Neu!
Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother's minimalist duo, formed after leaving Kraftwerk in 1971. Invented the motorik beat—Dinger's relentless quarter-note kick drum pattern that defined krautrock's rhythmic DNA—and recorded three albums of relentless rhythmic propulsion with Conny Plank between 1972 and 1975 before creative tensions split them. Dinger's confrontational perfectionism clashed with Rother's atmospheric sensibility.
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Neu!
Debut establishing the motorik beat that would define krautrock's rhythmic approach. Klaus Dinger's relentless quarter-note kick drum pattern and Michael Rother's processed guitar created forward-flowing hypnotic sound that influenced post-punk and electronic dance music. Joy Division's Stephen Morris explicitly cited Dinger's drumming as formative. Recorded with Conny Plank.
Neu! 2
Half new recordings, half manipulated versions of existing tracks created by budget constraints—proto-remixes that presaged DJ culture by a decade. When they ran out of studio money, Dinger and Rother took the remaining tracks and played them at different speeds, creating new pieces from the manipulations. The desperation move accidentally invented a new technique.