Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and his Neu! counterpart, Klaus Dinger, were the pioneering drummers behind the motorik rhythm – a driving 4/4 pulse that is central to the krautrock music.Savage, 2017.

The krautrock genre emerged out of post-war Germany in the early 1970s as a counter-reaction to German nationalism, and parallels Modernist design in its desire for universal aesthetics and flat hierarchies.Helland, 2024.

The Motorik rhythm was meant to “evoke the repetitive, relentless experience of driving on a motorway”. A play on the German “motor skill”, it poignantly captures the technological optimism of its era.Savage, ibid.