If you were lucky enough to join Einstürzende Neubauten earlier today for their live broadcast you’ll want to tune in to see it again. It was that marvelous. That badass.
The re-broadcast coming at 3:00PM EST today, like the live version aired at 8:00AM, will be available on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and the Neubauten.org website.
I first came to Einstürzende Neubauten in 1983 through Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T., their 2nd official studio album released that year. I was living in Vermont attending college and finding this music opened another door to explore along with the newfound freedom courtesy of the realization I could be anyone I wanted to be, untethered from the ties of familiarity and personal history I left behind in NJ. What. A. Joy. It’s no exaggeration to say that the music of Blixa Bargeld & Co. acted as a regular player in the soundtrack for my life for the next two decades (or so). I also had the great pleasure of seeing Blixa perform during his stint as part of the Bad Seeds, acting as a kind of manic foil to Nick Cave’s cooler undertaker vibe.
The band began in 1980 making today’s live broadcast a celebration of their 46th anniversary. The lineup for today’s live-from-the-studio in Berlin broadcast included original members Blixa Bargeld and N.U. Unruh joined by Jochen Arbeit, Rudolph Moser, and the latest addition to the band, bassist Josefine Lukschy. If you heard what I heard this morning, we know the band sounds as vital and ferocious as ever along with a welcome lyricism they’ve picked up along the way.
If you don’t know Einstürzende Neubauten (‘Collapsing New Buildings’) I recommend Halber Mensch (1985), Tabula Rasa (1993), and Silence Is Sexy (2000) as good entry points. As you can see, the band makes ample use of unconventional ‘instruments’ inspired in part by the ideas expressed by Luigi Russolo in his 1913 Futurist manifesto The Art of Noises.
What a way to start the day. Bravo!