einstuerzende neubauten: classic or dud?

Blixa can, in a good mood, be very sweet and thoughtful? He recently sat down and patiently explained all of his favourite Kraftwerk albums to me, which was really quite above and beyond. I'm vaguely terrified of him, but he's actually lovely?

One of the things I've noticed about him is that he is just naturally an incredibly LOUD human being, even in his default mode, he seems like he's shouting. So if he's irritated, the irritation seems much more magnified by the volume. But him refusing to suffer fools is often when he is at his wittiest. (So long as you're not the target.) There's no putdown quite like a Blixa putdown.

I'm quite sad that the current supporter's project isn't getting any attention at all. They're still doing some really wonderful and pleasing work - funnily enough, the almost-throwaway "Dave" experiments have been resulting in some of the most enjoyable and playful, freeform, almost surreal tracks.

That is very interest8nbg.

That is very interesting. Perhaps when I encoutered him then he wasn't actually angry at all.

No, I mean, he also can be scarily, incandescently angry - and the volume combined with the rapier-sharp wit makes that terrifying.

But he's also kind of weirdly (almost childishly) excitable. Which is unexpected in someone with a reputation for being so icy uber-cool. So I do think that sometimes "Blixa shouting loudly in German" is read as him being angry, when he's just begeistert and laut?

But he really, really does not suffer fools gladly. (Which is why I'm so terrified of him - I'm 110% fool.)

I don't know when I became such a Captain Save-A-Prussian. I just love him, OK?

Go on then, I'm curious – how come you sat down with Blixa for a chat?

I'm a massive EN fan but I don't care much for this supporter thing, I just want to buy the finished record. The earlier supporter projects weren't very interesting to me either as they seemed to include the possibility of creative input to the album from supporters, whereas I thought they should have been making the record free from that kind of influence. Interestingly, they seem to have dropped that aspect from the current supporter project.

It's interesting that you didn't consider, that perhaps the very thing you're disparaging as totally "not your thing" in the second paragraph, is the exact answer to your question in the first.

So what are his favorites Kraftwerk albums?

Well, I assumed that your conversation with him was face-to-face, and face-to-face meetings are not part of the supporter rewards, but maybe it was via video.

xp

He said he was a huge fan, growing up, loved them from the first 2 albums all the way through to Die Mensch Maschine (after that he said they lost him). But the two releases he particularly singled out were Ralf und Florian and the Kometenmelodie single (with a cute story about combing all of West Berlin to find it! Sign of a true Kraftwerk nerd, tracking down that one.)

Love taht Kometnenmelodie traclk. Wish I hadn't lost the Exceller 8 lp which was my introduction to the early years, probably lost it at the same time as the Van Der Graaf generator cover double lp of the first 2 lps which I picked up several years later come to think of things.
Exceller 8 was an amalagam of the first 3 or 4 lps . I think a couple of things were edited.

Think you can hear some echoes of that early stuff in early EN longside Pink Floyd. Kollaps has a backcover that seems to be a tribute to the back sleeve of Ummagumma

ha, I never thought about that cover connection!

Hahaha, I had not noticed that, but yeah. Dude clearly had a Floyd stage. For a Punque Rocke Icon (tm) he has such dirty dronerock boy taste in music. He loves him some NEU! too.

Kollaps has a backcover that seems to be a tribute to the back sleeve of Ummagumma

That was the first thing I thought when I saw it!

it's funny because the one time I met Blixa he was just sitting placidly noodling at a piano, and I had come into the rehearsal studio to unlock a cabinet for another member of the ensemble (not neubauten, an experimental classical thing)

also since this thread is active -- here's a link to a new(ish) documentary featuring neubauten

https://www.desolationcenter.com/

So apparently during their Musterhaus phase, they attempted to entirely cover Ummagumma from memory, or play along with the record, or something stupid and ridiculous like that?

It's been really really edifying, watching them work, because you can see that they are experimental, in the sense of trying out all kinda of wild and wacky shit just to see what happens. And some of it really, really works and sounds amazing (they had a day where all of them decided to play metal springs of various shapes and sizes, which sounded fantasic, like really wild dub) and some of it just patently doesn't work - but you can't tell in advance which is going to be which?

They manage to keep a sense of playfulness and spontaneity - sometimes they're like goofy, excitable children in the studio as often as they're Serious Prussian Musicians Playing With Precision - where so many bands of their generation or type just became so po-faced and tedious and wank. Which, unfortunately, doesn't always come across on the Official Finished Records, but is much more apparent in the webcasts, the Daves (which turned up in compilation on The Jewels - the re-release of which really rekindled my interest in the band) and the supporter-only stuff. Which is why it's worth it for me, being a supporter, because the random stuff they produce when they're not working to produce The Official Album is a lot more fun and a lot more interesting.

Blixa has been playing guitar again, which is... a treat.

He was really cute about it, too. They said he bought a guitar - which surprised him as much as it surprised us - and we were all very disbelieving. We kept being told about this guitar Blixa was buying, and I kept going "I don't believe you, pics or it didn't happen" and then 24 hours later this picture mysteriously appeared:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/e2b635f2f189da499f08fd8632a75963/tumblr_ps6fi6l9Ly1rjw8sqo1_1280.pnj

He is such an adorkable cutie, LOOKIT MY KOOL SPACEROCK GUITAR then he went in the studio and ran it through 8000 wibbling delay pedals and I was in heaven.

Did he get anywhere with learning pedal steel guitar? I heard he was trying to learn back around the mid 00ies.

I really want a CD of The Jewels, thanks for the reminder

So apparently during their Musterhaus phase, they attempted to entirely cover Ummagumma from memory, or play along with the record, or something stupid and ridiculous like that?

So someone somewhere must have a recording of them doing "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"?

JUst seen this for the first time, is it well known?
https://neubautenshrimpscampi.tumblr.com/image/115381123404
are EN well know bronies?

https://neubautenshrimpscampi.tumblr.com/image/115381123404
is what i was trying to post

New album is called Alles in Allem. It's out, I think in May?

I'm still mad that they left the two best songs off the album (the lollopping Mother Sky-like spacerock epic, and the Bubblewrap Song) but the album that it is going to be is still going to be incredibly good. Some rather unexpected, but incredibly beautiful textures coming from the Prussians. (I think this might be their ~Psychedelic Album~?) And very personal, very Berlinny lyrics.

Also harp. The harp was quite divisive among the fans, but it sounds absolutely freaking amazing. A duet between carefully tuned ballistic shell casings, and harp.

Very excited now, for reasons that will soon be clear!

I draw myself anew
non-binary I: forever new

So, absolutely freaking CLASSIC, obviously.

Seeing them in June. It's good that they have a new album to tour, they need to change up the live show a bit. The last couple of times I've seen them it's been more or less the Greatest Hits comp played live, which was great of course but did leave me wanting to hear something new.

I felt they got a bit stale after... 'Silence is Sexy', maybe? Or maybe its just me who lost curiosity for what they were doing

Well, yes, they have a whole (possibly two?) new album's worth of material to tour now, so the shows will be quite different. Also, they had a supporter vote on what songs to play live, with interesting results.

I think what happened after Silence Is Sexy is that they became way more excited about producing 'Stuff For Supporters' than they did about 'Producing Stuff For Proper Albums'? To my mind, the more experimental stuff that turned up on The Jewels was more interesting, to me, than the songs on the Offical Album, Alles Wieder Offen. (But that said, I really really love Perpetuum Mobile, which was a mixture of stuff intended for general release, and stuff intended for supporters.)

I think, after the long, long break (though I don't know why no one counts Lament) they are actually enjoying it again, they're a lot more playful with new material.

I first saw them around Ende Neu and have tried to see them whenever they play London ever since.

Perhaps there was a period of adjustment, post-Mufti, when they refined their sound and stage dynamics and it got quite calm and more poised, but I love the later albums so it was no bad thing.

I would like to have been able to see them around 84-86, I remember that weekend thing they did at the Garage 10 years ago, they included Seelebrennt in the set and it was so fantastic to hear, so potent.

The Lament performance at Koko was blinding too.

xp to Branwell: the problem with that approach is that hardcore fans and Supporters are not necessarily the same group of people. I've been a massive EN fan for many years and have all the Proper Albums but, as mentioned upthread, I have no desire to take part in their supporter projects (that's not a diss on those like you who do, different strokes for different folks). I infinitely prefer the curated, polished final work to the raw, provisional, open-ended Supporter releases; I found both Grundstück and Jewels to be really heavy going and have no desire to ever hear them again.

We can spend all day arguing about who is a 'hardcore fan' versus who is a 'supporter' because, come on.

But at the end of the day, you might be surprised to find that a band with such a rich DIY history are simply more interested in meeting the needs of the fans who *are* willing to engage with them, and support them, and come along for the ride, and participate in the experience, than they are in so-called 'hardcore fans'... who will not.

And I'm grateful for that.

ok

I wasn't aware that spending significant amounts of money on EN records, CDs, concert tickets and merch over the years doesn't count as engagement, support and participation, while not taking part in supporter projects renders null my claim to be a hardcore fan, but whatever.

maybe next time you sit down for a chat with Blixa you can ask him where I stand in the hierarchy of EN fandom

I have dipped into their catalog over the years but feel like I haven't found the right starting point(s). And I love lots of 80s industrial! Suggestions?

Halber Mensch and Drawings of O.T. were my gateway drugs

already got tickets, very excited, and I didn't actually know there was a new album coming so that's just a cherry on top. glad to hear they are having more fun with the work. saw them on the Ende Neu tour a little over 20 years ago and it was just fantastic, all time concert experience.

The Strategies Against Architecture series of compilation albums gives you a pretty good overview of the earlier years, while the ironically titled Greatest Hits set from a few years ago is a useful round-up of the later years.

Cosign, Strategies I & II are excellent.

Yeah Strategies II was my entry point. Plenty of classics not really available elsewhere too

I was a Phase III supporter but felt like the retail release of Jewels was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

I think I knew about this, then forgot about it. Kind of ambivalent about missing out.

In lieu of a general Berlin-based music thread, I thought this was the next best place to park this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjqu59mF7Cc

So the first digital single will be out at the start of April. (Probably Ten Grand Goldie - which will be very interesting, as that's the one that the supporters had the most input into (quite literally.))

I've also heard that they're going to be doing a deal to get their entire back catalogue onto Spotify, which will be grand - half of it is under the Stevo Curse, half of it is just missing, and bits and bobs have turned up piecemeal over the years - so getting the whole thing in one place will quite an accomplishment.

Yes, there will be a box set for the collectors. With vinyl and CDs and a full colour glossy book and a film and bits and bobs (and LOL @ who they let do the liner notes!)

Might be going into Neubauten overload for the next few months, but I'm really excited! It's been such a surprise to discover how playful Blixa is.

::tosses a glitterbomb into thread:: HURRAH!

Are the Potomak cds still available. & did they cover all of the first major lineup's material?
Not sure if they needed to go beyond chung and mufti leaving cos I think they may have had more control of their catalogue beyond there.

Glittery make-up, flower crowns and the return of SHOPPING TROLLEY in the new video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nz9t_4XLcc

^^^probably one of the most evocative and salient songs of the album, but gives a general idea of the hauntingly elegant and elegiac mood.

Album is out on the 15th. I know distribution is... tricky at the moment, but they've finally come round to digital streaming, and it will be on all the major streaming platforms, too. (I'm just hoping the whole postal system holds together long enough for the box set to get here!)

It's a nice song, but it's made me realize that I don't want to grow old with Einstürzende Neubauten. Their elegiac phase does not speak to me. I miss the EN of roughly 1980-1992, even knowing that I came to them relatively late (didn't see them live until 1989, but saw them four times in four years - 1989, twice in 1990, and again in 1992). That's the group I love - the manic, junk-smashing, power-drill-shrieking, dropping-an-anvil-through-a-concert-hall-stage EN. I'm glad they're still out there, still making work that speaks to them and to others, but I'm never gonna feel about anything after Tabula Rasa the way I feel about the stuff from their first dozen years.

"Ten Grand Goldie," the other new song released so far, is much closer to what I was hoping for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIjTHkN21Zo

I quite like 10 Grand Goldie, more than most of what I've heard from them over the last 20 years, but nothing really new to be honest.

So this has leaked and is sounding pretty great so far. "Zivilisatorisches Missgeschick" is amazing.

Yeah, I've heard the whole thing now and it's really good. Probably gonna review it somewhere.