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JANUARY 3
Einsturzende Neubauten named its 1993 record Tabula Rasa to illustrate that its previous sonic strategies against architecture had evolved into building lavish towers of song. While the industrial sounds remained—with found objects such as mattress coils and razor blades for instruments—they were used within the framework of traditional composition. Five years later, Neubauten is again claiming to clear the slate with its excellent new album, Ende Neu, the band’s most balanced and nuanced record in its 18-year history. From the throbbing “Was Ist Ist,” to the Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra-like ballad “Stella Maris,” to the noirish “Die Explosion im Festspielhaus,” each song on Ende Neu is fills with unique sounds and delicious tension as singer Blixa Bargeld intones his recondite, enticing lyrics. While the influence of Faust on Neubauten is obvious, the band also shows its debt to German experimentalists like Can and Neu with the layered sonics and motorik grooves of “Installation No. 1” and “NNNAAAMMM,” a song constructed from the rhythms of various machines running together and “played” through mutations in pitch. Krautrock, indeed. At 8:45 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3, at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $25. (202) 393-0930. (Christopher Porter)