Moroni's Retro-Review of Bauhaus

For this review, I am reviewing two albums by Bauhaus - "Crackle" and "In The Flat Field".

Bauhaus was a very important band for me in my teen years.  Yes, I read Anne Rice.  Yes, I dressed in black and wore eyeliner.  But by the time I started listening to Bauhaus, they had been broken up for three years.  My first exposure to them was in the 1983 movie "The Hunger" (directed by the late Tony Scott) with David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and the beautiful Catherine Deneuve.  Decades before "Twilight", this was the vampire movie for hipsters.  I used to watch it and count how many cigarettes the actors smoked during the course of the film.  The film starts in a dimly-lit, New York nightclub.  Peter Murphy is singing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" from inside of a cage.  His fine features are pale, and his black hair is spiked.  His intense eyes are darkly outlined with eyeliner.  He looks positively evil, just like a vampire should look.  From then on, I was hooked.

Bauhaus - on their short run from 1978 to 1983 - created gothic before there was even such a thing.  Through the rest of the 80's, many bands tried to mimic their sound.  Scratchy, tinkling guitars, strong bass lines, and the deep, quavering voice of Peter Murphy.  When you think of gothic, you invariably must describe the sound of Bauhaus.  They invented the sound.  There would never have been a Marilyn Manson if there wasn't a Bauhaus.  They sound dark, like being trapped in a fever dream.

As important as Bauhaus was in my youth, I realized that now, as an adult, I have none of their music. So I decided to download "Crackle", which is greatest hits compilation released in 1998.  It has some real gems, well-known hits like "Bela Lugosi's Dead", their cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", "Burning From the Inside", and "She's In Parties", as well as several songs from their debut album, "In the Flat Field".  But I was dissatisfied with this compilation.  It wasn't until I listened to this collection that I realized that most of the Bauhaus songs that I know and love are found on their 1980 debut album - "In the Flat Field".

So a few days later, I downloaded this album.  From the first refrains, I was singing along,  even though I hadn't listened to this record in over twenty years.  Importantly, their first album was released on 4AD, which is one of my favorite labels.  All subsequent records were released on Beggar's Banquet.

The first songs - "Dark Entries" and "Double Dare" - had me bobbing my head.  The third song is the title song and has such inspiring lyrics as:

"Ying and yang lumber punch

Go taste a tart then eat my lunch

And force my slender thin and lean

In this solemn place of fill wedding dreams

Of back matted lace, of pregnant cows

As life maps out onto my brow

The card is lowered in index turn

Into my filing cabinet hemispheres burn"

Other favorite are the mellow and haunting "The Spy in the Cab", the funky "St. Vitus Dance".  There is a moment in "Stigmata Martyr" where Peter Murphy is screaming in Latin.  That little bit there represents all of teen rebellion encapsulated in one verse.  Other favorites are  the T. Rex cover "Telegram Sam" and "Terror Couple Kill Colonel".

Bauhaus defined in a way that today's music can't.  It has been refreshing to take this trip down memory lane.