The beginning phases of what later became known as Krautrock took various forms, but few were as immediate or as gripping as "Hallogallo," the first song on the self-titled 1972 debut from Duesseldorf duo Neu! The pairing of Klaus Dinger's unrelenting and straightforward drum beat with Michael Rother's abstract, roving clusters of guitar subtracted structure and pretense from hard rock -- deconstructing the sound and in the process inventing something new that would remain influential for decades to come. Fiftieth anniversary box set 50 is a testament to the band's lasting power, collecting their genre-defining first three albums, the somewhat off-center outlier record Neu! '86 (also known as Neu! 4), and an album's worth of remixes and re-envisioned tribute tracks from artists who took notes from these records when creating sounds of their own. Neu! was largely a studio project, and one whose output was stifled by budgeting issues and distractions from other projects. 50 lays out the twisting path of their discography. The first album is nothing short of essential for anyone interested in rock music, with each song establishing the framework for what became a different subgenre, be it the hovering ambient soundscaping of "Im Glueck" or the post-punk before punk even existed jackhammering of "Negativland." These ideas were refined and experimented with on second album Neu! 2 (where the duo explored an early form of remixing by filling an entire side of the album with slowed-down or sonically manipulated versions of one of their original songs) and third set Neu! '75 (which found the band switching instruments and toying with arrangements and compositional directions). The pair regrouped after a decade apart for troubled sessions that eventually resulted in Neu! '86, a synth-heavy and wild-eyed reading of the band's earlier repetitive sound that reflected both the changing times it was made in and how strained Dinger and Rother's creative relationship was at the time. Though not as emblematic of the Krautrock sound as earlier Neu! albums, Neu! '86's neon theatrics and strange unfinished character make it just as interesting of a listen as the more canonized '70s albums. 50 supplements these classic records with new material from bands who have absorbed some of Neu!'s influence. Mogwai, the National, Man Man, Guerilla Toss, and others contribute remixes, covers, and other reworked versions of Neu! tunes, with standouts including Yann Tiersen's bass-heavy and glitched-out remix of "Lieber Honig," They Hate Change's frenetic cover of "After 8," and Fink's aquatic take on "Weissensee," which evokes the image of a pinkish-red September sunset reflecting off of lazy waters. While 50 offers a fitting tribute on the occasion of Neu!'s first recordings reaching the half-century milestone, more than anything it reminds us that there's never a bad time to listen to Neu! ~ Fred Thomas