Iggy Pop as John The Baptist to Johnny Rotten’s Jesus. Discuss.

At the beginning of the ’70′s a new genre in Rock started to develop and became accepted as the ‘way forward’ out of the ’60′s. Ever more complicated, and often technically very difficult to play, music; an obsession with instrumental solos; frequent changes of tempo; lyrics that were based in fantasy or science fiction rather than the here and now; concept albums and the avoidance of singles; the complete absence of any rhythm you could possibly dance to. I could go on. Overall it felt like a ‘baroque-ing’ up of Rock that would eventually lead to the phenomenal popularity and album sales of acts like ELP, Yes, Genesis, Rick Wakeman and a hundred others.

But there was a voice in the wilderness warning against such folly. And that voice was Iggy Pop’s. A voice that understood that all the over-complication of the Prog Rockers was taking Rock away from the guttural power and ability to move people and their feet that it once had. You don’t need to think too hard about great Rock, you feel it. And Iggy understood that instinctively.

more

From the very late ’60′s to the very late ’70′s much of the most inventive and rhythmically exciting music came out of Jamaica. Dub was a vital part of this output. It had its origins in the Sound System – bass-heavy portable disco’s where in the late ’60′s DJ’s began to ‘toast’ live vocals over instrumental B-sides of 45′s. This in turn stimulated studio producers to start experimenting with these same instrumental B-sides to create a whole new genre called Dub.

By the time we get to 1973, the two most prominent Dub producers, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (leader/creator/producer of The Upsetters) and King Tubby, had turned it into a sublime art form capable of producing pieces of sound that contained equal measures of infectious drum and bass-heavy rhythm and unrestrained inventiveness. Even though many many Dubs would eventually emanate from literally the same original instrumental track, a master Dub mixer could produce a piece of music that was both unique and completely surprising through his or her use of echo, reverb, various other special effects (some usually of the herbal variety) and a dollop of unrestrained imagination.

Dub also introduced us to the concept of the producer/mixer/re-mixer/studio-technician as creative originator. Using the mixing desk as a musical instrument and existing instrumental tracks as musical elements to be bent, reshaped and remixed into completely new songs. Post-modernism before anyone this side of the Atlantic (except possibly in Germany – see ABON 0003) had even heard the phrase. And of course one of its greatest legacies is the cult of the remix in the music scene of today.

more

So here it is then. The best beat ever invented by white guys. And they’re German. Just what was the World coming to in the early 1970′s?
Neu were 1 of 4 crucial bands that emerged from Germany in the late ’60′s/early ’70′s while most people were looking and listening elsewhere. Can, Faust and Kraftwerk were the other 3.
A complete antidote to the over-the-top, overly complicated and unfortunately over here UK Prog Rock at the time, Neu’s beat was so hypnotic and – there’s no other word for it – interesting that they didn’t even need to embellish it with much else. Words, tune, melody, Roger Dean cover art, Tales From Topograhic Oceans, Lambs Lying Down On Broadway all a little unnecessary.
Neu were to become infinitely more influential on contemporary electronic music than anyone could possibly have imagined at the time. And to pass the test of time better than most of their UK and USA contemporaries. Never charted though.
In reality not many were listening in 1975 but Brian Eno was. He once said “there were 3 great beats in the ’70′s; Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, James Brown’s funk and Klaus Dinger’s Neu! Beat”. Klaus was Neu’s drummer and alongside guitarist Michael Rother created the phenomenon we now call Motorik.
Of course nowadays it’s difficult to read a music mag without Neu being referenced somewhere. And quite right too.
Recorded 1975.
E-Musik is from the album Neu! 75. Available in many good record shops but Rough Trade have a particularly good Neu section: RoughTrade