The Jewels

Performer: Einstürzende Neubauten
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Undisputed heavyweights of the power machinery-wielding, metal-bashing faction of industrial music, Einsturzende Neubauten, in their earliest incarnation, were sometimes accused of taking a literal approach to "noise music," crafting their bleak, emotionally desolate landscapes from the scrap-metal detritus of modern civilization. However, Neubauten's music, if anything, has always embodied a striking clarity and singleness of purpose: to explore the heightened mental and physical states brought about by madness--a fact that is demonstrated throughout their output in the tortured theatrics of lead vocalist Blixa Bargeld. Taking a page from modern composition, THE JEWELS tones down their singular approach for a more expansive take on structure and experimental song-form. Employing an aleatory composition method devised by the band (a set of cards with instructions drawn at random), the album works more like a set of thematic vignettes rather than complete songs. If the disjointed, fever-dream fragments of songs like "Epharisto" and "I Kissed Glenn Gould" seem more like sketches than complete statements, they nonetheless show a band willing to stretch to ever more daring musical vistas.

Alternative Press (p.162) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THE JEWELS is a beautiful work of unique and very real art, as thoughtful and conceptually coherent as any Neubauten project before it." The Wire (p.47) - "Throughout there are surprising, and frequently very beautiful textural collisions between conventional instruments and the unusual materials whose essential musicality Neubauten are justly renowned for being able to extract and exploit." Record Collector (magazine) (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THE JEWELS takes Neubauten's already tangential approach to song structure several stages further along the highway of the extraordinary."

Germany's art-noise outfit Einsturzende Neubauten was one of the first bands that could legitimately be called "industrial." Their albums and performances from the early 1980s were marked by the use of scrap metal, broken glass, and various power tools in addition to standard rock instruments. The group's abrasive, highly rhythmic sound, while quite confounding and, at times, unpleasant, has had a remarkable impact not only on more accessible versions of industrial music (� la Nine Inch Nails), but also on the use of experimental concepts within a pop framework. Founding member Blixa Bargeld was also a long-time member of Nick Cave's backing band, the Bad Seeds.

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