http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68N3MS20100924
By Dave Graham
Sep 24, 2010
Four decades after recording one of the most influential German rock
albums ever, Michael Rother of Neu! can finally play it live the way
he always wanted to.
At the age of 60, the guitarist of the Duesseldorf duo who pioneered
the controlled, linear, driving "motorik" sound that became a
hallmark of the 1970s West German rock scene often called
"Krautrock," has never been in such high demand. After watching his
career all but grind to a halt in the 1980s, Rother's fortunes have
undergone a marked renaissance -- built on the legacy of the three
albums he cut as Neu! (New) with the late Klaus Dinger on drums
between 1971 and 1975.
"The workload has exploded: it's non-stop," Rother told Reuters in an
interview after playing in Berlin. "I'm being steamrolled by
everything that's going on -- in a nice way."
"The response and the enthusiasm we've generated at our concerts is
incredible. It's almost like the music was created today -- and
hasn't been in my head for the past 40 years."
The interest in Neu!'s music reflects a wider revival in appreciation
for records produced by German bands in late 1960s and early 1970s
whose distinctive forays into garage rock, electronica and
psychedelia won them many fans abroad.
Since late May, Rother and his band Hallogallo have been playing the
music of Neu! to crowds across Europe and cities as far afield as
Edinburgh, Mexico City and Detroit -- with more dates in the offing
in South America, Turkey and the Far East.
The contrast with Neu! could not be starker.
Hampered by the limits of technology in the early 1970s, Rother
played only a handful of gigs with Dinger, who died in 2008. The
pair, who had earlier toured with Kraftwerk, went their separate
ways, reuniting briefly for an album in 1975.
NO CHAOS PLEASE
Rother initially enjoyed solo success, but over time he and Neu!'s
records gradually faded from memory, leaving the softly-spoken
guitarist to wonder whether he still had a career.
"By the mid-1980s there was nothing. There was no interest," says
Rother, in a voice mirroring the steady, measured tones of his music.
"For 12 years it was just about surviving as an artist because my
records had completely disappeared from view."
Since then Neu! have been hailed as an inspiration for artists
ranging from David Bowie, U2 and Stereolab, and namechecked by the
likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Oasis.
Neu!'s eponymous debut placed no. 25 in U.S. online music site
Pitchfork Media's top albums of the 1970s, ahead of any record by
star acts such as Pink Floyd and Stevie Wonder.
Named after the opening track of that album, Hallogallo features
Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and bassist Aaron Mullan of the
Tall Firs -- a combo that has enabled Rother to perform the band's
old music they way he intended.
"In my view it's really the first time the music of Neu! can be
performed live," he said. "Though it's not about playing the pieces
note for note as they were on the album."
"Back in 1972, we only did about seven or eight concerts. We saw that
with the means available to us and the musicians we had to draw on,
we couldn't perform it live. So we stopped."
Now in demand across the globe, Rother shrugs and says he's been
lucky. "It's not like I'm in the top 10 now," he said.
Musing on what enabled him to stay in business in the lean years, he
offered one explanation that could have come straight from the German
government, which is now trying to persuade cash-strapped European
partners to live within their means.
"I hate chaos -- chaos in the sense of not being able to pay the
bills. And being in debt," Rother said. "That would weigh on me so
much it would take away the joy of living."
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