Along with contemporaries like Skinny Puppy or Laibach, the early Einsturzende Neubauten represented the crest of an experimental wave of music that was just breaking, to encompass post punk and electronics. As acts like Cabaret Voltaire were changing perceptions of music, Neubauten found a niche using modified industrial hardware as instruments (cement mixers, power drills etc.) and formulating a ‘destruction is creation’ art ethic. Over twenty years on Neubauten are not making tough, industrial music anymore. Although their recent material bears the paradigm of their youth, it is realised in a far more subtle way.
Always wanting to push the envelope, they had a web cam in their studio while recording Perpetuum Mobile, and at times broadcast the process live, asking their (loyal and devoted) fans to comment. The music still follows a loosely industrial slant, in that the sound sources are often ‘found’ or at least created with highly unorthodox instruments. They’ve used minimal production techniques – check ‘Paradiesseits’ – and the repetition of vocals and percussive composition reminds the listener of the band’s roots. Also, they are still concerned with surroundings, with comments throughout on the battle between man or edifice, and natural forces like storms.
Potentially cacophonous sounds have been replaced with at least seemingly natural ones; organic and sequenced processes are arranged with far less conflict than in their early work, as on a track like ‘Der Weg Ins Freie’. The hard edge of the band resurfaces, however, on tracks like ‘Selbstportrait Mit Kater’ and ‘Ein Seltener Vogel’. Personally I enjoy the contemporary, decelerated Neubauten, and Perpertuum Mobile continues nicely along the vein set by their last two albums. It’s sparse, melodic, at times quite melancholic and often engaging. Listen up!