{$Neubauten}'s '90s productions may not have been anything like what old fans might have expected, but {^Tabula Rasa} tries somehow to keep up the tradition without falling into repetition, and instead bring something new to their music. {^Tabula Rasa} is, for our good, a very diverse album. Even though only songs {&"Die Interimsliebenden"} and {&"Headcleaner"} seem to have any character, every song has a catch that keeps the interest on. The keyword for {^Tabula Rasa} is "ambience." {$Neubauten} hold off their aggression a long way, until the end of the album, and all the power and noise unbends with a 15-minute magnum opus, {&"Headcleaner."} Before that there are 22 minutes of quiet but tight, dark, {\ambient} noise. The opener, {&"Die Interimsliebenden,"} may be the only relaxed song on the album, and that's why {^Tabula Rasa} may feel like a very pressurized album to listen to all way through. The tracks as single songs are very good indeed, but as a whole, they form a very tight -- and maybe too tight -- whole. And {$Blixa Bargeld}'s weird lyrics don't ease the pressures. But {^Tabula Rasa} is not a bad album; like {^Kollaps}, it's just not a masterpiece. When thinking about the rest of the work this group has done throughout the '90s, this is a good shot, anyway. ~ Antti J. Ravelin, All Music Guide