Kalte Sterne - Early Recording

Did god create industrial/goth or did EN create god? Regardless, it was good. This is a FANTASTIC collection of early recordings 1980-82, groundbreaking industrial noise, building a spectacular sarcophagus on the foundation that Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire layed before them. This German group is certainly old school, though their popularity and influence has never wavered since (I just saw an 8 foot version of their logo newly graffiti’ed near the corner of 4th and Brannan). EN brought a dark majestic Wagner’esque seriousness as only the Germans could to a genre that til then was mostly the realm of artists and fuckups. In the process they roused vampires from their 1000 year sleep, made black a color, and lent beauty and dissonance to all that they touched or were involved in, most notably Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (blixa) and FM Einheit. Indeed, this stuff has risen beyond cult status. And why not, its some of the finest tribal dark industrial noise you’ll ever hear. No “vocals” (but certainly voices, all in German except for the appearance of Lydia Lunch), no “melodies” (but certainly meandering tones that will worm their way through your mind). Lots of what sounds like bombs going off, steel factories being disassembled by a wrecking ball, this is the soundtrack to your soul being ripped out and eaten slowly by a Kafka’esque giant beetle bug.

1) tribal dark, doomy w/ cool slide guitar
2) tribalness continues, searing synth noises intensify
3) beat heavy, proto industrial dance goth
4) noise, old school beat, dirty and mean
5) noise guitar, treated found sounds and TV, pounding beat, noise collage
6) tribal pounding, dirty guitar, noisey
7) urgent pensive tom tom beat, searing feel, melodic, title track
8)tribalness intensifies, so does spookiness
9) brief, w/ samples, crazy drumming, more experimental meets Wagner feel
10) brief, desperate voiceover (auf Deutsch) over crazydrumfest
11) scary drone organ, clanging metal, voiceover
12) wow, beautiful drone starts this longer artful piece, creepy tone bursts and I do believe that’s Lydia Lunch providing the, um, “narration”, influential stuff at the time, loaded with nice noise and quality
13) hypnotic, creepy, noisy, a masterpiece