Ende Neu, the "latest" album from German noise industrialist pioneers, Einstürzende Neubauten, is a prime example of how a record company can strive to get an extra buck out of you. The album is a collection of recordings made from 1994 to 1996, during which F.M. Einheit, one of the band's founding members, decided to split with the band after more than a decade and a half tenure. The album was originally released on Mute records out of Europe, but Trent Reznor's US-based Nothing Records has picked it up and marketed the album as a new release without changing the copyright date. Incidentally, a widely- distributed album of remix versions from the album has been available domestically for more than a year.

Neubauten has traditionally been considered a noisy, and mechanically- and mathematically- structured band responsible for music that was both poetic in presentation and artistic in simple expression. The band is credited for having invented most of the instruments used on many of their albums, as well as performances that border on demolition demonstrations, managing to get them banned in cities that were unsuspecting of the theatrical intensity. The notion of not being a contemporary "band" in terms of writing guitar/ bass/ drums songs and playing them identically at every performance is something that had always seemed key to the Neubauten philosophy. This is why songs like "Stella Maris," which features a full orchestra string section, seems like a radical departure and is largely what led to Einheit's resignation.

In fact, most of the album takes a tone that is uncharacteristically mellow for a Neubaten album, which is largely sung in English. The "bonus" track on the disc could almost be called the Neubaten cabaret song, and many others are surprisingly just as laid back.

Please, don't let this suggest that the music is uninspired. The disc's insert is helpful enough to contain detailed liner notes for each of the songs, and the lengthy "Nnnaaammm" scores an automatic recognition of brilliance for being the one of the few industrial tracks in a 9/4 time signature. However, the album is in no way a natural progression of the talents that had made up the band. And while a different edge of their creativity is exposed, well... you probably wouldn't like it if Nine Inch Nails made a brilliant country album, either.

The liner notes translate Ende Neu as meaning "Ending New," and discuss the concept of a band that has often survived its own demise. However, an electronic translation device changed Ende Neu into second ending, which is probably a more apt title for a final album re-released by a brilliant band losing its roots.

-Skaht Hansen