R.I.P. Klaus Dinger

From Grönland:

We are very sad to report the death of Klaus Dinger, who died suddenly of heart failure four days before his 62nd birthday on March 20th 2008.

Dinger formed Neu! with Micheal Rother in 1971, releasing three seminal albums: Neu!, Neu 2! and Neu 75!

His landmark drumming style on these records, a propulsive almost surf-like repetitious groove defined the term 'motorik' and has had a profound influence on a huge range of artists such as Primal Scream, Stereolab, Wilco, David Bowie, The Boredoms and Four Tet.

He later formed La Dusseldorf, selling over a million copies in the 70s and 80s.

The burial took place amongst a private circle of family and friends. He will be greatly missed.

NEU! and La Düsseldorf are two of my favorite German bands and a lot of that has to do with Dinger's so-called Motorik beat. The "Apache Beat", as Dinger referred to it, is an instantly identifiable 4/4 rhythm that epitomized the mechanical / futuristic vibe at the heart of Krautrock. Endlessly propulsive, it drove most of their songs and was adopted by many other German bands, as well as American and European bands of the 90s and 00s.

It's worth noting that Dinger was also an early member of Kraftwerk along with his future NEU! partner Michael Rother. Both appeared on the first self-titled Kraftwerk album.

NEU! "Hallogallo" (from NEU!, 1972)

NEU! "After Eight" (from NEU! 75, 1975)

NEU! "Quick Wave Machineue" (from NEU! 4, 1986)

La Düsseldorf "Time" (from La Düsseldorf, 1976)

La Düsseldorf "Geld" (from Viva, 1978)

R.I.P.