Klaus Dinger / Captain Trip

[strawberrybrick]

Recently re-read the Neu! thread, and was surprised to see the mixed views on La Düsseldorf. IMHO, they're absolute classics, at the very least on par with Harmonia, Rother solo, Neu! et al. At any rate, that music just clicks with me, the motorik beat, cheesy synths, schlager-like melodies. Thomas Dinger's Fur Mich is also part of that continuum, and the latter La Düsseldorf albums, Individeulos, Neodian/Mon Amour and Blue/LaD5, and even the newer JapanDorf got that special Dinger something...

As for the rest of the stuff on Captain Trip.... A-1 Dusseldorf, La Neu?!, Engels des Herrens, Any favorites, recommendations, reservations, etc.?

[JAMOOL]

I think you've got most of the good stuff. I agree that La-D is classic - I'm not big on Individuellos, but the purported 4th and 5th albums are great, particularly Blue, which I still listen to a ton. You also mention Fur Mich, a great LP, so I won't recommend that I think the biggest issue with Dinger in general is kind of a lack of ideas. A lot of the Captain Trip stuff rehashes his old stuff in not-so-exciting ways, in fact I'd argue that Japandorf is maybe the best of his post-La Dusseldorf albums, which may have something to do with the fact that Dinger didn't ultimately decide on the final mix/tracklisting?

Anyway - the Die Engel album is OK, real hippie-ish though, and it contains large swaths of "Mon Amour" and another go-round on "Cha Cha 2000", and the final 20-minute track sounds like they're just tuning-up their instruments...the rest of it is good though. As for La! Neu? - the first album (called Dusseldorf) is pretty good, containing an entertaining, twenty minute "Hero" and a thirty minute jam that's probably all you ever wanted out of Klaus Dinger...though it really peters out somewhere in there. From there La! Neu? albums featured less jamming, more minimalism and electronic sound effects - some really pretty moments on Zeeland, but it's a dud as a whole, I'm afraid. Goldregen is even less, just a lot of piano and some harmonium. Like many Dinger albums, it's a lot of takes on the same song, really. Year of the Tiger - guess I forgot everything about that one. More beats but also an ungodly length. Anyway, the 1-A Dusseldorf stuff I've never heard, though I kinda doubt it's very good.

[Progbear]

I absolutely love the debut La Düsseldorf and Individuellos. They were definitely the next step after NEU! ’75, with more of a Kraftwerk-ian feel due to more and more synths. Not so hot on Viva, “Cha Cha 2000” approaches self-parody, but I like the A-side fine (I really love their instrumentals, “Rheinita” was an excellent follow-up to “Silver Cloud,” which was apparently something of a hit in Germany!).

[Mythos]

always liked the Rother stuff better...

[spacefreak]

I'm a huge admirer of A-1 Dusseldorf. Excellent stuff, in the true adventurous krautrock spirit. I actually prefer them to the classic La Düsseldorf albums as they don't have the cheesy euro-synth stuff and venture on more experimental territories. I confess though that I haven't listen to their post Individuellos albums.

My favourites are:

1. Fetteleber
2. Königreich Bilk
3. Deutsch-Japanische Freundschaft

[strawberrybrick]

thanks guys, always nice to read different perspectives.

I do dig Cha-Cha 2000, in most of its forms, it's so... kitsch, I guess, in a way. But this one is probably Dinger's final classic, his ode to Udon

[Camelogue]

Oops wrong thread, I read Klaus Doldinger.......

[alucard]

Two important labels for German electronic music
Grönland records , founded by German songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer (Neu Japandorf Rodelius Harmonia)

http://shop.groenland-records.com/la...ger--japandorf
and

Bureau B ( Faust, Kreidler , Roedelius, Tietchens, Moebius)

https://shop.tapeterecords.com/records/bureaub.html

[strawberrybrick]

Groenemeyer was pretty famous in his own right and I believe he turns 60 today! His albums are quite good, he even did an English language album in the late 80s What's All This. Peter Hammill fans will recognize his voice from Fall Of The House Of Usher.

Myself, it's about this song:

[alucard]

My favourite Grönemeyer record remains Bochum, the title track moves me every time.
There is a nice photo book about Klaus Dinger released by Slowboy records a great vinyl shop. If you happen to be in Düsseldorf check it out. It's a bit off center but its worth it, great choice especially for Düsseldorf related stuff.

http://www.slowboy.de/?p=1662

[Progbear]

I had no idea Dinger ever wrote a Motorik tribute to Japanese noodles!

[strawberrybrick]

It should probably be noted that La Dusseldorf were a very successful group, with both Silver Cloud and Rheinita close to topping the German singles charts. That's the kind of fame that only Kraftwerk achieved.

Reportedly, they turned down a 1M DM offer from EMI!

[alucard]

Klaus Dinger was quite a contradictory strong headed character. When La Düsseldorf looked for a record deal he asked for far too much and they had trouble finding a deal.It was finally Hans Lampe the down to earth guy of the band who secured a record deal with Teldec. When La D. became more famous a big soap company asked them to use Rheinita for a TV spot and Klaus declined. One of my favorite stories is about a photo shooting for the re-release of the Neu records. They hired Anton Corbijn, who for sure produced produced some very stylish B/w photos, but Klaus didn't liked them at all. He asked how much Corbijn got for the session and when he learned that he got12000 Euros, Klaus got immediately a small Polaroid camera took some quick shots and billed them for 12000 Euros. I was still in school when one morning on the pavemant of the front entry there were lots of La Düsseldorf logos spraypainted.They had done this during the night in front of most Düsseldorf schools as a promo act for the release of the first record. The logo was made by Tina Schneider Esleben , the sister of Florian Schneider and then girlfriend of Thomas Dinger. The front cover photo on the first La D , the Düsseldorf airport was shot by Klaus father and the photo on the back was shot in front of a famous building in Düsseldorf, Dreischeibenhaus (three slices building) the Thyssen headquarter, that was build by Paul Schneider Esleben , the father of Florian and Tina , a wellknown German architect.
There is an interesting book about the Düsseldorf electronic scene by Rüdiger Esch (Krupps member) Electri_City (Suhrkamp edition) so far only in German

46464.jpg

Dreischeibenhaus-300x402.jpg

[alucard]

It should probably be noted that La Dusseldorf were a very successful group, with both Silver Cloud and Rheinita close to topping the German singles charts. That's the kind of fame that only Kraftwerk achieved.

Reportedly, they turned down a 1M DM offer from EMI!

The funny thing , the more Kraftwerk got famous the more they got away from their "Germanitude" , today you can find the Kraftwerk CD's only in the international English sung version while Klaus was really very anchored locally with La Düssedorf, being
an ode to his hometown and even later with Japandorf, a nickname for Düsseldorf linked to the big Japanese community

[strawberrybrick]

Yeah, all those stories about the dynamic between Dinger and Rother, I'm sure one of them had to be... Both Conny Plank in the studio and later Herbert Groenemeyer for the reissues were evidently great mediators. Also a credit to Rother however, it seems he did a really good job of burying the hatchet when the Neu! box was put together. Das Buch seiht sehr interesstant, vielleicht Ich wurde es gelesen...

Speaking of Hans Lampe and Michael Rother, they were in London just a few weeks ago and did an impromtu-ish set with, amongst others, Colin Newman and Matt Simms of Wire, and Colin's partner, Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact: