Monday, July 7, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.14 - Fossiliien, die wir beide sind

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Fourteenth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Trilobiten." After seven months of this project, we've reached the penultimate mix. 

Off the top of my head, "Trilobiten" is one of the most 'folk' songs Neubauten has ever released, up there with "Ein Stuhl in der Hölle" and this mix definitely leans a little in that direction.

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Trilobiten
2 Kikagaku Moyo Trilobites
3 Angeline Morrison Ophelia
4 Chris Connelly Ophelia Moment
5 The Body and BIG|BRAVE Once I had a Sweetheart
6 Panopticon The Devil Walked the Woods
7 Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Kim Myhr, Jenny Hval Me, you, me, you
8 Rudolph Moser CAUSE YOU
9 Your Ancestors Knew Death A Fossil Record
10 How To Destroy Angels Ice Age
11 Gloria Styx
12 Hacia Dos Veranos I’ll Be Your Mirror
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Youme & Meyou (Live)

Was ist noch uebrig?

Monday, June 23, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.13 - Allet hat sich uffjelöst

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Thirteenth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Ick wees nich (Noch nich)."

I'm particularly pleased with this mix, I think it is strangely cohesive in both musical language and lyrics. Perhaps I will be the only one who feels that way, but these thirteen songs really do seem to me to be of a set.

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Ick wees nich (Noch nich)
2 Wire Time Lock Fog
3 Chrome Nova Feedback
4 Zola Jesus Wiseblood
5 The Love Interest Blue Velvet Mix
6 Gazelle Twin Obelisk
7 The Soft Pink Truth You Don’t Know (The Full Rose of Dawn)
8 The Bug Void
9 Fragile Self Need for Sanctuary
10 The Answer Lies in the Black Void Become Undone
11 Strange Attractor Undone
12 The The Lonely Planet
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Die Befindlichkeit Des Landes (Klaviermusik Version)

Alles nur künftige Ruinen

Monday, June 9, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.12 - Sing für mich in gelb

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Twelfth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Aus den Zeiten." 

“In another solar system, Einstürzende Neubauten would be as famous as The Beatles are in ours,” says Blixa Bargeld

Wesley Doyle. “Loving The Alien: Einstürzende Neubauten Interviewed.” The Quietus, https://thequietus.com/interviews/einsturzende-neubauten-blixa-bargeld-interview-2/ 

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Aus den Zeiten
2 Karen O Sing Along
3 Dead Luke Yellow Sunshine Superstition
4 Dawn Ray’d Strike Again the Hammer Sings
5 Wolven Daughter Sing to Me the Gospel
6 Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING
7 Th Da Freak Sun King (The Beatles cover)
8 Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld Nerissimo (Italian)
9 Lake Sing 99 90
10 Baker / Coloccia / Mueller Yellow
11 Stereolab Fiery Yellow
12 Azar Swan Sing Me Back
13 Einstürzende Neubauten MoDiMiDoFrSaSo

Music and colo(u)r are constants in Blixa's lyrics, and though there are songs that more directly quote the Beatles (e.g. "Headcleaner."), I decided instead go with "MoDiMiDoFrSaSo" for the final cap of this mix to contrast with "Aus den Zeiten."

Bargeld: Listening to mindless music on the tour bus radio. I developed a simplified version of an upbeat, stupid pop song made up of "MonTuesWedThursFriSatSun", with "FriSatSun" sung enthusiastically every time. That was the idea for this piece, with various quotes from other songs and regulations in the lyrics. It's a little bit like a comic strip.

Bargeld, B., Zinfert, M., & Partridge, M. (1997). Headcleaner: Text für Einstürzende neubauten = text for collapsing new buildings. Die Gestalten Verlag. Pg. 256

Monday, June 2, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.11 - I try to drag myself out

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Eleventh track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Planet Umbra." Of course after remarking that the last mix was one of the longer ones, this mix ended up exceeding it in length.

I had an unexpectedly busy Memorial Day weekend, so I decided to delay posting this mix for a week, but I plan to go back on schedule next week, so instead of the every other Monday, everyone will get two Alien Pop Monday's back to back. Then after that, I'll go back to the every other week schedule mostly because it means the final mix will post on my birthday.

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Tar & Feathers
2 Boris D.O.W.N -Domination of Waiting Noise-
3 Fever Ray What They Call Us
4 Fragile Self This Is My Existence
5 Zamilska Fragile
6 Cold Specks Let Loose the Dogs
7 The High Confessions Along Come the Dogs
8 Zola Jesus Run Me Out
9 ANOHNI & the Johnsons Scapegoat
10 GGGOLDDD This Shame Should Not Be Mine
11 Chris Randall Wait 03
12 David Bowie Lazarus
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Seven Screws

This was one of the hardest mixes to put together, because it's built from the same improvisational rampen as "The Pit of Language," but I think it turned out well in the end and feels poignant for this moment in time. Only four more mixes remain, and while that means there are two months of this project left, it does feel a little odd to be in sight of the end. 

Monday, May 12, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.10 - We cast no shadows

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Tenth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Planet Umbra." Of course after remarking that the last mix was one of the longer ones, this mix ended up exceeding it in length.

I think that I've finished assembling the mixes, but I'm sure that I'll change a few things around as I continue to put out the remaining mixes.

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Planet Umbra
2 X-TG Emerge to Space Jazz
3 /A\ Hotel Stellar
4 Strange Attractor Black Earth
5 Stereolab I Feel The Air {of another planet}
6 Neu! Negativland
7 The Sisters of Mercy Black Planet
8 Holger Czukay Jah Wobble Jaki Liebezeit Twilight World
9 Gary Numan and Titan Dark Rain
10 The Bug vs Earth Another Planet
11 Tiny Star Gravity
12 Moon Duo Planet Caravan
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Zebulon

Perhaps it's fitting that what might be the longest mix goes with the longest track off the album.

Monday, April 28, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.9 - Words, syllables and fragments

Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the Ninth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "The Pit of Language."

By happenstance this ended up being one of the longer mixes, and another mix that came together relatively easily. Even though I'll continue to publish the mixes every other Monday, I'm nearly done assembling them, with two mixes that need one final song added to complete them unless I change my mind about some.

It's a little unsettling that by coincidence Alexander Hacke announced he was leaving the band the weekend before I'm posting this mix, since "Babel" might be the last of his 'solo' tracks that made it into the mixes. The band has announced they'll continue and my first full album was Ende Neu, so I am hopeful there will be more Einstürzende Neubauten to come. 

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten The Pit of Language
2 CAN Paris 73 Vier
3 Volcano The Bear My Favourite Tongues
4 Mountain Caller Dead Language
5 hackedepiccioto Babel
6 Tanya Tagaq Tongues (Backxwash Remix)
7 The Legendary Pink Dots Aarzhklahh Olgevezh - Live
8 Azar Swan Strange Language
9 Dälek Abandoned Language
10 Andrew Liiles I Lost Faith in Words
11 Fever Ray Bottom of the Ocean
12 Neurosis & Jarboe His Last Words
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Der Schacht Von Babel - Live


Monday, April 14, 2025

Alien Pop Monday 00.8 - Wo kann ich denn noch hingehen?

 Another Alien Pop Monday...

This mix builds off the eighth track from Rampen (apm: alien pop music), "Everything Will Be Fine." Most of this mix came together very quickly in January and February when I was first assembling these mixes, but as time passed it became more and more fraught and tense with meaning. 

Though as Blixa addresses in the excellent interview with the Quietus, the tile was always cynical and wrestling with the chaos of the world. 

# Artist Track
1 Einstürzende Neubauten Everything Will be Fine
2 Arklay Mountains Everything Will be Fine
3 Rogér Fakhr Waiting for It Everyday
4 Tumultuous Ruin Until this dystopic hellscape exists nevermore
5 Bretwalda All Shall Be Well (Live)
6 The Mayors of Nothing A Quick Anxiety Attack Over Breakfast
7 Nomadic War Machine This is not okay
8 Seeming Knowledge
9 The Legendary Pink Dots Choose Premium : First Prize
10 haloblack everything inside
11 Darksol Burn
12 Unwoman 99 Luftballoons
13 Einstürzende Neubauten Floorpiece / Grundstück

I tried not to let the mix become too bogged down in hopelessness, though it is a darker mix. As bleak as it is, it ends with "Floorpiece / Grundstück," which Blixa has described as a curse the band tried to place on the head of their former label, and I hope that the energy of curses finding targets who deserve affliction and misfortune is coming in our near future.

I had also been extremely tempted to use Andrew Liles' 'version' of 99 Red Balloons off of Colossus Part One, but ultimately having one 50 minute track that would be almost as long than the rest of the mix felt too unwieldy, so I went with Unwoman's excellent cover instead.

Still, you can consider the Liles' version a 'bonus' track, its re-worked lyrics seeming very apt for the moment...

Software souvenir

It's balloons shop red

The one bag of sky

Ninety fighters, the one nine


Something's a something

Meet from dust

Think nine

Just go


The line hero

Worry it up jet

Message focusing flash

High ministers with boys


Hurry, we've the summer

Knights tech free

Eye the machine

I panic. Classify war


Super nine its eager sky

One springs in dawn

Super it

Scrambling. Clarify the floating


Somewhere captain president

Identify money

Everyone's sparks alert

Air this ride


Scurry of pretty decisions

Here in the city, in the bells

One little you

Life sky go call