Neu!
Neu!2

THE REVIEW

Poorly managed records.

Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger returned to the recording studio in January 1973, a few months after the unfortunate release of their first work, that "Neu!" which would become a basic inspiration for many rock music artists and enthusiasts. "Neu!2", this is the second effort in gestation at the hands and inspiration of the ex-Kraftwerk duo, a meticulous work with which the two Germans wanted to retrace the experiments of the previous product, the obsessive search for a rhythmic identity of the musical apparatus together with the investigation of the idea of music as what it is.

"Neu!2", like "Neu!", records focused on musical experimentation.

But in no time, the duo found themselves facing the problem of a lack of funds to complete the recording; the meager proceeds from "Neu!" forced Rother and Dinger to abandon the studio with only a few tracks complete: the sketches of "Spitzenqualität", "Lila Engel" and "Hallo Excentrico!", the hinted "Neuschnee" and "Super", with only one composition completed in its entirety, the extravagant "Für Immer".

A worrying scenario unfolded in front of Neu!, unable to bring the "Neu!2" project to life due to economic constraints. Rolling up their sleeves, the idea crystallized in their minds to use differently sped-up versions of some of the prepared tracks as fillers.

In short, patched-up records.

Cut and paste, sew and cut: "Neuschnee" and "Super" appear at higher and lower speeds, with the incredible effect of presenting themselves to the unsuspecting listener magnificently distinct in their uniqueness, as if inspired by different projects. "Super" resonates at normal speed with the typical "Neu!-Rock" sound, becomes a hardcore divertissement in the exaggerated version, and calls to mind the apocalyptic industrial musical civilization when slowed down. Neu! inadvertently reached a new form of experimentation. Not the unity of rhythm, not time as the base of investigation, but frequency, its mathematical reciprocal. A record in which the research works are in a reciprocal relationship.

Doubly experimental records.

"Für Immer" follows the wake of "Negativland" and "Hallogallo", with that exaggerated search for musical identity through rhythm: eleven minutes of engaging a-melodic patterns that seem poised to introduce, minute after minute, the entry of a harmonic unit, never actually making it appear. The piece betrays the listener: it engages so much with its rhythmic section that it resonates in the mind after listening, but it instills the annoying sensation of not being able to vocally reproduce the motif. Because, of course, the motif does not exist.

Atonal records.

On the sparse cover, remedied with a marker-written label so essential that it turns out eccentrically modern. The hesitation over the error through the manual correction of the track durations, the formal disorder of the array of pieces following "Für Immer", the unedited ferment of the recording studio suggests the freshness of a work that does not present itself in the crystallized and obsolete form of many 1970s musical products.

Dynamic records.

"Neu!2", wonderfully failed records.