Einsturzende Neubauten: gloomily majestic in London

There is no end of things in the heart, I read recently in a new dec-story, a contemporary pulp-fiction. And, it may well be true: we may ignore it, set it aside, abandon even but, eventually, we all get back to it. Not certain whether it works for relationships but it is surely figures in creativity and taste. We all return to what we know, love, what moves us, defined by and retained from the fabled ‘impressionable age’.

Blixa Bargeld had his Eisturzende Neubauten in a parking lot for a number of years while he worked with the master of human depravity, Nick Cave. After resigning from Bad Seeds, the EN’s comeback album, ‘Perpetuum Mobile’, showed what the band is still capable of at the time when outside attributes far outweigh those on the inside!

This extensive tour appears to be the most serious attempt by one of the durable German outfits with dates on several continents and over a number of months. Tonight’s stop is North London where we are faced with sharply dressed and aloof, as usual, art-rock extraordinaire with brushes of Goth, torchy blues, twisted, intense, intelligent, intriguing, rocktastic, industrial-sized tunes!

Dual-language singing adds to the aura of mystery and there is something strangely devout about the whole evening but their deity may be on the wicked side. Sounding tragic, serene and sober, grandiosely playing and with shades of Seeding but Blixa did have a lot of input in his backing Cave over the years. Or, more likely, graduated from the same school of miseribalism.

The current album ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ is featured prominently but the older material gets fair airing and songs like ‘Ende Neu’, ‘Was Ist Ist‘ or ‘Die Explosion Im Festspielhaus’ make The Darkness sound like they were a boy-band. Alas, there is little left of the bravest early days when they played metal-sheet music, i.e. industrial noise made by the genuine equipment grinding against the industrial wares.

Blixa Bargeld is a prince noir leading his troupe into richly dark and impressively broad songbook and this comeback is not the usually shallow excuse for compromise.

Einsturzende Neubauten is the Polyfilla for the cracked souls of the disfranchised youth.