Neu!
Neu! 2
[Astralwerks]
Rating: 7.5
When last we left our Düsseldorfer heroes, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger,
they had left Kraftwerk, overcome their fear of broccoli, saved Camp Chippewa
from the machinations of an unscrupulous real estate developer, and recorded
a masterpiece that would influence independent music for decades to come. The
year is 1973, and again the dynamic duo is holed up in a studio with
Can/Kraftwerk producer Conrad Plank to record their sophomore effort.
Neu 2 stands primarily on the strength of its eleven-minute lead-in
track, "Für Immer." The song is pounding and serpentine, its straight-ahead
rhythms approaching punk, while guitars buzz like helicopters overhead. As
Plank twists the knobs, the drums take on a thin, mechanical quality. The
guitars are banished to the background, only to be inverted again with
renewed force. Washed-out feedback drones in and out, while the bass plods
on with undeterred aggression.
"Spitzenqualitat" is equally confrontational, dominated by hard, reverberating
drums pounding at various tempos somewhere in the deep space of whispering
guitar effects. The track proceeds as if Plank somehow turned up the gravity
in the studio: the percussion becomes slower and heavier, as the guitars grow
emptier. "Spitzenqualitat" simply falls apart as if it can't be sustained;
the silence is too dense. "Gedenkminute" is nothing but the sound of that
dissipation; something of a throwaway, it consists of nothing but wind and
the occasional clock chime. "Lila Engel" is truly krautpunk, featuring
Dinger's nonsensical chant: a cross between Damo Suzuki and Johnny Rotten.
It's dour but explosive, channeling Neu's fierce repetition into something
anthemic.
Then something happens. In the Nintendo world, the sound of tinkling
electronic music suddenly running at double-time can only signal one thing:
you are running out of time. But in the real world, it means something else
entirely: you are running out of money. I guess it's to their credit that
our insolvent heroes didn't simply pad out the remainder of Neu 2 with
a giant sucking sound, or the minimalist ambient textures of Rother and
Dinger turning out their pocket linings. Instead, they proceeded by inventing
the modern remix.
"Neusachanee 78," "Super 76" and "Super 78" are surgically deformed versions
of the album's two singles, "Neuschnee" and "Super." Fragmented, spliced,
and filled with background noise and studio chatter, these tracks lay bare
the process of studio production. Likewise, the tapes in "Hallo Ecentrico!"
rewind, fast-forward, and are eaten up by the machine. An inventive way to
compensate for lack of funds, and even an ingeniously subversive commentary
on music-making, these broke-ass experiments don't satisfy like the original
tracks. Thankfully, the budget allowed for the album's superb closer, "Super,"
a heavy, yet fluid assault of pounding drums and rubbery bass, complete with
Dinger's savage howls; "Super" may just be the Boredoms' long lost uncle.
And so, with an album, half-brilliant, half-ludicrous, in their hands, our
heroes go out to face a cold world armed to the teeth with "You so poor..."
jokes. Will they redeem themselves before God, country and indie posterity?
Will their albums ever see U.S. release? Will East and West Germany ever be
reunited, and if so, will Roger Waters make good on his promise to stage
The Wall live in Berlin? Will Pink Floyd even record The Wall?
Stay tuned, true believers.
-Brent S. Sirota