*Reissue of the 1981 album, originally released on Zickzack* "Einstürzende Neubauten's first studio record. They established themselves as relentless and pioneering right out of the gate, bringing power tools and metallic percussion into the mix in a never before seen way. This album is more consistent than a lot of their later records, and the standard is very high across the record, but it's still very much a band finding themselves. You can feel the members doing something awesome, but you can also kind of feel them not really knowing what it is quite yet. Saying they're throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks is a bit unfair, but they definitely wasn't 100% sure of what they were doing.
Call it chance if you will, but they created a masterpiece, and a landmark release of the genre. Songs like "Steh auf Berlin", "Negativ Nein", "Hirnsäge" or the title track are amazing in both their influence, composition and attitude. Some song lag behind a little (looking at you, "U-Haft-Muzak"...), but the album flows well and never lets you rest."