In 1994 Japanese film director Ishii Sogo (now Ishii Gakuryu) made the film Angel Dust. Set in a futuristic Tokyo, it is the demented story of serial killing and religious cults. Wind back the clock to 1984 and there is the satirical film The Crazy Family in which an outwardly normal, stereotypical middle-class family are pushed to the edge and consumed by a plethora of neuroses buried just below the surface of the veneer of what passes for family life. In 1985, Ishii Sogo filmed the German industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten while they were on tour in Japan. In particular, he shot the band performing live in an industrial building that is easily accessed on youtube. Their recent performance in Melbourne show the incredible staying power of a band that, in 1985, seemed to have come from another planet. Nick Cave in his book King Ink writes that when he first saw Blixa Bargeld performing live on the television all the notions of music that he had held so precious "were obliterated". Watching this video it is easy to see why. Cave went on to describe Bargeld as "the most beautiful man in the world. He stood there in a black leotard and black rubber pants, black rubber boots. Around his neck hung a thoroughly fucked guitar. His skin cleared to the bones, his skull was an utter disaster, scabbed and hacked, and his eyes bulged out of their orbits like a blind man's..." It is easy to see why Ishii Sogo would have been attracted to this project.
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