478. Einsturzende Neubauten - Kollaps (1981)
















Track Listing

1. Tanz Debil
2. Steh auf Berlin
3. Negativ Nein
4. U-Haft Muza
5. Draussen Ist Feindlich
6. Hören Mit Schmerzen
7. Jet 'M
8. Kollaps
9. Sehnsucht
10. Vorm Krieg
11. Hirnsäge
12. Abstieg and Zerfall
13. Helga

Review

If we ever get to the nuclear holocaust that we have been promised by Mad Max and so many other things, and which I am looking forward too because of the lax morals and cool cars, if you happen to be on the side of the freaks fighting the equivalent of Mel Gibson, I know I'll be, this is the vinyl you will want to have playing in your Victrola as you charge into battle. It will scare the bejeesus off that Aussie freak.

The first track sounds like something out of the seediest fetish club of the Berlin underground and that just makes it too cool for school. Then follows the sound of drills on metal and you know you are in for something special. This is probably one of the hardest albums to listen to in the whole list, but it brings its own rewards, it just sounds so angry and cool and perverted all at the same time that you need to have it.

This is mainly noise, but noise with a great sense of rhythm and that is what saves the album from the category of "unlistenable", you could actually dance to some of the songs here and there is even a cover of Serge Gainsbourg. Best heard at top volume (11).

Track Highlights

1. Tanz Debil
2. Kollaps
3. Horen Mit Schmerzen
4. Negative Nein

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

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". The name is taken from the qualitative description of earthquakes of magnitude 5 given in the Richter Scale. Neubauten 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.

A short film about Eistruzende in this phase, the first song Sensucht is from Kollaps: