The Jewels *

Rating

Album: The Jewels *
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Ich Komme Davon
2)	Mei Ro
3)	26 Riesen
4)	Hawcubite
5)	Die Libellen
6)	Jeder Satz Mit Ihr Hallt Nach
7)	Epharisto
8)	Robert Fuzzo
9)	Magyar Energia
10)	Vicky
11)	Ansonsten Dostojewsky
12)	Die Ebenen (Werden Nicht Vermischt)
13)	Am I Only Jesus?
14)	Bleib [Stay]
15)	I Kissed Glenn Gould
16)	Acht L”sungen [Multimedia Track]

Album: The Jewels *
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Ich Komme Davon
2)	Mei Ro
3)	26 Riesen
4)	Hawcubite
5)	Die Libellen
6)	Jeder Satz Mit Ihr Hallt Nach
7)	Epharisto
8)	Robert Fuzzo
9)	Magyar Energia
10)	Vicky
11)	Ansonsten Dostojewsky
12)	Die Ebenen (Werden Nicht Vermischt)
13)	Am I Only Jesus?
14)	Bleib [Stay]
15)	I Kissed Glenn Gould
16)	Acht L”sungen [Multimedia Track]

Performer Notes

Undisputed heavyweights of the power machinery-wielding, metal-bashing faction of industrial music, Einsturzende Neubauten, in their earliest incarnation, were sometimes accused of taking a literal approach to "noise music," crafting their bleak, emotionally desolate landscapes from the scrap-metal detritus of modern civilization. However, Neubauten's music, if anything, has always embodied a striking clarity and singleness of purpose: to explore the heightened mental and physical states brought about by madness--a fact that is demonstrated throughout their output in the tortured theatrics of lead vocalist Blixa Bargeld. Taking a page from modern composition, THE JEWELS tones down their singular approach for a more expansive take on structure and experimental song-form. Employing an aleatory composition method devised by the band (a set of cards with instructions drawn at random), the album works more like a set of thematic vignettes rather than complete songs. If the disjointed, fever-dream fragments of songs like "Epharisto" and "I Kissed Glenn Gould" seem more like sketches than complete statements, they nonetheless show a band willing to stretch to ever more daring musical vistas.

Professional Reviews

Alternative Press (p.162) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THE JEWELS is a beautiful work of unique and very real art, as thoughtful and conceptually coherent as any Neubauten project before it."

The Wire (p.47) - "Throughout there are surprising, and frequently very beautiful textural collisions between conventional instruments and the unusual materials whose essential musicality Neubauten are justly renowned for being able to extract and exploit."

Record Collector (magazine) (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "THE JEWELS takes Neubauten's already tangential approach to song structure several stages further along the highway of the extraordinary."