Blixa Bargeld sings about how hard it is to find enlightenment on “Ist Ist,” the first single from Einstürzende Neubauten‘s upcoming double-album, Rampen (APM: Alien Pop Music). The record is due out April 5.
On the track, Bargeld sings about how he’s visited Niagara Falls, “both great walls,” the end of Europe, and even the other side – but it (whatever “it” is) wasn’t there. The title, in Bargeld’s native German tongue, translates to “is is.” In typical Neubauten mode, the music shudders, wobbles, and turns in on itself as the pioneering industrial group clangs rhythms and manipulates the tapes. At one point, Bargeld sounds like he’s choking, and there’s even a false ending.
The group built the music for Rampen from the improvisations it performed during the encores of its 2022 Alles in Allem tour. The album art, which is all yellow with only the band’s logo and insignia on it, takes a cue from another boundary-pushing group, the Beatles. “It’s based on the idea that the Einstürzende Neubauten is just as famous in another solar system as the Beatles are in our world,” Bargeld said in a statement.
Similarly, the music on the album came from experimentation within Neubauten’s own solar system. “On the album, I found a few solutions and formulated things in ways I haven’t formulated them before, because they were never so clear to me,” Bargeld said. “I’m someone who believes you can achieve knowledge through music. It’s always been that way. I follow the conviction. I’ll find something in the music that I didn’t know before. And sing something that I didn’t know. Something that turns out to be true. Or to take this down a notch, something that at least has meaning.”
The group will be touring Europe in support of the album, which follows 2020’s Alles in Allem, this fall. Details are on its website.
Rampen (APM: Alien Pop Music) track list:
1. “Wie Lange Noch?”
2. “Ist Ist”
3. “Pestalozzi”
4. “Es Könnte Sein”
5. “Before I Go”
6. “Isso Isso”
7. “Besser Isses”
8. “Everything Will Be Fine”
9. “The Pit of Language”
10. “Planet Umbra”
11. “Tar & Feathers”
12. “Aus den Zeiten”
13. “Ick Wees Nich (Noch Nich)”
14. “Trilobites”
15. “Gesundbrunnen”