Customer Reviews

Ebbhead

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first heard Nitzer Ebb on Florida's Planet Rock radio station. the anger and fury of the lyrics, the oppressive beats... industrial heaven! EBBHEAD is (next to THAT TOTAL AGE) Ebb's finest moment. at just over 44 minutes, this disc deliers the goods. "DJVD" is a funny yet furious attack at the DJ scene, and it includes the priceles line "Originality deficiency". the other highlights are the atmospheric "I Give To You", the tribal "Ascend", and the funky "Trigger Happy". the only low point is the "Family Man" remix. it seems tacked on (which it is!) and it pales next to the original. overall, though, EBBHEAD is a great disc, and at six bucks, you can't go wrong! oh, yeah, this goes out to Ebb themselves: RELEASE MORE MUSIC, DAMMIT!

If Mute ever decide to release a Best Of Nitzer Ebb, they could save themselves a considerable amount of time and re-release EBBHEAD in its entirety (possibly with the exception of "Time," which, for my money, is an overlong, annoying waste of, yeah, you guessed it, time) and tack on a few tracks from each of their other albums.

EBBEHEAD was given to me by a fellow student in my high school science class in the early 90's. A little earlier I had been dumped by my longtime girlfriend and cut from the basketball team. I took up running in the morning as a way to fill two voids in my life. Whenever I wasn't listening to Nine Inch Nails' PRETTY HATE MACHINE during these morning marathons, it was EBBHEAD. Some 15 years later EBBHEAD still sounds fresh, while PRETTY HATE MACHINE sounds, well, 15 years old (this doesn't stop me from enjoying it; it just hasn't aged as well as EBBHEAD).

EBBHEAD'S timelessness is due to a couple of factors. The most important is probably the stellar production of Alan Wilder, whose wildly inventive soundscapes are sadly missed on the last couple Depeche Mode records (for further listening, check out his spine-tingling work on "Come Alive" from the somewhat hard-to-find Nitzer Ebb E.P. AS IS). Also, EBBHEAD is Nitzer Ebb's most musical outing. Douglas McCarthy makes a real effort to mix things up vocally as opposed to just barking out lyrics like a one-note drill sergeant on steroids. As a result, EBBHEAD is the only Nitzer Ebb record I can listen to from start to finish (with the exception of "Time," as I mentioned) without cringing intermittently.

Sadly, EBBHEAD was the last great Nitzer Ebb record. BIG HIT followed four years later but forgot to bring the variety and quality. "Kick It" and "I Thought" are the only keepers from that monotonous, muddled mess. People blame Flood for ruining Erasure's LOVEBOAT (he didn't; it's a good record, though a notable step down from the dizzy heights of COWBOY, but I digress), but he did a greater musical disservice to BIG HIT by burying the vocals. Here's hoping Nitzer Ebb reunite someday and have the good sense to bring Alan Wilder back into the studio with them.

a couple of years ago i purchased BIG HIT for around 2 bucks and thought it was killer. as time went by, i discovered more industrial music and this one quickly became bottom of the barrel. since then THRILL KILL KULT, MINISTRY, NINE INCH NAILS, SKINNY PUPPY, and ELLECTRIC HELLFIRE CLUB domonated my stereo. but recently a friend told me to check out the other NE stuff, saying BIG HIT was a bunch of bull. well, this album contains some of the best MUSIC i've heard. I still have yet to purchase SHOWTIME or THAT TOTAL AGE. standout tracks include LAKESIDE DRIVE, I GIVE TO YOU, ASCEND, GODHEAD, TRIGGER HAPPY, and FAMILLY MAN.

I had heard this album was the beginning of the end more than once, but I saw it cheap and picked it up. I might want my three dollars back. Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible, and some tracks I may even like, but overall it just doesn't pack a punch. Even the remix of "Family Man" is just ok, and the cover art is also ugly. I hate to hate, but stick with the far superior "That Total Age" album, or anything pre-"Ebbhead". This is just industrial-lite.

Lots of fun. Very original music. Passionate sound

When Nitzer Ebb released Ebbhead in 1991 there was plenty of talk among the so called ebm purists that Nitzer Ebb had strayed from their trademark sound. I was one of them at the time. However, now with a wider palate and a much more mature and open mindset I realize that it a modern ebm master piece. Songs like Family man, lakeside drive and many others show that Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy were much more inventive then ever given credit for. McCarthy has amazing vocals and Harris is a wiz at using vocal treatments, and other electronic gadgets. This is one amazing ebm album.

Nitzer Ebb had already been one of the main acts of the Industrial/EBM scene in the late eighties and with Ebbhead came their finest single "Family Man".Ebbhead was released before the so-called "Industrial Music" revolution in the mid-nineties. If I'm not mistaken, Ebbhead is Ebb's fifth album and they didn't even have an honorable mention once the industrial trend hit the mainstream. Even if that trend only lasted for a few years. Anyhow, Ebbhead picks up where Showtime left off.

There is more intriguing, hooky, groovy, slam-bash tuneage throughout the cd. "Reasons" kicks off the cd, a medium-paced piece with a beat. Other tracks like "Lakeside Drive" and "Djvd" put the beat in upbeat. Yet it is the singles that really fuel the fire in this release. "I Give To You" has a low-key intro and then leaps into a built-up melody with violin and "Godhead" was another cool single with pounding lyrics and expanding parameters.

Now, the best Nitzer Ebb tune has to be "Family Man". Nothing else in their list beats this one. It has an awesome beat, awesome lyrics, and their use of instrument loops is, well, awesome. It pretty much culminates everything they have done in their music up to 1991. The "industrial" trend hit the mainstream once Ebb were out of the picture. In a sense, I feel they were never tailor-made for the mainstream and remain an honorable footnote in EBM history.

Ebbhead, nevertheless, is a fine cd to have and, arguably, their real swan song. After a few listens, I got hooked and I tried not to listen to it too much so I don't get tired of it. However, it's hard, like an addiction. That's how great Ebbhead really is.

This album marked the beginning of the downfall of one of Industrial's groundshakers, Nitzer Ebb. Less aggressive and more 'pseudo-accessible' than any of their previous (or future) works, Ebbhead was the album that Nitzer Ebb later blamed for 'alienating' most of their fan base. They were dropped from their label after the poor sales of this album, and decided to go on 'permanent hiatus' as a band after their Final Flop, 'Big Hit'.

If you really want to hear NE in their full glory, check out That Total Age or even Belief.

Ebbhead is maybe Nitzer Ebb's best work, together with their previous 'Belief' CD. Alan Wilder joins the production of this work and directs Nitzer Ebb's energy towards a more melodic trend, which makes this album the culmination of an evolution from the tighter and mechanical impulses of their debut 'That Total Age'. Ebbhead is a very good album which contains a bunch og great songs, such as the emotive 'I Give To You', the hard and pollemical 'Godhead' or the also good 'Ascend'. They try here to wide their spectrum of music, which normally works brilliantly, as when they introduce guitars in 'Godhead' or slight hip-hop rhythms in 'Trigger Happy' (another brilliant gem) Maybe 'DjVd' does not equal the rest of the songs in quality, and i think that if they had blended the best 7 or 8 songs in 'Ebbhead' with their best work ever (their maxi 'As Is'), they could have made an even better and more brilliant work; It seems that Nitzer Ebb are a bit forgotten today, perhaps due to their disappointing last album 'Big Hit', and it's a pity 'cos I think they should have deserved more attention from the mainstream; their music is really good.

I was so excited to get this CD when it first came out and I was so disappointed. Nitzer Ebb has never been a deep & thoughtful band (guns, guns, guns) however you could always count on Nitzer ebb to do great on the dance floor. "I give to you" and "Family Man" were the only two decent songs on the whole disc and they are not that great. If you want to check out some great Nitzer Ebb I recommend you check out "Belief" and "That Total Age".

As a DJ this CD is worthless, I have never once had one song off this disc requested, nor would I play anything off it on my own.