Kollaps

Oh fuck yeah, now we're talking. Wait no, I swear I'm not being pretentious. This is the lowest rated album on this site because I guess mostly people aren't very fond of German people smashing metal plates together - who would have guessed. But halle-fucking-lujah, this is something this list needs more of. Albums that make you go "well, that was an experience and now I'm a changed man". Nobody is lying on their deathbed wishing they heard more crappy 80s post-punk or late 60s psychedelic rock. THIS is what we all deserve to be listening to as we embrace eternal oblivion. I'm giving this a high rating not only because I genuinely really love it, but also to help Kid Rock move to his rightful place as the actual worst album on this list. Together we can make a difference. Save the turtles.

My god what will this do to my Spotify recommendations???

Around 1990-91, I was a volunteer at 2SER student radio. Mostly, I did technical work helping my mate, Tim. Panelling, editing, that kind of thing. In 1991, Einsturzende Neubauten were touring Australia and there was an offer to do a radio interview with 2SER. I could actually pronounce “Einsturzende Neubauten” and knew a little bit about the band, so it was decided that I would do the interview. Which was not really my thing. But it came with perks; tickets to their show at the Phoenician Club and a copy of the Strategies Against Architecture LP, so I said OK. I knew the legendary Blixa Bargeld has a reputation for not suffering fools, so I tried to prep questions that were interesting. So, on the day of the show the plan was to go down to the club after soundcheck and interview Blixa. It was a bit intimidating. I mean, EN were one of the world’s most dangerous bands, and Blixa also played in the Bad Seeds, which made him an underground legend. Tim and I were in the equipment room gathering up a portapack and mics and whatever else we needed, when someone comes running in the room whispering “There’s a vampire in the lobby, and he’s looking for you!” And sure enough, there in the lobby, stands Blixa, in full stage outfit, pale as death, six foot six in cuban heels and his hair teased up, and 100lbs wringing wet. He has a bottle of schnapps and a filthy look in his eye. He’s staring death at everyone. And then I hear my name called. Standing next to this imperious vision in black is a smiling Japanese man in bright green overalls with a flower appliqued on the front. His voice is oddly familiar; it is Rick Tanaka, former presenter of the Nippy Rock Shop, a collage-like radio show from Triple J in the 80s. I was a fan. Turns out, he is the road manager for this EN tour, and he is asking for me. He hands me his business card: Rick Tanaka, Private Guy. We hurriedly shuffle Rick and Blixa into a meeting room and turn on the recorder, and I attempt an interview. It did not go well. Blixa did not want to be there, was much smarter than me, and was not very patient with my attempts at questions that were more engaging than the usual stereotypical “who gets to go to the junk yard for your stage show?”. Eventually, he just started ignoring me and chatted to Rick. Tim and I kept the tape rolling for their conversation, and afterwards edited it up into something resembling proper radio. And then they left. Tim and I packed up, and then walked down the road to the Phoenician Club. (En route, we bumped into the Beasts of Bourbon, who were playing support. They were intensely focussed. They clearly knew what was coming, and determined to put on a good show. They were the best I ever saw them play that night; tight, ferocious and angry, showcasing material from their Low Road album, that was not yet released). And then on came Einsturzende Neubauten. It was possibly the most intense, frightening show I ever seen. I confess I was a little freaked out by my encounter with Blixa, and not really prepared for the experience of an EN show. By the end, I was pressed up against a wall with my fists clenched and my eyes shut. The sound from the stage was so brutal and overwhelming. I can’t recall much of what went on, except for a bit with shopping carts with contact mikes crashing into each other repeatedly. It was really loud. I know I left the venue about 11.30pm. At 2am, I turned up at my girlfriend’s house, tapping on her window. I assume I spent the intervening hours walking the streets in a daze, but not really sure of what I did in that time. Before you ask, no, there were no drugs involved. She yelled at my for waking her up for a good 15 minutes, but I was unable to put a sentence together, let alone explain what had just happened to me. It was a heavy, really heavy, performance. Ok, so given that background of my relationship with EN, what do I think about this album? I have listened to it once or twice before. EN is really influential on me. I love noisy things, really noisy things. I played in industrial bands through most of the 1990s. And this is like the ur-text for much of what industrial music became. It still sounds frightening and surprising now. That said, this is a massively difficult listening experience. I am reminded of Brian Eno talking about Steve Reich (I think), and how hearing one of his early tape pieces was massively influential, but he never listened to it again. Early EN (and this album in particular) is like that for me. It opened up a world of possibilities to explore, but I don’t need (or probably even want) to listen to it much. I certainly was much more enamoured of their early 1990s material, which contains actual songs, rather than just this scary barrage of crashing rhythms and screaming. Kollaps is an important record for me, but I would not recommend it.

This is a joke, right? No way this is real. These guys took mics to Haus Depöt and started recording everything on the plumbing aisle. This shit sounds like a “10 HOUR INDUSTRIAL BLACKSMITH FACTORY AMBIENCE” youtube video. Honestly though, I can dig abstraction and distorted electronica, but you always need something for the audience to latch on to. At times this is cool, but if this plays at the discotheque, I’m leaving because you can’t even try to dance to this shit

Not bad background music except for it feeling like I was being shouted at by Hitler the entire time

If you have a headache and would like to worsen your headache, this is the perfect album for you. Let's just say...interesting does not equal listenable.

It’s like when you visit an art gallery and there’s a video instillation. The video is shot on Super 8, and features broken mirrors, religious imagery, and a good deal of nudity. This album would be the soundtrack. You stand at the back of the darkened gallery just long enough to prove you aren’t scared/confused/shocked by it, then politely edge your way out to go and find something by Banksy, whose book you have on the coffee table at home. Giving it 2 stars. If you gave it 1 star, it would mean you didn’t ‘get it’ … and I definitely ‘get it’. 100% ‘get it’. It’s just I prefer stuff by Radiohead, or Banksy.

A band and album that is so hard to properly describe. I got into Neubauten through listening to the Bad Seeds and I was lucky enough to see the play in 1991. It was like visiting hell, am I mean that as a compliment to the unabashed fury on display that night. Cut pieces of shopping trolley raining over the audience and sparks from angle grinders adding a sense of danger that they may just set the venue alight. This album doesn't even come ose to capturing that but it still gets five stars as it is still on a whole other level to most of the albums on this list

What the hell is this? Power tools and someone screaming in German? This is absolute garbage. If I could give negative stars, I would. I thought Limp Bizkit was the worst this list had to offer, but boy was I wrong. I owe Mr. Durst a heartfelt apology. This is literally the worst thing I have ever heard. Imagine you're outside on a busy street standing next to someone jackhammering the sidewalk, so you're wearing headphones that are just playing static to try and cover up the construction sounds, but you can't quite get the volume high enough. Then out of nowhere an angry German dentist tackles you and starts giving you a root canal while yelling in your face. Then someone in the building next door sees what's going on and starts throwing random drums and chains out the window onto the street. Now imagine that but worse. That's the kind of thing we're dealing with here. So I say to you, Mr. Einstürzende Neubauten, BOOO! BOOOOO!!!

This should be everyone's selection on April 1st, because it being included on the list has to be a joke. Worse than awful.

Really solid creatively and certainly the most deserving of the label industrial, but not the EN album I would’ve picked for a “must listen.”

Not my thing. Awful

I've got no hope of being neutral about Einstürzende. They're one of my husband's favorites. I hear them whether I like it or not. So I might as well find reasons to like them. This album's noisy and rather unpleasant, but it's not chaotic, not just loud noodling and screaming. I couldn't tell you what their intention is, but I can tell they've got one. It's hard to tell from this album but there are songs on later albums where Blixa's voice is actually soothing. On Kollaps, we only hear the stuff of nightmares. Still, this is different! I would much rather listen to something that disturbs me with noise than to something that disturbs me with boredom. So, thumbs up!

epic noise

There sure is a lot of hate for this record, so much that it's the lowest rated song on the entire list. I think that's a bit overstated as this isn't a "bad" record per se, it's definitely challenging though and it will necessitate that you adjust your expectations of what "music" is. IMO there are a lot of more unlistenable albums on this list, eg Black Death Metal. I found the second side with the instrumental songs without any vocals to be the most interesting. Particularly the 7 songs that end in "dub", with the best being Gastarbeiterdub with some very interesting percussive beats. I probably wouldn't seek this out to listen to it but I found it to be quite interesting.

I appreciate the use of tools and building materials, it sounds like a demented construction site. For an album that they were trying to make unlistenable, it has quite a bit going for it. The rhythms are entrancing at times, and they leave a lot of space in many of the tracks, which invites then listener in before they are eventually jolted out of the trance with a primal scream. Would listen again.

An album full of literal bangers. Hahaha, I made myself laugh. This is fascinating. And yes, obviously better than Kid Rock. I mean, obviously. Are you mad? Of course it is. And Ryan Adams, both of them. Anyway I like krautrock and I like industrial. And I like experimental stuff, and people smashing shit together while screaming in German. So yeah, high score. Tempted to rate it higher than I rate Sgt Peppers for the lols.

The real thing! 1ste wave of industrial music. Neubauten, Test Department, Sans, Coil, Foetus. All sound can be music. And German brilliant language for this noise. 5 stars of course. Later made e.g. Tabula Rasa, beautiful album.

Honest to god, hearing the angle grinder tear through sheet metal kind of won me over.

This noisy assault had me glued to the listen for at least half the album, then became a bit tiring. This is at times incredibly raw and dark, but also humorous in its audacity. Definitely unique and for a record created to be the “most unlistenable album ever”, Ein came pretty close. Actually, there was enough rhythm and beat to keep me listening. I’ve had much harder times listening to more conventional albums I just didn’t like. I suppose ‘unlistenable’ is very subjective.

Music is context specific right. And my current context is really jarring with this. This ISN'T work background music. But, there's something that's made me curious. I like the textures. The drums on Steh auf Berlin sound similar to a Woodkid track (you know the one trending on TT right now). There must be some techno remixes of these songs playing at Berghain right? U-Haft-Muzak has a really interesting intro, and not surprised to read one of the band members joined Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Can hear how Nine Inch Nails have been influenced by them. Apparently the band threw fire at their audiences and damaged venues. Hmmm, that sounds like really shitty behaviour IMHO.

Among the “1 Star Album Club,” some space must be reserved for bold, exciting ideas which have been ruined by their execution. I actually enjoy a lot of the experimentalism on this album, and I want reward any and all artists willing to go out on a limb. You can hear some nightmarish— but somewhat enticing— sounds on the second half of this record. Almost a more homespun, industrial version of the Raymond Scott/Manhattan Research tapes. Little ideas made from experiments, and some are pretty neat. That’s the instrumental second half of the album. Unfortunately for Eunsturzrnde Neubauten, most of us start our albums at the beginning, and the beginning of this album is absolutely unlistenable, and it is entirely up to the screaming, frightening vocals. Comparisons have been made to the sound of Hitler screaming one of his speeches while giving you a root canal. I think that’s not at all unfair. I can’t hear anything redeeming in those first three tracks, and that’s a lot of time to lose someone. If Neubauten was really going for this, and they actually want me to turn my mind to the dark, repressed memories of my last dentist appointment, then “Steh Auf Berlin” is a stunning achievement. And so it is with all of the good ideas on this album: ruined by horrific vocals. I’m so repulsed by them that anything else redeeming on this album is forgotten. I was going to write an unserious review, but halfway through my second go-round I realized that this band is actually deadly serious, and so they deserve to be more than just slagged off. 1 star for me.

10/10. Forget about what other people are saying about this album. THIS is truly a must-listen album. There are far too many unremarkable albums in this 1001 album project. This is not one of them. This is incredible, and revolutionary.

Look, this album is not something you listen to while you dust your living room, all right? It is an early work of industrial and drone sound to create nightmarish landscapes. There are certainly better guitarists than Blixa Bargeld on a technical level but few people in music use their instrument to create proper soundscapes like that. In that respect, he is closer to Robert Fripp and his Frippertronics than Eric Claption or Jimmy Page. Compare that with Unruh's and Einheit's percussion work you have something extraordinary.

Though this isn't something I'd put into my daily rotation, it resonates with me on a personal level far more than a great deal of other albums on this list. I know where the impulse to make something like this comes from, and you can hear how it gave permission to others that followed to go further down the trail they blazed here.

Gotta be honest it takes a lot of balls to record something like this and release it. The whole time listening to it all I could think about was them in the studio recording it and it made it a little easier to listen to. The back half of Helga was my favorite part. This album would make a great horror movie soundtrack. Terrible music though I recognize they perfectly executed what they were going for

Dannati geni.

I have a soft spot for weird music and this certainly fits the bill

The word angst is Germanic in its origin, so it's of no surprise that this music did too. It's horrible, but in the best way. They find emotion in power tools and destruction. It's difficult. But brilliantly so. It could only be done once, but it's amazing it was done at all. While normally I sneer at the people giving low ratings, this is an album you have to be in exactly the right mood for. Amazing Serge Gainsbourg cover too!

This album was certainly interesting in a "German guy is yelling at me while hitting pots and pans" kind of way. With titles like "Schmerzen Hören," at least you knew this wasn't gonna be Easy Listening. The title track was quite long, but I got through it smiling as I imagined it as a karaoke choice. I would enjoy that. I was intrigued and engaged, and I appreciated the experience as an exploration of sound, and that's how I rated it. The question of whether I "liked" it or not seems irrelevant.

That was not pleasant, but at least it was interesting. The unique rhythmic and harmonic use of industrial noise was very cool. Never want to hear it again.

Som experimental, não muito agradável

So imagine you're listening to your neighbors building a shed in their backyard. It's one of those pre-fab metal ones that's made of steel. They're hammering away for hours, yelling and using power tools, and sometimes they stop for a beer break or whatever and you can hear the music they're playing for just a brief second before they get back to their noisy bullshit. Even if you put headphones on to listen to something else, you can't hear anything but these fuckers in their yard working on this dumbass shed. At the end of the day, they're not even really doing anything interesting anymore. They're not even talking anymore. They're just finishing the rivets and still hammering away. And you just have to sit there and listen.

I don't even know what the hell im listening to or how to even rate this thing, it sounds like someone going crazy and if a homeless man was trying to perform music with random things he found at a junkyard for spare change but was on drugs, I cannot even understand what was even trying to be portrayed it's so horrible and my ear needs help. Abomination

It's strangely comforting to know that this sounded exactly as insane as I thought it would upon reading the description

If I was being charitable I could say that these creepy soundscapes and industrial rhythms helped lay the groundwork for Burial, Nine Inch Nails and others to build upon, or that the extreme experimentation and complete disregard for pleasant sounds is way more punk than anything else on this list. I could also say that this album would make an ideal soundtrack to a horror film, or horror video game, or horrifying mental breakdown. But I can't in all conscience call it good music. 1.5

If Doodle Bob had a band, this would be the album. Perfect for any haunted house, artsy horror film or torturing your neighbor. Have a Godzilla like monster? Mikrobendub. Deranged dentist turned torturer? Steh auf Berlin. Scene with a NY street performer? Rohrbombe. Doodle Bob does the Bubble Bowl? Vorm Krieg. For house security, play Gasterbeiterdub on repeat while you’re away from home. Passerby will think you’re jamming out and building your new IKEA furniture. The weak hearted should skip the first seven songs and head to the more palatable second act starting with Kollaps. Sado-Masodub is an absolute banger that ends just as it’s getting good. A marvel for its time that is now blended into whacky sound effects on keyboards and Ableton push sound packs.

Unlistenable…but that’s probably the point.

Knowing German did not make this any better, honestly might've been more tolerable if I didn't know it.

Surprisingly accessible, I was expecting something weirder and unlistenable but these are really just pop songs when you get past the banging and the angry German screaming.

Everybody's favorite genre: evil noise. I've made mental note of this album based on seeing it on the global Worst Rated Albums list on this site, and I always look forward to finding out why. What we get here is an industrial noise album from the early '80s, and wouldn't you know it, I really dig it. I know I've mentioned Pharmarkon's Bestial Burden in another review, and I mentioned it to Alex as we talked about this album, but it's a reference point for me as this sort of vile, bitter noise that represents really harsh, negative emotion. You'd think it would be unpleasant for me, and in a literal sense it definitely is, but it's also an expression that I really respect and feel like I understand, to the point that I geniunely have grown to love albums like this. Most would say it's not even music, and I don't know if I can make a case to the contrary, but damn I love this stuff. Albums like this ABSOLUTELY belong on a list of things you must hear before you die, even if it literally kills you. I'm keeping a good handful of bangers. I think the album got a little tame and same-y on the back end, but overall a great ride. Favorite tracks: Tanz Debil, Steh Auf Berlin, U-Haft-Muzak, Draussen Ist Feindlich, Schmerzen Horen, Kollaps, Vorm Krieg, Spionagedub. Album art: What the hell am I looking at? A little cyclops freak? Is that even supposed to be a person, or just a symbol? Not much to it, but it's kind of memorable for that same reason. 4/5

So, this is my first time hearing this album and… I have a lot of thoughts. First though, I have a question for my fellow reviewers out there. How many times in your life have you uttered some version of the sentence, "I listen to all kinds of music," or "My tastes are diverse," or "I like everything"? So today we have Einstürzende Neubauten, here to call all of us to the carpet and really make us examine what we consider to be music. What do we even consider to be music? How far can that line be pushed? Are we all full of shit? At almost 900 albums into this little project, I kind of love that. It's why we're here, right? When we hear a piece of "music" for the first time, it's instinctual to look for what feels familiar, to orient us into whatever it is we're about to experience. We unconsciously look for structure when we listen to music just to comprehend what we're experiencing. EN is consistent in their refusal to provide that structure for us, so as a listener you're kind of on your own to figure it out. On an essential level, this album is pretty disorienting and unsettling from the get-go because of this. I mean, the boundaries you expect from music are completely gone here, and you just have to strap in and let it take you wherever it's going. There is nary a hook nor a bridge nor a melody to be found, so be prepared. This is the purest, most stripped-down representation of industrial music that exists out there. It's gritty and noisy and minimalist in ways that are incredibly daring. As you work through this 1001 albums project, you will find pieces of this music in the DNA of dozens of albums from artists that came after it - industrial, post-punk, goth, alternative, metal, electronica. It's not a particularly easy listen, but it's not a hard listen either. It's not the kind of album I would just want to hear on the regular, but this is pretty compelling, primal stuff. The "Dub" songs probably are the most listenable of the bunch, but across the board, the album is never boring. I was planning for a 3 with this album, but this is a 4. Truly mind bending, fascinating stuff. I'll also add, EN is still out there making music today, 40+ years later. Sleep well. Fave Songs: Rivieradub, Kollaps, Sado-Masodub, Spionagedub, Lünebest, Jet'm, Sehnsucht, Rohrbombe, Liebesdub

Everyone who voted this 2 or lower is a coward. This album rules, absolutely unlistenable stuff double thumbs up 👍 👍

Hello, welcome to the reviews page for the lowest-rated album on this website! Take a seat, dive into the horror of Industrial music. Pure industrial music (none of this industrial metal or industrial techno stuff) is content exploring dark, noisy soundscapes that sound, well, industrial. More metal than metal, more raw than punk. There's a specific fascination with the mechanical, rhythmic chaos of the factories. It aims to capture the bleak nature of the artist's realities, the world around them. Kollaps is a true, German reflection of the industrial genre. It is a monstrous experience and one that is delightfully disturbing. Wails from vocalist Blixa Bargeld, as if crying out for release. Unrelenting noise from things that simply cannot be instruments. Kollaps is, for lack of a better term, wrong, but it's execution is oh so right. What a messed up and uncomfortable album this is. Einstürzende Neubauten must have known the power of something like this, and how goddamn unpleasant it was. It's beautiful.

I've known about this band for a while thanks to Henry Rollins' tattoo, but had never really given them a listen. I really enjoyed the industrial chaos sound.

Wow, impressive industrial and Experimental. It toes the line without falling into a trap of being unlistenable.

Weird

I wondered to myself what album I was going to get while I was doing my prep for my colonoscopy and was hoping it would be something fun and distracting. Then I thought to myself "lol watch I'll get that weird German album that is sitting at lowest rated". Imagine my shocked pikachu face when I rated my album for the previous day and low and behold... there it was. Since I'm only 20 albums in the odds on that are pretty low, but here we are! The first track in I was instantly thinking about NIN (which I do like at least some of). A quick google search confirmed for me this is one of the influences for their music. I can definitely see how this had an influence on other bands and because of that I think it's worthwhile to listen to at least once in your life. It's not really "enjoyable" but it is "interesting". A lot of disjointed screaming/yelling and discordant noises. Also including banging sounds, sudden distorted instruments that fade in and out, and power tools. Maybe it's the lack of solid food, maybe it's Stockholm syndrome, but by the end of the album I was kinda digging it? I'm not sure if/when I will ever relisten to it but it made me feel a way I don't really know how to describe, and I can't say anything else I have listened to has given me the same feeling. I was left questioning how to rate this. Based on how I have rated my other albums, it should probably be a 2 but I think I kind of want to bump it up to a 3 just to counterbalance the lower score a little. I do think it's worthwhile to listen to. Even if it's just to widen your music knowledge, and know stuff like this exists out there and there are people who enjoy it.

Grew on me. Not sure I'd listen again though.

this is frustrating stuff. they've got the sounds, they've clearly got some sort of ethos/attitude, but they don't have anything close to a song. a bit of a hook or something resembling a purpose for each track is completely missing. so it ends up sounding like something you'd stumble across in an art gallery or museum that you just clearly aren't arty enough to understand.

I didn’t listen to this album because I’m not into German music.

Yes, industrial experimental music can be too experimental.

This music is the equivalent of the scene in every horror movie where the killer is right behind them and you’re saying NO NO NO NO. This is the music waiting for you at the bottom of the sewer. This music is the symbol on the album cover made manifest, at the end of a dimly lit tunnel 100 yards away running towards you at full sprint. It’s the sort of stuff that’s in the basement of the doctor who made the Human Centipede. This shit had to have been created in the aftermath of Chernobyl down in the bowels of the facility. I can feel the radiation on some of these songs and it’s going to linger longer than I’d like. This kind of album has a half-life. And that doesn’t even begin to describe the horror I felt when I saw their album cover of Haus der Luge (spoiler, it’s a wide eyed horse shooting goo into a puddle) another album no doubt cursed by some ancient German demon. Pretty wild I had to hear this the same day I watched Zone of Interest. Maybe this was their punishment for the sins of the third reich. Forced to live in an abandoned concentration camp and record in the bowels of some crematorium. I do believe this album should be on this list, it’s an Art Most Fowl. Abandon all hope, ye who press play, you’re entering the lair in Poughkeepsie Tapes.

Lord have mercy on us all, this sounds like WWII the Musical

From Wikipedia: One of their trademarks is the use of custom-built instruments, predominantly made out of scrap metal and building tools, and noises, in addition to standard musical instruments. Their early albums were unremittingly harsh, with Bargeld's vocals shouted and screamed above a din of banging and scraping metal percussion. Need I say more? This album is a cruel joke to see how horrifically bad these noises can get for people to consider it as music. This is beyond torture music, this is the music that greets you at the gates of hell, clicking 1 star pains me as this is a complete 0/10.

Un album qu'on attendait avec impatience et qui a bien tenu son rang de pire du générateur puisque tout simplement épouvantable. Merci Robert d'être l'homme que tu es, c'est-à-dire une ordure de première catégorie.

Les liens de Robert avec le 3ème Reich deviennent de plus en plus évidents, cet individu doit être traîné devant un tribunal au plus vite.

Underrated brilliant and well ahead of it's time

Absolutely loved it. The only innovative and really interesting thing from this generator so far. It's less musical than probably a lot of people are used to, but it makes up for it by being artistic and evocative. This will definitely go into my favourite albums list.

It’s stuff like this I was hoping to hear when I signed up for this.. something interesting I’d never have otherwise been exposed to. Supposedly this is the lowest rated album on the list? I get it. It’s not easily accessible or even listenable especially if you’ve never heard anything like it.. I can hear the roots of NIN and bands like Skinny Puppy in the sounds. There’s little melody. It’s noise.. but that’s purposeful. It made me think about the songwriting, the recording (1981 so reel to reel and multitracks), what a live show must look like. And beyond that, the question of where is the boundary between noise and music? The evolution of the musicians to get to this point. I’m REALLY glad I heard this even if I’m not sure I’d listen again.. though unlike many other albums I’ve heard so far, this one is sticking with me the day after. So fuck it.. giving it a 5 because of all of that.

I bought this album back in the pre-internet days when finding this kind of music was a bit of a challenge. Ordered it via a record store in Edinburgh. This album started my love of Einstuerzende Neubauten's music, and I've followed their albums since then. This album is a massive rush of heavy percussive music made with heavy duty metallic objects, some are 'found' objects, some constructed. The album sleeve has a photo with the band and their kit laid out - reminiscent of the back sleeve photo of Pink Floyd on their Ummagumma album. I'm not sure this would be the best pick of Einstuerzende Neubauten's catalogues - later albums become increasingly contemplative, but by golly it's an album this list needed to have. I notice that recent CD versions of this album include the cassette-only release Stahldubversions. In style this would be classed as 'industrial punk' I guess, and Einstuerzende Neubauten was one of a number of bands of this style. They did have an influence on subsequent bands, particularly as Fairlight samplers enabled the incorporation of 'found sound' into pop music. I'm thinking of Depeche Mode's 'Construction Time Again' for example.

I have always liked this debut album, in spite of its infamous low global score on this app. It's a wonderful and evocative clatter of metal platters and industrial distortion, whose edge and singular poetry haven't aged a day. The longest cuts ("Tanz Debil", "Steh Auf Berlin", "Kollaps", "Abstieg Und Zerfall"...) are the best moments in the original tracklist, and if the other selections are not as wild and lively, they still function as useful moodpieces bringing a lot to the album's flow and cohesion. I don't know, maybe I'm a sucker for hypnotic percussions on scraps of metal and other "found objects". The ones displayed here do even remind me of Balinese gamelan music at times, admittedly a far different beast, yet one with the same relentless drive in its best moments... Which is why I just can't understand people who find this music off-putting, very honestly. My best guess is that they're also repelled by the gritty German vocals, which even encouraged some reviewers on this app to compare the latter to Hitler's speeches (!). Ugh. That's such an ignorant and cringeworthy take I don't know where to start here... You think the f*cking n*zis would have condoned such quote-unquote "degenerate" art? I can live with people having vastly different different aesthetic requirements than the one I have, but some of those people should try to make the two brain cells they have left connect to each other before opening their goddamn mouth. Einstürzende Neubauten have had a long and very interesting career after this debut, with albums sounding miles away from what *Kollaps* had to offer. Not saying everything is essential, far from it, but that discography is worth checking out for anyone interested in industrial, post-punk or art-rock endeavors. Oh, and Blixa Bargeld has been a part of Nick Cave's adventures with the Bad Seeds for a very long time, which makes him quite an important figure in music history. So I guess having at least one album by his main band in a list such as this one makes sense somehow... So just for this one album, I'm gonna click on the five-star grade, even if my own mark for the LP is actually closer to a 4/5 (which translates to a 9/10 score for more general purposes -- 5+4). As that other reviewer said, let's all try to save the turtles here (and drown Kid Rock under a flood of turds). I might disagree with this particular reviewer about some other artists or genres, but people of goodwill should unite for the common good here. Next step, we end global warming, find endlessly renewable energy sources, solve the problems in the middle-east, destroy imperialism, neuter religious fanaticism, outlaw economic exploitation, and stop wars and famines everywhere. You gotta start somewhere, right? Number of albums left to review: 120 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 384 (including this one, most probably) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 225 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 283

Anyone giving this a 5 is probably heavy into BDSM, owns the entire catalogue of Nietzsche's writings, and survives off of the roaches they find in their basement.

Never was it truer that you have to be in the right mood but it's spectacular.

Har ägt albumet både som LP och CD. Var lite besviken när jag köpte plattan 1988. Lät ju inte alls som Halber Mensch eller Fünf auf der nach oben offenen richterskala. Men man lärde sig att lyssna på den och sedan årtionden tillbaka så älskar jag skivan. Ska se dem live för fjärde gången i höst när de kommer till Stockholm. Lite kuriosa, jag har deras logo tatuerat på min överarm.

Wegweisend

Alkupuoliskosta ei tarvitse puhua.. Se on sitä mitä nähdään seuraavilla albumeilla... Loppupuolesta.. Noh experimentaalista.. Olis voitu pohtia soundi niissä harjotuksissa ja välttää nolo väläytys albumilla.. Välillä myös paussia.. tiedä loppuuko musiikki.... Ei saa antaa raippaa siitä.. pojat pohtivat... Onko koskaan liikaa pohdittu....... ole mahdollista..

HELL YES. Metal plates, drills & other power tools, giant water bubbles, tape recorders played on fast-forward, plastic barrels, huge springs used as bass strings, guitar noises that you can barely tell are guitar, and Blixa Bargeld's demonic screams. This is not top-40 radio-friendly pop music, this is industrial in its purest form: raw, brutal, and jarring. The lyrics speak for themselves: "Hear with pain, hear with pain, hear my wounds, hear with pain." The first 6 tracks all appear on Strategies Against Architecture '80-'83 (albeit in a slightly different order) but there were a few I hadn't heard before (including the "remixes" taken from Stahldubversions, since current playlists are using the 2002 re-release that includes those). As the first proper album from EN, though, this definitely deserves its spot on the "must hear" list. If you're one of those "ugh, can't listen, 1 star!" people- congratulations, you didn't get it. And if you're one of the subset of those reviewers who could literally only come up with the name of 1 famous German to compare Bargeld's voice to? Shame on you. Get out of your tiny English-only cave, expand your horizons, & go listen to some Falco or Kraftwerk, or maybe that Rhabarberbarbara rap that's been trending lately.

Revolurionary

das fehlte mir noch

This record is way funnier while high. Just imagining the band at a construction sight just doing whatever they feel like. This is a fucking awesome record, far from the worst record in the list. So cool how these guys can make songs with random construction equipment

AAA

10/10 filthy fucking garbage - anti-music - ART

Das gut!

Genau so wie ein Kollaps von paar Leuten, die sich einstürzende neubauten nennen, tönen muss! Pure love

my kind of noise.

Strong start; intense, at once shamanistic and mechanical. Second half not as entertaining. Well done.

Amazing 🤩

The start of the end. Fucking brutal.

cool

This is not music it is noise and it's not meant to be enjoyed and you won't find it on Spotify. There are lots of other bands who I prefer over them: Nurse with wound, Coil, Zoviet France, Stockhausen and of course Throbbing Gristle. My vote is for the genre although this this album. Some tracks are more accessible- like Kollaps and Sehnsucht, others are pure noise.

Scream, soft ears!

Sick album, early techno industrial stuff.

Been busy the past couple of days, but this is a good palate cleanser after the election. Solid, angry shit. B

It seems that this album is generally unloved by others going through the 1001 albums project. That led to me going into this with a negative outlook, but I ended up really enjoying it. It likely helps that I really enjoy other industrial music such as Nine Inch Nails, and I think it would be a fair speculation to say that music like that produced in Kollaps inspired that found in The Downward Spiral. It definitely isn’t for everyone, and I totally understand that there are a fair amount that don’t like this, but I found myself wanting more once it ended.

A heady mix of war and angst

Industrial the truest sense. Hard hitting, noisy, construction music. Especially liked Schmerzen Horen.

Experimental, industrial, repetitive, ..., interesting! I remember listening to much more accessible work from them in the past, but this was still worth a few listens.

Ah man I lost the text I had in here before but basically I was not sure what to expect. Turns out these guys pioneered the whole industrial music genre. I like the uneasy feeling it evoked, almost sinister. I need to find a better way to describe that. I liked the german.

Heftiges Brett und harte Kost. Völlig zurecht auf dieser Liste. Taylor Swift kann einpacken.

Influences of Kraftwerk are pervasive throughout

I had no clue what this was so I was excited to listen to it this morning. I was NOT disappointed! Loved this!

4/5. Another experimental album right after another, but hey I guess that's randomly decided. I think I resonated with this one more than I expected to despite it being in a language I do not understand. It is much more abrasive than other experimental albums I've heard and the use of makeshift instruments is an interesting addition that only adds to the music, not take away. The screaming vocals creates a scary and dangerous atmosphere like the final speech of a world leader before the bombs drop. Best Song: Steh auf Berlin, Negativ Nein, Kollaps

Get past the weirdness and the shouting and there are some decent tracks here. The second half is another album added for the 2002 re-release, it's less experimental, but also less interesting IMO. 3/5 for the re-release, 4/5 for the original album. Favourite tracks: Kollaps, Abstieg and Zerfall

Day 29 - June 30th Art. It's abrasive, chilling, and uncomfortable, and it does it perfectly. 4/5

Boiled the piss of old white guitar shaggers, so five stars for that alone. Not bad, either.

This feels more like an assault than a listening experience to be enjoyed and picked over. And you know what? As a piece of art to disturb and disrupt, to undermine the very foundations of rock music, it is absolutely vital. I've never heard anything like it. To be honest I don't think I want to hear anything like it ever again. However, as a bracing series of aural confrontations I can't fault it. There's even a splash of deadpan humour here, with a laughably wonky cover ('Jet'M') stuck right in the middle of the album. How to rate this? It's ambitious, different, provocative and sui generis. Five stars on that basis, minus one for being borderline unlistenable.

Pretty dang neat and cool and avant garde for the time 👍

This feels like industrial era Tom Waits, except it’s dialed up to 11 and made 10 years earlier. There’s no way he didn’t take inspiration from this band when making albums like “Bone Machine” and especially the grisly, metallic “Real Gone.” That being said, “Kollaps” is as raw as punk can get, with random metal objects being large parts of the instruments used to back the hellishly distorted vocals. In a way, it’s as punk as punk can get, with the title track exemplifying that stronger than any other here. As a whole, this thing is vicious, it’s as stripped back as punk music can be, and it’s forward-thinking as hell.

So interesting to hear once! Industrial as fuck