Einstürzende Neubauten
Ende Neu

THE REVIEW

I am aghast! I am genuinely amazed! This database lacks the pivotal album by Blixa and company, so it falls on me to review it. What can I say, everything is known about Einstürzende, the founders and progenitors of the most chaotic and dark industrial post-punk, with spectacular "musical" instruments built with cybernetic imagination. Yet what you hear in "Collaps" or "Halber Mensch" is not noise: every beat, every single pneumatic hammer is perfectly tuned and reproduces a note at 440 Hertz, and the tuning and soundcheck before their performances last several hours precisely for these reasons, and I am a witness to this. Historic tracks like "Ein Stuhl in der Hölle" and "Salamandrina" have been resonating in the minds of fans for over twenty years, but "Ende Neu"... is something different.

The album is technically complicated, difficult, less noisy and paradoxically more played (with classic musical instruments, that is), making it more digestible even for less suited eardrums. The CD opens with a rather short, sharp cut ("Was Ist Ist") of the minimal-philosophical text that perhaps recalls the old Neubauten glories, but then continues with the sadness and melancholy of "Stella Maris", a slow, paranoid, and rhythmic ballad. Fantastic "Nnnaaammm", a distressing lullaby almost eleven minutes long repeated ad nauseam. This is the track that marks the boundary, reminding us all that EN can only be appreciated or idolized by true fans, and it is this piece that reminds everyone that EN are NOT and will NEVER be a band for everyone. Special mention should be made of "Der Schacht von Babel", which harks back to the already mentioned "Ein Stuhl in der Hölle", where Blixa's vocal timbre chills the blood in the veins also thanks to the industrial district atmospheres of Berlin. "Ende Neu", the title track, is very ironic in its singing, smirking, and partially resumes the typically late-eighties Neubauten sound, albeit with a considerable dose of melody added. The other tracks (few, in truth) can be listened to without praise or infamy, characterized mostly by their lack of dynamic and frenetic flow (no tracks à la "Yu-Gung", so to speak).

Overall, an enjoyable album, not as exaggerated as its predecessors and capable of partially satisfying a more refined audience as well. I add that perhaps some of the historical EN devotees might be a bit disappointed by the "melodic" shift that accompanies us for a good thirty minutes of the approximately forty total on the CD, but it's a must-have! ...Wo bist du gewesen? Sag es mir!... keep it up, Neubauten!