In the late '60s, as young people the world over tested the limits of whatever freedoms they enjoyed, a new generation of German musicians was developing a future-oriented sound that sought to distance itself from both the nation's wartime past and the highly sentimental "schlager" lite-pop that dominated the scene.
In contrast to many of their counterparts in the West who framed their bolder revolutionary messages in lyrics and increasingly muscular rock, bands such as Can, Faust, Kraftwerk and Neu! (translation "new") chose to conduct experiments within the internal structure of music, expanding the space between events and finding ways to incorporate sounds from both the natural world and the machine world.
While Krautrock, as the bands' output became known, covered a hugely diverse range of music from minimalist ambient pieces to mesmerising prog-rock jams, one shared characteristic was the frequent return to a "motorik" beat, a straight-ahead 4/4 tempo that seldom diverted. The man most widely credited with its invention was Neu! drummer/singer Klaus Dinger.
Dinger and Michael Rother, both onetime members of Kraftwerk, formed an unstable nucleic partnership in Neu! The competition between their respective fascinations gave the band's music its edge, Rother favouring more contemplative ambient pieces and Dinger the more assertive rock.
Third album Neu! 275 (1975) is a finely balanced document of this dynamic tension, divided neatly by the few seconds it takes to flip the platter.
Side one belongs to Rother. Isi sets its sights on a broad and unreachable horizon and sets off, steady, sure and measured, while Seeland drifts through a softly textured melody and Leb Wohl washes in and out on a sound-bed of breaking surf.
Side two is Dinger's, from the snarling proto-punk opener Hero to the 10-minute E-Musik with its propulsive, phase-shifted drums, and the joyous noise-fest that is After Eight.
A meditation of sorts, this album roams far and wide in its effort to celebrate new music.
