Einstürzende Neubauten

*Reissue of the 1989 album, originally released on Rough Trade*  "Like every other Einstürzende Neubauten album, Blixa Bargeld's vocals are the cornerstone of the band sound. Never has a band had a vocalist that fits so well with its persona. Bargeld delivers wild rambling, calm spoken word segments, and mournful shrieks that were praised by Nick Cave as "a sound you would expect to hear from strangled cats or dying children." Lyrically, this album is very strong. Even through a translation filter the lyrics remain unique, visual, and with a witty style of dark humor throughout. Stand out moments include the lyrics in Ein Stuhl in der Holle that are done in style of a drunken folk song and the title track that elegantly describes a series of insane patients like exhibits at a museum.
The massive, multipart, Fiat Lux deserves mention as it shows how easily Einstürzende Neubauten can transform noise into something enthralling and memorable. The song starts out in ballad-like fashion with the sounds of flies buzzing, but soon collapses into brilliant ambience. The second movement has out-of-tune guitar chords and humming over samples of rioting and speeches. The track's arrangement is simple, but it is effective at getting under the listener's skin. This movement is one most successful uses of noise in Neubauten's career and crashes directly into the radically different, percussion heavy movements of Maifestspiele and Hirnlogo.
Considering the album's cover and the fact that it is composed with mostly junk yard equipment, Haus Der Luge is enjoyed best with a bit of humor. However, Einstürzende Neubauten maintains such a high level of attention to detail in their compositions that they become so much more than just a novelty act. Einstürzende Neubauten shows that creativity should be the main driving force in music and do so by never repeating or copying a style. Yes, this is industrial music, it can still be used to offend the general public; but for us that are initiated, this is high art."