Einstürzende Neubauten Live in Athens @ Fuzz Club

To every generation its own sickness. And for every generation its own cure. Or so they say. Keyword: Noise therapy. Theoretically seen – but in practice Einstürzende Neubauten were already and always will be one thing: complex. An allegedly chaotic production collective of music of a sort, whose particular allure and beauty is in no way obvious upon simple or first time listening. The Parameters are entirely shifted. The scales of all applicable units apparently reach into infinity and are being constantly collectively redefined, since the zero hour of the symbol-laden 1st of April 1980, for oneself and the curiously attentive music world – and so advanced to one of the most important groundbreaking formations in international pop culture. The paths that Einstürzende Neubauten have walked, over a period of almost three decades of band history, have never before been traveled with comparable consistency and unwillingness to compromise. The walls and borders that one in this period not only figuratively broke through, avec plaisier, were also until then considered insurmountable. This counts first of all for a band from Germany. The Wall was, at least in that time, of crucial importance for the founding of Einstürzende Neubauten, even if only secondary. The Wall, which encircled West Berlin, transformed it into a state-subsidized national bastion in the forced equilibrium of the Warsaw Pact on one hand, and an almost paradise like freak-enclave for artists and the maladjusted of every sort on the other. Maladjusts such as Blixa Bargeld, N.U. Unruh and FM Einheit, who declared war on every conventional way of listening with the release of their debut-album “Kollaps” in November 1981. In a norm-grey time in which the indirect results of the cold war could every time develop a real threat of a third world war, Einstürzende Neubauten reacted with almost un- listenable cathartic cascades of noise. A reaction to the omnipresent political madness and the still increasing flood of sound, on which the Neue Deutsche Welle with its meaningless pop-songs on radio and TV were surfing. Noise-mighty rhythm- ritualistic Anti-Pop as an antidote to the anxiety ridden, paralyzed and media sedated masses, made by instruments carefully stolen from building sites, junkyards and Do- It-Yourself-Hardware stores. Steel-parts, tin-drums, drills, hammers, saws and a un- tuned electric guitar crowned by Bargeld’s bloodcurdling screams und feverish apocalyptic texts. “Kollaps”, with its atonal essence, demonstrated exactly what the title suggested: decay and destruction, illness, doom and death. Ironically it had the exact opposite effect: becoming the dawn and cornerstone of a complete new understanding of music, which later on influenced countless pop bands such as Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Rammstein. In the following years, the team of experts, enlarged with Alexander Hacke and Marc Chung, expanded their ground-breaking sound field experiments with records like “Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.” (1983), “1/2 Mensch” (1985), “Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala” (1987) and “Haus der Lüge” (1989): milestones of the industrial scene. They broadened the spectrum of sound in every thinkable direction, moving away from the brutal, amphetamine induced anger of the early days of post- punk, towards an acoustic amplified thinking in which Blixa Bargeld’s sung and spoken words and sound material form a strong unity. Eruptive parts of noise are used at the precise point in a nearly mathematical manner and become increasingly frugal and rationed. The structures of the songs converge into more conventional patterns. Einstürzende Neubauten do not content themselves to merely widen horizons – they blow ‘em to bits. Pieces like “Armenia”, “Yü-Gung (Fütter mein Ego)”, “Z.N.S.” or “Feurio!” influenced a whole generation of individualists aloof from the predetermined apathy of society and are still often copied blueprints for current experimental sound- and performance art. Smiled at in the beginning as a bizarre Mauerstadt curiosity, Einstürzende Neubauten have established themselves as an irreplaceable variable in contemporary pop-culture. After large-scale experiences with theater-projects, (which were enthusiastically received by the Feuilleton) working together with renowned directors like Peter Zadek, Heiner Müller and Leander Haussmann, Einstürzende Neubauten opened another chapter with “Tabula Rasa” (1993), “Ende Neu” (1996), “Silence Is Sexy” (2000) and “Perpetuum Mobile” (2004). With their own sound-creating exploration ability they worked out the contrast between loud and quiet, noise and harmony to the limit of the frequency band spectrum. Carried by a treacherous perforated calm and softness, the chief ideologist Blixa Bargeld proves himself to be at the height of his lyrical art with songs such as “Die Interimsliebenden”, “Stella Maris” or “Die Befindlichkeit des Landes”: Hedged in, thinking around corners and edges; pondering. Today Einstürzende Neubauten are worldwide the first and only band which uses the Internet successfully and productively to gather their fans and concentrate activities. Einstürzende Neubauten organized their official website www.neubauten.org , which has been running since 2002, into the center of their musical activities. Entire albums are being financed by Supporters via subscription. The principle is simple: A Supporter buys the next Einstürzende Neubauten album, before it is even recorded. With this collected money the band has the time to work in peace and is not condemned to endless discussions about marketing and brand identity with the record companies, which are artistically irksome. In return the band allows the supporters world wide exclusive access to their internal working processes. The Supporters were able to watch the recording sessions via web-cam for the first two “Supporter Albums” (2002/2005) and were also called upon by the band members in direct chat discussions to comment on the working process and even to influence it. In the same way, the Musterhaus series (a collection of experimental albums) is being marketed solely on the website. The interim climax of the mercurial and unique history of Einstürzende Neubauten is marked by the highly symbolic performance on 4th of November 2004 at Palast der Republik, which was the former headquarter of the power apparatus of the fallen GDR and is in the meanwhile in the process of being demolished. The impressive live material (such as the 100-person Supporter choir functioning as a background amplifier for the song “Grundstück”) was later released on the enthusiastically received Album “Grundstück” along with the DVD of the same title (2005) as well as on the “Palast der Republik” DVD (2006). In their 27th year Einstürzende Neubauten prove again the potency of their philo- acoustic long-term therapy. After their successful tour through the U.K. the mature avant-garde All-Stars present their new album “Alles wieder offen” (2007), showing their intimacy and fragility in a completely new light. Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, N.U. Unruh, Rudolf Moser and Jochen Arbeit have triumphed over the old Berliner Mauerkrankheit, the fever has sunk to a normal temperature and the apocalyptic visions and the yearning for death of the early days are now part of the past. The untiring exploring spirit is still driven by a hot burning desire. Einstürzende Neubauten are still on the unending quest for the undiscovered Sound and have once again perceptibly redefined their parameters. For every generation its own sickness, and for every generation its own cure. Sometimes the proven household remedies are the most effective. Or so they say. Thomas Clausen, July 2007