“Silence is Sexy” is a wonderful album in the classical Neubauten sense; lyrical and melancholy. It’s a musical coming-of-age from metal-defying scrap iron sound to constructed melodiousness, with a familiar rhythmic undertow and a bittersweet melancholy – playful, arrogant, poetic, subversive, dandified and mature.

From its first release in 2000 (marking the 20-year existence of the band) to date, it has doubtlessly remained the most complex work of the Neubauten and the most fascinating in its evolution. It shows the Neubauten universe from both a known, emotionally moving side, as well as one that is deliberately constructive. It clearly breathes the inimitably rough Neubauten handwriting, while Blixa’s voice cuts through intellectual and cryptic texts. It is carried by metal sounds, from which individual instruments can almost no longer be extracted – and by silence. Ultimately, nearly inaudible tones or laughter in the right place can seem more destructive than the most enduring rage.

A fascination with improvisation including musical intricacies and special instruments had always been their trademark and continues here in a completely new, impressive way. Plucking the soft, subtle tones, the band permits itself irony and self-mockery. This sounds humorous, melancholy and astonishingly tender, despite conscious cross-references to their loud beginnings.

It is the contemplative songs, which constitute the character of the album. Nevertheless, the Neubauten’s dry humor also reveals itself here in amplified flashes, alongside a light looking back to their early experiments. There is not a central song, but many.