Motorik

Neu! formed after Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger left Kraftwerk in 1971, citing a lack of vision. Despite Kraftwerk being the greater household name, Neu! can be cited as a large influence on a variety of bands, from David Bowie to Sonic Youth, from Wire to Radiohead. Some would say they even influenced Kraftwerk to modify their own sound with 1974's "Autobahn" incorporating the motorik sound.

Neu! often gets cited for "inventing" motorik beat. If they didn't invent it, they definitely popularized it, and many bands use it as homage to their Krautrock forebears. Here are some songs I like in the motorik style. 

 

Thanks to Sick Mouthy and The Quietus for inspiring some of the choices.

Brian Eno

 Brian Eno has done it all. He's been a member of a successful art-rock band with Roxy Music, became a solo artist, "invented" ambient music, championed little know genres, and became a famed collaborator and producer. In this playlist, I highlight some of my favorite Eno moments from 1973 to the present. You may notice I have overlooked some of his well know efforts as I am not much of fan.

"Do the Strand" is good representation of early Roxy, with Eno lurking in the background wearing some unforgettable (and most likely unfortunate) getup while using synthesizer and tape effects. With tape recording loop experiments in full effect, "The Heavenly Music Corporation" from Fripp & Eno's 1973 effort (No Pussyfooting) highlights what came to be known as Frippertronics. Released around the same time was the more "rock" oriented Here Come the Warm Jets. Continued explorations in ambient came in 1978, which finds Eno recording his Ambient 1: Music for Airports record.

I always found it interesting that Eno keep exploring musically, and this can be seen by his curation of defining no-wave completion No New York. By 1978, Eno began working with the Talking Heads, co-produced their next three albums. On these albums, we find the band going from minimalist to maximalist while incorporating African music and polyrhythms. Also from 1977–79 we find Eno collaborating with Bowie on his seminal Berlin Trilogy.

In more recent times, Eno was hired by Microsoft to create a sound that was "inspiring, universal...optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional". Even the uninitiated are familiar with this six-second composition. Eno continues to release ambient music on Warp, whose artist roster may not exist without his influence. In 2008, we find Eno collaborating with David Byrne again to create Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, their second album together.