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Einstürzende Neubauten, "Jewels"
Over the last few years, Berlin's beloved have been intensely busy. Much of their time has been spent working concurrently on various projects, releasing around a dozen studio albums over the last five years. During this latest phase of the ongoing supporter project they set themselves a goal of producing an album over the course of a year, one song a month as a gift to those who were helping to fund their forthcoming album, Alles Wieder Offen. With three "bonus" tracks thanks to the phase lasting a few months longer than intended, the 15 Jewels are quite unlike Neubauten's entire back catalogue. Even the frequently challenging releases of the Musterhaus project do not prepare me for the sheer freedom expressed by the band.
The songs were all written using the same template: Blixa Bargeld would compose the lyrics from dreams he had recorded in his diary (which vary in content from the plain strange to the utterly paranoid) and the music would be improvised based on the Dave system. The Dave system is similar to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies cards: each of the cards features a word or phrase that encapsulates a particular mood, technique, or concept from the world of Neubauten (compiled by Bargeld while listening through the band's archives). Every band member takes a number of cards and uses the phrases written on them to find a role within the song. Despite using the same basic premise for each song, each song is vastly different to the others. Each song is its own world, a microcosm complete unto itself and replete with its own character and particular instruments. Surprisingly, despite each song being created in complete isolation from the others, the 15 tracks hang together wonderfully as an album.
Breaking free from their usual routine, they embrace instruments and rhythms that have not normally been part of their canon; the electronic approach to both the nightmarish "I Kissed Glenn Gould" and the bizarre "Vicki" is completely at odds with anything Neubauten have produced previously. There is also an international vibe to the album (much like the Tabula Rasa triptych) with lyrics ranging from the usual German to Chinese, Hungarian, Greek and English. "Jeder Satz mit ihr hallt nach" shares its name with an improvisation from their 1997 tour (and released on the Gemini download only live album) but is musically unconnected, there is an almost lounge feel to this new song which is a million miles from the original.
It is not all new musical vistas and textures. "Die Ebenen Werden Nicht Vermischt" is typical of Neubauten's most recent output. However, it does stick out amongst the more adventurous songs on the album. Its extended length (approaching 7 minutes compared to the 1.5-3 minutes that the others last) and rhythmic structure would have made it fit perfectly on 2005's Grundstueck album. Other songs contain some elements of familiarity but shoehorned in with an unusual approach. "Magyar Energia" is a mishmash of familiar techniques and instrumentation with unconventional delivery, especially the joyous anti-nuclear power football terrace chant towards the end.
Jewels may not run as smoothly as their previous albums as there is no obvious underlying concept to thread the songs together. Despite this, it is a fantastic album, especially considering it is meant as token of thanks to those who have provided financial support to record and release the band's forthcoming album. Hopefully these songs will make it into the band's live repertoire and more importantly get a release outside the supporters' project. For now, they are only available to subscribers to neubauten.org as both mp3 and uncompressed downloads. However, considering this album is the appetiser to the main course, it is well worth the price of admission while the oppertunity lasts.
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