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Camden music review| grooves | Einstürzende Neubauten | The Forum | Krautrock | Industrial | EBM | Berlin
REVIEW: EINSTERüRZENDE NEUBAUTEN
The Forum
IF the good folk of Kentish Town woke up on Friday morning to find their drainpipes missing or the scaffolding plucked from their houses, the explanation is simple: Einstürzende Neubauten (EN) woz here.
No, EN are not gothic cowboy builders or Nazi “Changing Rooms” enthusiasts, but an avant-garde German industrial band of legendary reputation, fronted by former Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld – author, actor, member of an occult order established by Aleister Crowley, and vegetarian.
In their 28-year career EN – meaning “Collapsing New Buildings” – have influenced everyone from Depeche Mode to Liars, and their blistering two-hour set at the Forum almost definitely influenced the person who stole your carburettor last weekend.
EN take the label “industrial” literally, making all but a handful of their sounds out of blades, steel pipes, angle grinders and other construction materials. The drum kit is a portmanteau of springs and rotary blades that is adapted for nearly every song; they even have their own “instrument inventor”, NU Unruh.
This unassuming shock-headed man plays a bewildering array of objects through the course of the evening: he holds steel brushes over motor-propelled fans, plonks on scaffolding set up like a xylophone, whacks a drainpipe with what looks like a roof tile, and tips over a trough filled with iron brackets. For one song he stands with a bowl of white petals, rustling them gently through his hands.
Novel though these effects are, they are not gimmicks: each sound suits its purpose, wrapping itself around the delicate melodies and Bargeld’s rich, pervasive vocals. Their strange, beautiful music would not be out of place at the Royal Festival Hall or a demolition site in East Berlin.
Next time, lock up your drainpipes and get a ticket.
Simon Wroe |
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