EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Kollaps 1981

Blixa Bargeld, F.M.Einheit & N.U.Unruh: this was the first line-up of the 'LÄRM' musicians called Einstürzende Neubauten from Berlin. I don't know if I've already told you, but at some point I heard their sounds on the TV, some eighties music show, and I stopped immediately and had to hear and see it: hammering, drilling, atonal bass noises, distorted guitars and a sudden loud & psychotic screaming voice. At first I didn't know what to think of them, but gradually I started to like the stuff and thought: "Wow, they're crazy but they're doing an excellent job with their homemade instruments. This is fucking innovation!" Well, dear readers, that was forty fucking years ago and do you know that? You see the past clearly in front of you and look at yourself now... that's absolute horror and I hate getting fucking old. Well, anyway, I became a fan of their artistic work and after a few years they finally became more melodic, and a little more commercial (but only a tiny bit). Finally, a good review from someone who can do it better than me:

"Einstürzende Neubauten's first album, as one might imagine, is their most primitive and radical effort, the purest expression of their original aesthetic. This makes the album both historically significant and conceptually intriguing, of course, but what's most interesting about this album is that it still sounds surprising decades after its release. Often, albums that are considered extreme art statements upon their debut sound almost quaint a few years later, but while Kollaps perhaps sounds less extreme to ears that heard industrial music turned into disco pabulum by the likes of Nine Inch Nails than it did before, songs like the eight-minute title track and the rumbling live closer, "Negativ Nein" are still a fascinating blend of rhythm and random bashing, tonality and atonality, with anguished vocals by Blixa Bargeld that often seem to have little connection with anything else in the piece. The brief tracks, like the 80-second "Sehnsucht," are even more extreme explorations of pure noise. Starting as early as the next album, Einstürzende Neubauten would begin slowly introducing more mainstream musical concepts into their aesthetic, making Kollaps as undiluted a listening experience as there is in the entire catalog." (Stewart Mason)

Released via ZickZack Records and the first edition included a sixteen-page DIN A4 black and white booklet with song lyrics + photos. A record for Die-Hards. Enjoy!

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VOÏVOD - Killing Technology 1987

The time for cuddling is over and I'm stepping up four gears and treating you to some loud & brutal noises on this fucking Monday!! And it's not just Speed/Thrash Metal maniacs who get their money's worth. Killing Technology is the third album by Canada's four piece Voïvod, released again via Karl Walterbach's label Noise Records and it is clearly more "melody" in the seven songs. Info: After the release of the previous album Rrröööaaarrr, the tour to the album followed, which should end in Berlin to record the next studio album. Because of this, guitarist Piggy wrote the album's songs before the start of this tour. Harris Johns' work with Einstürzende Neubauten had sparked an interest in industrial music among Voïvod's musicians. During recording and mixing, bassist Blacky brought his ideas to Piggy's composed tracks. For the first time, the texts formed an overall concept for the further development of the band's character, which is about a journey through the Voïvod with a spaceship. The Voïvod stands for the inability of mankind to control the increasing mechanization of the world. Killing Technology represents an advancement of the bands skills on their instruments as well as in stylistic direction. I say this record is one of the band's best albums and when I ripped the slab, I started Pogo around my apartment like I'm at a concert, ecstatic and carefree, and this music push me away from all the daily shit that's always present.

Believe me, if you want to clear your head or have emotional differences, put this music on and you're alive for a brief moment and you know what really matters!

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EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Strategien Gegen Architekturen 1983

I can still remember very well, how I came to this musical effusion. This sucker was given from a very close youth friend and he knew that I like music far from mainstream, he asked me if I know Einstürzende Neubauten. I said yes and then he gave me this work of art. He said, it's just pure LÄRM and absolutely not his cup of tea, haha... I understood him because EN are very special. So immediately I went home and listened to Strategien gegen Architekturen, the first compilation album which features rare single-only tracks and live material from 1980 to 1983, and I was delighted.. here an excellent review for you which I like to quote:

"Einstürzende's compilation album summed up all that was brilliant and thrilling about the young band, who perhaps more than anyone else encapsulated exactly what "industrial" consisted of -- honest-to-goodness mechanistic pummeling and musique concrete remade for a newer generation. Selections from Schwarz and Kollaps feature, along with rare 7Inch tracks & various live performances as well, giving a striking picture of the group's varying approaches. Bargeld's rasped, whispered vocals and sudden screams crawl with threat and dread in a consciously dramatic but never overtly hammy fashion, while the rough rhythms and harsh clattering which serves as a bed for his delivery touches on everything from free jazz to minimal Krautrock rhythms. That the volume often gets amped to its absolute highest is only to be expected, but silence and space between sound matters just as much, especially on a slew of songs toward the end. Guitars and bass appear more often than might be expected, but the way they're played is something else entirely, muddied deep in the mix or roaring as undifferentiated noise stabbing in here and there. It's also interesting to hear the earlier version of the band in contrast with the later, when a slightly more formal rock presentation took the fore. Given that on the recordings here the group consisted mostly of percussionists beating on metal and whatever else was to hand, it's little wonder things sound even more aggressive. Maybe for some this will only sound like the backing music on a Sprockets sketch, but the impact on any number of sound terrorists then and since from this album can't be measured." (Review by Ned Raggett)

I couldn't praise this album better, remarkable retrospect!

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ABWÄRTS - Der Westen Ist Einsam 1982

An album that I haven't heard for a long time and thanks to iNgo, I dug up this nugget and realize how great this stuff is, the second Abwärts album. It sounds somber and darker than anything that previously appeared from the four, and can certainly be viewed in the context of the emerging Gothic culture. Critics put it in line with releases by British post-punk bands such as Theatre Of Hate and Killing Joke. Band boss Frank Ziegert confessed in an interview with Diedrich Diederichsen in 1988 that Abwärts had to a certain extent been forced by the punk audience at the beginning of the 1980s not to present any sophisticated compositions: “[…] we were literally afraid to make music. Everything always had to be hard, that was the word: hard. We increased ourselves into a senseless aggressiveness that had nothing to do with us at all, I wasn't really tough all the time and neither were the others." Unsatisfied with the care of their previous independent label ZickZack Platten, the group wanted to work more professionally and offer their next album to a major label. Work on it began in the autumn of 1981 at Hafenklang Studio Hamburg. A whole month of self-financed and self-produced studio recordings was followed by a week of mixing at The Town House in London by producer Nick Launay. At the end of 1981 the album was finished, which was then offered to various record companies for publication. For an advance payment of allegedly 50.000 DM, the band finally signed with the German major label Phonogram which released first the Beirut, Holiday Inn 12" with four tracks. "Der Westen Ist Einsam" is the first band release without Margita Haberland, who left the group in 1981.

The album was released in April 1982. For publication, they went from May 11th to June 13th 1982 on an extensive tour with side trips to Switzerland and Amsterdam. The group made a spectacular appearance at the Münchner-Rocktage-Festival, at which FM Einheit destroyed parts of the stage structure. At some concerts, the newly founded Toten Hosen played the supporting act. Down, in turn, was hired as the opening act for The Cure tour. On the title "Beim Ersten Mal Tut's Immer Weh", Muscha and Trini Trimpop produced a video clip and the group even published a homestory in the youth magazine Bravo. Despite all of this, the album did not achieve the sales figures we had hoped for. As a result, FM Einheit and Marc Chung left the band for good to concentrate on the Einstürzende Neubauten, of which they had already joined as full members in 1981. In addition, drug problems also led the band to bury themselves for the first time. - And now: Bundesliga ⚽

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KOSMONAUTENTRAUM - Juri Gagarin 1982

I'm not really a big fan of ZickZack records but the debut of Kosmonautentraum is not bad at all. The band was a music project founded 1980 by the singer Ziggy XY (Michael Jarick) and drummer EKT (then both at Der Moderne Man) in Hannover with a strong closeness to the genial dilletants from Berlin (Die Tödliche Doris, Einstürzende Neubauten, etc.). Kosmonautentraum published mostly on cassettes and zigzag records with changing accompanying musicians until the mid-1980s. Ziggy XY also published a volume of poetry titled The German and published together with E. K. T. the Fanzine Today, which contained mostly collages and fictitious concert reviews and record reviews. So enjoy this last post 2018 and I wish you all a great New Year's Eve!!

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V/A - Bandsalat 1982

Last compilation for today and this Berlin cracker was brought to us by Good Noise and the recordings arosed in the years 1979-1982 partly in the historical cult site in Moabit and partly in the new "Sonnenstudio" at Checkpoint and we enjoy a nice mix of new wave, reggae and morsel punk goodies and all this was recorded beside the recording engineers of course by the friendly 8 respectively 16-track machines. At first I thought the songs were taken from demos or other tapes but that's not the case, half of them are exclusive and only on this record, so let's catch the rare 80's sound from Berlin.

1.Ein Büschel Gras - FOYER DES ARTS

2.Tan-tze-Dub - EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

3.Leiden - WESTDEUTSCHE CHRISTEN

4.Schwul-O-Dent - MEKANIK DESTRÜKTIW KOMANDÖH

5.Concrete Dub - LENINGRAD SANDWICH

6.Outro - MUSIC LAB JINGLE

7.Days - TEMPO

8.Schnelles Geld - TANZMUSIC

9.Djungle Talkin' - SPOONS

10.The Western World Is Going Down - MAD WOLF

11.D.A.L.L.A.S. - SYSTEM

12.Jonny - SARABA

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ABWÄRTS - Beirut, Holiday Inn 12'' 1982

Abwärts is a German punk combo from Hamburg, founded 1979 by Frank Z. (vocals, guitar), FM Einheit (keys & percussion, drums), Mark Chung (bass), both left the group in 1982 to join Einstürzende Neubauten, and published with "Computerstaat" & "AmokKoma" two records that are on my Top Ten list of German punk records. Dissatisfied with the support provided by ZickZack, they now wanted to work more professionally and offer the next album to a major label. The work began fall 1981 in the Hamburg Hafenklang, a month of self-financed & produced studio recordings followed by a week of mixing in the London Townhouse studios and at the end of the year the album Der Westen Ist Einsam was finished and offered to various record companies and finally Abwärts signed at Phonogram. The reviews were shitty and in my opinion wrongly but that was the 80s journalists scum and Punk were Abwärts since already no longer. But it works for them and Mercury released then this 12'' with a new version of "Beim Ersten Mal Tut's Immer Weh" plus three more fine tunes, less punk and more Wave style, but worth hearing and as comparison you'll find their last ZickZack 7Inch "Roboter In Der Nacht" within (after that record, the hamburgers became uninteresting for me). Be nice to each other in your crisis area!

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EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Thirsty Animal 12'' 1982

This rare 12Inch from the Einstürzende Neubauten was self-released by the band and exist in two versions with different covers. Both songs doesn't sound as commercial as their new albums and I post this because I ripped today and the last three days a few  albums and somehow their noises fits my current emotions. Anyway, to discover something new must old shit go kaput, right? Is always painful but mankind will survive so fuck each other remorseless. Don't worry, I like cooking...

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EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Kalte Sterne 2x7'' 1981

Now a post I have to make because my feeling situation is so chaotic now that I don't know what to do, of course it's all about the fuckin' love, what else. Why is this always so difficult? I don't know. Well, to Einstürzende Neubauten I must probably not tellin' you much because they have been on the road for over thirty years and everyone knows a few records. Made earlier experimental music but were later unfortunately being commercial. This double EP I acquired for 70 D-Mark or so here at a local record store and all five songs are damn great, Kalte Sterne is a timeless classic, especially "Schwarz" is a killer! Read a full review. Comes with all artwork and not much scratches.

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EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Bonn/Biskuithalle 10.10.1989

OK, this band accompanied me since their initial phase and I can't telling how often I have them seein' live. It is always exciting and always different and this record, I don't know where I have acquired, demonstrating the uniqueness of their music. About Einstürzende Neubauten you can think do what you want. Some people hate others worship them. I find it amazing to make such kind of noise-music and their first 3 albums are definitely classics. Drills, sledge hammers, saws, pipes are their tools in addition to standard musical instruments. They create somehow harmony and with Blixas screaming voice these tracks had power & expression. And the group proved this in these recordings which were made at the 'Haus Der Lüge' Tour. Old and new cuts were combined in 50 minutes in an acceptable sound quality and here immortalized on vinyl. There are two more tracks (Prolog & Wasserturm) which appear on the cover but not on the record. Vinyl-Rip & Brilliant!!

Feurio!/Yü-Gung (Fütter Mein Ego)/Armenia/Zerstörte Zelle/Ein Stuhl In Der Hölle/Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy/Sehnsucht/Der Kuss/Haus Der Lüge/Sand/Die Zeichnungen Des Patienten O.T./Letztes Biest Am Himmel

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WELLBLECH UNTERGRUND - Woher Wohin 7'' 1983

Wellblech Untergrund were founded in 1981 as a four piece band in the Linz area. While they initially played Party Punk with many cover versions, they quickly found their own style with lots of melody, polyphonic songs and uncomplicated lyrics moulted thus secures its place at the Linzer punk headquarter Kapu. After their debut single in 1983, they contributed two numbers to the Sparkassen sampler called '2. Linzer Rock Nacht', which "Heut Nacht" is one of their strongest songs. Topic is a Saturday night in the town: going out, meet friends and get girls. The lyrics read like a confession of youth punk culture in every village and a very charming post donates to a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon Punk in Austria. Wellblech Untergrund developed in the following years to a rudimentary psychedelic avant-rock band and performed in the mid 80s as opening act for Einstürzende Neubauten and The Jazz Butcher in Vienna. From start to finish they played in the same occupation and broke up in 1988. "The departure from the scene was not much fanfare. The band broke up, because the air was simply out", recalled Wellblech singer Tomislav Zuljecic in the late nineties, in a letter to Alexander Magrutsch. Too bad, I think, because the two songs here have everything what a good punk record should.

- Extra Special Thx to Reinhard -

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V/A - Ungdomshuset (Live) 2005

Ungdomshuset (literally "the Youth House") was the popular name of the building formally named Folkets Hus ("House of the People") located on Jagtvej 69 in Nørrebro/Copenhagen, which functioned as an underground scene venue for music and rendezvous point for varying autonomen and leftist groups from 1982 until 2007 when - after prolonged conflict - it was torn down, and later also for its successor, located on Dortheavej 61 in the adjacent Bispebjerg neighbourhood. Due to the ongoing conflict between the municipal government of Copenhagen and the activists occupying the premises, the building on Jagtvej was the subject of intense media attention and public debate from the mid 1990's till 2008. This awesome compilation is originally released as a two record set on their own label and all tracks were recorded live @ Ungdomshuset between 1984 and 2003. The song selection is quite delicious: punk, hardcore, ska, electronic, obscure, acoustic - a rich variety of all styles are here to hear. Damn cool.

1.Skyggernes Ambassadør - KALASHNIKOV

2.Juhuu - SKALAR

3.Abyss - SORT SOL

4.Politi-Militær - VOTE FOR TRUCKERS

5.Sally - DISNEYLAND AFTER DARK

6.Super Heroine Blond - PRESIDENT FETCH

7.Svin - CITY-X

8.Kødknuserens Vise - GRÆNSEOVERSKRIDENDE NAIVITET

9.Ingen Vits Å Gråte - KAFKA PROSESS

10.Snagen Om Vår Vidunderlige Verden - STENGTE DØRER

11.Empty - THE RAZOR BLADES

12.Mr. Right Guy - ZERO POINT

13.Militærdestruktion - CRAP

14.Gode Politimænd - PARAGRAF 119

15.Oh No Bruno - NOMEANSNO

16.Thirteen - D.O.A.

17.Porro - SNUFF

18.Move Right In - ROLLINS BAND

19.No More Cops - MDC

20.Party Till I Die - THE NOMADS

21.Hymns Til Natten - POUL DISSING & BENNY ANDERSEN

22.Jordslået - JOMI MASSAGE

23.James Bond - ALIVE WITH WORMS

24.Tazan Samba - ÆTER

25.Sand - EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN

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