Greatest Hits

Description

A concept of conceptlessness was created at that time from a spontaneous idea (many thought it was an April Fools joke when the Einstürzende Neubauten first stood on the stage at Berlins Moon on April 1, 1980; more than 35 years ago), from which the brilliant dilettantes developed their own strategy against social and musical architecture using metal pipes, feathers and machines. In keeping, Blixa Bargeld constructed metaphor-laden poetry, around which unique worlds of sound were built up from objects of the most varied origins. The band discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies. Hardly another German band has characterized the music landscape as lastingly as EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN.

Their influence on the music world was and is as great as their timeless character. We didnt die, sings Blixa, were just singing a different difference, he goes on to clarify, is in the song. The song in question, How Did I Die?, comes from Lament, Einstürzende Neubautens 2014 soundtrack to a specially commissioned live performance by the Belgian Flemish town of Diksmuide to mark the centenary of its fall to German troops at the outbreak of the First World War. It might be steeped in the history of catastrophe but its also the newest track on Greatest Hits, the compilation album named after the special shows theyve been touring the world with these past few years, initially while they were researching and preparing Lament for its Belgian premiere performance.

The music for those Greatest Hits shows was largely drawn from the last 27 years, and then most all of it created by their current longest lasting line-up. The earliest track here, however, is a newly mixed version of Haus Der Lüge, the title track of their 1989 album Haus Der Lüge; except its now adorned with freshly recorded trombone and string parts, which the group wanted on the original but couldnt afford, so had to use synth simulations instead.

1993s Tabula Rasa is represented by two tracks, Die Interimsliebenden and Salamandrina. Its the last album to feature bass player Mark Chung, who joined in 1981 shortly after FM Einheit, aka Mufti, while they were both members of the Hamburg punk group Abwärts. Mufti himself left during the recording of 1996s Ende Neu, and he doesnt actually feature on Greatest Hits opening trackThe Garden, the first line of which was inspired by an English woman overheard by Blixa: If you want me you will find me in the garden/Unless its pouring down with rain.

Here begins proper the phantasmagoric journeys documented on Greatest Hits, taking Einstürzende Neubauten so the song goes to the banks of all four rivers and the spring of consciousness, through all four seasons while waiting for the apple to fall. And the music theyve made on those journeys has reflected those changing seasons, responding to the changing times, refracting those hard knocks.

Five tracks are taken from their 2000 album Silence Is Sexy: Sabrina, Sonnenbarke, Total Eclipse Of The Sun, Redukt and Die Befindlichkeit Des Landes. Translating as The Lay Of The Land, Die Befindlichkeit Des Landes also featured in Einstürzende Neubautens melancholic soundtrack to Hubertus Siegerts Berlin Babylon, a 2001 documentary about the changing face of the purportedly unified city since the November 1989 fall of the Cold War-built Wall dividing it since 1961.

The ten minute piece Redukt, meanwhile, has become a live favourite, long ago replacing the early Einstürzende Neubauten staple Sehnsucht, both as a showcase for the groups extraordinary capacity for invention, and as a vent for the emotions accumulated over the course of a concert. Two Greatest Hits tracks, Dead Friends (Around The Corner) and Ein Leichtes Leises Säuseln, originated on their Supporters Album #1, which in publicly modified form became Perpetuum Mobile (Mute, 2004). Something like 2000 supporters financially pledged their faith in Einstürzende Neubauten two more times, for which they received Grundstück (2005) as their first dividend, followed by a special supporters version of the self-released Alles Wieder Offen (Potomak, 2007).

The latter provides the following three tracks to Greatest Hits: Einstürzende Neubautens playful homage to early 20th centurys dada pranksters Lets Do It A Da Da, Susej and Nagorny Karabach. The last named is a simultaneously haunting and heartbreakingly beautiful psychogeographical piece that stands as one of Einstürzende Neubautens greatest album hits. As the song indicates, they have taken more than a few hard knocks, bumps and glitches on the way, but theres no stopping them now. Now as then as always, declares Greatest Hits aforementioned newest track How Did I Die?, The difference makes the song.