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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As a long-time EN fan, I was more than pleased when I first heard this album. Since their break with exploitative record labels and what seemed like a retreat into a subscription-only world of studio experimentation, this record proves that - not only are they still on a mission - but that their sound has benefitted from their seclusion in the studio. It would seem that the trial and error of the past few years, experienced by those who 'joined the club' and supported them by subscribing to their website, have helped to propel the band beyond expected (or accepted) limits. Fans of the band have seen them move away from the violence of Kollaps to the serenity of Perpetuum Mobile. And as thrilling a voyage as that has been, this album offers no conclusion to it. It is not a culmination, but an exciting next step for a band that shows no signs of fatigue.
True, this album has little of their early abrasion. But the cool, remote soundscapes of Perpetuum Mobile are not the defining characteristic here either. There are shades of their Haus Der Luege masterpiece, Fiat Lux, throughout the album, but there is a calm grandeur to all the tracks here. The impression one gets is of a band overflowing with confidence, and happy to describe their vision unencumbered with audience expectations. It's certainly one of their best, and will be seen as one of their most important albums in coming years.
For existing fans, then, it is a vital purchase; as important a landmark as Ende Neu or Silence Is Sexy. For neophytes, it serves as a good introduction, if only to dispell the fear that EN are all Sturm und Drang.
Just as Ende Neu and Tabula Rasa, did what their titles promised, Alles Wieder Offen, opens our eyes and ears to new things and leaves us eager for EN's next move.
True, this album has little of their early abrasion. But the cool, remote soundscapes of Perpetuum Mobile are not the defining characteristic here either. There are shades of their Haus Der Luege masterpiece, Fiat Lux, throughout the album, but there is a calm grandeur to all the tracks here. The impression one gets is of a band overflowing with confidence, and happy to describe their vision unencumbered with audience expectations. It's certainly one of their best, and will be seen as one of their most important albums in coming years.
For existing fans, then, it is a vital purchase; as important a landmark as Ende Neu or Silence Is Sexy. For neophytes, it serves as a good introduction, if only to dispell the fear that EN are all Sturm und Drang.
Just as Ende Neu and Tabula Rasa, did what their titles promised, Alles Wieder Offen, opens our eyes and ears to new things and leaves us eager for EN's next move.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Einstürzende Neubauten, the sound of collapsing buildings, point five on the Richter Scale, have never courted novelty merely for the sake of it, but they have always been open to innovation in every aspect of their creative process. And that might just go some way to explaining how after more than 27 years they still show no sign of tiring, no sign of losing their music-making vitality. Operating through supporter subscriptions, EN have pioneered a truly independent business model, free of the capital constraints of a record label. Instead, it is the fans that sponsor their creative endeavour, able to watch regular webcasts of the band at work and participate in discussion groups that analyse their music. But even if you didn't facilitate the creative process that culminated in `Alles Wieder Offen', it's still available for you to purchase! It's never too late to discover the wonder that is Einstürzende Neubauten.
EN have come a long way from those early days of cacophony wrought from metal drilling, scraping, banging and resonating on metal, but that improvisational ethic persists - EN still dwell in a world of useful detritus, which given the right constructive impetus can yield some awe-inspiring methods of generating sounds dramatic, subtle and exciting. Their percussive mastery is surely unrivalled, but added to this are the cryptic, poetic utterances of their lyricist Blixa Bargeld (also formerly the guitarist with Nick Cave's Bad Seeds). These days it's obvious that the music of EN is authored by a tribe of experts who understand sound, structure, and composition better than almost any other contemporary musical innovators. Neubauten remain a unique musical proposition which has enriched my life no end, and `Alles Wieder Offen' is a tremendous offering - let it do the same for yours!
EN have come a long way from those early days of cacophony wrought from metal drilling, scraping, banging and resonating on metal, but that improvisational ethic persists - EN still dwell in a world of useful detritus, which given the right constructive impetus can yield some awe-inspiring methods of generating sounds dramatic, subtle and exciting. Their percussive mastery is surely unrivalled, but added to this are the cryptic, poetic utterances of their lyricist Blixa Bargeld (also formerly the guitarist with Nick Cave's Bad Seeds). These days it's obvious that the music of EN is authored by a tribe of experts who understand sound, structure, and composition better than almost any other contemporary musical innovators. Neubauten remain a unique musical proposition which has enriched my life no end, and `Alles Wieder Offen' is a tremendous offering - let it do the same for yours!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
An absolutely astonishing album! How often do you find a band reaching the peak of their creativity 27 years into their career?
In his pamphlet "Music, Violence, Truth", Ben Watson questioned how a band whose name means "collapsing new buildings" and who achieved notoriety by drilling into a stress-bearing beam at the ICA could continue being relevant after the 11th September 2001, now that such artistic gestures pale into insignificance when compared to the new "real world".
Neubauten have effortlessly brushed aside these doubts in their post-2001 output, turning towards a peculiarly European lyricism that draws on centuries of European philosophical thought allied to the rigorous but anti-academic sound research of the holy minimalist and spectralist movements in modern classical music. More astonishingly, at the core of all the shimmering and chiming sonic lattices lie profoundly simple songs that could, in an alternative universe, belong to such masters of understated conciseness as Lee Hazlewood, Serge Gainsbourg or Johnny Cash.
The results presented here on "Alles Wieder Offen" suggest the great album that Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds could have made if only they were willing to detach themselves from their luddite traditionalism and plunge recklessly into the 21st Century. Less sprawling than 2004's fine "Perpetuum Mobile", "Alles Wieder Offen" is a completely accessible whilst still being uncompromisingly experimental in a manner that has probably not been achieved since the first Velvet Underground album. Although this is only the second major album by the group since that fateful September, they have certainly not been idle, honing ideas on a series of subscriber-only releases of experiments and works in progress. Listening to this album, I can only marvel at the extent to which those experiments have paid off.
In his pamphlet "Music, Violence, Truth", Ben Watson questioned how a band whose name means "collapsing new buildings" and who achieved notoriety by drilling into a stress-bearing beam at the ICA could continue being relevant after the 11th September 2001, now that such artistic gestures pale into insignificance when compared to the new "real world".
Neubauten have effortlessly brushed aside these doubts in their post-2001 output, turning towards a peculiarly European lyricism that draws on centuries of European philosophical thought allied to the rigorous but anti-academic sound research of the holy minimalist and spectralist movements in modern classical music. More astonishingly, at the core of all the shimmering and chiming sonic lattices lie profoundly simple songs that could, in an alternative universe, belong to such masters of understated conciseness as Lee Hazlewood, Serge Gainsbourg or Johnny Cash.
The results presented here on "Alles Wieder Offen" suggest the great album that Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds could have made if only they were willing to detach themselves from their luddite traditionalism and plunge recklessly into the 21st Century. Less sprawling than 2004's fine "Perpetuum Mobile", "Alles Wieder Offen" is a completely accessible whilst still being uncompromisingly experimental in a manner that has probably not been achieved since the first Velvet Underground album. Although this is only the second major album by the group since that fateful September, they have certainly not been idle, honing ideas on a series of subscriber-only releases of experiments and works in progress. Listening to this album, I can only marvel at the extent to which those experiments have paid off.
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An absolutely astonishing album! How often do you find a band reaching the peak of their creativity 27 years into their career? Read more
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