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Underground > Radio & Music >

Einsturzende Neubauten RULE.

16:22 / 18.05.07

I saw Einsturzende Neubauten live recently at Triptych in Glasgow and they UTTERLY KICKED ASS, in fact that gig was so much better than almost all of the other gigs I've ever been to that I may have to decide that it was the best gig I've ever attended.

So, anyhow, there are others of you, yes there are, bautenoids among the barbeloids, I just *know* there are, and some things must be said:

1. I had no IDEA that a live band could sound *that good*, they were so impressive I have resolved to pay to take one of my fellow musician chums with me next time I go and see them (and oh yes I WILL go and see them, if I have to get plane tickets to Germany I'm going to go and see them) so that I can share the fan-boy squeaking with somebody,

2. Blixa Bargeld is a total dude, I expected him to be one of these shy retiring front men but he was hilarious,

3. NOBODY TOLD ME that they record all their gigs, which combined with point 1. is bloody annoying because I didn't have anything to pay for the CDs with at the end,

4. I am SO going to sign up as an Einsturzende Neubauten super-hardcore exclusively-sold-to-only fan, and finally,

5. Going through my record collection I have now realised that there are SO MANY bands that SO WANT to be Einsturzende Neubauten and SO AREN'T.

So, barbe-bautenoids (most of whom on this site I expect would be far more hardcore than little me who is a recently baptised bautenoid), shall we share the feelings?

"Those new palaces are already cracked..."

CLANG....

"Nothing but future ruins..."

KRANG...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:17 / 18.05.07

Don't do this. Since the last time I saw them I've been trying to talk myself out of getting an EN tattoo. And I'd nearly succeeded.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

21:19 / 18.05.07

Oh, but you probably should. Just think how Henry Rollins-like you'd be then.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

21:24 / 18.05.07

(Oh, and I'll try to post something more sensible to this thread about EN as well when I'm less tired. They probably do rule, and their name is currently spreading like wildfire through a certain hairdressing establishment's clientèle, thanks to Lilly Nowhere's enthusiastic playing of Silence Is Sexy and Ende Neu while working).

Thanks to your mentioning of Neubauten, I decided to listen to the Musterhaus 4 - Redux Orchestra album on the way home from work. It's a stunning album, recorded with a string quartet and EN live, doing versions of their back catalogue in beautiful industrial chamber style.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:19 / 19.05.07

Fuck it, I'm gonna get the tat. Ognarud, you should too.

They were fantastic at ATP, as they have been every time I've seen them except once (their first tour after Einheit left, when they seemed a little lost. Nowadays you don't even notice he's not there).

The cool thing about Neubauten is the vast gulf between what people THINK they sound like and what they actually do sound like. The look of surprise on people's faces when you play them Blume, or Silence Is Sexy, when they were expecting Whitehouse-done-Music-Concrete-style is quite special.

Complete musical genius, imho.

16:43 / 20.05.07

The cool thing about Neubauten is the vast gulf between what people THINK they sound like and what they actually do sound like.

D'accord, I was expecting an hour or so of bits of metal being hit. I did NOT expect 2 and a bit hours of bits of cunningly tuned and loving crafted bits of metal / bags of polystyrene / miked up tuned drainpipes / carefully stretched elastic bands and so on fed through an expertly honed effects array to extract the sharpest possible harmonics set against excellent instrumentation, fucking killer rhythms, penetrating lyrics and Blixa Bargeld's terrifying vocal range. With really, really exacting sound quality and powerful songwriting and superb arrangement. And Blixa being really funny.

They're not experimental, they're fucking professional. They sounded way better than LOADS of much bigger name bands I've seen.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

08:34 / 21.05.07

They're not experimental, they're fucking professional. They sounded way better than LOADS of much bigger name bands I've seen.

STRONG TRUTH!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:07 / 21.05.07

I think the thing I like about Neubauten is that they don't restrict themselves to the "wweird shit", they just use whatever sound's best for the song. If that's conventional instruments, they'll do that too. They'll just use anything without being too precious about it.

The Return Of Rothkoid

05:28 / 23.05.07

*tents fingers contentedly*

10:14 / 23.05.07

Blixa Bargeld:

"It is a thankless task being one of our roadies. So many trucks filled with pieces of equipment that we only use for one song..."

03:18 / 25.05.07

One of my favorite bands ever. Perpetuum Mobile was great, but it still doesn't compare to the early period. My boss saw them (I work at a record store that specializes in experimental music) in '84 or '85 and his description of them in that time period gave me much reason to be jealous.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:34 / 25.05.07

Well, I'm getting the tat done tomorrow afternoon...

17:29 / 25.05.07

We shall expect PHOTIOGRAFFS. Will it just be their sigil or one of the more decorated versions?

18:01 / 25.05.07

...I decided to listen to the Musterhaus 4 - Redux Orchestra album on the way home from work.

Oh, I really want to hear that one! The Musterhaus discs were only available by subscription, weren't they? Has there been any mention or hint of a future general release (he asked doubtfully)?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:43 / 26.05.07

Woohoo! Got the tattoo- pictures to follow when it's healed. It's in red with a thin black outline.

Been listening to more Neubauten than usual since getting back from ATP, and I reckon Strategies Against Architecture 3 is probably the best place for a newcomer to the band to go. It's got a nice cross-section of stuff as they changed from still mostly percussive (Tabula Rasa) to their current sound, pretty much summed up by Silence Is Sexy and later albums.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

15:03 / 26.05.07

The Musterhaus discs were only available by subscription, weren't they? Has there been any mention or hint of a future general release (he asked doubtfully)?

They were, and I believe my sub has run out now - I missed the last four too. No word on re-issues that I know of, but you never know.

I'm still down for the other supporters CD+DVD as and when it's done. I recommend signing up as an EN supporter - you get some cool stuff, including some odd things like your user name in an ascii version of the EN logo on a poster, as well as access to webcasts, work in progress audio files (as WAVs and MP3s) etc etc.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

19:28 / 27.05.07

Stoatie's new tattoo

07:06 / 28.05.07

RAAAARRRR!

Mon Oncle Ignatius

00:13 / 22.10.07

And the new album, Alles wieder Offen is out, and it's not on Mute for the first time in a long time. I've listened twice already, and it's another stormer. More to report as and when I've fully absorbed it (and its sister EN Supporter release which has different versions of the tracks plus bonus material, but it's effectively subscription-only), and it's all sounding like excellent stuff so far.

The single cut "Weill Weill Weill" includes remixes by each band member, plus a karaoke version(!) apparently.

Maybe I really should join Stoatie in the EN tattoo set...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:37 / 22.10.07

I've been listening to it constantly at work for the last two nights, and I can confirm that it's truly awesome. Very much in the vein of Perpetuum Mobile, as if that could ever be a bad thing.

02:17 / 02.11.07

May I say that is one fine tattoo!

As for my own two pennies, I would really like to echo the sentiment that Einsturz (as they are affectionately dubbed round my place of birth) are fucking great!

One of the best concerts I ever saw - even though it appears now to me as one of the few where they got side-swiped by technical difficulties. (the air-guns faltered at times, failing to provide the necessary pressure to create important sounds that should have been in their repertoire). I never heard any complaints from people who've seen them anywhere else, so professional they are certainly.

It was a former church in Amsterdam where they performed in front of a crowd gathered to experience only them. For two and half hours they played their best from their seminal "Kollaps" (which I have on vinyl) to "silence is sexy". The entire building felt like it was on the verge of collapse itself at times due to the extreme nature of sounds produced by this amazing band.

Definitely a band to check out and experience, if one ever gets the slightest chance...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:43 / 22.05.08

Saw them tonight again in London, and they were FUCKING AWESOME. A much more percussive set than they did at ATP (though given the fact that they played at 1AM there, and everyone was on A LOT of very confusing drugs, tonight's set might have been a bit much if they'd played it then) and... well, they were just ace, really. A lot of proper "what the fuck IS that thing that he's playing?" Neubauten moments. And they finished with Youme And Meyou, which was, I seem to remember, the song that made a drugfucked Stoat decide it was finally time to get the tattoo done.

Some frontmen (like, say, Cave) are ace at doing the whole rock star thing. Blixa's awesome at being the mad scientist who's showing you round his workshop.

05:41 / 27.05.08

I just saw them in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Berlin.

They are so much more than a band.

They are a performance art cult. I want more.

14:38 / 27.05.08

Also saw them in Amsterdam: Music from the top shelf!

A little part of me says "I wish they played more old stuff" but not too loudly. Only 2 years until their 30th anniversary tour, then we'll get some classics.