April 23, 2005
Neubauten
I'm listening for the first time to the live recording from the Einstürzende Neubauten show last week and it's bringing back some really strong memories.
Frantic, melancholic, apocalyptic at times, the music has what I can only describe as a religious quality--it takes you someplace else, someplace strange and dark, and wonderful, with a feeling that seems to flow more from the desperation of the 80s than today--that feeling of trying to cling to a faint thread of hope for the future despite all evidence. And the feeling of being here now and nowhere else.
My favorite line from the show, Was ist ist. Was nicht ist, ist möglich. (What is is. What is not, is possible.)
Despite the heavy percussion, E-N are never mechanistic. There is such a strong sense of humanity, of "survival despite" running through the music. I keep going back to what Blixa told Mondo 2000 in an interview about 15 years ago... He said all Einstürzende Neubauten songs are love songs.
Yeah.
Posted by case at April 23, 2005 03:30 PM