Einstürzende Neubauten

 

Example Album: Halber Mensch

Location: Germany

Years Active: 1980-present

Style: Metal percussion

     Einstürzende Neubauten is an industrial group hailing from West Berlin. Formed in 1980, they use scrap metals, power tools, as well as an array of other physical objects to create percussive compositions and different sound experiments. They are perhaps the most well known group, inside and outside of industrial music, to use scrap metals, power tools, and industrial noises as instruments. Other artists in the genre frequently get compared to them and are used as a reference point. Their early era has this this anarchic, raw, noisy aspect to it, while later on they start to experiment more with rock and pop music, while still using physical objects as a defining feature of their sound.

    Really, they never stopped using scrap metal and power tools to make their music, even on their later stuff, with percussion still being a big part of it, but their early and middle era features their sound more firmly in the department of industrial. In my opinion, Halber Mensch is the best representation of their percussive style, more refined and developed from their early stuff, while still keeping that raw industrial energy. Included is the track Das Schaben, which to me is a highlight of the record, using scrap metals to create this huge wall of grinding industrial noise. Beautiful.