"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk.

had minimal commercial success during their existence, the band are retrospectively considered a central act of West Germany's 1970s krautrock movement.

[9] Drummer Klaus Dinger had joined Kraftwerk midway through sessions for their eponymous debut album.

[9] (Rother had been playing in a local band called The Spirits of Sound, the line-up of which also included drummer Wolfgang Flür, who would himself go on to join Kraftwerk two years later.)

This line-up played sporadic gigs and made a live appearance on German television programme Beat Club.

Recording sessions at Conny Plank's Windrose studio were unsuccessful (Rother later attributed the failure to "a difference of temperament").

[10] The band's eponymous first album sold just 30,000 records, yet is today considered a masterpiece by many, including influential artists such as David Bowie, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop and Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

To rectify the lack of material, the band filled the second side with manipulated versions of their already-released single "Neuschnee"/"Super", playing back each song at different speeds and sometimes warbling the music by messing with the tape machine or placing the record off center on the turntable.

This film was later referenced by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Volume 1 by also featuring the track "Super 16".

Dinger and Rother were both very different when left to their own devices, and this led to their final album of the 1970s, Neu!

Side Two (particularly the song "Hero") was acknowledged as important influence by many later involved in the United Kingdom's punk rock scene, with Dinger's sneering, barely intelligible vocals searing across a distorted Motorik beat with aggressive single chord guitar pounding.

To aid with performing on the album (and more importantly, live), Hans Lampe and brother Thomas Dinger were enlisted to help execute more music than was possible by two men.

Klaus Dinger, his brother Thomas and Hans Lampe formed La Düsseldorf, cited by David Bowie as "the soundtrack of the eighties".

by adding more synthesizers and a slightly more commercial aspect to some compositions, the band sounded like a cross between their old selves and the recent new wave groups.

(Cleopatra Records), features covers from artists including the Legendary Pink Dots, Download, Autechre, Dead Voices on Air, Khan, System 7, and James Plotkin, as well as an original track from Rother entitled "Neutronics 98 (A Tribute to Conny Plank)".

For many years the acrimony and legal wrangling between Rother and Dinger prevented their reaching agreement over licensing arrangements to make Neu!

In the ensuing vacuum, illegal and inferior-quality bootleg CDs (mastered from old vinyl records) were distributed by an outfit called Germanofon.

This situation was finally resolved in 2001, when Rother and Dinger put aside their differences and entered a studio to transfer the three Neu!

These were produced and released by Grönland Records (licensed to the Astralwerks label in the United States), packaged with stickers featuring rave reviews by notable artists, including Thom Yorke.

back catalogue are jointly owned by Rother, Dinger's estate and Plank's widow, Christa Fast.

In 2010 Rother teamed up with Steve Shelley (of Sonic Youth) and Aaron Mullan (of Tall Firs) for Hallogallo 2010, a live project to present Neu!

He has since toured sporadically with the German trio Camera, performing the work of Neu!, Harmonia and his own solo music, occasionally with Dieter Möbius of Cluster.

[8] Their sound was described as "a droning, hypnotic style made up of Mr. Dinger’s simple, perpetual-motion rhythms and Mr. Rother’s fluid guitar effects" by The New York Times critic Ben Sisario.

[2] Sisario called their first three albums "landmarks of German experimental rock, a genre that was quickly labeled Krautrock by journalists and fans.

[10] Artists such as David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, and Tortoise have drawn on the work of Neu!

[21] Joy Division and New Order drummer Stephen Morris has cited Klaus Dinger's drumming as an important influence on him.

as a prominent influence on their later sound, evident in their unique application of tape manipulation remix techniques and driving 4/4 rhythms pioneered by Rother and Dinger.