Various – Brand Neu!

Neu!, rising from the ashes of Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger's split from Kraftwerk in the early 1970s, are now seen as one of the most important Krautrock bands of that era, their influence evident in the frequency with which they are namechecked and revered by a wide range of bands and artists from Bowie to PiL to Eno and more. Following the reissue of their three seminal albums (Neu!, Neu! 2 and Neu! 75) on CD in the early 2000s, a new generation of musicians has been turned on to their ahead-of-its-time blend of progressive elements with repetitive electronics and rock, often held together with the trademark 4/4 "motorik" rhythm, an impersonal yet compelling driving beat that is one of krautrock's defining features.Here, then, are a reasonably disparate group of artists, who have been compiled together as a testament to just how far-reaching that influence is. Of most interest to Neu! and Krautrock fans will probably be the last two tracks: La Duesseldorf's 'Sketch 1_08', a previously unreleased track which was one of the last pieces of music that Dinger was involved in before his death, and Rother's guitar track 'Neutronics 98'.Elsewhere this fairly mixed bag ranges from the woozy shoegaze (which seems somehow too organic and natural-sounding to fit that easily into the Neu-influenced bracket) of School of Seven Bells to the enjoyable, danceable electronica of Holy Fuck, LCD Soundsystem, Cornelius and - perhaps the most enjoyable track here - Fujiya & Miyagi. Even Oasis contribute an appropriately motorik track, that manages to not plod too badly, at least until the vocal kicks in; doing rather better on this count than Kasabian, whose 'Stuntman' fails to really take off.Opening track Ciccone Youth's 'Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu!' (from 1988's The Whitey Album) is just about the most left-field, yet also irritating, thing on the whole album. Comprising two women chatting, in a kind of passive-aggressive "I know more about music and bands and am hipper than you" way about becoming Dinosaur Jr's manager, while music (presumably Neu!, although it's quite quiet) plays in the background, after the first couple of listens I found myself switching directly on to track two when this came on.Really, there are two ways that you can approach this album. You can either listen to it for the common thread, and use it to reflect on Neu!, and what are the essential elements of their music that have been replicated down the years by these bands; or you can just consume it as a collection of random tracks by a series of unrelated current, or current-ish bands. Whichever, this does stand up reasonably well, but for me - and I would assume for most people - it had what is, after all, surely the desired effect, which was to send me straight onto Spotify to search out some Neu! originals, and educate myself a little further about this admirable and still very relevant band.65%Neu! on Myspace (fan site)