Thursday 10 April 2008

Bauhaus: Go Away White

BAUHAUS: GO AWAY WHITE


A couple of years ago, the once-again reunited Bauhaus played a number of shows around Europe and the States which, by all accounts, showed a band replenished and reinvigorated. This decade has seen the post-punk era from which the band initially sprang get pillaged and re-evaluated and the timing for a reunion was impeccable. They even managed to get into the studio and in classic Bauhaus fashion, managed to lay down some improvised songs in a matter of days. Things have since gone to pot with the band bitterly going their separate ways for seemingly the final time, but this album is a collection of those very songs.

The potion of styles which made up the group’s music in the early days remains largely the same. We hear elements of glam, punk, psychedelia and dub along with some desolate and doom-laden mood pieces that hark back to the likes of “Hollow Hills”. This might normally indicate a band desperate to relive former glories and instead of failing tragically, sounding like pale imitations of their former selves (as is often the case) but here it not only sounds authentic but very, very natural. Indeed, there are elements of Love & Rockets and the solo careers of Pete Murphy and Daniel Ash, but ultimately what you have is very much the fifth Bauhaus album.

And although the fact that it appears slightly out of context and out of time in that way that every reunion album does, many of the songs on offer here walk the same line of brilliance as before. The embarrassingly titled “Endless Summer Of The Damned” is a true highlight, classic Bauhaus in its dubby bass and stuttering drums while “Too Much 21st Century” is a high-voltage glam stomp. The latter half of the album sees the group take a more introspective (and occasionally histrionic, in Murphy’s wailing vocals and Ash’s atmospheric guitar scratches and screeches) tone which sometimes sees the mood sag but still sees some interesting moments. The penultimate song, 1998’s “The Dog’s A Vapour”, is simply a dirge and one wonders what made them include it but thankfully it is not enough to sour the overall feeling that the band have left us with an admittedly flawed but certainly poignant and often exciting parting shot.

As David Jay said at the (first) final gig back in 1983: “Rest In Peace.”

Dick Berry

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