Einstürzende Neubauten

For 20 years now, Germany's Einstürzende Neubauten have continuously been the forerunners in making music that defies lucid explanation and disposes of linear formulas altogether. However, they, like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, have laid deep into the ground the alien and oxidising foundation that is known today as "industrial" music. Neubauten romanticise the soot and lead-poisoned grey-skied city of Berlin, Germany, into pure uncharted cerebral musical anarchy. This two-CD compilation of instantly gratifying alternate, live, unreleased and key tracks spanning the decade is a quintessential acquisition for those into having their minds heated and bent into new shapes and fit into different states of being. Everyone from Nick Cave to Nine Inch Nails has tapped into Neubauten as a major source of inspiration, as should everyone else. Almost every possible sound that can be thought up lies within these terrifyingly beautiful, dark, decadent, soothing and blinding theatrical chamber lounge pieces; it is as if they have taken a pipe and struck the periodic table of elements and captured the results with the most sensitive microphone in existence. This cannot be released at a more suitable time of the year - an inspiring dessert for a black Christmas.