"A Homage to Neu !" compilation Cleopatra Records CLP 0300-2 1998 (69:21)
Michael Rother "Neutronics 98" (aTribute to
Conny Plank) (9:33)
Download "Hallo Gallo" (8:03)
Autechre "Weissensee" (8:48)
Dead Voics on Air "Funfundsiebzig" (based on E-Musik) (4:31)
Khan "Fur Immer" (6:26)
Sunroof "Hero" (6:30)
System 7 "Interstate (using a sample from Hallo Gallo)" (5:42)
Legendary Pink Dots "Super" (4:18)
James Plotkin "Lila Engel" (8:55)
Jeff Greinke "Im Gluck" (6:11)
Overall impression: excellent! First off, I must shamefully admit that I've yet to hear a single second of original Neu! music ... but after listening to this tribute, that's going to change very soon. From reading the cd insert and a few online resources, I think I've come to understand what the Neu! brand of "krautrock" was about: mantra-like minimalist trance rock consisting of repetitive (hypnotic) guitar/bass lines, drones and drums. The artists on this tribute seem to stick to the original ideal fairly well, although some do it with a bit of a drum 'n bass or drone treatment. A few observations: the Rother (of Neu!) tribute to Neu! co-producer Conny Plank is my favorite ... a beautiful melodic track, the Download / Autechre tracks sound little like the respective artists so I'm assuming they sound more like Neu!, the DVOA track is a beatless ("primarily to irritate beat-pariahs" as Spybey says in the insert) processed guitar/voice track, the LPD track is the most agrressive of the lot with it's barrage of guitars and screams, the James Plotkin track is filled with interesting reversed sounds and drones and the Jeff Greinke track is a soothing water-y ambient drone. All together, I'm very impressed with what I hear ... every track is good. And, this has to be the best comp Cleopatra has ever put together (the project was actually conceived and brought to fruition by Thomas Ziegler of On Alarm Promotions), the contributors are not the usual crappy Cleo suspects and I think they even managed to put out a cd with no spelling errors! Now it's time to find those Neu / Michael Rother albums ...