The History of The Motorik Beat in 10 Records

Released in 1970, Can’s Liberty Records granted Monster Movie a full release, and both critics and new fans alike were eager for new Can material. Irmin Schmidt’s avant-garde background informed Can’s ability to mash up psychedelic rock with slow-building, angular loops of repetition. 

By the time Soundtracks came out, the band had hit their stride. Vocalist Damo Suzuki had ed the band, and Soundtracks pulled together tracks the band had written for films made by various friends and colleagues. Clocking in at over fourteen minutes, “Mother Sky” is a hypnotic whirl of a track with drummer Liebezeit’s new, irresistible rhythm driving the whole thing along.

It’s generally agreed that Jaki Liebezeit came up with the Motorik beat, but there is a school of thought that argues Michael Rother had been part of Kraftwerk’s original line-up and left to work on a sound that was more organic than Kraftwerk’s electronic directions.

Produced by another Kraftwerk sidekick, Néondian, Dinger chose to refer to Motorik as the Apache Beat.

An original member of Ash Ra Tempel in 1971. As with other participants in the German kosmiche movement – wherein musicians experimented with making out of this world (or cosmic) compositions – Ash Ra Tempel specialized in long, looping tracks that rose and fell throughout their course. 

Released not long after the band came together, Ash Ra Tempel’s debut self-titled album consisted of just two tracks. Side A is dedicated to the almost twenty minute-long “Amboss,” with the B side’s “Traummaschine” unfolding over more than twenty-five minutes. “Traummaschine” is an exercise in ambient drone work but, just past the seven minute mark, and ‘Amboss” bursts into life as Schulze thrashes across his kit for a Motorik masterclass.

By the mid-1970s, Neu! co-founder Klaus Dinger was searching for a broader canvas. As Neu! flirted with mainstream recognition, Dinger began shaping a new project that would blend Motorik repetition with the immediacy of punk and the sheen of emerging electronic music. Alongside his brother La Düsseldorf became Dinger’s primary creative outlet.

With La Düsseldorf, Dinger stepped away from the drum kit and into the spotlight as a proto-punk frontman. The band’s self-titled debut fused motorized rhythms with soaring melodies, helping to define a new post-Krautrock aesthetic that anticipated the synth-driven sounds of new wave and electronic pop. Their influence would ripple outward, touching artists like David Bowie and LCD Soundsystem.

Released in 1980, Individuellos, the group’s third and final album, pivoted toward a colder, more industrial sound. The production leaned into metallic textures and stark atmospheres, stripping the music to its rhythmic core. Tracks like “Menschen 1” and “Lieber Honig” (a title Dinger previously used for a Neu! track, here reimagined) pulse with a relentless Motorik drive, but one laced with alienation and tension rather than hypnotic warmth. Synths whirr and hum against locked-in percussion, suggesting a landscape more dystopian than cosmic.

Originating in Berlin and Düsseldorf, the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) movement was taking its cues from a mix of the evolution of the kosmiche space-rock sound and fresh ideas emerging in the U.K. as punk rock morphed into British new wave. Founded in Düsseldorf in 1979 by artist and polymath Der Plan were leading figures on the Neue Deutsche Welle scene. 

Their debut album, 1980’s Geri Reig, pays its respects to the Motorik spirit, albeit in a warped, poppy sense. The set’s title track is an oddball, helium-vocal affair, and “Der Weltaufstandsplan” and “Die Welt Ist Schlecht” boing along over the 4/4 signature. There are lo-fi elements here too, something that would affect avant-pop bands of the future.

By the early 1990s, most of the original Motorik pioneers had either disbanded or moved in new directions. But Laetitia Sadier — revived and recontextualized the beat for a new generation. Drawing influence from Krautrock, French pop, minimalism, and post-punk, the band quickly established itself as a bridge between European avant-garde traditions and contemporary indie experimentation.

Their 1993 album Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements plays like a love letter to the Motorik rhythm. The nearly 19-minute “Jenny Ondioline” is the clearest homage — anchored by a relentless 4/4 pulse and droning chords that steadily evolve without breaking momentum. “I’m Going Out of My Way” similarly rides a locked groove, while “Analogue Rock” channels the jagged repetition and textural layering pioneered by Can.

With Transient Random-Noise Bursts, Stereolab didn’t just reference the past — they helped codify the Motorik beat as a permanent fixture of alternative and electronic music. Their work paved the way for acts like Broadcast, and even early LCD Soundsystem to re-engage with ’s experimental legacy on their own .

Existing in name between 1974 and 1976, the Tracks and Traces, recorded in 1976 with the help of Brian Eno. 

Harmonia existed for only a brief window between 1974 and 1976, but the group’s impact on the Motorik and kosmische landscape remains profound. Their work bridged the pulsing precision of Motorik with the ambient drift of kosmische, setting the stage for developments in ambient, electronic, and minimalist music that would follow.

Harmonia released just two studio albums during their original run. Deluxe (1975), produced with help from Conny Plank, added a more robust, rock-oriented sensibility to the mix, with drummer Mani Neumeier injecting a subtle percussive pulse beneath Rother’s flowing guitar lines and Cluster’s shimmering synth textures.

Although less overtly Motorik than Can or Neu!, Harmonia often used the beat as a structural foundation. Tracks like “Deluxe (Immer Wieder)” and “Walky-Talky” layer metronomic rhythm beneath expansive synth washes and looping melodies, crafting an atmosphere of forward momentum wrapped in warmth and introspection.

The five LP set.

The influence of the Motorik drum pattern continues to this day. In fact, Belgian band Motor!k has such a strong relationship with the beat that they used it for their name as well as keeping the rhythm central to their recorded output. Distilling the sonic explorations mounted by Can, Neu!, Harmonia and early Kraftwerk during the early to mid-1970s, Motor!k create well-ordered, almost academic instrumental music. 

Released in 2024, as the title suggests, clear vinyl.