Kraftwerk/Neu! Member Klaus Dinger Dies

[7/4]

Neu! in 1972.

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Billboard

German musician Klaus Dinger, who played drums in the early days of Kraftwerk and went on to co-found Neu!, died March 21 of heart failure. He was 61. The news was not widely publicized until Neu!'s label, Gronland, announced it today (April 2).

Dinger and guitarist Michael Rother played with Kraftwerk in the early 1970s before opting to leave and form Neu! The group released three albums in rapid succession: a self-titled effort in 1972, "Neu! 2" the following year and "Neu! '75" in 1975.

Although the albums were not legally available on CD in the United States until 2001, the precise rhythms and pre-punk minimalism conjured by Dinger and Rother were a major influence on countless acts, from Sonic Youth to Tortoise and Stereolab.

Neu! disbanded after "Neu '75" but returned to the studio in 1985-86 to record new music. Material from these sessions was finally released in 1995 as "Neu! 4," although a Rother confidant later said it was only done to counter rampant bootlegging.

After Neu!, Dinger went on to form La Dusseldorf, which achieved international stardom with singles such as "Silver Cloud" and "Rheinita."

"Together with many friends of his music I will remember Klaus for his creativity as an artist and I will think about him with gratitude for his wonderful contributions to our project Neu!," Rother said in a statement.

Edited April 3, 2008 by 7/4

[clifford_thornton]

Wow! Sad news, and so young.

[rostasi]

What a shame...

Was just reading again the interview with Rother in this month's Wire.

A reunion was not really in the future.

Apparently, Klaus and Michael tried to patch things up,

but they had quite differing outlooks concerning music.

[Tony Pusey]

I dont currently have the albums, but I will never forget the imprssion the first alnum had on me, when Jeff Dexter played it during the intermission of some concert at the Rainbow, (or perhaps Sundown, Edmonton?). That drum pulse was sublime and mesmerising.

If the albums are again available, I will certainly look them up.

[BeBop]

Truly sad. I'm a tremendous Kraftwerk and Neu! fan. It's music that somehow always seemed to reinvigorate ears tired by acoustic jazz. And for driving...

[Teasing the Korean]

I have a fair amount of Kraftwerk but don't think I have anything with Dinger or Rother. Which albums are they on? I think "Autobahn" is the earliest one I have.

[clifford_thornton]

They're on the first two, right? I sold those for $50 a pop. Would probably like to have the music now.

I preferred Neu!, fwiw.

[rostasi]

Klaus Dinger was only on the first LP

as a second drummer with Andreas Hohmann.

Rother wasn't on any of the LPs tho he did play

with them for a very brief time between the first two LPs.

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks, shows you what I know!

[Chalupa]

What a shame...

Was just reading again the interview with Rother in this month's Wire.

A reunion was not really in the future.

Apparently, Klaus and Michael tried to patch things up,

but they had quite differing outlooks concerning music.

I read that Wire article too and it reminded me that I really need to buy their albums. Love the first one. RIP, Klaus.

[7/4]

April 4, 2008

Klaus Dinger, Drummer of Influential German Beat, Dies at 61

By BEN SISARIO, NYTimes

Klaus Dinger, the drummer for the 1970s German band Neu!, whose mechanically repetitive yet buoyant beats had a wide influence in underground rock, died on March 20. He was 61.

The cause was heart failure, according to an announcement on Wednesday by his German record label, Grönland, which did not say where he died.

Mr. Dinger formed Neu!, which means New!, with the guitarist Michael Rother in Düsseldorf in 1971, after both had played in an early incarnation of the group Kraftwerk. Over three albums, the two perfected a droning, hypnotic style made up of Mr. Dinger’s simple, perpetual-motion rhythms and Mr. Rother’s fluid guitar effects.

Exemplified in songs like the 10-minute “Hallogallo,” Mr. Dinger’s beat was a steady pulse that seemed to extend rock’s most basic rhythmic patterns infinitely. The beat came to be known as Motorik, an allusion to the industrial style then prevalent among German groups. (The name Kraftwerk means power station.)

Along with records by Kraftwerk, Can, Faust and a few other groups, the original Neu! albums — “Neu!” (1972), “Neu! 2” (1973) and “Neu! ’75” (1975) — are landmarks of German experimental rock, a genre that was quickly labeled Krautrock by journalists and fans, both affectionately and derisively. (The musicians preferred the term Kosmische Musik, or cosmic music.)

Though the Neu! albums were long out of print before being reissued in 2001, they inspired countless artists, including David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Stereolab. The Neu! beat can also be heard in recent work by such groups as the Boredoms, from Japan.

Brian Eno, the British producer who championed Neu! and later worked with Mr. Rother, once said, “There were three great beats in the ’70s: Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, James Brown’s funk and Klaus Dinger’s Neu! beat.”

In his student days in the 1960s, Mr. Dinger played in rock bands that he has described as influenced by the Beatles and the Kinks. He studied architecture but dropped out after three years to pursue music.

Mr. Dinger and Mr. Rother parted ways after the third Neu! album, and Mr. Dinger formed La Düsseldorf and later La! Neu? He reunited with Mr. Rother briefly in the mid-1980s and recorded an album, “Neu! 4,” that was released in 1995.

In a 1998 interview Mr. Dinger complained that he never called his beat Motorik.

“That sounds more like a machine, and it was very much a human beat,” he said. “It is essentially about life, how you have to keep moving, get on and stay in motion.”