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Michael Rother & friends performed (a bit of) Neu! as Hallogallo w/ Lichens @ Maxwell's (pics)

photos by Greg Cristman

Hallogallo

Hallogallo 2010 was formed by Michael Rother, a guitarist who was a prime mover in the postpsychedelic German rock that was crudely but durably labeled Krautrock. The music’s metronomic beats, drone crescendos and embrace of noise have echoed through art-rock (and hip-hop) ever since, up to the latest generation of indie-rock. Hallogallo 2010 also includes Aaron Mullan from Tall Firs on bass and Sonic Youth’s drummer, Steve Shelley, repaying a debt to Mr. Rother’s pioneering band, Neu! “Hallogallo” was the opening song on Neu!’s self-titled 1972 debut album.

From 1971 to 1975 Mr. Rother and the drummer Klaus Dinger, who died in 2008, teamed up as Neu! and explored an experimental, sometimes proto-punk style of Krautrock. It was largely instrumental and drew on sampled ambient sounds as well as Mr. Dinger’s distinctive “motorik” thump-a-thump-a. (Although Krautrock was determined to reject American influences, that beat recalls surf music.) As new fans discover Krautrock, the complete Neu! catalog has just been reissued by Groenland in a vinyl boxed set.

Although the Lincoln Center Out of Doors concert was billed as “Michael Rother and friends perform the music of Neu!,” the only Neu! composition in the set was “Hallogallo” itself. The rest came from Mr. Rother’s solo career — “Neutronics 98” and “Aroma Club B3″ — and from Harmonia, Mr. Rother’s mid-1970s collaboration with the electronic-music duo Cluster.” [NY Times]

That NY Times article refers to the August 6th show at Lincoln Center (which we’ll have more about later). The pictures in this post are from the Hallogallo show two nights earlier at Maxwell’s. More pictures from the NJ one, below…

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Hallogallo plays ATP NY in September.