1. Neu!Neu!
Ah, my absolute favourite! Okay, so my first thought was to choose 13 Neu! records, but they didn’t release 13 records [laughs]. So Neu! I really like, and sometimes when I have some leisure time and I just want to put a record on, that record will usually be Neu! I really enjoy listening to it because they have these spacious moments and they’re just fantastic.
I got into it in the late 70s. I never got to see them play but then I don’t think they played so much, because in those days, the German Krautrock thing was super underground, and there was no musical infrastructure for that kind of thing. Some of those bands played in rare locations but I think the only Krautrock bands that really toured were either Ihre Kinder or Can, and they were more rock bands. There wasn’t really any music press then either, and what there was was all about the Anglo-American bands, and actually, Krautrock in Germany was considered to be badly played English or American blues. The meaning of the name really changed – when I was young everyone said Krautrock was music you shouldn’t like. But Krautrock was a way for German progressive musicians to try out their own authentic music mixed with some jazz as well, what with the student revolution and all that. And some of the Krautrock which was around was pretty boring. But Neu! I absolutely love!
