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

[Alexander Smith]

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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