Klaus Dinger post-Neu

RIP klaus, gonna rock La D stuff shortly.

Also recommend you check out "Neondian". Fun album. Once more, bye bye Klaus :(

Respekt

Obit on Radio 4 (skip 15 minutes in)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/last_word

Lets forget all the tears and simply remember that Klaus Dinger was the greatest musician ever to have walked the planet. I own all of his albums, he didn't cock up once, every single second is damned gold. The internet is still flooded with obituaries, but they all get the facts wrong and cast him as the drummer of Kraftwerk (the irony). Miki Yui (his posthumous PR manageress) tells me that three more KD albums will be out in September, I can barely wait, but in the meantime Michael Rother is just mouthing off about how much a jerk Klaus was, and seeing as the guy is dead and Miki Yui doesn't want to get involved, all the bloody 'I'm new to NEU!' people believe him. Also, that damned wikipedia entry for la! NEU!, that's hardly 'neutral' is it! Before I get carried away with passion, here are my 5 favourite KD albums:

NEU! (NEU!-1971) Best of the three NEU! albums, Klaus' vox on 'Lieber Honig' are so beautiful. Hallogallo, Im Gluck, oh, beautiful. Negativland ruins it a bit but, ach so...

Viva (La Dusseldorf-1978) Simply the greatest album ever. Every track is gold. Rheinita is my favourite track EVER. How did La D. not get world famous?

Blue (Klaus Dinger-1984 to 1987) Archival album, one of his best. The first 5 tracks show you how pretty his music can be, whilst the final track paves the way to la! NEU? It single handedly turned me into an Amerika hater.

Cha Cha 2000 Live in Tokyo (la! NEU?-1996) Every rock music fan must own a copy. I implore the reader to buy this. There is really no way you can't love it.

Year of the Tiger (la! NEU?-1998) The first big track shows you true motorik, what KD has been aiming at all these years, and the second his laid back ethos. Again, a must have.

Nearly made it but not quite:

NEU! '75 (1975) NEU!
La Dusseldorf (1976) La Dusseldorf
Individuellos (1981) La Dusseldorf
Neondian/Mon Amour (1984/2006) Klaus Dinger/la-duesseldorf.de
Neu! 4 (1986) NEU!
Die Engel Des Herrn (1992) Die Engeld des Herrn
Goldregen (1998) la! NEU?
Live at Kunsthalle Dusseldorf (1998) la! NEU?

Eyes peeled for the SEPTEMBER RELEASES

What happened to these September releases? I haven't heard anything new from Dinger since 2001...

Look, I agree that Dinger was the better musician and had all the big ideas, but he really did seem like a jerk and a kook. I remember reading this interview with him where he was like reading a biography of Neu! and tore down just about everything related to Rother, it was clear that he just all-out hated the guy, mainly (it seeemed) for wanting equal credit on the Neu! releases, while Rother has always seemed super chill and respectful to me (though this stuff post-mortem is a little disturbing). I'd much rather have a beer with him for what that's worth (plus he was much better looking)

I dig the Neondian album a lot (much better send-off to La-D than Individuellos) but I hate the lyrics to "America"; he seems to hate a lot of things

KosmischeSynth's got me thinking about exploring some La! NEU? I've never been able to find any stuff at a reasonable price and until that post I'd never heard anyone be particularly enthusiastic about them. Ordered a copy of the Cha Cha 2000 Live in Tokyo online for nearly £20. A gamble but I look forward to hearing it.

The ILM Krautrock listening club was excellent.

So I've had a chance to listen to La! Neu? 'Cha Cha 2000'. I've been keen to hear anything Klaus Dinger recorded under La! Neu? for some time and my interest was rekindled after a previous post. The barrier thus far has been unreasonably costly imports but feeling a yearning for some genuine motorik sounds lately I decided that 'hey, there's probably worse ways I could spend 20 bucks.

Consisting of one concert split over two discs released on the Japanese based Captain Trip records 'Cha Cha 2000' is literally a long improvisation on the La Dusseldorf track.

After a gentle piano based introduction reminiscent of the quieter parts of. Neu! 75 the performance veneers off into a wild and chaotic improvisation tampered by overbearing female vocal shrieking before tribal drumming its way through a deep and unnerving groove. (By this point I was severely testing my girlfriends patience)

Eventually a signature Dinger beat emerges followed by the first recognisable shapes of the original La Dusseldorf version of the track. From their things progress steadily into a transcendent and repetitive groove that, for me, recalls the image suggested by the German poet Rilke in his poem about the panther in the zoo and the power of its "ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed". The beat really holds that kind of power. Lots of bands may have imitated Klaus Dingers motorik sound but it never sounds better than whenever it appears in his own projects. Dinger rules that fucking beat! And you know what, he's punk as fuck too. A proper visionary.

Disc 2 continues on from the peaks of the first half and just builds and builds with seemingly limitless potential. The whole thing just seems to ascend ceaselessly into what, for the duration of the disc, feels like a glorious infinite rising beyond something. Like 'Sister Ray' by the Velvets the various instruments seem to compete for dominance while the rhythm locks it all together. The disc as a whole stands amongst the most defining and surprising of Dingers career. Everything you could want, as a fan of his, and more is there to be found. Including, in an unexpected twist, some truly comedic moments towards the finale as Dinger addresses members of the crowd directly encouraging them to hum along.

. . . and the end, well, its a damn shame this thing ever has to end.

Anyway, excuse the lengthy rambling post. Stuff just blew my mind tonight.

Miki Yui (his posthumous PR manageress) tells me that three more KD albums will be out in September

i guess ive posted about this already but does anyone know what these are supposed to be?

ok - one of those (Japandorf) has just been released. kinda typical Dinger stuff but which cute Japanese vocals. another version of "Cha Cha" which throws in a huge "Hallo Gallo" homage. it's actually pretty fun and IMO better than most of the La! Neu? albums. not a terrible way to go out!

just hearing Cha Cha 2000 Live in Tokyo now. Kind of hard to believe this isn't more known, especially given it's similarities to what Boredoms were doing at almost the exact same time.

https://t.co/eFZA8Qjvfk @thewiremagazine amazing

— Warren Ellis (@warrenellis13) November 27, 2021

The track "Tschüs" on the Die Engel Des Herrn album, about his dad who had died recently, is a wonderful thing. Typically, the rest of the album is a mess.