Neu 75
Neu! '75is the third and most essential record from Krautrock wunderkindsNeu!--a two-man  experimental force that pioneered the rapid, repetitive drum-beat known  as motorik, and mapped out the future of music for groups likeSonic Youth,Stereolab, andSpacemen 3.  Recorded after a two-year moratorium on the Neu! design,75is  the sound of a band in a state of disintegration--but it's the  simmering tension between the ambient-minded Michael Rother and the  fiery Klaus Dinger that makes this an artistic triumph, rather than a  cacophonous dissolution of ideas. Neu! handle this fracture by  effectively splitting75in two very different parts. The first  half, featuring the drifting catatonic majesty of "Seeland" and the  tidal ambient lull of "Leb' Wohl" is very recognizably led by Rother's  sense of affecting minimalism. The second half, however, is Dinger's  blank canvas, over which he bitterly vents his spleen: "Hero" surges  forward on an aggressive pedal-to-the-metal wave of guitar, Dinger  bellowing "The only crime is money" like an anarchist sloganeer.  Suddenly, claims that this record was an influence on the young John  Lydon make perfect sense--'Neu! '75'is a masterpiece of cosmic  punk rock, beamed in from a time before punk rock even existed.--Louis Pattison