I'll admit it: I've only recently gotten into the music of Einsturzende Neubaten. In fact, I'm listening to "Strategies Against Architecture III" for the first time right now. And it's mind-blowingly good.

E.N. seem to have a knack for creating weird pop songs using found sounds, static, frequency manipulation, and strange instruments. Yet they are undeniably pop songs, for all the weirdness. Granted, there are plenty of instrumental trip-out tunes as well, but many songs contain downright catchy singing over top of real melodies, even if said melodies were created out of very strange sounds and from very strange sources.

There is also something dark and slightly menacing about their work. And no it isn't just the german singing. Many of their songs have a pervasive mood of claustrophobia wherein the listener in trapped in a confined space with a madman, the singer, as various objects are banged and rasped in the background.

Other songs sound like they're from another era: there's the '80s electro-pop of "Fur Wen Sind Die Blumen?", the '70s proto-punk of "Alles Was Irgendwie Nutzt," and the '30s cabaret of "The Garden." And that's the beauty of their work, being both modern and timeless, exotic and ordinary.