The name Einsturzende Neubauten translates to, “collapsing new buildings,” perhaps a play on their genre defining, industrial legacy.
The recent album Alles Weider Offen (All Open Again) is the result of EN’s pledge to remove their process from the label world and make truly listener-supported music, something they set out to do earlier this decade. Since then, they’ve missed the actualization of that mark, returning to one of their previous homes on Mute Records; the mere existence of this album though shows some real success with trying to strike out unconventionally. The ten tracks on Alles Weider Offen show a band still playing that alternating mood aesthetic where they create shuddering din and noise alongside gorgeous mood and electric melody. If previous Neubauten were LOUD-quiet-LOUD, then this album might open the door to QUIET-loud-QUIET – there isn’t so much that threatens to break here. The album opens with the shivering, “Die Wellen” (The Waves) a track which crashes as violently like its namesake; the follow up is so deeply moving, so thoroughly exhilarating, “Nagorny Karabach” might not mean anything in the way of language but it is a repeat listen for its pure emotive properties. That might be said of Alles Weider Offen from beginning to end – its QUIET-loud-QUIET, or, BEAUTIFUL-challenging-BEAUTIFUL. A working knowledge of German leads one to understand that Blixa Bargeld is singing in riddles, challenging society to re-define itself; that knowledge is unimportant. Blixa is also orchestrating something that sounds very close to perfect.
If the band is unique in their sound, they are also in the way they do business; the stress of that fact in considering Alles Weider Offen cannot be underscored. They’ve changed line-ups, jumped labels, made bold (sometimes failed) attempts at creating a real artist’s community in-house; through all of that perceived instability, they continue to execute a simple, sustaining creative mission. Even late into their already defined careers, a genre where they are pioneers, they’re making albums like Alles Weider Offen which seek to mark terrific changes.
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