approach with his treatment of Neu! ‘86 track “Wave Mother,” swapping out the original’s brisk synth throb and guitar chime for a murky— yet moving—ambience.
“I think the first time I heard it, I had tears in my eyes because it moved me,” Rother says. “He asked for permission: ‘I have two versions, one with my lyrics.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s wonderful. Let’s take that.’ He was unsure if this would be pushing [it]. It was wonderful to see another musician picking up my emotions in this harmony cycle and pushing it forward and creating something new and beautiful.”
The tribute album’s most cinematic moment could be its opening cut, The National’s psychedelic, beat-heavy remix of “Im Glück”—a tip of the cap that Rother hopes will lead to future collaborations.
“Over the years, we’ve been in touch several times and even wanted to collaborate,” he says. “Two of the brothers [bassist Scott Devendorf and drummer Bryan Devendorf ] have this side project, LNZNDRF, and they came to Germany, but I was not available. This year, they played in Italy near Pisa, where I am. But on that day, I was just returning from playing with Iggy Pop in Hamburg, so I didn’t make it to their concert. We’ve been in some sort of loose contact over the years. [Their version of ‘Im Glück’] is a good piece of music. I’m sure that, one of these days, we’ll manage to be in the same place at the same time and see what we can do together.”
That spirit of collaboration is the “ongoing development of this tribute process,” as Rother says, and some of these musicians (including Morris) will open some of his future shows. And seeing this ripple effect of his vision, all these years later, is profound—after all, back in the early days of Neu!, he was so focused on creating something unique that he walled himself off from his musical peers.
“I didn’t listen to anything. I didn’t put on music. I was like, ‘I don’t want to see or hear,’” he says with a laugh, while covering his eyes and ears for emphasis. “I wanted to narrow down my vision— and that was necessary to have this ambitious attitude of creating something from scratch that isn’t an echo of somebody else’s ideas.”
