Arbeiter At the Gate is a post-punk, experimental noise-rock album. It was the fifth album released by Jewish-American bi-polar outsider musician, Steve Lieberman on 18 October 2004. He was 46 years old when the CD was released. The album title is a play on a Biblical verse in Isaiah 29:21 ' lay a snare for the arbiter at the gate'. Of Lieberman's 22 releases to date, Arbeiter At The Gate still remains a top album pick of the AllMusic Guide Arbeiter had charted on a number of college radio stations, most notably peaking at #42 on WXDUDuke University and #87 at KZSUStanford University. It was while on tour for the Arbeiter album that a reporter from Newsday interviewed Lieberman at one of his shows and stated that the essence of his music is message and emotion, not his talent in an article about outsider musicians on Long Island published on 27 February 2005. The record is considered darker than his works preceding Arbeiter as Lieberman suffered a bi-polar dark cycle through much of the cd's production, dealing with the illness of his beloved Labrador mix Buttons, who passed just before Arbeiter's release.
Critical reception
Greg McIntish from AllMusic wrote: ' A lo-fi sonic sock in the gut built around Lieberman's ultra-fuzzed-out bass, multitudinous flute overdubs and other sundry sounds. Certainly outsider music there's no doubting that Lieberman's sound is unique, but like such artists as Wesley Willis it is completely stagnant... Mostly, the appeal of Arbeiter At The Gate and all of Lieberman's work is the sheer and impressive fearlessness of it. Rating 3.5 Stars out of 5 NeuFutur Magazine's James McQuiston noted: 'Although vocally, sometimes achieving an Ozzy-like inflection, the production and mixing of Arbeiter is almost painful to listen to because of the overdoing of the cheesy distortion Lieberman loves... Steve is unique, that much can be said. He's trying to make a coherent yet different album which doesn't necessarily make for solid, listenable music. But i sense here an evolution that eventually, we could get a solid album from him. Rating 4.0 Stars Out of 10.
