Tag: Klaus Dinger (Page 2 of 3)

The ELECTRI_CITY Show

4 July 2016 /

Photo by Markus Luigs

“Düsseldorf is the capital of electronic music” – that is the quintessence of ‘ELECTRI_CITY – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’.

In it, Rudi Esch gives an eyewitness account of how the Düsseldorf electronic scene developed from 1970 to 1986 and spawned acts like LA DÜSSELDORF, DIE KRUPPS, DER PLAN, LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, RIECHMANN, RHEINGOLD, PROPAGANDA, DAF, KRAFTWERK and NEU!

To tie in with the German language book, Düsseldorf paid homage to its electronic music history with the ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE, a three day event of lectures, discussions and live music. An impressive line-up was assembled and read like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of electronic music, with figures such as Gabi Delgado, Ralf Dörper, Rusty Egan, Harald Grosskopf, Peter Hook, Stephen Mallinder, Mark Reeder and Michael Rother all participating in various talks and discussions.

Known for his love of German music, OMD’s Andy McCluskey was interviewed by Rudi Esch for ‘ELECTRI_CITY – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ to give his viewpoint on why die Düsseldorf Schule made such an impression on him as a teenager in The Wirral. With a version of the book in Englisch on the way retitled ‘ELECTRI_CITY – The Düsseldorf School Of Electronic Music’, it was appropriate that on the final day of the ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE, McCluskey and Esch presented what was billed as ‘The ELECTRI_CITY Show’.

Discussing a variety of records which Esch had brought along from his own personal collection, the pair indulged in some light hearted, but fanboy friendly banter…

Rudi: KRAFTWERK were something radical and new when they first appeared in the UK in 1975. What was the impression you had when you saw them at Liverpool Empire?

Andy: I was wearing my trenchcoat, long scarf, flared jeans and afro, and they walked out on stage in suits and ties… it was incredible. I’m on record as remembering it was September 11th and seat Q36. I remember it because it was the first day of the rest of my life! It was also the front row of the cheaper seats! This was something I had never seen and it was forty years ago! The amazing thing is, KRAFTWERK are still, NOW, more futuristic on stage than 99% of bands!

Rudi: Yes, it was so different at this time, to cut your hair and buy a suit…

Andy: … although it took Wolfgang Flür a long time to cut his hair, he had it longer for while than the rest of them *laughs*

Rudi: Yes, especially on the inside cover of ‘Radio-Activity’…

Andy: And his moustache lasted a bit too long *laughs*

Rudi: Wolfgang says that was his D’Artagnan look!

Andy: Yes, I can see that. I’m not gay but he was a sexy man, he was the Elvis of electronic music and still is!

Rudi: We often talk about the music, but let’s talk about the artwork of NEU!

Andy: I know Rusty Egan said the artwork didn’t really impress him but if you look at that, it is more contemporary now that if they had done something modernist or constructivist back in the 70s.

Rudi: The original cover to ‘Autobahn’ in the UK was very graphic…

Andy: But the cover I had was like a painting of a car going down the autobahn. That fantastic blue sleeve with the minimal sign image influenced Peter Saville.

Rudi: So you bought the German import?

Andy: That’s what I did! I would go to the shop on Saturday in Liverpool and go to the ‘German’ section and just see what they had that they didn’t have last week. If there was something there, it was the most exciting day of the week, and if there wasn’t, it would be like “NO! I’ve got nothing to listen to this weekend that’s new!”

Photo by Tom Steinseifer

Rudi: How did you discover LA DÜSSELDORF?

Andy: John Peel introduced me to LA DÜSSELDORF… I was sat in bed, but still had the radio on. On came this track and I was like “what the hell is that?”… so I’ve got ‘Silver Cloud’ minus the first fifteen seconds recorded on a cassette! It was incredible, but I didn’t realise that LA DÜSSELDORF were Klaus Dinger’s band after NEU! although when I spoke to Michael Rother, he dismissed LA DÜSSELDORF as pop! *laughs*

I was still kind of in the dark. You could buy these records, but nobody was writing about them in the press and there was no internet. So I would like the sleeve and then buy it to hear what it sounded like.

People always talk to us about KRAFTWERK, and obviously, they were hugely important. But there was another element from Düsseldorf that influenced us, and that was the organic side which was firstly NEU! and then LA DÜSSELDORF and Michael Rother’s solo records.

Rudi: But KRAFTWERK made a bigger overall impression?

Andy: KRAFTWERK’s ‘Radio-Activity’ is probably to this day, the album that influenced Paul Humphreys and I so much. It taught us you could make music with anything you wanted, because we had nothing.

They were definitely being the future, while dressed like the past. It’s interesting that to try not to look rock ‘n’ roll, the only place they could go was backwards with their look… it’s timeless really. They were trying not to be Anglo-American rock cliché and they achieved it. That for me was the exciting thing. When I was a teenager, I was looking for something different.

I became friends with Wolfgang Flür and Karl Bartos in the 90s, and was invited to Wolfgang’s flat for dinner; on the wall was a gold record for ‘Radio-Activity’ which was a hit single in France. I was telling them that ‘Radio-Activity’ was the song that most influenced OMD and told them ‘Electricity’ was just an English punk version of ‘Radio-Activity’. They replied “Yes, we know!”… it was that obvious! *laughs*

It’s like many teenagers now are frightened of the future and want to conform, but everything about me and people I knew were searching for something different. So when I found KRAFTWERK, NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF, it was absolutely NOT the rock ‘n’ roll cliché that I was bored of.

Rudi: Although Wolfgang has a past in a beat band called THE BEATHOVENS…

Andy: But what people think of now as super distilled minimalism, the early records, you could see how KRAFTWERK came out of the more freeform, jazz music from playing with other people in Germany. But they slowly distilled their own style and sound, and moved away from that organic sound which was amazing, but also meant that we couldn’t go with them on that journey because we were kids with no money, so there was no point trying to be KRAFTWERK. So we just tried to do our thing, this strange hybrid of their ideas, emotional music and completely unconsciously, probably glam rock which we were watching when we were twelve.

Photo by Tom Steinseifer

Rudi: Musically, you did something unique with OMD because you did not use entirely electronic instruments and musically, I think you are closer to LA DÜSSELDORF?

Andy: Ralf Hütter is very busy curating the legacy of KRAFTWERK… that’s fine because they are the most important influential band from the last forty years in the history of pop music, they changed the world.

It is great that the city of Düsseldorf has woken up to the fact that KRAFTWERK and other musicians changed the world and cherishing them. Whilst KRAFTWERK cement their position in the pantheon of the museums and the books, LA DÜSSELDORF and NEU! were very important. They also did something that was beautiful and different. And OMD unconsciously were combining the two, the electronic sound with the organic…

Rudi: Talking about NEU! They were not an electronic band and there are no electronic sounds of that first record…

Andy: No, it was LA DÜSSELDORF where Klaus Dinger started to add some keyboards and got pop! *laughs*

Rudi: With LA DÜSSELDORF and their songs like ‘Düsseldorf’ and ‘La Düsseldorf’, there’s a lot of Düsseldorf for one band…

Andy: Thinking about LA DÜSSELDORF and NEU! – the biggest loss to the scene is Klaus Dinger.

Rudi: Yes, after his death, people were talking about the Motorik beat and how great NEU! were… even Michael Rother said before 2004, nobody cared about NEU! but now he can make a living again from the legacy of these old records…

Andy: It’s great that people are thinking about NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF, they should be up there with KRAFTWERK.

Rudi: People said Klaus Dinger was a difficult guy and not easy to get along with…

Andy: It’s the Van Gogh thing… you have to bloody die before people think you’re a genius!

Rudi: To me in Dusseldorf, there were like two generations, so the people in the 70s had the money to buy synthesizers and make music like LA DÜSSELDORF, and then from 1979, there was the second generation like DAF, DER PLAN and DIE KRUPPS who were in punk bands, but then got new technology like sequencers and used them in a punk rock way…

Andy: The early synth bands had the mentality of punk, but instead of playing one chord, they used one finger. To use technology was a much more interesting thing to do than just punk.

Rudi: My favourite KRAFTWERK song is ‘Showroom Dummies’, I like it because it goes on endlessly and more hypnotic, especially with the drums…

Andy: One of the things about KRAFTWERK is the drums are so tight and the sound is so rigid and hard. It was a drum sound that was completely new and alien. When OMD initially went into the studio, Paul Humphreys made an electronic kit, but it never worked very well.

So when we recorded, we had to use a real drum kit but we were so desperate to get that tight, really punchy sound, we didn’t want our drummer Malcolm Holmes to play the whole kit and have all that splashy ambient nonsense… so we made poor Malcolm play each drum individually, one at a time… that was our concession to be as tight and hard as KRAFTWERK.

So he had to put down four minutes of bass drum, then four minutes of snare, four minutes of hi-hat, but NO cymbals were allowed… that was far too rock ‘n’ roll! It led to some interesting moments because he screwed up the fill at the end of the middle eight of ‘Enola Gay’, playing it on the three, not the four!

Rudi: Do you have the luminous 12 inch of ‘Neon Lights’?

Andy: I have them all, but I don’t have a vinyl deck. ‘Neon Lights’ is possibly one of the nearest times KRAFTWERK came to combining the machine rhythm and the organic melancholic melody with vocals. It’s the closest Hütter gets to really singing, he’s not singing staccato. And that song is, after ‘Europe Endless’, my favourite song by KRAFTWERK of all time, precisely because it has that amazing juxtaposition of the contrast of the hard machinery and the beautiful melancholic melody; it makes it more romantic, because they shouldn’t fit together.

Rudi: Why didn’t you sing on OMD’s cover of ‘Neon Lights’ on ‘Sugar Tax’?

Andy: That was originally for a single that didn’t come out which I’d produced for a girl named Christine Mellor. I really liked it and wanted people to hear it. But in hindsight, it was a mistake and I should have sung it with maybe just her on the middle eight.

Rudi: KRAFTWERK have a concept and they stick to it, but don’t talk about their records…

Andy: The one thing I could not be, is that focussed, rigid and precise. I can’t stay in the intellectual moment. I like the intellectual pre-concept, but I get carried away in the emotion of it, so when I go on stage, I just lose all control… it’s a shameless madness. I just can’t stay still, I dance like a lunatic and I don’t care!

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Rudi Esch and Andy McCluskey

ELECTRI_CITY The Dusseldorf School Of Electronic Music‘ELECTRI_CITY – The Düsseldorf School Of Electronic Music’ is published  by Omnibus Press on 10th August 2016

The companion ‘ELECTRI_CITY 2’ CD, double vinyl LP and download featuring many of the artists discussed in the book is released by Grönland Records on 12th August 2016

This year’s ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE takes place at Düsseldorf CCD on 14th – 15th October 2016

http://www.electricity-conference.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ELECTRICITY.Conference/

https://www.facebook.com/Electri.city.Esch/

Text and Interview transcription by Chi Ming Lai
4th July 2016

ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE 2015

8 November 2015 /

Dance To The Future…

Düsseldorf paid homage to its electronic music history with a three day event of lectures, discussions and live music.

The ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE celebrated the work of pioneers like KRAFTWERK, DAF, RIECHMANN, NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF, as well as reflecting the city’s worldwide influence on bands such as NEW ORDER, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, DEPECHE MODE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, VISAGE and OMD.

A year in the planning, organisers Rudi Esch and Carsten Siewert assembled an impressive line-up of artists, musicians and academics which read like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of electronic music.

It included names such as Benge, Gabi Delgado, Ralf Dörper, Rusty Egan, Harald Grosskopf, Peter Hook, Stephen Mallinder, Andy McCluskey, Daniel Miller, Mark Reeder, Michael Rother and Martyn Ware.

Also present was Dr Uwe Schütte, whose academic conference ‘Industrielle Volksmusik for the Twenty First Century – Kraftwerk & the Birth of Electronic Music in Germany’ at Aston University helped inspire the seeting up of the event.

While there have been numerous books about Germany and in particular KRAFTWERK, few have been written by people who were actually there at the time. Esch’s own book ‘Electri_City: Elektronische Musik aus Düsseldorf’ was published in 2014 and provided a much needed eyewitness account.

It fully related the Cold War tensions within Der Bundesrepublik that inspired many young Germans into pursuing adventures in art, music and cinema as a matter of self-expression and cultural identity.

The book’s success in Germany provided much of the impetus and momentum to curate this lavish gathering of kindred spirits. The first of the special guests taking part was Peter Hook who talked to Rob Keane about German influences on the UK’s post-punk scene and in particular, JOY DIVISION.

It was Ian Curtis who first introduced the others to KRAFTWERK. After the charismatic vocalist’s passing, the surviving band members became NEW ORDER and as they became more electronic, they acquired five Prophet 5s costing £2000 each.

This had only been made possible by the posthumous success of JOY DIVISION.“God bless him, Ian… without him, we wouldn’t have been able to afford these machines to make electronic music…” Hooky said, “what happened in NEW ORDER was as the technology developed, it enabled you to buy the machines that KRAFTWERK were using. I’d love to watch them do something, I really would. Because for all the coverage you get of KRAFTWERK, you never actually know HOW they did it!”

But despite KRAFTWERK being the pioneers of electronic music, Ralf and Florian had been so impressed by ‘Blue Monday’, they arranged to meet its engineer Michael Johnson at Britannia Row Studios where it was recorded. “They wanted to book into the studio we used…” remembered Hooky, “and they wanted to use our engineer, because they wanted their next record to sound like ‘Blue Monday’, which is most ironic because we spent years trying to sound like them!”

KRAFTWERK had a look round Britannia Row but unimpressed with the old fashioned, faded grandeur of the studio, they cancelled the session. “I took that as quite a compliment” quipped the Salford Bass Viking playfully.

Hooky also reminisced about how he was very impressed by fellow Mancunian Mark Reeder’s mastery of speaking German while on JOY DIVISION’s only visit to Berlin in 1980.

But when he asked how Reeder had become fluent so quickly, the then Factory Records representative in Germany answered: “you can learn any language when you’re starving!”

Mark Reeder himself formed part of panel discussion on the German impact of the Düsseldorf Schule to give his ‘Englishman in Berlin’ point of view. As the man often credited with introducing Italo disco to NEW ORDER, Reeder’s recent film ‘B-Movie – Lust & Sound In West Berlin 1979-1989’ captured the spirit of the divided city and highlighted how a similar document about Düsseldorf would now be quite timely.

The ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE was not just about lectures and talks, but about live music too. Cologne’s EMOTIKON opened proceedings with some incongruous generic pop funk, so it was a welcome relief when HEAVEN 17 took to the stage at Zakk for the sold-out show.

Headlining their first ever concert in the German art capital, HEAVEN 17 gave one of their now famous electronically focussed sets which also featured material that had spawned from THE HUMAN LEAGUE Mk1 when Martyn Ware was a member.

Inviting him to join the band, Phil Oakey remembered how Ware turned up at his house with ‘Trans-Europe Express’ under his arm and told him “Look, we can do this!”. The song that best summed up the occasion was ‘I’m Your Money’, a synthetic train ride with multi-lingual business phrases that captured the essence of a European Union.

To follow a fine performance from HEAVEN 17, Daniel Miller’s aftershow DJ set reflected his influences and subsequent signings for Mute Records to conclude an excellent first day.

With a packed second day, Friday’s numerous academic and theoretical proceedings were concluded with a Krautrock discussion in German by a panel of veteran musicians that included one-time ASHRA member Harald Grosskopf, Michael Rother from NEU! and WALLENSTEIN’s Jürgen Dollase.

Whereas Germany has usually been associated with purer forms of electronic music, its kosmische outlook has influenced many rock and alternative bands too. However, Dollase’s continual ranting about the joys of LSD proved tiresome and was exemplary evidence to children as to why they shouldn’t do drugs!

The panel was later opened up to questions from the audience so ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK took the opportunity to ask Michael Rother about his first three solo albums.

‘Flammende Herzen’ , ‘Sterntaler’ and ‘Katzenmusik’ were produced by the late Conny Plank and featured CAN’s Jaki Liebezeit on drums. Did he have a favourite?: “I don’t really have favourites, there are individual tracks I enjoy more, it depends on mood and circumstances. It would be unfair really to have a favourite album” Herr Rother replied, “Of course, I try to highlight Conny Plank’s contribution, he was so valuable… we wouldn’t have been able to record NEU! or the second HARMONIA album or my solo albums without Conny, so he’s all over the place in my music… thank you Conny”

Opening the second evening’s musical line-up, Dublin’s TINY MAGNETIC PETS have been championed by Rusty Egan and their appearance in Düsseldorf was their first in Europe.

The trio’s main strength was their engaging lead singer Paula Gilmer, while Sean Quinn’s synth soloing was also enjoyable. But the occasional rattle of an acoustic drum kit was a distraction and the trio sounded much better when Eugene Somers took to exclusively electronic percussion.

WRANGLER, fronted by Stephen Mallinder who had lectured earlier in the day, delivered a screeching set of dystopian vibes and cold wave mechanics, demonstrating how the Düsseldorf gene has mutated into marvellous pieces such as ‘Lava Land’. Mallinder’s drowning gargoyle vocal was particularly striking within the venue’s effective stereo panning capability.

Incidentally, the trio’s incumbent synth collector extraordinaire Benge has recently relocated his MemeTune studio to rural South West of England, in an echo of Conny Plank’s legendary countryside complex which KRAFTWERK, NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF all recorded in.

Michael Rother delivered a career spanning set of his works including NEU! evergreens like ‘Hallogallo’, ‘Neuschnee’ and ‘Seeland’. There was also the welcome airing of material from his HARMONIA days too. Accompanied by Hans Lampe, formally of LA DÜSSELDORF, the drummer was unbelievably metronomic throughout, providing the hypnotic heartbeat to these much loved numbers. With assistance on bass and synth from a computer, the glorious symphony of ‘Karussell’ from ‘Flammende Herzen’ was a joy to behold. Watching enthusiastically in the crowd was OMD’s Andy McCluskey who remarked in passing to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK that ‘Flammende Herzen’ was the most played album on his iPod!

With another fine evening of live music over, proceedings then moved over to the famous club Dr Thompsons for the aftershow party featuring Rusty Egan.

Originally a location for a factory making floor wax, Egan’s DJ set reflected electronic music’s past and present, much to the approval of both TINY MAGNETIC PETS and METROLAND whose tunes got an airing on the dancefloor.

Day three featured SØLYST aka Thomas Klein who warmed up early attendees with an ambient percussive soundtrack that suited the time of day perfectly. Meanwhile, the Rusty Egan vs ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK discussion about the influence of Düsseldorf, Berlin and Bowie on the New Romantics brought up some amusing anecdotes from his Blitz Club and VISAGE days. “KRAFTWERK was all in time!” he retorted in a fascinating and at times, hilarious chat. On DAFT PUNK, he said “The reason why DAFT PUNK wear robot helmets is cos they can’t show their faces… cos THEY STOLE EVERYTHING! But they did it brilliantly!”

The conversation even turned to THIN LIZZY’s Phil Lynott who frequented the scene and recorded the synth friendly single ‘Yellow Pearl’ co-written with Midge Ure that featured Egan on drums. Also featuring Billy Currie, Egan confirmed that it was a VISAGE song in all but name. ‘Yellow Pearl’ was heavily influenced by LA DÜSSELDORF and was to later gain iconic status as the theme music to ‘Top of the Pops’ from 1981 to 1986, showing just how far reaching the influence of German electronic music had become.

Wolfgang Flür’s now famous video messages on the world wide web have been a delight to many in electronic music circles and in his absence, a special broadcast was prepared by the former KRAFTWERK percussionist for the conference.

Following on, Andy McCluskey and Rudi Esch presented some light hearted but music fan friendly banter in what was billed as The Electri_City Show. Discussing a variety of records Esch had brought along from his own personal collection, the OMD frontman mentioned how he was a big fan of LA DÜSSELDORF: “Thinking about LA DÜSSELDORF and NEU! – the biggest loss to the scene is Klaus Dinger”. Following his death in 2008, Klaus Dinger was hailed as a legendary drummer, having popularised the Motorik beat.

But as Michael Rother once pointed out, before 2004 nobody cared about NEU! “It’s great that people are thinking about NEU! and LA DÜSSELDORF” said McCluskey, “they should be up there with KRAFTWERK”. However as documented in Esch’s ’Electri_City_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ book, Dinger was known to be a difficult character and that didn’t help his reputation. “It’s the Van Gogh thing” added McCluskey, “you have to bloody die before people think you’re a genius”

Of course, OMD combined various influences to achieve their distinctive template. But what is not often realised is that it is closer to LA DÜSSELDORF than it is to KRAFTWERK, especially on ‘Architecture & Morality’: “It is great that the city of Dusseldorf has woken up to the fact that KRAFTWERK and other musicians changed the world. Whilst KRAFTWERK cement their position in the pantheon of the museums and the books, LA DÜSSELDORF and NEU! were very important. They also did something that was beautiful and different. And OMD unconsciously were combining the two, the electronic sound with the organic…”

The Techno / Industrial panel in Deutsch fittingly included DAF’s Gabi Delgado and DIE KRUPPS’ Ralf Dörper as well as Ramon Zenker, the man behind FRAGMA. It would be fair to say that neither sub-genre could have had its roots in any country other than Germany. Delgado caused some amusement when he casually lit up a cigarette in the middle of the discussion, reinforcing the rebellious and confrontational aura of DAF.

During the interlude, many went to take a look at the Monster Formant modular synthesizer, owned by local enthusiast Siegfried Brückner, which was being demonstrated in the foyer. Six years in the making and featuring a gobsmacking sixteen VCOs plus many other features too numerous to mention, it was an impressive sight that looked like one of those vintage telephone exchanges.

To begin Saturday night’s live music proceedings were Zurich based combo LEN SANDER; their languid style of trip hop has become a favourite of Rusty Egan who also lists LONDON GRAMMAR among his current favourites. They provided a cerebral build before the appearance of two of the most impressive synthesizer duos in Europe at the moment.

With the amount of equipment VILE ELECTRODES possess, they could fill Klingklang itself. Using their more streamlined European touring set-up, the Home Counties couple are now effectively adopted Germans having impressed enough during their tour of Germany supporting OMD in 2013 to land two Schallwelle Awards. Splendid new songs like ‘Pulsar Timing Array’ and ‘Stark White’ from the just released EP were evidence of their continuing progression.

With a more minimalist set-up, METROLAND were the perfect act for the weekend to honour the artistic legacy of Düsseldorf. Their second long player ‘Triadic Ballet’ was a conceptual audio installation themed around das Staatliche Bauhaus. The perfect realisation of Walter Gropius’ theory of uniting art with technology, with a combination of crisp electronics and art school visuals, the Belgian duo gave a wonderful presentation that was appreciated by all those present including Andy McCluskey and Rusty Egan.

Closing the event, escapist trio DELTA turned out to be the most disappointing of all the bands participating, their landfill indie totally at odds with the weekend’s ethos. Meanwhile Düsseldorf duo BAR fared much better, their synth laden dreampop augmented on occasion by singer Christina Irrgang’s use of a recorder. However, these two acts highlighted the lack of a clear headliner to finish the weekend on a true high.

Overall though, the ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE was fabulous weekend with representation from both sorcerers and apprentices of the Düsseldorf scene. With the English translation of the ’Electri_City_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ book due in 2016, the story of what the city has contributed to the world can only spread further.

French icon Jean-Michel Jarre said recently: “Electronic music has a family, a legacy and a future…” and there was nothing more truer than over these three days by der Rhein.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Rudi Esch and Carsten Siewert

Additional thanks to Tom Steinseifer, Roger Kamp and Tapio Normall for the use of their photos

‘Electri_City: The Dusseldorf School of Electronic Music’ is due to be published in English by Omnibus Press sometime in 2016

The ‘Electri_City – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ compilation is released by Grönland Records.

http://www.electricity-conference.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ELECTRICITY.Conference

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Chi Ming Lai except where credited
8th November 2015

ELECTRI_CITY_Conference: An Interview with Rudi Esch

3 September 2015 /

Electronische Musik Aus Düsseldorf

Mention Liverpool and the first thought is Merseybeat; Washington could be considered the Go-Go capital of the world, while Detroit is the home of Motown. And of course Nashville is the centre of Country Music.

Folk icon Richard Thompson once joked: “In Heaven, the English greet you at the door, the French do the cooking, the Italians provide the entertainment, and the Germans organise everything. In Hell, the French greet you at the door, the English do the cooking, the Italians organize everything, and the Germans provide the entertainment!”

Yet paradoxically, Germany has provided worldwide entertainment by setting the blueprint for modern electronic music. And if you want to name its spiritual birthplace, then look no further than Düsseldorf…

Rudi Esch’s German language book ‘Electri_City – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ documents the city’s innovative and inspiring music scene.

“Düsseldorf is the capital of electronic music” says Esch, bassist with industrial trailblazers DIE KRUPPS who also hail from the Rhineland city.

In the book, he gives an account of how the Düsseldorf electronic scene developed from 1970 to 1986 and spawned acts like LA DÜSSELDORF, DER PLAN, LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, RIECHMANN, RHEINGOLD, PROPAGANDA, DAF, NEU! and KRAFTWERK. DAVID BOWIE, IGGY POP and BRIAN ENO were among those listening.

The music became so influential that artists and producers throughout the world rethought their approaches and developed their own variations on the electronic theme. As KRAFTWERK’s Ralf Hütter put it later: “From all over the world comes inspiration. We have been very lucky, because the music we envisioned, the ideas we had of The Man Machine and electro music, have become reality and technology has developed in our direction…and electro is everywhere”

To further celebrate Düsseldorf’s contribution to the world, Esch has unveiled the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference to be held from Thursday 29th to Saturday 31st October 2015.

Held in association with Düsseldorf Congress Sport & Event, the event will take place at three locations:  CCD Congress Center, NRW-Forum and Zentrum für Aktion, Kultur und Kommunikation (ZAKK) in Düsseldorf.

The three day programme will feature lectures, discussions, concerts and DJ sets. Those taking part will include academic specialists, musicians and creative artists who were themselves part of Düsseldorf scene. There will also be international guests whose music was influenced by bands from the scene such as Rusty Egan, Peter Hook, Stephen Mallinder, Daniel Miller, Andy McCluskey and Martyn Ware while there will be live performances from HEAVEN 17, MICHAEL ROTHER, WRANGLER, VILE ELECTRODES and METROLAND.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK had the pleasure of chatting to Rudi Esch about the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference…

What inspired you to conceive an event dedicated to the Düsseldorf music scene?

It’s partly based on the success of my book that got released eight months ago. It got overwhelming reviews and explored a different angle on my hometown. It discussed the art and music scene of the late 60s, 70s to the mid-80s with the people who created it, who built the hype. The book stands as a foundation to this legacy of the city – the ELECTRI_CITY.

The initial kick for me was attending Uwe Schüttes’ conference ‘Industrielle Volksmusik for the Twenty-First Century’ at Aston University in Birmingham. I went with Rusty Egan and we were both excited to find the first ever international academic conference on KRAFTWERK. I thought: “I have to take this to my homeland”.

What are the aims of the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference?

The ELECTRI_CITY_Conference will honour the global importance of Düsseldorf’s pop-cultural heritage. The three-day event will include lectures, panels, discussions, concerts and DJ sets. We will have a meeting point for international guests to discuss electronic music at its birthplace. We talk about the connections and interactions between experimental electronic music and synthpop, techno or electronica. Our aim will be to have a combination of an old fashioned auditorium with lectures and a mini-fair that will attract everyone from passionate music lovers to artists, to hardware manufacturers. We are just thrilled that the city of Düsseldorf is nowadays ready to host an event like this.

How did you realise as a youngster that Germany, and in particular Düsseldorf, was developing an artistic identity of its own, outside of the American influenced music that was prevalent in the country at the time?

I know today that Düsseldorf was highly influential on me and my upbringing. Without DUS, I probably would never have thought of forming a band. As a youngster, you don’t have a feeling for the characteristic features of a city.

Only by travelling to other places do you learn about your hometown. When touring with DIE KRUPPS, I was surprised about the reactions we got in Europe outside of Germany – you don’t get this at home.

For a long time we liked travelling to the UK, Scandinavia and Belgium more than playing in Germany. Nobody understood our music at home. America came as a big surprise as they were really into our music and knew about NEU! and KRAFTWERK, as well as everything Krautrock. They were and are aware of Düsseldorf, especially because of the art academy: Beuys, Lüpertz, Richter and Paik are big names – and always KRAFTWERK.

How significant was The Cold War and the presence of NATO armed forces in acting as a political and artistic driving force among the German student population?

The Cold War represented a hard cut in German culture and the post-war generation had been occupied with themselves up until the time of the Wirtschaftswunder. Light music, operettas and musicals were popular amongst the general public. The Americans brought their leitkultur of blues based rock ’n’ roll. People listened to AFN and BFBS, and they huddled around the radio to listen to the British Top Twenty on Radio Luxembourg on a Saturday. The British also created public radio stations following the blueprint of the BBC.

But they also failed to remove some of the brown structures within higher education. This created the clash between the old ideas of the professors and the new ideas of the students, resulting in the student uprisings in the sixties. Without a doubt, students got some of the more liberal ideas from listening to the radio stations of the occupying forces and this in turn led to a cultural revolution later which laid the ground to the experimentation with new sounds in the end. The people involved in the student riots – like in Paris ’68 – were all born after WW2. They were in deep protest to their Nazi parents and didn’t accept the Allies musical dominance anymore. People like Rother and Hütter were looking for a German sound aside the Rhythm ‘n’ Blues patterns. They said they were looking for a Volksmusik for the Twenty First Century.

Berlin is also noted for its recent artistic heritage. Can you recall any rivalry with what would have been West Berlin between 1970 to 1986, or was Düsseldorf’s much noted antagonism with neighbours Cologne more prominent? 😉

I’m not sure one could call it rivalry. We were so occupied with doing our own thing that we didn’t really go out and look what was going on in other cities. One of the reasons, besides the Art Academy, was the liberal attitude in Düsseldorf that enabled musicians and artists to concentrate on creating these new sounds.

In Düsseldorf, the art scene was integrated into daily life, unlike in other cities like Hamburg for example, and the general attitude towards people was more open. It just wasn’t possible to deviate from the norm in Berlin in those days without running the risk of getting a bloody nose! Düsseldorf gave people the freedom to express themselves, and the bourgeois were used to seeing all sorts of colourful birds in the town.

Musically, it was a perfect co-existence of the ‘Berliner Schule’ and the ‘Düsseldorf School’. Bands like TANGERINE DREAM created something with more pathos and classical attempts than the bands from DUS. Here, you always were looking for something minimalistic, modern, reduced and hypnotic.

The city spawned many acts like LA DÜSSELDORF, RIECHMANN, DER PLAN, LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, RHEINGOLD, PROPAGANDA, DAF, NEU! and KRAFTWERK. You are a member of DIE KRUPPS; but who were your own particular favourites and why?

I always loved DAF. They were a great band and had a huge impact in the early eighties. I loved DIE KRUPPS before I joined them 😉

With all the other bands, it is difficult because I know the people and it’s not easy to just only concentrate on the music. I had a band with Klaus Dinger before I joined DIE KRUPPS and I remember that I didn’t like his bands too much at the time.

Nowadays I know how great NEU! is and I think LA DÜSSELDORF did a lot for this town. I loved LIAISONS DANGEREUSES ‘Los Niños Del Parque’ and I had a soft spot for RHEINGOLD. I wasn’t a fan of KRAFTWERK at all – that changed and only shows how stupid I was as a youngster!

RIECHMANN is the tragic lost figure from the scene. What do you think he might have gone on to achieve?

Wolfgang Riechmann was so talented and was so influential on VISAGE and ULTRAVOX for example, I like to think that he would have come up with more great electronic music. ‘Wunderbar’ showcases his talent perfectly and I think he would have been a German JOHN FOXX if he hadn’t been stabbed in Düsseldorf-Altstadt in 1978.

As influential as the Düsseldorf scene was, it was not necessarily very song based. How significant do you think the British acts, who took that sound to create ‘synthpop’, have been in allowing the city’s cultural contribution to be recognised internationally?

Whooa – I think it helped a lot that OMD, HEAVEN 17, THE HUMAN LEAGUE and all the synthpop bands always referred to KRAFTWERK, or nowadays to NEU! Without the recognition in the outer world, you’re nobody at home. We learned this the hard way. Only after DIE KRUPPS had a record shelf with their name on in New York’s Tower Records did we start getting free drinks in Altstadt 😉

Who do you think have been the most ‘German’ of all the British acts who owe a debt Düsseldorf?

To me the Gary Numan from the late 70s is somehow very close to ‘The Man-Machine’. Or is it just me?? I also think the early Vince Clarke DEPECHE MODE are close to KRAFTWERK in presenting themselves. I know OMD are closely connected to ‘Radioactivity’ and you can hear this in their sound and way of production. Martyn Ware told me the cover of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ is a direct response to the Capitol ‘Trans Europe Express’ cover. The John Foxx fronted ULTRAVOX! took their name with an exclamation mark at first only because of NEU! and on and on and on … but the most German of the British acts would be ULTRAVOX, because of the three albums they produced at Conny Plank’s studio.

The ELECTRI_CITY_Conference has Andy McCluskey, Peter Hook, Rusty Egan, Martyn Ware and Stephen Mallinder as special guests from the UK. What will be their contribution to the event’s three day programme?

From 29th to 31st October 2015, our music tradition will be avidly debated with people knowing our history better than we do, and we meet at its place of origin 😉

We have lectures by Stephen Mallinder and Martyn Ware, panel talks with Daniel Miller and Michael Rother, concerts by Rother, HEAVEN 17, METROLAND and WRANGLER plus DJ sets by Rusty Egan and Daniel Miller. We will have Q&As with Peter Hook and Andy McCluskey. You can see: it’s always the bass player!!

Are there are more plans to be announced?

We are working on some more nice surprises and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK will be the first to announce these… we got something in the pipeline that would be highly attractive to all subscribers. As you are co-hosting Rusty Egan’s appearance, you can be the one to break the news *laughs*

Your ‘Electri_City’ book has been very well received in Germany. How is the English translation coming along and when will it be published?

I will start working on the English translation after the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference as Omnibus Press is putting out the book in July or October next year. I am so happy to have a professional publishing house that specialises in music. I can’t wait to present the English edition in 2016 – “Es wird immer weiter gehen – Musik als Träger von Ideen”

The ELECTRI_CITY_Conference takes place from Thursday 29th to Saturday 31st October 2015 at various locations in Düsseldorf and features live performances from HEAVEN 17, EMOTIKON, MICHAEL ROTHER, WRANGLER, METROLAND, VILE ELECTRODES and LEN SANDER

For more information in English on the ELECTRI_CITY_Conference, programme schedule, locations and tickets, please visit: http://www.electricity-conference.com/en/

https://www.facebook.com/ELECTRICITY.Conference

ELECTRI_CITY_Conference-02

The English edition of ‘Electri_City – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ is due for publication in 2016

The ‘Electri_City – Elektronische_Musik_Aus_Düsseldorf’ compilation is released by Grönland Records as a CD, vinyl LP and download

https://www.facebook.com/Electri.city.Esch

http://www.d-cse.de/en

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
3rd September 2015

A Beginner’s Guide To NEU!

18 June 2015 /

Photo by Anton Corbijn

NEU! founder members Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger are two of the most highly renowned exponents of Kosmische Musik, a distinctly Germanic form that was unfortunately termed by the UK music press later as krautrock.

Along with acts such as KRAFTWERK, CAN and TANGERINE DREAM, NEU! had helped restore a sense of German artistic identity, in reaction to the Americanisation of European post-war culture.

But Dinger in particular was keen to disassociate NEU! from the krautrock scene, especially in relation to bands such as FAUST and AMON DÜÜL who he considered overrated and unmemorable.

Rother had been a member of SPIRITS OF SOUND with Wolfgang Flür and the late Wolfgang Reichmann while Dinger was in THE NO and THE SMASH. The pair met after being recruited as members of KRAFTWERK in 1971. They even appeared on West German TV with Florian Schneider in a short-lived line-up minus Ralf Hütter, who at this point had temporarily left the band! On Hütter’s return to KRAFTWERK, Rother and Dinger left to form NEU! The name had been chosen by Dinger as “a protest against the consumer society”.

Working with Conny Plank, the legendary producer acted as mediator between the pair’s quite different personalities and artistic aspirations. Dinger and Rother were never easy bedfellows even at the start; Dinger was a manic and confrontational character who wanted to be more than just the drummer, despite becoming synonymous with the motorik beat. Rother though was laid back and more conventional, texturing his guitars and later electronics to produce mini-cacophonies of sound that suited a more esoteric backdrop.

Inevitably, the pair had a creative tension that produced great music which was experimental, yet accessible. However, by the time of their third album ‘Neu! 75’, relations between Rother and Dinger had got so bad that they agreed to conceive a side each, with minimal input from the other!

But David Bowie had been listening and was particularly taken with the track ‘Hero’. Rother was subsequently asked to play on the album sessions for ‘Heroes’ in Berlin, but the collaboration never materialised… legend has it that this was due to interference from Bowie’s then-management.

After NEU! disbanded, Rother’s more ambient nuances led to him eventually becoming Germany’s answer to Mike Oldfield, while Dinger continued with the magnificently spiky LA DÜSSELDORF and never really mellowed. A NEU! reunion in 1986 was aborted but Dinger released the recordings in 1995 without Rother’s knowledge. Rother later described this experience as “a rather painful disaster between Klaus Dinger and myself”. As if relations couldn’t get any worse, Dinger then toured and recorded for several years as LA! NÊU?

The project had a particularly loyal cult following in Japan where local label Captain Trip regularly released LA! NÊU? studio and live material, but Rother felt that his former bandmate was trading off their pioneering legacy. As a result, Rother and Dinger took several years to agree on how to reissue their long out-of-print NEU! albums which were now only available on CD as vinyl sourced bootlegs.

A deal was eventually brokered in 2000 with Grönland Records, the imprint of German singer / songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer who had compiled an eight CD box set entitled ‘Pop 2000’ tracing the history of German music. The reissues were a great success and finally gave the duo some much deserved recognition.

The influence of NEU! can be heard in artists as diverse as U2, SONIC YOUTH, STEREOLAB, OMD, SIMPLE MINDS, VISAGE and ULTRAVOX. An attempted reconciliation between Rother and Dinger around this time came to nought, with the pair barely being able to tolerate each other’s company during interviews to promote the reissues. The photos taken by Anton Corbijn notably captured the tension…

Dinger had been recording updated versions of tracks from LA DÜSSELDORF’s ‘Viva’ and some new compositions with Japanese musicians, but he sadly died in March 2008. In 2013, Grönland released ‘Japandorf’, a collection of the material Dinger had been working on prior to his passing.

Since then, Rother has paid tribute to his friend and foe with the belated formal release of the 1986 NEU! sessions as ‘Neu! 86’, while also playing the music of NEU! live as HALLOGALLO 2010 with SONIC YOUTH’s Steve Shelley and TALL FIRS’ Aaron Mullan. More recently, Rother has been playing concerts comprising of work from throughout his career and has a new project MICHANIKA with singer / songwriter Annika Henderson.

So the music lives on, but what twenty tracks would make up an imaginary compilation to serve as an introduction for electronic music fans new to NEU! and its various offshoots? With a restriction of one track per album project, this is ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s Beginner’s Guide to the NEU! axis…

NEU! Hallogallo (1972)

The debut album on Brain Records outlined the musical manifesto of NEU! Produced by the Conny Plank, their aim was to develop a musical form that was distinctly original and not under the influence of the Trans-Atlantic culture now prevalent in West Germany. The almost trancey combination of a repetitive Apache drum mantra and a drifting layers of guitar interplay over a lengthy time space on ‘Hallogallo’ hit the spot and announced that Germany was indeed calling.

Available on the NEU! album ‘Neu!’ via Grönland Records

NEU! Neuschee (1973)

The pressure was on NEU! to produce a worthy follow-up to their acclaimed debut and problems surfaced when they ran out of budget. In a fit of madness or genius, Dinger came up with the idea to fill the second half of the album with speeded up and slowed down versions of their single ‘Neuschnee’ and its B-side ‘Super’, complete with needle drops! Other experiments included drilling an off-centre hole into the vinyl and using a faulty cassette player!

Available on the NEU! album ‘Neu! 2’ via Grönland Records

HARMONIA Dino (1974)

Unable to recreate their template live as a duo, Dinger and Rother sounded out possible willing conspirators to augment the sound. While Dinger turned to his brother Thomas and friend Hans Lampe, Rother headed to the Forst countryside to meet with Dieter Moebius and Achim Roedelius of CLUSTER. The trio’s resultant jams became HARMONIA. Based around simplistic rhythm unit patterns, the restrictions allowed them to experiment on tracks such as ‘Watussi’ and ‘Dino’.

Available on the HARMONIA album ‘Musik Von Harmonia’ via Motor / Universal Records

NEU! Leb Wohl (1975)

NEU! finally reconvened and resolved their artistic differences by supervising a side of ‘Neu! 75’ each, with Rother showcasing his thoughtful ambience alongside Dinger’s angry proto-punk; it was a bizarre but enjoyable listen. Rother’s haunting ‘Leb Wohl’ (translated as ‘Farewell’) with its plaintive piano was the stand-out on side one. This contemplative number was a combined effort as Dinger provided a slow, tapping rhythm and a mournful lead vocal.

Available on the NEU! album ‘Neu! 75’ via Grönland Records

LA DÜSSELDORF Silver Cloud (1976)

Dinger had recruited his brother Thomas and Hans Lampe as percussionists and took NEU! in a more rocky direction than the ambient-inclined Rother cared for. When they split, the trio became LA DÜSSELDORF and recorded their debut self-titled LP with Conny Plank. While the title track and its sister ‘Düsseldorf’ were fun thrash-outs, the instrumental ‘Silver Cloud’ was a meditative masterpiece with a shrill pipey overlay. It showed that Dinger could do melody and atmosphere like Rother.

Available on the LA DÜSSELDORF boxed set ‘Triple Album Collection’ via WEA Records

HARMONIA & ENO ‘76 Vamos Companeros (Recorded 1976 – officially released 1997)

HARMONIA played several gigs including one in the presence of Brian Eno who later collaborated with them on what became the HARMONIA & ENO ‘76 ‘Tracks & Traces’ collection. Recorded after Rother had finished his first solo album, the ambient rock of ‘Vamos Companeros’, with its choppy synth rhythm and improvised basslines. However, the recordings were unreleased until 1997.

Available on the HARMONIA & ENO ‘76 album ‘Tracks & Traces’ via Grönland Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Karussell (1977)

Relocating to build his own Random Studio in Forst, Rother’s first solo album ‘Flammenden Herzen’ was recorded in the summer of 1976 with Conny Plank, with Jaki Liebezeit from CAN providing the percolating percussion. Although Rother had utilised synthesizers to great effect on ‘Isi’ from Neu! 75’, they took a greater role in his solo work. ‘Karussell’ had a distinctly European flavour and with its strong symphonic melodies, today sounds like a one-man ULTRAVOX.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Flammende Herzen’ via Grönland Records

LA DÜSSELDORF Rheinita (1978)

LA DÜSSELDORF’s second long player ‘Viva’ was their most successful album. There was the 20 minute madness of ‘Cha Cha 2000’, but the album also yielded the beautifully epic ‘Rheinita’. With big blocks of taped choir, synth strings and a simple pounding rhythm, this glorious instrumental became the seed of OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ album. The name incidentally was an amalgam of Dinger’s two great loves, der Rhein and Anita, his former long-time girlfriend.

Available on the LA DÜSSELDORF album ‘Viva’ via WEA Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Sonnenrad (1978)

Rother’s second album ‘Sterntaler’ was a brilliant follow-up to ‘Flammende Herzen’. There was greater use of synths for melody lines. The moody textures of ‘Sonnenrad’ were the inspiration for ULTRAVOX’s ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’. While recording ‘Systems Of Romance’, Billy Currie was given the album by Conny Plank and a few years later, he became inspired by its muted guitar line, steady rhythm and melancholic resonance.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Sterntaler’ via Grönland Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Katzenmusik #2 (1979)

For his third solo album, Rother celebrated his love of cats and composed a two-part guitar symphony entitled ‘Katzenmusik’. The twelve numbered segments were each layered around variations of four different five-note melodies that recurred throughout the album. Within a pared down musical structure, Rother’s distinctive six string purr found its ideal setting. Beautifully melodic, it was to be Michael Rother’s final work with Conny Plank.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Katzenmusik’ via Grönland Records

LA DÜSSELDORF Menschen 1 (1980)

‘Individuellos’ was the third and final official album from LA DÜSSELDORF. However, the band were thrown into turmoil when guest keyboardist  Andreas Schell committed suicide. The album was abandoned but eventually released with what was in the can. A grand statement with layers of synths and piano that was simultaneously mad and melodic, the percussive ‘Menschen 1’ comes over like the blueprint for Phil Lynott and Midge Ure’s ‘Yellow Pearl’!

Available on the LA DÜSSELDORF boxed set ‘Triple Album Collection’ via WEA Records

LA DÜSSELDORF Ich Liebe Dich (1983)

The final LA DÜSSELDORF release was a maxi-single featuring two tracks ‘Ich Liebe Dich’ and ‘Köksnödel’ that were intended for the fourth album. By this time, Hans Lampe had left so the Dinger brothers continued as a duo. While the Thomas Dinger co-write ‘Köksnödel’ was the most crisply electronic track LA DÜSSELDORF ever recorded, ‘Ich Liebe Dich’ was a sub-six minute brooding gothic drama that could have come from ‘Organisation’ period OMD.

Available on the LA DÜSSELDORF.DE album ‘Mon Amour’ via WEA Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Palmengarten (1983)

Rother’s fourth long player ‘Fernwärme’ was his first without Conny Plank. But by his fifth album ‘Lust’, Jaki Liebezeit had gone too. Having acquired a Fairlight CMI to fully realise his own solo vision, ‘Lust’ was recorded without any assistance, with drum machines and electronics taking a more significant role. ‘Palmengarten’ successfully merged modern digital synthesis and sampling with organic guitar textures in a rich, glossy setting.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Lust’ via Random Records

KLAUS DINGER & RHEINITA BELLA DÜSSELDORF Mon Amour (1985)

Various legal disputes with Hans Lampe stopped Dinger releasing material as LA DÜSSELDORF. So his next album ‘Néondian’ was effectively a solo project and released under the elongated moniker of KLAUS DINGER & RHEINITA BELLA DÜSSELDORF with the subtitle of ‘La Düsseldorf 4’. Conny Plank partly returned to the studio fold and although patchy, the collection featured several worthy highlights such as the tremendously anthemic ‘Mon Amour’.

Available on the LA DÜSSELDORF.DE album ‘Mon Amour’ via WEA Records

NEU! Quick Wave Machinelle (Recorded 1986 – officially released 1995)

The brief NEU! reunion saw digital drum computers and a Fairlight CMI brought into the mix by Rother, but continuing tensions with Dinger meant that the album was abandoned. However in 1995, the recordings were issued by Dinger as ‘Neu! 4’ in Japan without Rother’s consent. Despite this, there were several standout tracks, one of which was ‘Quick Wave Machinelle’ which sounded like a lost OMD demo. It was revised in 2010 as ‘Euphoria’ for the Rother sanctioned ‘Neu! 86’.

Available as ‘Euphoria’ on the NEU! album ‘Neu! 86’ via Grönland Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Lucky Stars (1987)

After the aborted NEU! reunion sessions, Rother returned to Forst with his Fairlight to record his seventh solo long player. With the new CD era dawning, ‘Traumreisen’ saw his work become increasing more ambient and sedate in a far cry from his NEU! roots. But ‘Lucky Stars’ was slightly more uptempo, verging occasionally on Jean-Michel Jarre territory with symphonic synths over a lighter motorik backbone. It even had several sonic similarities to Dinger’s ‘Mon Amour’.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Traumreisen’ via Random Records

MICHAEL ROTHER Patogonia Horizont (1993)

A Rother compilation entitled ‘Radio’ featured “6 Neue Stücke”; these were unreleased recordings made between 1988 and 1993. With more material than could be included, these various pieces were spread over his subsequent album reissues as bonus tracks. Whether these recordings sonically fitted onto albums from 1977 or 1978 was debatable, but the beautiful ambience of ‘Patagonia Horizont’ was a wonderful, if incongruous jewel tagged onto the end of ‘Sterntaler’.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Sterntaler (mit Neue Stücke)’ via Random Records

LA! NÊU? Dank Je Sanne (1997)

Dinger had difficulty releasing records in Germany due to his ongoing legal disputes. But the Japanese label Captain Trip threw him a lifeline. Using LA! NÊU? as an umbrella name for a loose collective of musicians including his mother Renate, Dinger recorded nine albums from varying sources. The 15 minute ‘Dank Je Sanne’ featured the voice of Victoria Wehrmeister and by Dinger’s more freeform standards, quite structured and peaceful…

Available on the LA! NÊU? album ‘Zeeland’ via Captain Trip

MICHAEL ROTHER He Said (2004)

Rother’s 1996 album ‘Esperanza’ was verging on total new age and a comparative disappointment. After a recorded break of eight years came a return to form in the shape of ‘Remember…The Great Adventure’. The album forced a conceptual rethink and included vocals on several tracks by Herbert Grönemeyer. Featuring the dreamy tones of Sophie Williams, ‘He Said’ had a serene Nordic flavour with an emotive chord progression and a gentle but lively pace.

Available on the MICHAEL ROTHER album ‘Remember… The Great Adventure’via Random Records

KLAUS DINGER & JAPANDORF Sketch No 1_b (2013)

Dinger’s posthumous album ‘Japandorf’ was started in 2007 with several Japanese musicians including his partner Miki Yui and Kazuyuki Onouchi. ‘Sketch No1_b’ was the result of a rocky jam between Onouchi and Dinger, with windy HAWKWIND sweeps added in for good measure. An early version had featured on the 2009 compilation ‘Brand NEU!’; ‘Japandorf’ was a best selling record on Grönland, an indication of the regard with which Dinger was still held.

Available on the KLAUS DINGER & JAPANDORF album ‘Japandorf’ via Grönland Records

Dedicated to the memory of Klaus Dinger 1946- 2008

http://www.neu2010.com/

http://www.michaelrother.de/en/

http://www.dingerland.de

http://klausdinger.com/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
18th June 2015

Lost Albums: LA DÜSSELDORF Individuellos

29 February 2012 /

‘Individuellos’ was the third and final official album from the project fronted by the late Klaus Dinger of NEU!

As with the first two albums ‘La Düsseldorf’ and ‘Viva’, the self-produced ‘Individuellos’ released on TELDEC developed on the proto-punk first showcased on the second side of ‘Neu! 75’. But for this 1980 release, there was a greater presence of keyboards from Dinger under his pseudonym of Nikolaus Van Rhein and as usual, he contributed his trademark gibberish that passed for vocals.

Variations on a theme have long been a staple of German Kosmichemusik so the first half of ‘Individuellos’ was dominated by ‘Menschen’, a grand statement with layers of synths that were simultaneously melodic, mad and magnificent. Those who liked their Motorik beats were not disappointed as percussionists Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe effectively played the telephone directory with their Apache drums.

This first movement was segued into the title track which was a close cousin with its shifting bass octaves and pounding keys before returning to ‘Menschen2’. An interlude ensued with ‘Sentimental’, an abstract tape collage that sounded like a church service in reverse before hitting with ‘Lieber Honig 1981’, effectively a live version of ‘Menschen’ that basically forms the blueprint for Phil Lynott’s ‘Yellow Pearl’… Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack!

The second half opened with the neo Volksmusik of ‘Dampfriemen’ and its pretty anthemic synth motif before the Dinger brothers joined in sounding like they’ve had a few too many Tizers at Oktoberfest, with of all things, a kazoo section kicking in!

‘Tintarella Di’ followed with an opening section similar to the keyboard intro of SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘Life In A Day’. With the canter of horses hooves helping to continue the Volks theme, this pair of tracks may have confused those who loved their proto punk but it was obvious Dinger and Co were having a lot of fun with their reinterpretations of traditional German culture. In another aural sculpture, ‘Flashback’ featured a boat rowing in an echoing cavern before the church organ from ‘Sentimental’ made a reappearance.

The beautiful piano laden ‘Das Yvönnchen’ was the closer; played by guest musician Andreas Schell (who sadly passed away during the album recording), it was melodically more in line with Michael Rother, Dinger’s former partner in NEU! It underlined the ethereal qualities Dinger was capable of when he put his space cadet mind to it.

Thus ‘Individuellos’ was an album of two distinct halves like many great albums of the period such as Bowie’s ‘Low’ and ‘Heroes’,  Eno’s ‘Before & After Science’, and JOY DIVISION’s ‘Closer’. It was 1983 before the final LA DÜSSELDORF release, a maxi-single featuring ‘Ich Liebe Dich’ and ‘Köksnödel’.  The former possessed a brooding gothic drama like ‘Organisation’-era OMD while the latter was the most crisply electronic track LA DÜSSELDORF ever recorded. The Japanese reissue CD of ‘Individuellos’ on Captain Trip from 1997 featured these two songs as bonuses, while the recent German reissue on Warners omitted them.

However, the  LA DÜSSELDORF story quite didn’t end there as a fourth album was recorded but due to legal reasons, it was released in 1985 as ‘Néondain’ by KLAUS DINGER & RHEINITA BELLA DÜSSELDORF with the subtitle of ‘La Düsseldorf 4’. Given a limited reissue in 2006 as LA DÜSSELDORF.DE ‘Mon Amour’, this included both tracks from the 1983 maxi-single as extras and although patchy, the collection also featured worthy highlights such as the tremendous ‘Mon Amour’ title track and the abridged Linn Drum assisted reworking of ‘Cha Cha 2000’.

There was a NEU! reunion in 1986 during which tensions between Dinger and Rother came to a head. The recordings remained unreleased until 1997 when Dinger issued the album as ‘Neu! 4’ on Captain Trip without Rother’s consent. This strained relations further and although a further reconciliation with Rother was attempted in 2000 as part of the NEU! CD reissue campaign on Grönland Records, this came to nought.

Klaus Dinger continued recording and touring as LA! NEU? particularly in Japan where he had a huge cult following but sadly passed away in 2008. As a final tribute to the madman known as ‘KD’, that final NEU! album was reworked by Rother and finally officially released as ‘Neu! 86’ in 2010. He leaves a charming and simultaneously erratic musical legacy.

‘Individuellos’ is available as part of the LA DÜSSELDORF 3CD boxed set ‘The Triple Album Collection’ released by Warner Music

http://www.la-duesseldorf.de

https://www.facebook.com/La-Düsseldorf-42715353276

http://www.dingerland.de

Text by Chi Ming Lai
29th February 2012, updated 5th July 2020

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