Michael Rother (live at EartH)

London
26 January 2019

After having previously reviewed The Radiophonic Workshop as my first outing for Freq, I this time had the honour of seeing live someone whom you could refer to as a true musical pioneer – I humbly bore witness to the innovative genius of Michael Rother on stage. Considering the demographic that Freq is appealing to, a good portion of readers may already be aware of who Rother is but, should that not be the case, I’ll be more than happy to fill you in.

Rother was initially known for his brief role as part of Kraftwerk in their very early days. However, he was quick to split from the band with fellow member Klaus Dinger to form NEU!, Rother’s other best-known collaboration. The pair released several albums together until 1975, whence they were to go their separate ways – Dinger to form La Düsseldorf, and Rother to form Harmonia with the members of Cluster. The entirety of his repertoire has had a heavy influence on the Krautrock movement and is labelled by none other than myself as “pretty damn cool”.

One thing I certainly wasn’t prepared for was the raw intensity of his sound, amplified by the hollowed-out shell of an ancient, disused cinema venue. The roster included tracks such as NEU!’s ever popular “Hallogallo” – which sounds relatively calm in record format, yet the guitar and drums absolutely shred when the divine spirit of cosmic music is in your presence. This Ultra-Rother is by no means a bad thing; he certainly gets you moving. Towards the end, the man himself compelled everyone to get up and dance, and what do you know, they all did — even me – and I’m more the “sit in the corner giving thumbs up to my associates” type when it comes to footwork.

In the heat of the moment, the gig felt a whole lot more like a trip to another planet than, well, a gig. German rock is transformed by Rother into a psychedelic trip through the aid of electronic beeps and slides, and an audio-visualiser screen projecting everything between German motorways (one can’t help but draw comparisons to “Autobahn”) to full-on, no-nonsense psych-lights. Yet, in spite of all this, each track manages to retain a rhythmic “Yes, I’m definitely not a soundscape” structure. It’s a half-way checkpoint between the weird but wonderful world of experimental and the stuff you’d go to see just to rock the Hell out. And that’s a good space to be in.

Rother can stand rest assured that his position in underground history is secure, and watching him do a victory lap showcasing all his work is simply a marvel. What’s more, it’s impressive that those playing with him on the night – Franz Bargmann and the ever-dependable Hans Lampe – could run pretty fast themselves. I hope their track is a long and joyful one.

-Raul Solomons-