Brand Neu! - Brand NEU! (Album)
Mention Krautrockers NEU! to people and chances are they may be something of a new introduction (pardon the pun.) While you may not have heard their music firsthand, you’ve probably heard elements of their electronic sounds in acts as diverse as David Bowie, U2, Joy Division and Radiohead- to name just a few acts that count this group as one of their influences.
The band began when former members of Kraftwerk- Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger left the group in the early seventies. Brand NEU! is a compilation mix-bag of sorts, drawing together homages to NEU! plus a spoken word track and two rare pieces from two of these great German minds.
Brand NEU! is not for music snobs, as listening to this record requires you to keep open ears at times because lyrics are out (they don’t appear in many songs) and Moog synthesiser is in. This coupled with drums proves a winning combination shaping, propelling and transforming the music. Perhaps it might appeal to those people taken in by the current electro pop fad because some of them might like to hear music dedicated to pioneers of their favourite genre. Or it could simply appeal to those who like the weird and wonderful in music and wear the title of avant-garde as a medal of honour.
The record begins with the unnecessary Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to NEU!. The song is credited to Ciccone Youth (if that sounds familiar it’s because it’s actually by Sonic Youth). The song – if you could call it that – is superfluous because it is simply two hip indie chicks talking rubbish about music. You know this type of person, they’re the ones who like a band not so much because of how they sound (good or bad,) but because they look “of the time” and have fashion cred. It’s likely that many fans would have preferred a proper contribution from our much-loved, art rock band.
Things begin properly with Primal Scream’s Shoot Speed/Kill Light. In the liner notes front man and singer, Bobby Gillespie says that NEU!’s first and second albums provided the soundtrack to a road trip he undertook from Hamburg to Cologne. Primal Scream’s contribution boasts buzzes of atmosphere and computer techtronics and otherworldly smatterings of sound. Interestingly, towards the end of the song it segues into music that is extremely similar to New Order’s Rock The Shack (coincidently, Gillespie guest-appeared on this track when New Order recorded the Get Ready album).
Pets With Pets offer We Only Found This Place, a song that is very busy and boasts the kind of energizer-bunny style drumming synonymous with New Order’s Steve Morris (clearly this Kraut electronic group not only influenced Joy Division and New Order, but also his own individual technique). Some catchy and sweet piano is prominent despite the double-drums juggernaut and the singer also provides some punk lyrics (John Cooper Clarke would no doubt be proud) and this is delivered as an oddly defiant, yet quiet scream.
A very big surprise is offered with Oasis and Can Y’See It Now? (I Can See It Now!!). This one is very different from their typical pop/rock tracks and blatant Beatles rip-offs because here we get orchestral elements and light flashes shaken (not stirred) with water paintings. Stranger than fiction, indeed.
The offbeat and tangential music continues. Sometimes this results in cacophonous sounds but often we receive sonically interesting bytes and the kind of things you’d expect in an audio art installation. The result is something so superbly avant-garde and the work of vanguards in a nutshell.
Wataridori by Cornelius borrows a little from New Order’s Thieves Like Us, but brings in some electric guitar and sends the whole song packing off to an island bathed in sun. Meanwhile, LCD Soundsystem’s Watch The Tapes is very Beastie Boys-esque.
Fujiya & Miyagi’s Electro Karaoke sounds like something taken out of Radiohead’s Kid A songbook. While Hook & The Twin’s They’ll Get Your Head offers more conventional (and accessible) electro pop complete with odd sound effects from a computer game.
The final two tracks are the kind of gems coveted by NEU! fans. LA-Düsseldorf.de’s Sketch 1_08 is one of the last songs to feature Klaus Dinger behind a drum kit (as he passed away in March 2008). Also, Dinger’s former band mate, Michael Rother offers Neutronics 98 (A Tribute To Conny Plank). The latter boasts lots of contrasts with softer lilts and haunting elements. With its over-arching suggestions at melancholy, you can imagine that Placebo probably wish they had written this.
In all, Brand NEU! offers interesting insight into some of the driving forces and influences behind music’s biggest acts. Often very experimental and boasting unexpected nuances, overall it is unashamedly unique and this is something that is both an advantage and a pitfall. The disadvantage is that it might be a little testing for the average person who is used to and expects three chords (or perhaps four if you were really pushing it.) But for those who are up for the challenge, this mixed bag of musical bits and bobs provides a ride that is definitely worth the occasional plateau.
