Perpetuum Mobile [ENHANCED]

Einsturzende Neubauten

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 10, 2004)
• Original Release Date: February 10, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B0001906SQ
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #46,895 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece in Wind and Movement, February 12, 2004

By A Customer

In my opinion, this is Neubauten's best album since the magisterial Tabula Rasa almost ten years ago. From the first sounds of air being played across large tubes in "Ich gehe jetzt" to the final violin stirrings in "Grundstueck," this album contains twelve soundscapes that cannot just be listened to as background noise but gently demand by their beauty that you experience the intensity latent within them. Neubauten demonstrates that such intensity is hidden within even the air itself, teasing out whispers and roars from it and discovering that this purportedly most quiet of elements can indeed be heard: all that is needed is motion. These two elements--the wind and motion--form the major themes both lyrically and sonically in each track:

1)"Ich gehe jetzt"--a beautifully arranged opening track. Air compressors blow across pipes, deep and rich plastic percussion beats under the vocals the way blood pulses through a moving body, leading up to a conclusion with piano and apocalyptic words that speak to the whole album:
"It's about time/That the earth itself finally spins/Transforms and breaks its bonds/I'm going now."

2)"Perpetuum Mobile"--and go this song does. Spiralling, skittering, but always unfolding forwards, you can listen to this travel-poem set to uplifting guitars and electronic treatments without realizing that it was about fourteen minutes long.

3)"Ein leichtes leises Saeuseln"--a minimalist masterpiece with great lyrics about the silence of the world above that are melancholy but not maudlin. The rustle of linden leaves in the background is a nice touch.

4)"Selbstportrait mit Kater"--an instant Neubauten classic, a metal spring thumps a memorable beat that mimics the throb of a hangover, which is fitting, since the stellar lyrics are about the universe being a macrocosmic hangover in which one participates. Tube bells resonate lonely over the warm bassline, and the unexpected string section towards the end all combine to make this track fun, beautiful, aggressive and tragic all at the same time.

5)"Boreas"--named after the Greek god of the north wind, it's constructed from a fan blowing one sheet of metal against another, creating suprisingly soothing sounds that fit the lyrics of arctic exploration very well.

6)"Ein seltener Vogel"--majestic. Every other word does disservice to this track's primordial beauty, which begins with layered humming and builds to a sublime conclusion. Inbetween, the sparkling, complex ringing of tube bells is but one part of the richly layered percussion. One guitar imitates the chattering of Jurassic birds, while another emits a few simple but soaring notes. The vocals fit in perfectly: "I'm waiting/for that which the rare bird/carries in its beak/upon its return:/the new song!/it lies on my tongue and it burns!"

7)"Ozean und Brandung"--the only instrumental track on the album, evocative of powerful blue waves carrying you across the sea in large, rolling motions until you arrive wide-eyed at the shore of the next song.

8)"Paradiesseits"--you can translate the title as "this side of paradise," and it fits. Carefree, breezy pedal steel guitar notes slide over gentle gusts of air, evoking mental images of the beach paradise that the lyrics speak of. The whistling at the end is so happy that you wonder how anybody could continue to mislabel Neubauten as nihilistic and violent.

9)"Youme & Meyou"--the only fully English song on the album, and while the lyrics are subpar compared to Blixa Bargeld's other lyrics, they are still quite good. A looped percussion rhythm drives the song ever upward while a vibraphone adds a delicate touch that fits in nicely with passionately played strings.

10)"Der Weg ins Freie"--this tale of astral projection picks up steam quickly, employing two voices simultaneously singing about a mental journey through the universe from different standpoints of consciousness. Just as in opera, where two people can sing without it being too confusing, this device somehow works.

11)"Dead Friends (Around the Corner)"--this song takes on a new force once you learn that in German, to "go around the corner" is a euphemism for committing suicide. Like someone strolling through a cemetary one gray autumn afternoon, this song seethes with resignation and despair, conveyed with great effect by a somewhat conventional instrumental arrangement.

12)"Grundstueck"--takes its title "Floorpiece" from the way it was recorded: the five band members sitting in a circle on the floor with various metal bars, playing in complex patterns. A little experimentation with the bars starts off the piece and evolves into a percussion cycle with thick, warm bass accompaniment. The vocals flow slowly and naturally, evoking the thoughts of someone who wanders through your dreams and organizes them, preserving everything...and when the string section fades away at the end, you are left wanting to listen to the whole album again and again.

Overall, this album will be a high point for those who are long-time fans and a great introduction for those who are curious. While this album doesn't have the condensed, punchy feel of some earlier albums (eg Haus der Luege or Halber Mensch), its long explorations of new soundscapes are so passionate and seductive that you don't mind the time. I highly recommend it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a brilliant progression. , April 28, 2005

By	Shotgun Method (NY... No, not *that* NY) - See all my reviews

Thus far I have only two EN albums, on opposite ends of their recorded spectrum: Strategies Against Architecture Vol. 1, which is made up of their percussive, radical, noisy, primal early aesthetic, and this album. The two couldn't be more different, though both demonstrate Blixa Bargeld & Co.'s dedication to making brilliantly artistic and individual music. The fact that is still being cleverly performed on a variety of non-musical implements (tubes of pressurized air, various metal percussion, even bags of leaves and a blanket on one track) along with conventional instrumentation only makes it all the more unique (I've been told their live show using the aforementioned tools is way cool.. it's on my list).

Judging by the reviews here, some hardened EN buffs much prefer the harshness of the earlier albums to this. Well, I beg to differ. This has most, if not all, of the elements that characterized what I've heard of their early work, but coupled to an organic sense of song structure, dynamics, and (gasp!) melody. They can still clomp around and be plenty loud and scary (and make it sound musical no less), but there is a relaxing beauty behind the industrial wall of sound and an incredible use of space.

Blixa Bargeld is a very unique frontman, with an extremely flexible, rich voice and a melodic and rhythmic gift (and here he sounds totally unlike the screaming Germanic madman that often shows up on their early albums). Listen to him articulate around the sparse, languid pressurized-air rhythm on the opening track Ich Gehe Jezt, or his hushed, tense delivery on the eerie Dead Friends (Around The Corner). Most of the poetic, abstract lyrics are in German (with some snippets and one ballad, Youme & Meyou, delivered in English), but knowledge of the language is not required--Blixa's voice can be regarded as another instrument (and a translation is provided).

The music is amazing and varied. Perpetuum Mobile's songs never really reach a fast tempo as is common in some other forms of industrial, but it never gets boring. The epic title track and Selbstportrait Mit Kater are the main highlights, the former featuring some really addictive rhythms using guitar, E-bow, and metal percussion; the latter starts slowly with the occassional jolt of noise and rises to a stirring string-backed climax ("Life on other planets is difficult"). The muted, mournful Ein Leichtes Sauseln features an especially powerful Blixa performance, while Paradiessets is minimal and downright soothing (in a good way). All in all, not a bad track to be found.

I'm not sure how to classify this ("prog-industrial," perhaps?), but I do know that I love it, and hope EN continue in this direction. More, please.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ich gehe nicht jetzt, May 16, 2004

By	SacredWorm (southern california) - See all my reviews

i'm really not sure why so many people seem down on this album. i think it's their best and most accessible (which may be why some don't think very highly of it) so far. it's not my personal favorite, but it's their best. they've obviously spent the last 20+ years perfecting their music and this is the result (or is it?!). i won't bother tying to explain WHY it's the best because that would be a waste of words because you just can't explain things like that.
i agree with a reviewer below who said if you think they've lost it to old age or WHATEVER, you're crazy because i just saw them live about a week ago myself and they were gloriously noisey and did everything they used to do back in the 80's.

but going back to the album, it has a good mix of noisey and quiet songs.
ich gehe jetzt (i'm going now) is one of my favorites. it's built around the sound of air from an air compressor being blown into long plastic pipes. like blowing into a soda bottle. blixa's voice is most definetly at it's peak. it's warmer and softer then i've ever heard it before. he can be very subtle and convey what he's saying without the listener having to understad german.
the title track is probably the loudest one on the album, but it still manages to keep a peaceful tone to it. even when it involves dragging a bunch of olive oil cans down a hallway. i may be wrong (who knows, when it comes to neubauten lyrics...), but the lyrics seem to be about how monotonous traveling can be, but he does it out of love.
ein seltener vogel (a rare bird) is definetly the standout track in my opinion. it goes from a quiet beggining to a frenzied ending with all kinds of weird vocalizations and so forth. there's a lot of windchimey sounds inbetween. it's about noah's ark landing on mt. ararat. most of this album can't be described, so i won't bother

if you're already a neubauten fan and you dont have this album, you MUST buy it. but don't give them a hard time for not being the speed-fueled delinquents they were 20 years ago. they should be allowed to grow and progress with age and that's exactly what they're doing. if you can't appreciate the album for what it is, that's nothing to do with the band.
if you aren't already a neubauten fan, i think this would be good place to start. especially if you aren't terribly familiar with real (meaning NOT vnv nation) industrial music in the first place. it's not going to make your eardrums bleed, but it will prepare you for their older, more agressive material.