Düsseldorf

We thought we would best start things off by showing some love to the city we live in. Intending to draw some attention to the hometown of Kraftwerk, DAF, Propaganda and co what other band is there to present first than La Düsseldorf.

In 1975 they emanated from the krautrock band "Neu!" including Hans Lampe, Thomas Dinger and his brother the former Kraftwerk-drummer Klaus Dinger. On their first selftitled LP from 1976 they rendered homage to their hometown with the song "Düsseldorf", a 13-minute long track based on an impulsive & driving rhythm section and some simple synthesizer melodies. The track hasn't got much lyrics but samples from the city's airport and the repeated (for anyone from here so well known) question "Gehn wir in die Altstadt?" (let's go to the old town?) make a local's heart swell. There are tons of songs written as a homage to Cities that make you jump out of the window. But "Düsseldorf" is certainly none of them.

In 1978 the band had its biggest succes with the atmospheric track"Rheinita" from the second LP Viva . Their pulsating drums can be found here again, showing the lasting influence of their musical origin "Neu!" whose almost machine-like rhythms certainly had an influence on modern dance music. The press established the term "Motorik" (motor activity) for that kind of sound. Together with some beautiful synthesizer-harmonies that's what makes the song a 7-minute long exceptional, atmospheric experience. Nowadays it's unthinkable that such a piece of music could even see the charts from a distance, but "Rheinita" became a big hit in germany.

"La Düsseldorf" should represent the always interesting and vivid music scene of düsseldorf, the place that bore more musical outriders than any other german city did. There will surely be further posts dedicated to that.


La Düsseldorf - Düsseldorf

La Düsseldorf - Rheinita
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