Neu!! formed in 1971 in Düsseldorf as an off-shoot from an early line-up of another seminal krautrock band, Kraftwerk, whose early works were also produced by Conny Plank.

Drummer Klaus Dinger had joined Kraftwerk midway through sessions for their eponymous debut album. Guitarist Michael Rother was then recruited to the Kraftwerk line-up on completion of the album. (Rother had been playing in a local band called The Spirits of Sound, the line-up of which also included drummer Wolfgang Flür, who would himself go on to join Kraftwerk two years later.)

Kraftwerk founder Ralf Hütter left the band at this point, and for a 6 month period, Kraftwerk consisted of a trio of Rother, Dinger & Florian Schneider. This line-up played sporadic gigs and made a live appearance on German TV programme Beat Club (recently made available on DVD). Attempted recording sessions at Conny Plank\'s studio were unsuccessful (\"a difference of temperament\", Rother was later to remark), and Dinger and Rother parted company from Schneider and began a new project with Plank: Neu!! (Schneider rejoined Hütter and the pair continued recording the second Kraftwerk album with Plank.)

Their eponymous first album sold very little by mainstream standards (though 30,000 records was a lot for an \"underground\" band), yet is today considered a masterpiece by many, including influential artists such as David Bowie, Brian Eno and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. It included the Motorik benchmark tracks \"Hallogallo\" and \"Negativland\" (the band Negativland took their name from this track), and bizarre \"songs\" like \"Sonderangebot\".

Their second album, Neu!! 2, features some of the earliest examples of musical remixes. The band, excited to record another album, decided to expand their limits by purchasing several instruments. With the money they had left as an advance from the record company, they could only record half an album\'s worth of material. The company would not increase their advance because the first album did not sell anywhere close to well and the label did not see a reason to further finance what was most likely to become a flop. To rectify the lack of material, the band filled the second side with manipulated versions of their already released single, \"Neu!schnee\"/\"Super\". The song \"Super 16,\" unwittingly, became the theme song to the 1976 martial arts cult classic Master of the Flying Guillotine by Jimmy Wang Yu. This film was later referenced by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill (Volume 1) by also featuring the track Super 16.

Dinger and Rother were both very different when they were left to their own devices, and this led to their final album of the 1970s, Neu!! \'75. Side One was Rother\'s more ambient productions which were similar to the first album, albeit more keyboard driven. Side Two (particularly the song \"Hero\") was acknowledged as important influence by many later involved in the UK\'s punk rock scene, with Dinger\'s sneering, unintelligible vocals searing across a distorted Motorik beat with aggressive single chord guitar poundings.

To aid with performing on the album, and more importantly, live, Hans Lampe and brother Thomas Dinger were enlisted to help execute more music than was possible by two men. Upon its release, and arguably to this day, Neu!! \'75 is the most diverse record available from the Krautrock scene. While this can be seen as a positive point, the differences in musical direction (as well as personal issues) not only isolated the Dinger/Rother duo, it isolated their already small fan base. Neu!! broke up after the release of Neu!! \'75. Neu! are highly praised in Julian Cope\'s \"Krautrocksampler\",along with other great Krautrock artists such as Kraftwerk and Can, and Cope has also written a song called \"Micheal Rother\" which appears on CD2 of the Deluxe edition of \"Jehovahkill\".

Between October 1985 and April 1986, Dinger and Rother tried to rekindle the flame that was Neu!! By adding more synthesizers and a slightly more commercial aspect to some compositions, the band sounded like a cross between their old selves and the recent new wave groups, and undoubtedly were torn apart again by personal and musical issues.

An example of the sharp contrast between Dinger and Rother was evidenced by such tracks as \"Crazy\", Rother\'s attempt at pop, and \"\'86 Commercial Trash\", a Dingerian collage of dialogue and sound effects from Germany\'s television commercials of that year. The work that took place in these sessions would resurface in late 1995 as Neu!! 4, see below.

Michael Rother currently writes and produces solo albums. Klaus Dinger died on March 20, 2008. Before his death, he wrote and produced solo albums, as well as archival releases by La Dusseldorf. Thomas Dinger died on April 9, 2002. Before this, he released a string of solo albums.

Source : Wikipedia