Label: Mute Format: 2CD
Okay, so it may be the wrong time, given recent events, for a band whose name translates as “Collapsing New Buildings” to release an album called Strategies Against Architecture III, but, heedless of a Stockhausen-style backlash, those wonderfully inventive German sonic terrorists (again, perhaps not a good analogy, but what the fuck) Einstürzende Neubauten are at it again, this time with a double CD retrospective of their work since 1991. And yeah, compilation albums by your favourite bands aren’t usually much to write home about- you’ve already got it all, apart from the couple of tracks they chuck on to make you buy it as well as those who haven’t religiously bought all their stuff. But this is different- the majority of it is unreleased and alternate versions, with the sleeve notes giving a good insight into the creative/destructive process behind some of the most idiosyncratic, yet still fucking marvellous, music around.
As always, EN walk the fine line between pomposity and playfulness (no Spinal Tap jokes, please), between creation and destruction. So for every pleasant soundtracky piece like “Archictektur Ist Geiselnahme”, you get a recipe for shrimp (“Scampi Alla Carlina”). Or something like that. There’s a fucking storming live version of “Ende Neu”, featuring an air compressor/mouth solo which anyone who’s seen their recent live shows will agree is a lot less silly than it sounds. A lot of this tracks the evolution of “Salamandrina” through various forms, and it’s kind of odd hearing other tracks in a larval stage- “I Wish This Would Be Your Colour” for example is fuck all like “Sabrina” from Silence Is Sexy which it turned into eventually.
It’s not all spooky soundscapes- there’s a fair bit of percussive metal-bashing, too, most notably the welcome return of “3 Thoughts”, albeit in a version without the lyrics to which the title refers, but instead with Blixa Bargeld sounding all confused, bless him, about why his mother is so concerned over him joining a devil sect. And yes, it works just as well without the “Thoughts” themselves- this time you really get to appreciate just how sinister and bombastic the percussion is, although the same criticism as with the released version still stands- it’s too bloody short. Which can also be said of the album as a whole, which ain’t bad for a double CD- there’s an astonishing amount of gems and rarities on here, with sod all in the way of filler. This is a good introduction for anyone who’s never heard them before and quite frankly can’t understand any of the vague descriptions we all tend to fall back on to describe these most indescribable of musicians. It’s not hard to see why Nick Cave fell in love with them back in the Birthday Party days, or why so many seemingly normal people end up getting the Neubauten logo as a tattoo.
Don’t be put off by the common perception of them as just a bunch of guys who hit stuff – they do, it’s true, but they also do a whole lot more than that. There are plentiful moments of genuine beauty here, and basically it sounds a whole lot better than you and your mates did when you were kids, first learned about Industrial music and hung around in junkyards hitting stuff thinking you were creating art. You weren’t. You were just hitting stuff. Neubauten, on the other hand, are musicians who hit stuff- anything is an instrument, be it voice, body, compressed air, sand or burning oil. Oh yeah, and conventional instruments, too. Check out the live version of “Redukt”, with its strings and shouting, or the really quite a lot more beautiful than I remember “Blume”, all harmonics, strings, spoken female vocals and “laa laa laa”s from Blixa.
Really, I just can’t stress how good this is. A timely reminder that “Industrial music” used to mean something other than “Heavy Metal with drum machines”, a genre that you can’t get much further from than Neubauten. Though they do indeed Rock on occasion. Quite simply a fucking wonderful compilation from by far and away the best band in the world. And almost a consolation for the fact that they probably won’t release another album or play the UK again for fucking ages. Almost.
-Collapsing New Deuteronemu 90210-
