Hey kids, put down those Fuck Buttons/Secret Machines/Stereolab albums for a minute and give a mournful moment of silence to the man who made it all possible. Klaus Dinger, the visionary musician who made Krautrock history with Kraftwerk, Neu!, and La Dusseldorf, has passed away. He died on March 21, just a few days short of his 62nd birthday, but for some reason word is only just hitting the wires now. Information age, my posterior! 

Even if you completely ignore his contributions to the early days of Kraftwerk and his latter-day work with La Dusseldorf, multi-instrumentalist Dinger will be forever enshrined in the annals of beard rock as the Bo Diddley of Germany, a man who defined not just a style but a groove. His <i>motorik</i> beat drove the engine of pioneering duo Neu!, where, along with Michael Rother, he fashioned a sound that prefigured punk, post-punk, techno, synth-pop, IDM, and your mama.

Simultaneously metronomic and propulsive, the <i>motorik</i> beat was to driving the German Autobahn what hoisting a scythe was to American work songs. The insistent pulse, electric bite, and electronic shimmer of Neu! had a direct influence on everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead, not to mention the above-named artists and countless others. Negativland even took their name from a tune on the first Neu! album. So, pump up "Hallogallo" in your car stereo tonight and go chugging down the interstate while the mile markers tick by like quarter-notes. It's what Klaus would have wanted.