[kj] OT: somewhat rapturous Bauhaus CD review...

[ade]

Cheers honeybuns.

-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]On Behalf Of Alexander Smith
Sent: 14 December 2007 19:32
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: [kj] OT: somewhat rapturous Bauhaus CD review...


BAUHAUS - 'GO AWAY WHITE'

'I come with this darkness and go away white.'

Bauhaus slid fully formed from punk rock's womb in late 1978. Over the 
course of four hot years, they unintentionally birthed a genre (Goth), 
moved on, moved forward, and surged mercurial through the post-punk music 
scene, tearing into tense, stark, dub bass-driven new-wave, T-Rex-esque 
glam, and swirling, clattering, orchestral atmospherics, whilst churning 
it all into a grand velvet, Rimbaudian hallucination. It was a wild, 
inspired, enthralling sound. And it still is. Now there is a new record.

'Go Away White' was recorded in 18 days at Zircon Skye in Ojai, with 
singer Peter Murphy, bassist David J, guitarist Daniel Ash, and drummer 
Kevin Haskins playing together as a band in one room, taking first takes 
as final cuts. So, a new record but apparently a final one, the band 
having decided to release it as a posthumous swan song.

'Go Away White' is everything you would hope Bauhaus would deliver as 
their final statement. Fronted by a cover photo of Bethesda, the angel of 
the healing waters in New York's Central Park, the music inside is pure 
cathartic renovation, a psychedelic glimpse into an enchanted moment. 
Aided in part by guitarist Daniel Ash's inspired use of Jimi Hendrix's own 
personal Vox wah wah pedal, gifted to him by Peter Murphy at the start of 
the sessions, it is pop as much as it is experimental.

The 10 songs on 'Go Away White' channel the kind of magic timelessness you 
could imagine on a mighty bill with Joy Division, Bowie, Devo, the 
Creatures, Antony, My Bloody Valentine, and Kraftwerk--with Oscar Wilde 
playing master of ceremonies.

As the NME once said, "Bauhaus are to Goth, what Radiohead are to Prog." 
It's all building blocks. Give 'Go Away White' an honest minute and you'll 
realize that The Klaxons, The Killers, The Rapture and Foals all got their 
beats from Bauhaus, and how--without them--there would be no Nine Inch 
Nails or Jane's Addiction or Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, AFI, TV on the 
Radio, Interpol, Hot Hot Heat or LCD Sound System.

The accomplishments of the band are too many to list here but to touch 
lightly, there are the four studio albums: 'In the Flat Field' (1980), 
'Mask' (1981), 'The Sky's Gone Out' (1982), and 'Burning from the Inside' 
(1983). There is the riveting appearance with David Bowie in the 
movie,'The Hunger'. There are the classic Peel sessions and the 
hits--seismic rumbles such as 'She's in Parties', 'Kick in the 
Eye','Stigmata Martyr', and the great, epic, pillar of ether and brooding, 
psychedelia, that is 'Bela Lugosi's Dead.'

So, an end but an end with one final sonorous statement. Behold 'Go Away 
White'.

Watch as night comes, as day breaks and the light . . . pours . . . in.

--Adam Gnade

Released on March 4th, 2008 worldwide. Distributed by Red Eye in North 
America, Cooking Vinyl for the rest of the world. It will also be 
available as digital download on iTunes (only in North America).

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