La Düsseldorf were Klaus Dinger’s great post-Neu! project — the band where the inventor of the motorik beat turned his hypnotic rhythms toward something brighter, bolder and unmistakably anthemic. Named for their home city and built on driving grooves, soaring keyboards and Dinger’s snarling vocals, they made some of the most joyous and influential music of the late-1970s German scene, music David Bowie famously called “the soundtrack of the eighties”.

The short version

Formed in the mid-1970s by Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger after that band’s split, La Düsseldorf paired his signature motorik beat with a more melodic, anthemic and proto-punk sound. Their three albums — the self-titled debut (1976), the hit-laden “Viva” (1978) and the electronic “Individuellos” (1980) — sold over a million copies in Germany and won admirers from David Bowie to a generation of post-punk bands. They remain Dinger’s most successful and beloved project after Neu!.

After Neu!: Klaus Dinger’s new band

By the mid-1970s Klaus Dinger was already a krautrock legend: the original drummer of Kraftwerk, the co-founder of Neu! with Michael Rother, and the inventor of the steady, hypnotic “motorik” beat — a rhythm he himself preferred to call the “Apache” beat. When Neu! came apart in 1975, Dinger took the band he had assembled to flesh out Neu!’s live sound — his brother Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe, both of whom had played on side two of “Neu! ’75” — and made it a group in its own right, naming it after their home city. With the great Conny Plank engineering, La Düsseldorf was born.

Anthemic motorik

Where Neu! had been austere and minimal, La Düsseldorf were warm, bright and anthemic. They kept Dinger’s relentless 4/4 motorik pulse but layered it with rock guitar, soaring synthesizers and big, chanted vocals, turning the krautrock groove into something close to euphoric. Threaded through it was a proto-punk edge — Dinger’s sneering, barely intelligible singing has often been called an ancestor of British punk — and a playful streak, right down to the white overalls they wore as a uniform. The result was hypnotic and uplifting at once: motorik reborn as pop anthem. Little wonder David Bowie called them “the soundtrack of the eighties”.

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Three albums

Their self-titled debut (1976) was a diverse, exhilarating record — pop, motorik, krautrock and punk eccentricity rolled together — and proved as influential as it was successful, with Bowie citing it as an inspiration for his album “Low”. “Viva” (1978) was their commercial peak, driven by the hit instrumental “Rheinita” and home to their best-known epic, the nineteen-minute “Cha Cha 2000”. By “Individuellos” (1980), the sound had grown more electronic and more relaxed, a grand, synth-heavy album of two distinct halves — but internal frictions, simmering since “Viva”, finally pulled the band apart.

Album by album

Three albums of anthemic, motorik-driven krautrock. Tap any title for its guide.

The players and afterwards

La Düsseldorf were the trio of Klaus Dinger, his brother Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe, with bassist Harald Konietzko among their contributors. Thomas, tired of clashing with his strong-willed brother, left during the making of “Viva”, and after “Individuellos” the band wound down; a fourth album was recorded with Conny Plank but withdrawn, surfacing only years later. Klaus Dinger carried on with his own label and later projects, keeping the motorik flame alive. Thomas Dinger died in 2002 and Klaus Dinger in 2008 — but the joyous, anthemic music they made together remains among the most loved of the whole German scene.

Where to start

Begin with “Viva” (1978) — their most accessible and celebrated album, home to “Rheinita” and “Cha Cha 2000”, and the perfect distillation of their anthemic motorik. From there, the self-titled debut (1976) shows the wild, diverse band they began as, the record that caught David Bowie’s ear, while “Individuellos” (1980) reveals their more electronic, atmospheric side. Three albums, no weak links.

Why they still matter

La Düsseldorf matter as the bridge between krautrock and what came after — the band who took Klaus Dinger’s motorik beat and made it soar, pointing the way toward post-punk, new wave and the synth-driven pop of the 1980s. Beloved at home and revered by everyone from David Bowie to Stereolab, they turned hypnotic repetition into pure uplift, and their three albums still sound thrillingly alive. For anyone who loves Neu!, or simply that endless motorik groove, they are essential listening.

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