TRIPTYCH
the. . originals
Triptych festival returns for five days of mind-expanding Art of noise _ music, DJing and film. As always, the weighty bill is "S ‘982' a“d‘“e‘“e” B'm‘jayf’ar‘y'eadsmger
Nick Cave is in a hotel in Amsterdam at the dog end
sprinkled with some of the visionaries of modern music. OlaEuroveantowwhenhehearsan ungodlynoise
emanating from the TV room. On the screen is a
Here we highlight five of the pioneers performing and purple-raced man blowing intoalong iengihoi drainpipe, making a furious howl. The camera pans
reveal just how much worse off the world would be if it gowlymenext manwhoisbludgeonmgpiecesof wasn’t for innovations sheet metal with two giant mallets. Finally the lense
crawls round to frame a third man clad in rubber hose and Ieotard. a destroyed guitar hanging round his scrawny neck. He is silent for 60 seconds. seemingly transfixed. Then he lets out a scream, a sound Cave describes as ‘somebody pulling a thistle from his soul‘. That third man was Blixa Bargeld. and these three men are collectively known as Einsturzende Neubauten.
Few bands have reached such mythical status without ever surfing waves of hype or engaging in some kind of commercial crossover. They are celebrated as folk heroes in their homeland Germany, but to so many elsewhere they remain distinctly under the radar.
The name means 'collapsing new buildings'. wholly apposite given their rnodus operandi: they are errant explorers of sound. texture and colour. But to some they were the band of the big skinny guitarist bloke in Nick Cave‘s Bad Seeds for years. They famoust destroyed the stage of London's lCA with jackhammers in 1984. But this is only part of their story. They are as ready to diversify into soundtracks for work by dance troupes like Canada's La La La Human Steps or collaborate on a version of Ham/at on German radio.
They have released more than nine official albums over the years. plus several which are available only by subscription, breaking down conventional barriers between fan and artist.
Blixa Bargeld has the refined. elegant presence of a fine stage actor, as ready to plunge into a great Shakespearian soliloquy as he is a baneful howl. With , _} a voice somewhere between devilish whisper and ‘ A. A a " ’ v operatic roar, he is the consummate frontispiece for a
’3 " ~ ‘ " K " " band like Neubauten. singing in both German and English and providing a focus to the hive of aural industry around him both live and on record.
The band. which Currently numbers five including Bargeld. test the sonic possibilities of musical instruments and manipulate objects including stone. plastic. and wire. These processes are meticulous and controlled. The sound is often disorienting and disconcerting at first, but they share the same dark spiritual heart as Nick Cave or Anthony and the Johnsons but with more of an otherworldly atmosphere and less adherence to familiar musical structures.
Their music has always been unconventional but MPH“ F V i “will! ' ’ ” 27 years since their birth in a club in Berlin they
" ' remain unique and startling. Their sound has grown
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EN's mastery of the dramatic, the The band went from clean-cut The dance/theatre Fringe crowd more atmospheric and meditative but it still has the brutal and the poetic Inspired Home Counties homes to grimy, pleasers are also taking scrap , . V . - . ~ . - - .
Cave’s endeavours early on and scaffold pole clanging, leather- metal and making something (mm to surpr'8_e‘ Th'S' the” first V's” to SCOtland' Blixa Bargeld was a fixture in his clad perverts overnight thanks to worryingly Iistenable. Different ShOU‘d be “OIh'nQ less than that- (Mark RODGFTSO“) band for over 15 years. the influence of EN and others. ends but the same aesthetic. I Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 26 Apr.
10 THE LIST 12 720 Apr QlI-fii’