NEU!/NEU! 2 - 1977 GERMAN BRAIN 2 LP SET - UNPLAYED?

LAMINATED GF, CLEAN SOUND, 2 KRAUTROCK MASTERPIECES

NEU! and NEU! 2

ORIGINAL 1977 GERMAN BRAIN (80.014-2) PRESSING OF THE FIRST TWO NEU! LPs - IN GREAT CONDITION - LOOKS LIKE THE RECORDS MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN PLAYED (there are no spindles or signs of use to the labels) AND THE AUDIO DELIVERY IS EXCEPTIONALLY CLEAN THROUGHOUT (which is difficult to find as both records contain many very quiet/practically silent moments) - GREAT COPY OT THESE TWO KRAUTROCK MASTERPIECES - VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE RECORDS ARE HOUSED IN THE ORIGINAL OUTER LAMINATED GATEFOLD SLEEVE ("MADE IN W. GERMANY") COMPLETE WITH THE TWO ORIGINAL PLAIN WHITE INNER SLEEVES (ONE IS DATE CODED 1977, THE OTHER IS UNDATED)

NEU! Fresh after leaving Kraftwerk in the fall of 1971 for what they perceived to be a lack of vision, guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger formed their own unit and changed the face of German rock forever -- eventually influencing their former employer, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk. The 1974 album Autobahn was a genteel reconsideration of the music played here.
Dinger's mechanical, cut time drumming and Rother's two-note bass runs adorned with cleverly manipulated and dreamy guitar riffs and fills were the hallmarks of the "motorik" sound that would become the band's trademark.
On "Hallogallo", which opens the disc, the listener encounters a timeless rock & roll sound world. The driving guitar playing one chord in different cadences and rhythmic patters, the four-snare to the floor pulse with a high hat and bass drum for ballast, and a bass-line that is used more for keeping the drummer on time than as a rhythm instrument in its own right.
These are draped in Rother's liquidy, cascading single note drones and runs, so even as the tune's momentum propels the listener into a movement oriented robotic dance, the guitar's lyrical economy brings an aesthetic beauty into the mix that opens the space up from inside.
The tense ambient soundscape of "Sonderangebot" balances things a bit before the slower-than-Neil Young "Weissensee" opens with a subtle industrial clamour and opens up into a lyrical exploration of distorted slide guitar aesthetics with an uncharacteristic drum elegance that keeps the guitar in check.
"Im Glück" tracks a restrained, droning path through the textural palette of the guitar, treated with whispering distortion and echo.
All hell breaks loose again on Dinger's "Negativland" as an industrial soundscape eventually gives way to a bass and guitar squall as darkly enticing as anything on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.
It's really obvious now how the JD's sound was influenced by this simply and darkly delicious brew of noise, bass throb, percussive hypnosis, and an oddly placed, strangely under-mixed, guitar.
Rother's style had as much to do with not playing as it did with virtuosity, and his fills of open chords, stuttered cadences, and broken syntax provided a much needed diversion for the metronymic regularity of the rhythm section. Rother didn't riff; he painted a mix with whatever was necessary to get the point across. His mannerisms here are not to draw attention to himself, but rather to that numbing, incessant rhythm provided wondrously by Dinger.
Neu's debut album still sounds ahead of its time

NEU! 2: After the considerable success of their self-titled debut album, Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother set out ambitiously to record a follow-up but virtually everything went wrong.
The first of the artistic and personal differences that existed between them not only began to surface, but to flourish in the face of a nearly impossible studio deadline and overly tight budget.
While the basic Neu! sound was not an issue, how to augment it was.
As both a guitarist and a composer, Rother had already begun moving in the direction he would end up in with Moebius and Rodelius in Harmonia, and on his later solo recordings: a more unified, melodic, airy, and soaring sound that was full of light and yearning. Dinger, on the other hand, was looking for more anarchy, more chaos, and rock & roll dynamics. He wanted a music that was as dramatic and confrontational as he was.
It's amazing this album turned out as well as it did.
On top of all this, Neu! ran out of money in the middle of the project. Their plight was met by total indifference from the record company, who wouldn't advance them another mark. So they did what any normal self-respecting band would do: they simply re-edited and remixed two singles off the album and put them on side two to fill up the time.
The end result is a perverse and controversial album, one that gives the middle finger to the label.
That said, the disc is a very worthy one as a whole; it's a beautiful bridge between the start repetition of the debut and the lush melodic textures of 75.
The disc opens with one of the band's greatest tracks, the stunning "Forever."
Guitar, feedback, pulse, and distortion equals motorik, the brand name for Neu! music.
Rother's playing huge chords here, spun out of effects boxes and feedback squalls, and Dinger's drumming adds a tom-tom to the metronome of snare and hi-hat. The chords are darker, minor key flourishes added to a one-note bass throb. From here it gets abstract; nocturnal ambient soundscapes with no discernable instrumentation except for a warped drum palette to keep the big swathes of white noise company ("Spitzenqualitat" & "Gedenkminute")
A guitar joins the sonic investigation on "Lilac Angel" as well as a pounded out drumbeat and a growled Dinger vocal. This must have been Neu!'s idea of a hard rock single.
But side two is where things get strange. Having exhausted their budge they turned to re-releasing material in manipulated fashion. Needles dropping on records, playback roughs, backwards tape manipulation sped up or slowed down interminably, all with the unmistakable Neu! sound as a base.
"Super" and "Neueschnee" are played back at various speeds. There is another track that concludes with a cassette tape being eaten by a player.
This is one of the more out-there sides in the history of recorded music -- the dark side of the optimism presented by Pink Floyd's Meddle...without half the effort!
Over time, this great big middle finger to the music biz has weathered the storm very well. In fact, it now sounds as if it were recorded this way based on aesthetics rather than anger. But at the time it merely showed a duo that had worn each other out and had been dissed by their record company.
A fine and disturbing listen, it should be sought out by anyone possessing Neu! discs on either end of this one. This is essential Krautrock.

Side 1: Hallogallo (10:07) / Sonderangebot (4:50) / Weissensee (6:42)
Side 2: Im Glück (6:42) / Negativland (9:42) / Lieber Honig (7:15)
Side 3: Für Immer (Forever) (11:00) / Spitzenqualität (4:58) / Gedenkminute (Für A + K) (1:00) / Lila Engel (Lilac Angel) (4:35)
Side 4: Neuschnee 78 (2:30) / Super 16 (3:37) / Neuschnee (3:59) / Cassetto (1:50) / Super 78 (1:35) / Hallo Excentrico! (3:43) / Super (3:07)

LABELS: The labels are clean and bright with no unwanted marks/writing and no spindle traces or signs of use - in my opinion this copy has seen little, if any play - MINT
VINYL Visual: All four surfaces retain their original deep, glossy sheen with a few superficial light marks/hairlines (mostly on Side Three) but these have little audio consequence - both records sound great - EX+/EX+/EX/EX+
VINYL Audio: Outstanding audio delivery with a crystal clear, deep, rich, warm and detailed sound and on playback at a loud volume (which is how I always listen to my LPs prior to listing) there are no real audio issues of note. There is the occasional light click/pop most noticeable on some (not all) of the quieter sections - especially on Side Three (but nothing ever intrusive) - and there are many quiet/practically silent sections on these two records otherwise, both records are beautifully clean. Great copy, critically graded as EXCELLENT++ for audio - but in all honesty I don't think you'll find one sounding better)
NOTE: Side Four has the alarming noises like the record is jumping/needle being roughly dropped onto the grooves etc and playing at various wrong speeds but this is purely as intended (see critique above)
SLEEVE: The outer laminated gatefold in clean, fresh and unmarked with a beautiful deep gloss to the outer laminated surfaces and clean, fresh inner surfaces. The edges and spine - where all text is clear and bold - are crisp and square with no rubbing or wear. In fact, the whole sleeve feels practically like-new - NEAR MINT

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