Neu!’s 1972 masterpiece Hallogallo lasts 10 minutes 8 seconds and nothing much happens. But it happens wonderfully. The drums lay down a tarmac of 4/4 beats over which guitars glide forwards and backwards. As we move towards the horizon, it recedes from us, the setting sun sending shafts of gold across the Autobahn.
Young Germans in the late 60s and early 70s were in something of a bind. They did not want the concussed, brain-dead Schlager of their parents - mawkish and sentimental pop hits. They did not want to pretend to be Americans. The British had done that already - selling the White American population Black American music like nylon-stocking-laden GIs in reverse. Der Junge wanted something that was theirs. Something epic yet abstract. A kosmische Musik. Some new.
Düsseldorf was full of advertising signs saying “New!” or more accurately: “Neu!” New products to buy in the post-war rush to consume away the bad memories of the past. Klaus Dinger, ever the opportunist, decided that this would be the name of his band. Not just “New” but “NewExclamationMark”. Surprisingly new. Dinger’s drumming was partly influenced by his time in swing bands, partly by free jazz ensembles, partly by rock n roll groups, but mostly it sounded like someone smacking bits of wood together. Which is what Dinger had done in his father’s carpentry shop while failing to learn to be a carpenter. But wood smacking with such finesse.
Meanwhile Michael Rother played guitar. His parts are as minimal and spare as Dinger’s drumming. If Dinger was the opposite of Keith Moon then Rother was the opposite of Jimi Hendrix. Creation through subtraction. How can you make something better by taking parts away?
Finally, we must respect the contribution of Conny Plank. An engineer and producer who started as a soundman for Marlene Dietrich, Plank worked with many of the kosmische Musik pioneers in Germany. Listening to his work, I get the sense that Plank was less interested in music than in sound. Just as George Martin had undertaken work with sonic absurdists like The Goons and then refracted rock music through his mixing desk for The Beatles, so Plank wanted to create worlds in your ears. Not a visionary but an auditionary.
What we are left with is a ghostly after-image of rock. Or as if Bob Gruen had left a roll of film exposed to the light for too long. It’s not quite the ambient music that Brian Eno would champion later in the decade. Ambient music feels static, encircling, surrounding. Whereas Hallogallo moves forwards, it is propulsive, dynamic.
Something for you to steal: How much can you take away to make things better?