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Michael Rother
One should not underestimate the importance of Michael Rother in the history of contemporary music – along with drummer Klaus Dinger and producer Conny Plank he formed seminal krautrock outfit NEU!, who’ve influenced everyone from Johnny Rotten to Radiohead. Additionally, he formed Harmonia in the late Seventies, a band Brian Eno once described as “the world’s most important rock band. Oh yeah, and he was briefly in another little band you might have heard of – Kraftwerk.
There’s recently been a resurgence of interest in krautrock generally as well as Rother’s music specifically, which has culminated in the release of a tribute album entitled ‘Brand NEU!’. Featuring acts as diverse as Oasis, Primal Scream, Kasabian, LCD Soundsystem, Holy Fuck and Sonic Youth (in their Ciccone Youth guise), it’s an unusual compilation in which the artists don’t cover NEU! songs, but rather try to make music in the style of NEU! It’s a unique and entirely original idea, though Rother himself hasn’t had a lot of chance to give it a proper listen.
“I just got a copy a few days ago,” he explains, “and because I’m so busy working on my own music I just gave it a very short listen. Of course I know the track by School Of Seven Bells because Benjamin Curtis is a friend and he sent me the track before he gave it to Feraltone, and asked me whether I liked it – I like that track!”
Rother’s own involvement with ‘Brand NEU!’ was fairly limited, though he contributed an original track, and obviously gave final approval to the record label, but he does have a few ideas of who he would include if he had curated it himself.
“I would have liked to see Fuck Buttons on the compilation. [They’re] very radical with very different music, but a similar radical approach – no compromises in their music. It’s just what they want to do – love it or hate it”.
It’s a minor miracle that the compilation has come out at all, though; as Rother explains, the process of putting ‘Brand NEU!’ together has been a somewhat lengthy one.
“This started a few years ago, when a British journalist sent me a CD of bands and others that he felt were inspired by my music, by NEU! for instance, for an interview. I talked with the Grönland [Records] MD [René Renner] at the time, and we all thought that it was a good idea to do a compilation of music like that. I listened to the compilation several times, because I liked it! But at the time Klaus Dinger [who died last year] wasn’t in favour of doing a project like that.
"This year the former MD of Grönland started his own label – Feraltone – so he followed on this project. I wasn’t involved in the choosing of the bands, it was completely his work. I have to say that, because some of the bands I didn’t even know before, and I certainly would have suggested a few bands who aren’t on the compilation if I had been involved. But I was informed of course, and I had to give my permission to use the artwork and the image of NEU! and I contributed a track, Neutronics 98 (A Tribute To Conny Plank), which I hope helps to focus on the importance of Conny Plank to NEU!, Harmonia and my solo albums”.
Certainly, there are more than a few surprises in ‘Brand NEU!’, from some bands who wouldn’t necessarily be the first to pop to mind when looking at the influence of the krautrock giants. Rother himself was surprised at a number of the additions, but somewhat pleased too.
“I never would have expected to see a band like Oasis on a compilation which is in an homage to my music, to NEU!” Rother muses. “But then inspiration goes strange ways, I know it from my own work. I actually quite like that track by Oasis! When somebody told me that Noel Gallagher was mentioning his admiration for NEU! in interviews I listened to their single Shock Of The Lightning and I immediately understood what he was talking about – that fast forward movement. I quite like that, and of course I was a fan of the Beatles!”
Rother is certainly not one to rest on his laurels either – while ‘Brand NEU!’ has focussed attention back on the krautrock movement, he is still relentlessly moving forward, creating his own music as well as supervising official reissues of his various back catalogues. This is a fact that will no doubt delight the krautrock faithful, as the history of NEU! has been decorated with numerous unpleasant spats between Rother and collaborator Klaus Dinger. Since producer Conny Plank’s death in 1987, and the death last year of Dinger, Rother has now become the chief keeper of the NEU! legacy, along with Plank and Dinger’s respective widows.
“I’m investing a lot of time and effort into the NEU! vinyl boxset, which we hope to release later this year,“ Rother explains. “It will contain all of NEU!’s recordings, also the ones that were illegally released by my NEU! partner, the late Klaus Dinger, in the Nineties – I’m not sure if you’ve heard of that…”
After NEU!’s acrimonious split in the late Seventies, Dinger and Rother attempted to work together again in the mid-Eighties, putting together a series of recordings that were never officially released. Dinger, however, released them illegally through a Japanese based label in the mid-Nineties under the title of ‘NEU! 4’, an act that created further problems with their already tenuous working relationship. Since then it’s become one of the most sought-after releases by krautrock collectors, not gaining an official CD release with the first three NEU! records because of further licensing disagreements between Dinger and Rother. These days however, Rother seems to be fairly forgiving about the actions taken by his former colleague.
“I won’t hit him now,” Rother smiles. “I mean, I try to be fair now that he can’t defend himself. We met recently with our label and Klaus Dinger’s last companion, his widow, and we agreed that I will start working on releasing the music we recorded in the Eighties. I do my best to make the music of NEU! available – all of the music we recorded that I think is worth releasing. That’s quite a lot; there are some gems that Klaus didn’t release because he didn’t have the tapes – we split the tapes when we stopped working on what we then called ‘NEU! 86’”
While the forthcoming boxset still has considerable work to be done on it, from what Rother says it will be a veritable treasure trove for krautrock fans and NEU! fanatics.
“I will still have to work for several weeks, then I will edit everything and see what other people have to say about it. There will be a big booklet in that boxset with text about NEU! and some new photos that haven’t been available. It’s really a great project, I’m looking forward to that.”
It’s certainly a good time to be a NEU! fan, with the forthcoming boxset to include almost all of the duo’s recorded output, including some difficult-to-find live appearances. However, it’s far from Rother’s only project, as he’s also working on remasters on some other important parts of his back catalogue.
“I’m very busy with several projects,” he expands. “To start with, in September we’re re-releasing Harmonia with Brian Eno, the ‘Tracks And Traces’ album, for which I unearthed some three additional tracks from our collaboration of ’76 – that’s quite exciting!”
After considerable studio remastering work, Rother plans to return to the live stage to bring his various forms of music to generations both old and new. IN fact, Harmonia performed at the inaugural Australian ATP event earlier this year, and it’s something he’s obviously looking forward to continuing.
“When ‘Tracks and Traces’ and the NEU! vinyl box is finished I’ll immediately go on to prepare live realisations of NEU!’s music – my take on NEU!’s music, of course, I would never claim to be NEU! because NEU! was always the combination of Dinger and Rother – but my view on NEU! Because that’s what I’ve already performed in recent years, I love the straightforward rhythmic movement. That’s something I look forward to for next year. I would love to return to Australia, I had a great time! I can’t say for now, but if the local promoters would like to organise something, I would definitely be down there immediately. It’s a long flight, but it’s worth it!”
Ultimately, for a musician who has contributed so much to the formation of late 20th century music, Rother is refreshingly modest when it comes to where he and NEU! stand in the grand scheme of things.
“In the Seventies when we started, I didn’t look into the future, I was just concentrating on what was happening day-to-day,” he muses. “There was not a single talk about ending up in musical history, it was just one big adventure. It was a very exciting time, but what other people make of it… at the time I didn’t think about anything like that. When the first artists showed up, like Brian Eno, I was quite surprised that he was listening to our music, and David Bowie called me in ’77 and invited me to work on his album in Berlin - I didn’t foresee what would happen 35 years later. It’s a bit dangerous, it’s like a name-dropping game already!”
‘Brand NEU!’ is out now on Feraltone Records through Inertia.
Patrick Lang
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