NEU! Essentials

Guitarist Michael Rother and drummer Klaus Dinger were half of the earliest incarnation of Kraftwerk, but when they banded together to release their self-titled 1972 debut as NEU!, they created a sound entirely their own. Using a deliberately constricted beat Dinger dubbed "motorik," the duo took minimalist repetition further than anyone in rock had thus far. On 1973's NEU! 2, they went even further, devoting the LP's second side to radical manipulations of a previously-released single. NEU! became one of Germany's most influential bands, inspiring artists from Brian Eno to Stereolab.