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By GINA VIVINETTO and PAMELA DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 22, 2001
THE NEU! REISSUES: Ambitious ears can now revisit the groundbreaking sounds of these German pioneers.
Good news for fans of Krautrock -- that's what enthusiasts affectionately call an influential handful of avant-rock bands from Berlin, Hamburg and Dusseldorf. The Astralwerks label recently reissued all three albums by the 1970s minimalist rock band Neu!
Who?
Fair question. Those of you who are -- only temporarily -- out of the loop, don't feel silly. Neu! never made much of a splash outside its native Germany. In fact, until now these albums have never been available on compact disc in the United States. But the band -- whose name literally means "new!" -- was a major influence on postmodern musicmakers such as David Bowie, Brian Eno, Sonic Youth and Radiohead. And it was a contemporary of the equally influential Kraftwerk and Can.
Taking cues from German avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen as much as from 1960s American angsty art rockers the Velvet Underground, Neu! did things with minimalism and drone that kicked open doors for three decades of sonic innovation.
Neu!'s mostly instrumental work also inspired folks in the current electronica movement, such as Moby and Stereolab.
The band featured two spirited, freethinking technophiles, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, who had jumped ship from an early incarnation of Kraftwerk. Rother and Dinger believed in experimentation, in repetition, in hypnotic beats and ambience. Neu!'s music is often lulling and lovely, though folks who need quick changes or bridges and choruses may go mad from its stuck-in-a-groove syncopation.
Neu! released only these three albums in its short career, spanning about five years. (Warning: Avoid at all costs the bubble-gummy Neu! 4 reunion album released in the mid 1980s.)
Listen to these discs and marvel. How can it be, after three decades, the music of Neu! still sounds like a dispatch from a fascinating future?
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
NEU! (ASTRALWERKS) The 1972 debut is a noisefest of experiments with feedback and processed effects. You get a sense of the lads' industrial Dusseldorf home base with the factory sounds and machinelike rhythms of Souderoujebob. Other tracks sound murky and cinematic.
Fine-tuned ears will pick up on the musical seeds that later sprouted the angsty, angular chaos of Joy Division, Bauhaus and early Sonic Youth. Prepare to be hypnotized or driven mad by Dinger's lock-groove beats on the epic, 10-minute Hallogallo, paving the way for decades of ambient and house music. A
-- G.V.
NEU!2 (ASTRALWERKS) The second album, released in 1972, has some familiar-sounding fare. That's because Neu! ran out of money during recording. The solution? Why, simply take tracks from the debut record, speed some of them up and some of them down and voila! Instant batch of new songs. Critics say Neu! got away with using low-cost filler. Loyalists maintain the act was brilliant, introducing the concept of the remix. Regardless, it's no mind-blower. B-.
-- G.V.
NEU!75 (ASTRALWERKS) This 1975 album completes the trinity. The loping and loopy Isi is a precursor to today's techno. The sense of tension between the sullen Dinger and the dreamier Rother is most evidenced here. Neu!75 reeks of disintegration, but of a lovely sort.
There's a definite psychological split between tracks like Rother's drifting Seeland and his soothing, ambient Leb' Wohl and Dinger's aggressive guitar rant Hero. A-.
-- G.V.
TRISHA YEARWOOD, INSIDE OUT (MCA NASHVILLE) The songs on Inside Out may not be as smart as those on her last effort, Real Live Woman, but Trisha Yearwood takes them all to a higher level with her durable voice.
Yearwood is a singer to count on. She can interpret a song better than almost any woman making music in Nashville today and continues to evolve with each album. After 10 years in the business, she sounds relaxed and ready to lighten her load on this album. Yearwood recently shed her husband and the Tennessee home they shared. It's time to move on.
Her transitions are smooth and effortless from the tambourine-laden, foot-tapping first track, Love Alone, to the quiet, almost lullabylike closer, When We Were Still in Love.
And along the way she finds room for special guests. Rosanne Cash makes a cameo on Seven Year Ache, and former Eagle (and former Yearwood duet partner) Don Henley croons throughout the title track. Listen carefully and you'll hear Vince Gill doing background vocals on I Don't Paint Myself Into Corners. Grade: B+
-- PAMELA DAVIS, Times staff writer
K.T. OSLIN, LIVE CLOSE BY, VISIT OFTEN (BNA) There truly is no categorizing K.T. Oslin. She would probably be just as comfortable, microphone in hand, leaning against a baby grand piano in a cabaret as she would be perched on a wooden stool in a honky-tonk.
On Live Close By, Visit Often, Oslin has hooked up with another artist who also defies categorization. Raul Malo, the singer and soul of the Mavericks, is co-producer, and his touches are everywhere, from the horns to the Latin-flavored percussion.
Oslin's songwriting (she wrote and/or co-wrote seven of the songs) is far removed from the lighthearted fluff that permeates radio airwaves.
The album, her first in five years, is like a gift basket. It has a smattering of goodies -- some worth keeping, some you want to give away. Some of the keepers include the snappy title track, the aching ballad Drivin', Cryin', Missin' You, the bluesy rocker Mexico Road and a sultry dance version of the 1951 hit Come On-a My House. Grade: B+
-- P.D.