XLR8R 136 (Nov/Dec 2010)

Page 62

Einst端rzende Neubauten A

s the legend goes, in 1980, a West German punk named Blixa Bargeld set out to make an "ethnic" record. He wondered about his "authentic" background while listening to an Ethiopian folk record, and his attention turned to the debris that littered his own hometown's streets. Along with the then-15-year-old Alexander Hacke, Bargeld's group, Einst端rzende Neubauten (German for "Collapsing New Buildings"), began crafting literal industrial music, with rhythms bashed out of scrap metal, pipes, power tools, shopping carts, and other West Berlin detritus. Thirty years later, the band is noisier than ever, having just released Strategies Against Architecture IV. Here, Hacke tells us more about the group's DIY weapons of choice. Cameron Macdonald

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