Einstürzende Neubauten have discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies; Hardly another German band has characterized the music landscape as lastingly. Their influence on the music world was, and is, as great as their timeless character. Once fully set in motion - by West Berliners Blixa Bargeld, NU Unruh and Alexander Hacke in the early 1980s - Einstürzende Neubauten have pressed on regardless. Indeed since percussionist Rudolf Moser and former Die Haut guitarist Jochen Arbeit joined in 1997, the current Einstürzende Neubauten line-up has not only been their longest lasting; going on the evidence gathered here, it's arguably their broadest ranging and most fruitful partnership, with Rudi and Jochen always gamely responding to the musical challenges posed by NU Unruh's battery of invented instruments and devices. Along with multi-instrumentalist Alex Hacke, who took over bass after the departure of Mark Chung (after their 1992 album Tabula Rasa) and FM Einheit (during the recording of 1996's Ende Neu (POTOMAK 919821/919822)), they willingly switch between their chosen instruments and NU Unruh's inventions, sounding the depths, tapping, scratching and hammering out beats, or drawing haunting tones from the seemingly most unforgiving of source materials presented to them, invariably in the service of the song. The earliest track here is a newly mixed version of "Haus Der Lüge", the title track of their 1989 album Haus Der Lüge (POTOMAK 820001/820002); except it's now adorned with freshly recorded trombone and string parts, which the group wanted on the original but couldn't afford, so had to use synth simulations instead. Five tracks are taken from their 2000 album Silence Is Sexy (POTOMAK 957051/957052). During the 2000s, Einstürzende Neubauten's resourcefulness extended beyond the stage and the recording studio into the economics of alternative music practice. Two Greatest Hits tracks, "Dead Friends (Around The Corner)" and "Ein Leichtes Leises Säuseln", originated on their Supporters Album #1 (2003), which in publicly modified form became Perpetuum Mobile (Mute, 2004). Now as then as always, declares Greatest Hits's newest track "How Did I Die", "The difference makes the song".
