Tag: Michael Rother (Page 2 of 5)

50: The Legacy of NEU!

23 September 2022 /

Trailblazing kosmische duo NEU! celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with a boxed set containing their imperial back catalogue. It is appended by a modern day remixes collection featuring contributions by members of NEW ORDER, FACTORY FLOOR, HOT CHIP and MOGWAI amongst others. The CD version of the boxed set additionally features the divisive ‘NEU! 86’ reunion album.

Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger had been members of KRAFTWERK when Ralf Hütter had temporarily left the band; they even appeared on West German TV with Florian Schneider but on Hütter’s return, Rother and Dinger left to form NEU!

The name NEU! had been chosen by Dinger as “a protest against the consumer society” and their aim was to restore a sense of German artistic identity, in reaction to the Americanisation of European post-war culture that was now prevalent due to the large detachment of American armed forces on station during The Cold War.

Dinger and Rother were never easy bedfellows from the start, so it was legendary producer Conny Plank who acted as mediator between the pair’s quite different personalities and artistic aspirations. Although popularising the motorik beat, Dinger was a manic and confrontational character who wanted to be more than just a drummer, while Rother was unassuming in his half speed guitar texturing to paint mini-cacophonies of esoteric sound.


The pair had a creative tension to produce music that was experimental, yet accessible. This was showcased on their 1972 self-titled debut with the magnificent opening salvo ‘Hallogallo’. Almost trance-like thanks to its lengthy time space, the Apache drum mantra would later be mutated into drum machines to act as backbeat for OMD. Originally released on Brain Records, the album outlined the musical manifesto of NEU! with a sound that was not derived from the Trans-Atlantic culture.

The pressure was on the duo to produce a worthy follow-up to their debut and but having spent most of their budget from Brain on ‘Für Immer’, effectively a more polished development of ‘Hallogallo’, the second self-titled album was still about five tracks short. So Dinger came up with a brainwave to fill the void with versions of their interim single ‘Neuschnee’ and its B-side ‘Super’. This included recording the 45 RPM single at 16 and 78 complete with needle drops; other variants included drilling an off-centre hole into the vinyl and replaying a tape recording on a faulty cassette player!

Was this winging it or avant-garde genius or was it as Rother thought, Dinger’s way of antagonising Brain Records following what he considered the lack of promo for the ‘Neuschnee’ single? But variations on a theme were always part of the NEU! manifesto as had been demonstrated on their cover artwork and this was taking it to a musical level.

By the time of their third album, relations between Rother and Dinger had got so bad that they agreed to conceive a side each, with minimal input from the other. But NEU! ‘75’ was to be their best record yet, with Rother directing the more sedate and thoughtful first half. Meanwhile Dinger brought in his younger brother Thomas and Hans Lampe to take over his drums as he headed to the front with his guitar for a snarling second half of proto-punk.

‘Isi’ was a wonderfully catchy synthesizer and piano instrumental while ‘Seeland’ pointed to where Rother was eventually to head with his solo career. However, the haunting ‘Leb Wohl’ with its plaintive piano and Dinger’s anguished lead vocal was the stand-out to provide the farewell; OMD were to use this template in their musical dedication ‘4 Neu’.

Dinger provided his angry masterpiece in ‘Hero’ which grooved and startled in equal measure. One person who was listening was Iggy Pop and he provided the ultimate tribute to Dinger with his recent performance of ‘Hero’ with Rother at Hamburg Stadtpark in June 2022.

David Bowie was another NEU! fan and Rother later was asked to play on the “Heroes” album sessions in Berlin, but the collaboration never materialised due to interference from Bowie’s then-management. It remains a curiosity as to what could have been…

After NEU! disbanded, Rother’s became Germany’s answer to Mike Oldfield, while Dinger continued with Hans Lampe and Thomas Dinger in LA DÜSSELDORF. The first three albums from each had their merits while Conny Plank worked with both parties, although even with his good natured demeanour, he was only to last one further recording with Dinger who never really mellowed.

Rother and Dinger entered a studio together in 1986 for a brief NEU! reunion but the continuing tensions meant that the album was abandoned. But in 1995, Dinger released the recordings as the fourth NEU! album in Japan without Rother’s consent; he later described this experience as “a rather painful disaster between Klaus Dinger and myself”. There were several standout tracks, one of which was subsequently titled ‘Euphoria’ and sounded like a lost OMD instrumental while there was a moodier variation called ‘Wave Mother’. The fourth album was eventually sanctioned by Rother after he remixed the recordings following Dinger’s death in 2008 and released as NEU! ‘86’.

Photo by Anton Corbijn

But relations were to sour further when Dinger then toured and recorded for several years as LA! NEU? with Rother angry that his former bandmate was unfairly trading off the NEU! legacy. It was to take many years for the pair to agree on how to reissue their long deleted but now heavily bootlegged albums.

An attempted reconciliation between Rother and Dinger was attempted when the first three NEU! albums were finally reissued in 2000 by Grönland Records, but during the joint promotional interviews, the pair were barely able to tolerate each other’s company, with the photographs taken by Anton Corbijn notably capturing the friction.

These first reissues gave NEU! some much deserved recognition and their influence can be heard in acts such as ULTRAVOX, U2, OMD, NEW ORDER, SONIC YOUTH, STEREOLAB, FUJIYA & MIYAGI, HOT CHIP and MOOD TAEG. And with the NEU! ‘50’ boxed set comes an album of remixes and reworkings by some of those acts by way of tribute.

Stephen Morris and Gabe Gurnsey’s take on ‘Hallogallo’ is probably more of a neu recording than NEU! remix but there are still enough original elements to attribute the source. While Yann Tiersen presents a filmic electronic take on ‘Lieber Honig’ from  the second album, the best of the bunch is Alexis Taylor with ‘4+1=5’, his slowed down 13 minute version of ‘Wave Mother’ that also adds his plaintive vocal in the final quarter.

After five decades, NEU! continue to inspire a new generation, thanks to the continuing live performances of Michael Rother featuring a significant portion of material from that era. While Klaus Dinger may no longer be on this mortal coil, his spirit lives on through the music and it is fitting that it is Hans Lampe who sits in the drum stool behind his former comrade-in-arms as the surviving heroes from ‘75’ continue the mission.

NEU! ‘50!’ is released as a 5LP or 5CD boxed set by Groenland Records

Michael Rother 2022 European live dates celebrating NEU! 50! include:

Berlin Betonhalle @ Silent Green (26th October), London Clapham Grand (3rd November), Barcelona Mira Festival (11th November), Paris BBMix Festival (26th November)

https://www.groenland.com/artist/neu/

http://www.neu2010.com/

https://www.michaelrother.de/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
23rd September 2022

A Short Conversation with MOOD TAEG

5 July 2022 /

MOOD TAEG are the enigmatic multi-continental / multi-cultural kosmische trio with TDK and K’ko based in Düsseldorf while Lowell Freeman resides in Shanghai.

With two remotely constructed albums ‘Exophora’ and ‘Anaphora’ released on Happy Robots Records to their name, MOOD TAEG are unsurprisingly influenced by NEU! and HARMONIA; from their debut long player, ‘2MR’ was a tribute to Michael Rother.

Their next release journeys down the well-trodden German Road of variations on a theme as KRAFTWERK did with ‘Kometenmelodie’ and NEU! offshoot LA DÜSSELDORF did with ‘Menschen’. Doing as the title suggests, ‘Anaphora Versions’ features in-house and external re-imaginings of tracks from the second MOOD TAEG album.

While the Electric Boogaloo version of ‘Pilomotor Reflex’ sees Lowell Freeman dust off a vintage Roland TR-808 in a homage to Morgan Khan’s pioneering ‘Street Sounds Electro’ compilations of yesteryear, first out of the gate is a DanKe version of ‘Happiness Fragment’ with the ‘Anaphora’ closer now shaped into a comparatively poppier template.

From Germany and China, TDK and Lowell Freeman respectively came together for a quick chat with ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their Dundeedorf ethos and five decades of NEU!

What was the idea behind ‘Happiness Fragment’, were there any particular influences behind its concept?

TDK: I’m not sure there was a concept as such but seeing as we don’t have conventional songs with lyrics, we often like to include spoken word samples that reflect our political or social views.

I remember reading Guy DeBord’s ‘Society of the Spectacle’ at university and it seemed to provide a good contrast to the more upbeat, even poppier, reworked version, along with feeling very apt in the social media saturated world we currently live in.

I included the Jimmy Reid (a famous Scottish trade unionist) sample for a couple of reasons. One was that it made a Scottish connection. The other reason was that it referenced a time when political discourse and political education among the working class was the norm and serious political discourse could be seen on mainstream media instead of the media-trained ghouls that exist today.

Lowell: One important concept for me was to try to progress from the first LP in ways that still follow that repetitiveness that we love from bands such as HARMONIA, but also make the tracks subtly evolve and never stay with one element for too long. ‘Happiness Fragment’ is probably the best example of that on ‘Anaphora’. I was also conscious of going for a more upbeat feel, at least in terms of sound. The LP track is also a clear nod to ‘Computerwelt’ in the last section with the pad sounds, chords and voice collage.

This neu DanKe version of ‘Happiness Fragment’ has been reworked to be more accessible?

TDK: As the DanKe suffix suggests, this was reworked by K’ko and myself and it was an attempt to take the longer album version and turn it into a track that would work well in a gig situation, especially considering that as a live band we only have two members compared to the three of the recording band.

Lowell: This DanKE version is mostly a Düsseldorf production, whereas the original has more of a Shanghai sound, so for me it feels fresh and is my favourite track on this ‘Versions’ CD. The added Jimmy Reid spoken word element is important to us and is also rather timely considering what’s happening in the UK with the rail workers and the treatment of all workers really. It will be no surprise to anyone who has heard our stuff that we are 100% behind Trade Unionism and workers having more say in their workplaces.

It’s NEU! 50, so will you be celebrating by going to any of the gigs? If you could choose a track to rework as MOOD TAEG, what would it be?

TDK: As far as we know, the only gig in Germany so far seems to be in Berlin but certainly, if they came to Düsseldorf, we would be there. In terms of choosing a track to rework, some people may say that we already did that with ‘2MR’ which bears more than a passing resemblance to ‘Hallogallo’ (haha!) I guess we would probably choose ‘Isi’ from ‘Neu! 75’ – it’s a very concise distillation of all the great NEU! elements and one of the great album openers.

Lowell: Yeah, anyone who’s listened to our first LP ‘Exophora’ knows ‘2MR’ pays homage to ‘Hallogallo’ so I think we’ve got a rework covered. If I was to do a track live, then yeah ‘Isi’ on ‘Neu! 75’ is a nice wee upbeat number.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its cosmic thanks to MOOD TAEG

The DanKe version of ‘Happiness Fragment’ is available on the usual online platforms from 8th July 2022

‘Anaphora Versions’ is released by Happy Robots Records as in CD and digital formats on 22nd July 2022, available along with the MOOD TAEG back catalogue from https://www.happyrobots.co.uk/product-page/mood-taeg-anaphora-versions-bot28-cd

https://www.happyrobots.co.uk/mood-taeg

https://www.facebook.com/MoodTag/

https://twitter.com/MoodTaeg

https://www.instagram.com/moodtaeg/

Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
5th July 2022

MICHAEL ROTHER Dreaming

6 September 2020 /

With a 50 year plus music career, Michael Rother is one of modern German music’s great trailblazers. A founder member of NEU! with Klaus Dinger, Rother helped to pioneer Kosmische Musik.

There was also the HARMONIA project with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius of CLUSTER which led to him becoming the original first choice of David Bowie to play guitar on ‘Heroes’, although that promising partnership never became reality. When NEU! split after three albums in 1975, Rother embarked on an acclaimed solo career which over nine albums gave him prestige as Germany’s answer to Mike Oldfield.

Although best known as a guitarist, Rother’s last album ‘Remember (The Great Adventure)’ released in 2004 was an all-electronic affair and saw him experimenting with vocals from Sophie Joiner née Williams and his now label boss Herbert Grönemeyer. It was Joiner who provided the lead vocals to the album’s best song ‘He Said’ while there was a duet between herself and Grönemeyer on ‘Morning After (Loneliness)’, one of the other highlights.

One of the reasons that it has taken Rother so long to record a new album has been the popular demand for him to play live, thanks to a renewed interest in NEU! initiated by their album reissue programme by Grönemeyer via his Grönland Records in 2001. But the worldwide lockdown left Rother alone at his home studio in Forst by the River Weser in Lower Saxony. Missing his Italian partner and unable to do shows, his need to express himself was channelled into a new record.

Much of what has now become the ‘Dreaming’ album actually dates back to a number of sketches originally made during the ‘Remember (The Great Adventure)’ sessions to which Sophie Joiner contributed her vocals to, but were not used or completed.

As a result, the voice of the now mother of four appears on seven of the nine tracks. Meanwhile Rother has focussed his time to add his guitar and other layers to flinish these electronically derived fragments.

The ‘Dreaming’ title track does as it suggests and affirms Rother’s intention to bring more guitars in as water shimmers in the background. Meanwhile Sophie Joiner repeats the phrase by way of a vocal hook before it is reversed and treated to a mind-bending effect.

The electronic pulsing of ‘Bitter Tang’ perhaps can be seen as a natural development of ‘Morning After (Loneliness)’ with the sparing six string delving into Rother’s past in a manner reminiscent of his classic Conny Plank produced album trilogy of ‘Flammende Herzen’, ‘Sterntaler’ and ‘Katzenmusik’.

Paradoxically “singing loud”, Sophie Joiner provides whispered and spoken passages to ‘Fierce Wind Blowing’ because “nothing matters” and the piece as a whole recalls ‘Sombre Reptiles’ from Brian Eno’s ‘Another Green World’, especially with its layers of sustained guitars and gentle but essential rhythm construction.

A wholly electronic instrumental, the hypnotic ‘Wopp-Wopp’ plays along with gentle percussive textures and lovely choral synths. Sophie Joiner’s vocals return on ‘Hey-Hey’ and have a solemn intense air which veers occasionally towards Björk as a deep ethnic mood is in place across eight minutes to compliment her using a hazy psychedelic template.

Then Sophie Joiner rather fatalistically states “this could be the end”, a surprise comes with ‘Lovely Mess’. Driven by an understated bongo mantra as part of a dub treated soundtrack, it is something that the late Andrew Weatherall would have been proud to construct for ONE DOVE.

With more minimal guitar and recalling Rother’s less lauded Fairlight period which included the ‘Lust’, ‘Süssherz Und Tiefenschärfe’ and ‘Traumreisen’ albums, ‘Out In The Rain’ sees Sophie Joiner almost turn into Suzanne Vega. Cautiously joyous, she waxes lyrical about how “everyone else is crazy” and that she enjoys staying in to sing loud.

Another wholly electronic instrumental piece, ‘Gravitas’ is almost ambient but its enchanting textures build and repeat like a mantra until it becomes like a cascade of church bells. But closing with the wistfully serene ‘Quiet Dancing’, Sophie Joiner’s wonderfully airy delivery is sweetened with Rother’s maestro E-bow and delicate single note six string over a gentle backbone that would sound great on ‘Twin Peaks’.

Those who have enjoyed the recent virtuoso live performances of Michael Rother with Hans Lampe and Franz Bargmann in recent years should be aware that as with his previous solo albums since ‘Lust’, ‘Dreaming’ is very much a sedate listening experience unlike those energetic gigs.

With the idea that dreams are what the brain generates at night to cleanse the mind of stress by connecting to positive emotions, this album has captured a guarded optimism as a reaction to the melancholic isolation has undoubtedly affected everyone.

In difficult times, ‘Dreaming’ is comforting with its hints of hope, romance, escapism and nostalgia all in one musical package.

‘Dreaming’ is released by Grönland Records in vinyl LP and digital formats

The album is also available as part of the 7CD boxed set ‘Solo II’ also released by Grönland Records

http://www.michaelrother.de/en/

https://www.facebook.com/michaelrother.neu.harmonia/

https://twitter.com/_MichaelRother_

https://www.instagram.com/michaelrother.neu.harmonia/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Rick Burger
6th September 2020

MIDGE URE + TINY MAGNETIC PETS The 1980 Tour Live in Northampton

20 February 2020 /

For Midge Ure, it would be an understatement to say that ‘The 1980 Tour’ has been a success.

Focussing on the VISAGE and ULTRAVOX material that was released in what could be considered as the Year Zero in the synthesizer career of Midge Ure, he has been thrilling audiences what they have long desired… solo live renditions of some of best electronic pop of the Synth Britannia era, with the diminutive Glaswegian playing electric guitar AND synths!

After 40 years, these songs have, as Ure sang on the 1984 ULTRAVOX single ‘Love’s Great Adventure’, “stood the test of time” and unsurprisingly, ‘The 1980 Tour’ has been extended to Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and this second leg in the UK.

Accompanying Midge Ure on the first leg of the UK tour which began in October 2019 had been his old RICH KIDS band mate Rusty Egan with his support set of monologues and memories from the New Romantic era. Disillusioned in 1978 with rock and noting that electronic music from the likes of KRAFTWERK, SPACE and YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA was on the ascendency, the pair had formed VISAGE.

This had been partly to make up for the shortfall in UK synth music at the time, so that Egan had some homegrown material he could play down at The Blitz Club where he had been holding Bowie-themed nights with Steve Strange, the venue’s face and gatekeeper who was to become VISAGE’s flamboyant front man.

And it was via keyboard virtuoso Billy Currie becoming involved in the VISAGE project that Ure was then invited to join ULTRAVOX and the rest was history. Thus the early work of VISAGE and ULTRAVOX can be seen as one single creative thread for Midge Ure.

With Rusty Egan otherwise engaged in his own VISAGE 1980 x 2020 live presentation with ‘Fade To Grey’ co-writer Chris Payne and Zaine Griff set to debut at W-Festival, it was Dublin electronic trio TINY MAGNETIC PETS (who had been the opener on the German dates of the ‘1980’ tour) to begin proceedings at the Royal & Derngate.

A rather plush entertainment space in the centre of Northampton, the helpful staff were all dressed like members of the Gary Numan band circa 1979, coincidentally the time when Billy Currie was a member prior to the launch of the Midge Ure fronted ULTRAVOX.

TINY MAGNETIC PETS certainly did as their name suggested as glamourous singer Paula Gilmer magnetised the crowd who were actually quite lively for a Monday night, clapping and swaying along to songs such as ‘Shortwaves’, ‘Not Giving In’ and ‘Falling Apart In Slow Motion’ with polite enthusiasm.

One song that stood out was a rousing symphonic new number called ‘Echoes’ which will be on the new TINY MAGNETIC PETS’ upcoming new album ‘The Point Of Collapse’. Literally echoing ULTRAVOX, it caught people’s attention.

Ending the set with ‘Semaphore’, Eugene Somers’ synthetic beats and Sean Quinn’s ‘Europe Endless’ inspired synth passages certainly surprised and satisfied an audience who had not been expecting to hear a Germanic flavoured Irish support band on the bill.

Backed by Cole Stacey on bass + synths, Joseph O’Keefe on synths, piano + violin and Russell Field on electronic drums, Midge Ure took to the stage quite early in the evening and opened with an instrumental rendition of ‘Yellow Pearl’, the iconic ‘Top Of The Pops’ theme tune from 1981 which he composed with Phil Lynott but had been originally slated for VISAGE.

Heading straight into the ‘Visage’, its call for “New styles, new shapes, new moulds” recalled how much of a cultural impact the New Romantics had, with the daily BBC TV ‘Nationwide’ news magazine presented by Jon Snow even commenting at the time that the movement’s members predicted it likely to have a bigger impact than punk… oh how right they were!

Also from the first VISAGE album, ‘Blocks On Blocks’ recalled Cold War tensions and The Berlin Wall, before leading into the NEU! inspired romp of ‘The Dancer’.

Earlier in the evening, the audience had been treated to the beautiful resonances of ‘Flammende Herzen’, the debut solo album by NEU! guitarist Michael Rother who was a significant influence on the sound of ULTRAVOX.

Recollections of The Winter Of Discontent came with a superb rendition of a vocoder assisted ‘In The Year 2525’, the Zager & Evans cover that was demoed by Midge Ure, Rusty Egan and Steve Strange and offered to EMI as VISAGE who then turned it down… ooops!! Harking back to VISAGE, there was a rendition of ‘Glorious’, a new tune written with Rusty Egan and Chris Payne with its inherent anthemic qualities showing that Ure has lost none of his prowess.

After ‘Mind Of A Toy’, Ure joked about how 50% of concert audiences did not want to be there, having been dragged along by significant other halves and were likely to only know two songs. With ‘Fade To Grey’ probably being one of them, he launched into a full-blown synthesized performance which initiated that first chorus singalong of the night.

Performing the whole of ULTRAVOX’s breakthrough ‘Vienna’ album in order, there were welcome airings for ‘Private Lives’ and ‘Western Promise’. Meanwhile the absence of Warren Cann was neatly managed with ‘Mr X’ being vocalled on vocoder to highlight its KRAFTWERK roots.

‘Passing Strangers’ and ‘New Europeans’ saw Ure having fun playing the guitar hero although the latter’s lyric about how “his modern world revolves around the synthesizer’s song” is still relevant forty years on.

The biggest cheer was naturally reserved for the title track which has become something of a ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for The Blitz Club generation; for its recording, co-producer Conny Plank had engineered its weary sound by imagining an old man at a piano in a desolate theatre who had been playing the same tune for forty years, which was eerily ironic!

While ‘Vienna’ didn’t get people dancing, the crowd finally got on their feet for ‘All Stood Still’, proving that in the world of Synth Britannia at least, nothing goes down better live than an uptempo tune about a nuclear holocaust…

For the encore, Midge Ure dusted off ‘Passionate Reply’, the excellent B-side to the ‘Vienna’ single; but as good as it was, its presence was a little lost with the crowd craving some hit singles. It may have been better positioned as an interlude before ‘Astradyne’, but everyone got what they wanted with ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’. Notably a re-configuring of ‘Sonnenrad’ by Michael Rother, ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’ was yet another song about a nuclear holocaust.

Now while it might have been a depressing subject to revive, these songs emerged from the spectre of ‘Protect & Survive’, when Mutually Assured Destruction haunted the minds of the population. But with climate change now very much a reality, it was very fitting.

There came relief from all the apocalyptic anxiety with the escapist quasi-religious pomp of ‘The Voice’ and ‘Hymn’ to end the evening on a rousing optimistic high, aided by the untutored vocals of a mass audience choir!

‘The 1980 Tour’ has been all about a body of great songs that were the product of an aspirational cinematic era which came was a reaction to the grimness of the incumbent socio-political environment. It’s perhaps no surprise or coincidence that this era of VISAGE and ULTRAVOX is resonating again not just with the public, but with the man who was a key contributor to that music.

Midge Ure ‘Soundtrack: 1978-2019’ is released as a 2CD+DVD boxed set, available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/

http://www.midgeure.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/midge.ure/

https://twitter.com/midgeure1

TINY MAGNETIC PETS ‘Girl in a White Dress’ EP is released by Happy Robots Records

https://www.tinymagneticpets.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tinymagneticpets/

https://twitter.com/TinyMagneticPet

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
20th February 2020

CONNY PLANK The Potential Of Noise

15 January 2019 /

“With this noise, I can try to find if it is possible to make music out of it…”

‘The Potential Of Noise’ is a touching insight into the late Conny Plank, undoubtedly one of the most innovative and important studio exponents in popular music.

Directed by his son Stephan with Reto Caduff, the film sees him embarking on a journey to rediscover his father’s impact and his importance in music history.

As the studio in the converted farmhouse in Wolperath, half an hour’s drive from Cologne, was also the family home, Stephan grew up around the artists who his father worked with.

John Foxx is one artist who considers Conny Plank to be the most important record producer since George Martin, having recorded ULTRAVOX’s ‘Systems Of Romance’ album with him in 1978. ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK also has spoken to a number of the musicians who Conny Plank worked with and all had nothing but affectionate memories of him.

Eberhard Kranemann, a one-time member of KRAFTWERK who later recorded an album ‘Fritz Müller Rock’ with Plank said: “He was a very important man, for me in the last century he was the most important producer, engineer and mixer in the whole world, THE BEST! He was so great that he even turned down David Bowie and U2. He was very honest, he didn’t want to work with them.”

DAF drummer and instrumentalist Robert Görl who made four albums with Plank went further… “He was almost like a father to me, we lived at the studio so it was all very familiar. We had a room and slept there” he said, “we would go down in the morning and he would be making breakfast while his girlfriend Christa Fast would make cakes. It was a very homely feeling that we remember most. And this made it easier for us to feel good and create without having a heavy head.”

“To work with him was always a pleasure” said Bodo Staiger of RHEINGOLD, “he was relaxed, very competent and had the talent to listen what the artist wants. And he also brought some good ideas and inspiration. For example, the percussive synth sound on ‘Dreiklangsdimensionen’ was his idea.”

Michael Rother remembered “he was so valuable… we wouldn’t have been able to record NEU! or the second HARMONIA album or my solo albums without Conny, so he’s all over the place in my music… thank you Conny.”

With such compliments, any film featuring prominent figures such as Midge Ure, Daniel Miller and David A Stewart recounting their memories of working with Conny Plank was likely to be fascinating. But for his son Stephan who was only 13 years old when Plank passed away in December 1987, this bittersweet film has been a journey to understand more about his father while confronting his demons of being neglected.

The key to Plank’s success was undoubtedly his personality rather than his actual technique and his ability to get the best out of the people, something he felt he wouldn’t be able to do working with David Bowie or U2. Today, Plank’s custom hand-built 56 channel mixing desk is owned by David M Allen, another producer known for his warm outlook and gift for providing an environment for artists to excel.

For those who perhaps only know Plank’s work through KRAFTWERK and ULTRAVOX, the soundtrack that accompanies ‘The Potential Of Noise’ is an education, with the instrumental music of NEU! and CLUSTER & ENO being particularly effective. Among the interviewees are the late Holger Czukay, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Michael Rother, Robert Görl, Karl Hyde, Jaz Coleman, Annette Humpe, Gianna Nannini and many more.

Daniel Miller describes Plank’s work as experimental but still musical, while Robert Görl and Annette Humpe recall how Plank was particularly good at capturing the right mood for recording with “no rules”.

Conny Plank only produced the debut EURYTHMICS album ‘In The Garden’ in 1981, but David A Stewart applied that hippy with technology philosophy to their breakthrough second album ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’, mixing electronics with brass in a converted church studio.

Although recorded at RAK Studios in London, Midge Ure remembers after playing the demo of ‘Vienna’, ULTRAVOX talked musically about the plans for recording while Plank thought in terms of sound; he imagined an old man at a piano in a desolate theatre who had been playing the same tune for forty years. And when Billy Currie came to record his ivory parts, that was exactly the feel which Plank had engineered for the now iconic track.

For Plank, money and tapes were things that passed through his life, but his generosity is apparent throughout this documentary, both financially and in spirit. Michael Rother talks of how Plank helped to fund the recording of the first NEU! album to ensure that the duo had as much independence as possible to create, while it is also known he had offered to finance the recording of the first Midge Ure fronted ULTRAVOX album before the band signed to Chrysalis Records.

The most emotional recollections of Conny Plank come from hip-hop duo WHODINI who consider Conny’s Studio to be the best facility that they have ever recorded in, while also glowing about the effort which Plank made towards providing a recording environment that was as comfortable as possible, something the pair never experienced again after that visit to Germany.

But despite the generosity to his artists, the film tells of how Plank was not exactly the perfect father to Stephan, with Holger Czukay remembering that Plank treated Stephan as Christa Fast’s son, rather than his own. It’s a point also highlighted by Annette Humpe who tellingly, actually asks Stephan on camera whether his father ever took him out into the countryside; it turned out he did… but for just one afternoon.

Resigned to the fact that few photos exist of them together, Stephan reflects that the best memento of his father now is his vast catalogue of work. Plank’s own end is sad, with him becoming too ill to mix EURYTHMICS ‘Revenge’ album following returning from a concert tour in South America with Dieter Moebius.

Despite Christa nursing him back to near health with a new diet regime, Plank’s need to work ultimately consumed him and worsened his condition, eventually leading to the cancer to which he succumbed to.

The film concludes with Stephan taking his own young family to Wolperath to see his former home, reminiscing about the bathroom where the gold and platinum discs used to hang, as well as the dining area where the family and the visiting artists used to sit.

With the final words of the documentary, Midge Ure summarises that the music Plank made was timeless and ultimately outlived him. Described by KILLING JOKE’s Jaz Coleman as “a revolutionary”, when the end credits roll of ‘The Potential Of Noise’, it’s rather appropriately to the proto-punk of ‘Hero’ by NEU!

‘The Potential Of Noise’ is released on DVD by Cleopatra Entertainment

The 4CD box set ‘Who’s That Man: A Tribute To Conny Plank’ is available via Grönland Records ‎

https://www.facebook.com/Conny-Plank-21971244034/

http://cleopatra-entertainment.com/conny-plank-the-potential-of-noise/

http://groenland.com/en/artist/conny-plank-2/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
15th January 2019

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