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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v9n32 (08/12/2010) » Section: Left of the Dial


Neu! - Box Set

by Donny Kutzbach
With a simple, repeated, 4/4 beat and stripped, cascading melodics often based around one single chord, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger left an indelible mark on late 20th-century music. They hunkered down in Düsseldorf, Germany in the early 1970s to little success, but the long haul would prove NEU!’s importance, as well as the ongoing influence of the “motorik” beat and the band’s majestic, glistening, brightly metallic future drone. The NEU! legacy stretches far beyond the limiting constraints of so-called krautrock. Count among the legion of NEU! adherents David Bowie, Brian Eno, Wilco, Radiohead, Stereolab, Holy Fuck, and dozens of other artists and composers working in varied strains of music.

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

by Cory Perla
What’s the feeling you have when you’re driving through a big city on a Friday night with all of the lights and bustling around you? It’s the unknown, it’s the shade that allows everything to dance to its own private groove. It takes an awareness of the night to capture that feeling adequately. !!!—most commonly pronounced “chk chk chk”—knows the night vibe. On their 2006 album, Myth Takes, the five-piece from Sacramento, California tapped the vibe with pulsating, pop-oriented electronica tunes, with a splash of acid house, like on “Heart of Hearts.” On their latest album, Strange Weather, Isn’t It?, the band has tweaked their sound, relying more on organic guitar rhythms and fatter, more obvious bass lines to complement their electronic soundwave wash. The result is something like a modern-day electronic disco.



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