"La Dusseldorf" (1976)
hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?9zmhjcfo7t2
"Viva" (1978)
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La Dusseldorf was a mid-late 70's German outfit founded by former Neu! member Klaus Dinger after his musical partnership with Michael Rother ended. The two stubborn musicians had been drifting apart, Dinger's songs becoming more spiky and aggressive in contrast to Rother's blissful drifting melodies. Dinger was a guitarist/keyboard-player who had become a drummer out of necessity, developing his own unique bombomBOMbom 4/4 style along the way. When I first heard Neu! I was shocked at the way Stereolab had lifted the drumming wholesale. "So that's where they got it". Any beginner can play the beat but only Mo Tucker had the (metaphorical) balls to constantly pound out a primal rhythm like that before Dinger.
What made Neu! was the melodies they layered over that less-is-more beat, and La Dusseldorf is no different. Dinger even scored a couple of major hits across Europe with songs from these albums. I'd love to have been around to hear the likes of "Silver Cloud" (from "La Dusseldorf") played on daytime radio. Synth-lines shooting off like fireworks...it must have sounded crazy in 1976. Conny Plank's production on these albums is stellar.
The debut album "La Dusseldorf" was a massive influence on the more clued-up UK listeners like Johnny Rotten, David Bowie and yes, Julian Cope, helping to kickstart punk and mercy-kill prog. You get the feeling that Dinger didn't care what happened either way though. He followed his own "white-hot mantras", to use his term.
Of these two albums, I am fonder of "La Dusseldorf", it has a bit more wallop and surprise but "Viva" is a stunning piece of work as well. "Rheinita" (TV appearance video below) and "Cha Cha 2000" are goddam krautrock klassiks.
I thought Michael Rother was the brains behind Neu! till I heard this shit. Fantastic.
