Krautrock pioneers NEU! have unveiled the NEU! 50! box set to mark the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album. The collection arrives on September 23rd via Grönland, and includes a tribute album of reworkings and covers by The National, Idles, Mogwai, They Hate Change, and more.
NEU! 50! compiles the first three albums released by the German duo — comprised of Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger — along with the NEU! Tribute Album in 5xLP or 5xCD sets that also come with a stencil of the band’s iconic logo and booklet. The CD set also includes NEU ’86, the long-delayed reunion album last revived in 2010 for their most recent box set.
Their self-titled debut album will also be commemorated with a picture disc, cassette, and limited edition orange vinyl, slated to drop June 17th. Pre-orders are ongoing. A limited edition 7-inch of their first two singles “Super” and “Neuschnee” is up for grabs now.
The first offering from the NEU! Tribute Album arrives as a collaboration between New Order’s Stephen Morris and Factory Floor’s Gabe Gurnsey. The pair remix NEU!‘s opening track “Hallogallo” in a tribute that stretches back to the very beginning for Morris. In a statement shared via the song’s music video, he recalled, “I first heard NEU! sometime late in 1972, not long after the first album came out…I’d never heard anything like it. It was absolutely brilliant. From the first few hypnotic seconds of ‘Hallogallo’ I was hooked.”
Regarding the origins of the band’s long-held mysterious reputation and cult favorite status, Morris added, “I had no idea who Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger were. There were no interviews in the music papers, but the two tiny photos on the back of the bright red sleeve said all I needed to know. The sound they made was very REAL — alive and emotional. Ambient and driving — it was like they were there in my bedroom with me. Needless to say I played the album endlessly on repeat and bored all my friends to death with how brilliant NEU! were. This was the sort of music I wanted to make. 50 years later you can hear their influence everywhere.”
Check out the remix track and the full compilation’s tracklist below.
NEU! 50! Box Set Tracklist:
NEU!
Side A
01. Hallogallo
02. Sonderangebot
03. Weissensee
Side B
01. Im Glück
02. Negativland
03. Lieber Honig
NEU! 2
Side A
01. Für Immer (Forever)
02. Spitzenqualität
03. Gedenkminute (für A + K)
04. Lila Engel
Side B
01. Neuschnee 78
02. Super 16
03. Neuschnee
04. Cassetto
05. Super 78
06. Hallo Excentrico!
07. Super
NEU! ’75
Side A
01. Isi
02. Seeland
03. Leb’ Wohl
Side B
01. Hero
02. E-Musik
03. After Eight
NEU! ’86
Side A
01. Intro (Haydn slo-mo)
02. Dänzing
03. Crazy
04. Drive (Grundfunken)
05. La Bomba (Stop Apartheid World-Wide!)
06. Elanoizan
Side B
01. Wave Mother
02. Paradise Walk
03. Euphoria
04. Vier 1/2
05. Good Life
06. November
07. KD
NEU! Tribute Album
01. Im Glück (The National Remix)
02. Weissensee (Fink Version)
03. Super (Mogwai Remix)
04. 4+1=5 (Alexis Taylor Cover)
05. Hallogallo (Stephen Morris and Gabe Gurnsey Remix)
06. Lieber Honig (Yann Tiersen Remix)
07. Super (Man Man Remix)
08. Negativland (Idles Negative Space Rework)
09. Zum Herz (Guerilla Toss Cover)
10. After Eight (They Hate Change Cover)
