Motorik

Motorik is the 44 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock band Can. Klaus Dinger of Neu!, another early pioneer of motorik, later called it the "Apache beat". The motorik beat is heard in one section of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn", a song composed to convey the feeling of driving on the German highway. It is heard throughout Neu!'s "Hallogallo", from their self-titled album Neu!, and used on all subsequent Neu! albums with differing tempos and variations; Hawkwind reproduced Neu!'s "Hallogallo" motorik beat on the track "Opa-Loka" on their 1975 Warrior on the Edge of Time album. Some music critics observed that the motorik style conveys a similar sense of forward momentum as the music of Beethoven and Rossini and bears a resemblance to the rhythmic drumming in jazz. They opined that it initially evoked the "glorification of the industrial modern era". The motorik beat is in 44 time, at a moderate tempo. The pattern is repeated in each bar throughout the song. A splash or crash cymbal is often hit at the begi