[11] Having broken off from an early incarnation of Kraftwerk, Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger quickly began the recording sessions for what would become Neu!.

The pair recorded the album across four nights in December 1971 at Star Studios in Hamburg with producer and engineer Conny Plank.

[clarification needed] According to Dinger, the first two days were unproductive until he brought his taishōgoto ("Japanese banjo")[12] to the sessions, a heavily treated version of which can be heard on "Negativland", the first of the album's six tracks to be recorded.

[citation needed] The band was christened by Dinger (Rother had been against the name, preferring a more "organic" title) and a pop art style logo was created, featuring italic capitals.

[10] In 2001, Q described the album's motorik beat as "krautrock's defining relentless rhythm" and an influence on subsequent ambient music and punk.