Now up to the 2000’s and today we are off to Germany, the second time already for that country after The Monks album but it’s Germans in Germany this time. It’s really is amazing Einstürzende Neubauten are only just now entering my Classic Albums list because they’re are band I discovered as a teenager so been following them a very long time now. Silence Is Sexy was released in late May 2000 and was eighth full-length album and it topped my Top Tens about them a few months ago. Since then I was trying to figure out why I real picked this one above all their other albums, they really never made a bad album album.
I think it’s just down to timing, it’s late-90’s/early 2000’s album so it’s maybe mostly just that because I love that time in music, if you can’t tell yet? Silence Is Sexy album recording was over a very long time, from April 1998 to January 2000 but that’s not full-time recording in that time it’s in-between tours, other projects etc. It’s the second album with some of those same dates on this list with the first being Dirty Three’s album. Which is pretty funny, I didn’t think about it until now but both those bands have/had/been Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds members as well so that’s a double snap but Blixa would quit The Bad Seeds in just three years time after this album too so that’s by the time the next Neubauten album came out.
Oh my god those beats at the start of the opening song Sabrina and that’s even before Blixa Bargeld start to sing, just those few seconds are amazing sounds and then he does sing “It’s not the red of the dying sun” as the opening line for this total killer track, it would or got to be one of their best ever songs ever. Then going from red to gold and then to black to finish his color plate in the track, sung as the chorus is “I wish this would be you color, Your color, I wish.” Maybe it’s fact I’m an artist and love painting but I don’t think you need to be one to think this is just a totally amazing song. It’s a great opening to one of the most wicked album ever. The two times I seen them live this was one of the only double ups but I didn’t care because it’s so great.
I guess the music genres of EN are Industrial and Experimental plus this album would move into Electronic. They have been going since early 80’s, to say the least they have covered a lot of ground in that time and up to this point. They’re still going to this day and next month see the first time they’re releasing a greatest hits comp album, I don’t know yet what’s going to be on it but that first/opening song would have been on it somewhere.
The band’s line-up at this point is Jochen Arbeit, Alexander Hacke, Rudolph Moser, N.U. Unruh and Blixa Bargeld. It’s the first album without F.M. Einheit which was a pretty big deal among fans, he was one of the founding members and was pretty import to their percussion but in the end really they have survived quite easy without him. Both Moser and Arbeit joined the band 1997 and the rest are the other core members since the early 80’s. So here’s a little more them if you don’t them at all the translated name to English is Collapsing New Buildings.
The fourteen tracks and the running time of almost seventy minutes may not be the best intro to them, some might say it’s too long but I say I can’t get too much of these guys ever. Maybe for the fact that the album before this was only forty minutes and had just eight tracks I’m making the most of a good thing here. They is a great flow and the way it’s mixed it’s like it’s almost one long never ending track. Silence does find it’s way onto the album with the second and title song part ways into the song you are just listening to the singer smoking a cigarette and nothing more. When I seen them live, the crazy Kiwi chick I was seeing ask security guy on the fence after the show for the butt after the Roadie gave me the setlist, she was funny as fuck too.
Some might find it a bit odd a guy from Australia loving this band so much when they don’t even half the time sing in English but they do have a bit of a following down here, you know? Alot goths loved them back in the day like another old gf but last one didn’t really know what the hell to make of it, she never hear anything like it and seem piss off saying “the whole thing is in German! Do you know how to speak it?” which I say “Off course not” which just pissed her off even more and then just wanted to start a fight with me. I don’t know about everyone else it’s quite a few reasons I love them and that became I’m not the the greatest with English words anyway, the dyslexia thing again I guess.
I don’t think I’ve ever told the story here yet as a very little kid, I wouldn’t even speak English, you know? It was just before going to school or pre-school and I made up my own language and teach it to my sister and she translate for me so I guess it was pretty funny/bad because when I got to school no one knew what I was talking about, most likely nobody still knows what I’m on about most of the time. It’s big tell tale sign of dyslexia when a kid does that now. Anyway I’m getting sidetracked but I guess it’s a good example of me not being hung up on language. This is just only the first of a few bands/artists who sing in something else other than English which with enter my list here. It’s like phonics or something, you know? German language just sounds so great too. The words become more apart of the music, I don’t understand people who just listen to songs for the lyrics, it’s just one part of the whole but it becomes even more of a whole here with Einstürzende Neubauten.
Did you know there is a band named after this album? Silence Is Sexy band is from Utrecht, Netherlands, I didn’t until started to google it but I do know one of my fave Aussie singers have EN logo tattoo Gareth Liddiard. So to finish up here now because I could talk about them to the cows come home but don’t worry it’s got to be just the first album to be included here, sooner or later I’ll write another page/post on another one of their records or two.
Silence Is Sexy track listing and times:
1. Sabrina – 4:39
2. Silence Is Sexy – 7:00
3. In Circles – 2:30
4. Newtons Gravitätlichkeit – 2:01
5. Zampano – 5:40
6. Heaven Is Of Honey – 3:54
7. Beauty – 1:59
8. Die Befindlichkeit des Landes – 5:43
9. Sonnenbarke – 7:49
10. Musentango – 2:13
11. Alles (Ein Stück im alten Stil) – 4:43
12. Redukt – 10:17
13. Dingsaller – 5:46
14. Anrufe In Abwesenheit – 4:15
My Classic Albums are, so far:
Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
Station To Station by David Bowie
Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three
In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen
Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones
So, this was the reason I started this blog. The idea is simply to write post about one of my fave album each that I consider a classic album. Please leave your comments below about each album because I would love to hear what you think about each album too, cheers!
a1000mistakes 