Y u no Mamaleek
The Hype Williams duo made some great hypnagogic pop in 2010-12, and then stopped. Then in 2016 it turned out that they handed the project over to some completely different people, who released two or three more albums since then. These new releases suck in comparison.
Gong also weirdly started some spinoff projects that had nothing to do with the original band except for some involvement of Daevid Allen in their formation. In particular, the ‘Zu Band’ organized by Giorgio Gomelsky became New York Gong for a performance at Zu Manifestival, joined by Allen and his colleague Chris Cutler. Allen went back to Europe soon after, while the band toured North America playing Gong’s stuff, and then were on tour in France for two months, discovering that “they couldn’t stand the European way of life” and parting ways with Allen.
The band then became Material, which launched decades-long and very productive careers of producers Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn, musicians Fred Maher and Mark Kramer, and engineer Martin Bisi. Particularly, Laswell and Beinhorn are known for producing Herbie Hancock’s ‘Future Shock’ album and ‘Rockit’ single (the latter almost entirely made by them), Timezone’s ‘World Destruction’, Public Image Ltd.'s ‘Album’, and Material’s own ‘Seven Souls’ with William S. Burroughs — aside from Laswell’s over two hundred releases centered on his bass guitar.
While Hütter was absent (to study architecture), Kraftwerk’s lineup was basically Neu with Florian Schneider. There are a couple bootleg recordings of this lineup: ‘Ruck Zuck’ and ‘K4’, offering some Kraftwerk tunes being played by Neu.
Upon his return, Hütter promptly kicked out Rother and Dinger, and they formed Neu proper.
TBF, though, Kraftwerk is pretty much Ralf und Florian (hue hue) — starting way back with their proto-krautrock band Organisation.
Napalm Death were formed in 1981, and were still developing their proper sound when drummer Mick Harris joined in late '85 and pushed their limits into what is now known as grindcore. That lineup recorded what became the side A of the first album, ‘Scum’. The last remaining original member, vocalist Nic Bullen, left after that, and the band cycled through several more changes, such that Harris is the only one present on the sides A and B of the album.
Harris was in the band for two more albums, leaving in '91 to form jazzcore band Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Napalm Death’s lineup stabilized by that time and continues with the new drummer Danny Herrera to this day, with the exception of ditching the second guitarist and later adding another one.
Funny enough, Harris started a side-project Scorn with Nic Bullen right after leaving Napalm Death, and they originally played sort of industrial metal. Bullen again bailed in '95, whereupon Harris changed to industrial illbient, before releasing ‘Greetings from Birmingham’ in 2000, the sound of which might be familiar to everyone here. Except Londoners somehow reinvented basically the same sound a bit later, turning it into a genre of its own.
The same year '91, Harris was also a touring drummer for Godflesh, a project of Justin Broadrick who was the guitarist on the side A of ‘Scum’.
Yeah, ‘Heavy Metal Kids’ was on ‘K4’, which is a recording from a Radio Bremen concert (with pretty good quality). The track names there are unofficial, afaik. Some of them could be variations on properly released tracks or those recorded on other bootlegs.
Frankly I myself amn’t a fan of some early Hütter-led experiments, like the incredibly drawn out ‘Ruck Zuck’, which sounds interesting a couple times and is kinda meh after that. This particular track was reinterpreted by the different lineups, and Organisation’s version is groovy, while Neu-Schneider’s one is more hypnotic and at the same time raw in comparison.
It’s very obvious that Kraftwerk were still looking for their proper sound back then. I’m due for a relisten of the first albums, but also am in no hurry to do that, as I never could find anything quite catching the ear. At the same time, completely dismissing them like Kraftwerk did is imo unwarranted, it’s a document of the era. Also Dinger was bringing some energy to the music that they couldn’t properly realize, until Hütter was gone.