The duo NEU! was created in 1971 in Düsseldorf as a spin-off from Kraftwerk. Drummer Klaus Dinger and guitarist Michael Rother created (together with producer Conny Plank) a rock sound stripped to the bone of staccato dancing rhythm guitars on metronomically moving drums. They had not had much success when they fell apart in 1975, but through fans from the very beginning David Bowie and Brian Eno
… (with whom Rother later worked in Harmonia) the status of NEU! in pop music. In 1986 NEU! thus again, striving for a more accessible sound with influences from electro and new wave. Unfinished recordings were released in 1995 by Dinger and much to the dismay of Rother on a Japanese label like NEU! 4. After Dinger's death in 2008, Rother saw the opportunity to revisit these recordings again with NEU! '86 as a result. It is mainly the attempts at commercialism (La Bomba) that mar the record, but when that hectic autobahn groove of yesteryear erupts (Drive) you can hear the sound of NEU! nothing has lost in strength and uniqueness. (MR)more
