Silence Is Sexy

Performer: Einstürzende Neubauten
Engineer: Boris Wilsdorf
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Einsturzende Neubaten: Blixa Bargeld (vocals, electric slide guitar, Fender Rhodes piano, Clavichord, Hammond organ); Alexander Hacke (electric guitar, E-bow, viraphone, synthesizer, bass, percussion, loops, background vocals); Jochen Arbeit (guitar, background vocals); AC (Hammond organ, drums, maracas, percussion, background vocals); Rudi Moser (drums, percussion, bells); N.U. Unruh. Additional personnel includes: Sebastian Reimann, Alexandra Kratsch, Ruth-Maria Kosow, Natalia Domagala (violin); Magnus Dohler, Christoph Rabbels, Manuel Klein (viola); Florian Dohler, Jan Schade (cello); Julia Regehr, Ingo Krauss, Marc Weis (background vocals). Producers: Einsturzende Neubaten, Boris Wilsdorf. Recorded at Hansa and Trixx Studios, Berlin, Germany between April 1998 & January 2000. Personnel: B&B (vocals, electric guitar, Fender Rhodes piano, clavichord); Ja (guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); AH (electric guitar); Jan Schade (cello); Andrew Chudy (horns, piano, drums, bass drum, cymbals, hi-hat, maracas, percussion, background vocals); Alexander Hacke (keyboards, bass guitar, background vocals); Ramuntcho Matta (drums, bass drum, snare drum, percussion, bells); Mark Weiss, Ingo Krauss (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Boris Wilsdorf. Recording information: Conny's Studio, Cologne, Germany (04/1998-01/2000); Schwedenstrasse, Hansa (04/1998-01/2000); Trixx Studios, Berlin, Germany (04/1998-01/2000). Photographers: Anno Dittmer; Thomas Rabsch. Translator: Matthew Partridge. Unknown Contributor Role: Ramuntcho Matta. SILENCE IS SEXY continues Einsturzende Neubauten's explorations of individual sounds and anti-sounds. On the title track, several passages of silence are broken only by the sound of singer Blixa Bargeld inhaling on a cigarette; but, given that this is an Einstnrzende Neubauten record, that sound is amplified enough for you to be able to taste his brand. While the majority of the cuts uncoil slowly, sinister affairs constructed around Bargeld's debauched, lounge-crawling, after-hours aristocrat-on-hard-times vocals, there are a couple of danceable tracks. "Newtons Gravitatlichkeit" and "Zampano" both featuring pulsating bass lines and frenetic percussion; though both also have several time-signature changes that might prove hazardous on the dance floor. Collectors should note that initial copies of the CD included a second disc featuring the slithering 18 and-a-half minute "Pelikanol."

Q (5/00, p.107) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[It has] unnerving grace. Using everything from string quartets to jet turbines, metal sheets and electric guitar, it moves from being severely irritating to moments of great beauty..." Magnet (8-9/00, p.75) - "...Brilliant....[it] is concerned with creativity, with the nature of art, science and even German identity....[they] remain without peer." The Wire (1/01, p.34) - Included in Wire's "50 Records Of The Year" [2000]. The Wire (4/00, p.51) - "...Animated by [an] eerie inmost light....Musically, the album is all the more disturbing for being so restrained, with minimal percussive backing shadowing [Blixa] Bargeld's whispers....[it] is speckled with sparkling shafts of light..." CMJ (7/00, p.50) - "...The sound of the prototypical pre-Reznor industrial group adjusting to the rhythms of the digital age. The more tuneful...moments find the factory-floor clamor clicking along at a ones-and-zeroes pace..." Melody Maker (7/18/00, p.56) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...From Berlin and rightly venerated as noise insurrectionaires 'par excellence'."

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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