NEU! Celebrate 50th Anniversary Of Self-Titled Debut With ‘Neu! 50!’ Box Set

Photo Credit - Thomas Dinger

NEU!, the legendary Krautrock duo of Michael Rother and the late Klaus Dinger, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their self-titled debut album with the NEU! 50! box set, out September 23rd via Grönland. NEU! 50! includes albums NEU! NEU! 2! and NEU! 75 plus the brand new NEU! Tribute Album, a NEU! stencil and booklet. The Tribute Album features reworkings by The National, Idles, Man Man, Mogwai, Alexis Taylor, and more. Today, Grönland presents two new tracks off the tribute album – “Weissensee (Fink Version)” and “Zum Herz,” a new, NEU!-inspired song by Guerilla Toss.

NEU!’s version of “Weissensee” evokes a majestic river, cascading, waves crashing. Fink honors the beautiful, lapping waterscape of the track. “I have walked around Weissensee many times – a little urban lake in a pretty rundown part of Berlin - particularly beautiful when it’s frozen over. I had to try this one. Stepping up to NEU! and the anniversary of their debut was an honor, a challenge and a joy.”

Guerilla Toss’s “Zum Herz” is a salute from a band whose members were not yet born in NEU!’s heyday. “Zum Herz” draws heavily from the NEU! aesthetic, with an emphasis on the repetitive beat and multi-layer guitar production. The band explains: “NEU! is one of the most important bands of the 20th century, and a personal favorite of GT’s. Their influence on psych, rock, punk, and electronic music is enormous. The lineage of so many great bands can be traced back to NEU!. We are thrilled to be part of this compilation. I like to think that the U.S. / U.K created Rock music, but the Germans made it forever weird. Thanks, NEU!“