Thursday 18 September 2008

OH Heil!

Einstürzende Neubauten is an avant-garde music band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The band is often classified as industrial music. One of their 'trademarks' is the use of custom made instruments (usually, but not always, made out of scrap metal and building tools) and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments. Neubauten has always experimented with sounds, originally in noise music and recently in very diverse styles.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Blixa Bargeld is probably the best-known member of the group.
The band name is usually translated into English as "Collapsing New Buildings". "Collapsing" here is a participial adjective, not the progressive participle of a transitive verb, i.e. the intended meaning is "buildings that are collapsing". Neubauten ("new buildings" in English) is a general term referring to buildings constructed in Germany after 1945. These are often regarded as cheaper, flimsier, and less aesthetically attractive than Altbauten, or pre-1945, especially pre-modernist buildings. Due to the extensive destruction throughout Germany during the Second World War, and the extensive rebuilding thereafter, Neubauten constitute a very familiar element of German cities.
On April 1, 1980, Einstürzende Neubauten made their first appearance in the Moon Club in Berlin. This first line-up featured Beate Bartel and Gudrun Gut, Blixa Bargeld, and N.U. Unruh, who later went on to record music under the name of Einstürzende Neubauten. The two female members, Bartel and Gut, left the band after a short period of performing and founded Mania D.. Alexander Hacke (alias Alexander von Borsig), a sound technician and multi-instrumentalist who was fifteen years old at that time, joined the band and became a long-time member.
Einstürzende Neubauten's logo (a symbol of human with a circle in the head) is an ancient Toltec cave drawing.