Neulander were a New York-based duo of Englishman Adam Peters (instruments & electronics) and Austrian-born Korinna Knoll (vocals). The duo made minimal electronic pop with a detached, Teutonic feel. 2003's "Sex, God + Money" single was followed in March 2004 by debut LP, "Smoke + Fire", on which Nick Laird-Clowes, formerly of the Dream Academy, provided some assistance. Both records were issued in Germany by the Disko B label of Munich. It is not clear whether the outfit released any further recordings.
Links To Peel
"This is a big favourite with the little sweeties that I work with. So chose any two of these three: sex, god and money:" (30 September 2003)
On 22 July 2003, Peel describes how he drove into London earlier that day, listening to new music as was his custom. The Neulander EP was "the one that I liked the most" and so was added to that evening's programme. The title track from the EP proved to be popular with Peel and the listeners - it was voted into that year's Festive Fifty at #33 - and so received several plays over the summer. Mary Anne Hobbs also intimated her approval, although she indicated that it was a track to be played on her electronic music programme 'Breezeblock' rather than the Rock Show [1].
Having played the single a handful of times, Peel was subsequently slightly piqued to find the band being described as "Peel show favourites" in promotional material:
"Every once in a while I get catalogues from record distribution companies and I'm often rather taken aback to discover that certain records that they're selling / distributing, are favourites of this programme. Sometimes we've only played like, one track, and it seems to be a slight exaggeration. This is a case in point. We played you a record by Neulander a few times and it was described as a Peel show favourite. I felt kind of compromised and reluctant to play any more from it. But that would be unfair to Neulander, so from the LP which is called "Smoke + Fire", this is "If You Could"." (14 April 2004)
