There was no internet. We had word-of-mouth, the British music press, and -- most importantly -- an intuitive sense of what looked like it would be cool. Once I got a CD player in 1988 and started buying a lot of 4AD import CD's, I got the first two Xmal Deutschland albums. My only knowledge of the band, besides the label they were on, was that Manuela Rickers was on the first This Mortal Coil record. The group's dark, heavy sound was exactly what 21-year-old me was after, and I was hooked.
The seminal label offers up today Gift: The 4AD Years, a superb collection of the German outfit's output on the imprint. Collecting two studio albums and two EP's, this set is essential for fans of what is now called dark wave in some quarters. We called it goth back then, or even art rock.
What's on Fetisch (1983), is a weighty music, one which owes huge debts to early Siouxsie and the Banshees, but which stands on its own thanks to the bright vocals from singer Anja Huwe. Slashing guitar from Manuela Rickers fires up tracks like "Hand in Hand" and the bass-heavy "Orient", a gem here. That bass, by Wolfgang Ellerbrock, is what gives a lot of this a kind of heft that still surprises. "Boomerang", another perfect cut here, finds all the pieces of this band's attack circa 1983 meshing smartly. It's a wonderful racket of a tune.
Tocsin (1984) benefits from production by Mick Glossop (The Waterboys). There's a hint of lightness here, and the numbers have a soaring quality, most notably on "Reigen", a real classic. Even the more lugubrious "Mondlicht" reveals a more complex interplay of instruments than we heard on the first Xmal Deutschland album. The production opens up a lot of room for Anja Huwe's vocals as they alternate between coos and wails. Without understanding a word of German, I can hear this album and just lose myself in the vibe entirely.
Gift: The 4AD Years rounds out the portrait of the band's early years with two extended play releases. "Qual" from 1983 is here in a propulsive remix from a 12-inch, as is the more complicated "Incubus Succubus II", the band's nearly signature tune as far as this writer is concerned. Both still ring with a kind of dark promise. There's light and shade here, but lots of dark places still left to being explored even 40+ years on. This is an essential comp for anyone who wishes to understand the kind of music which made this label so popular for so many of us in the Eighties. Xmal Deutschland made other albums after these, but those didn't have the borderline hypnotic appeal of these first two 4AD ones.
Gift: The 4AD Years by Xmal Deutschland is can be ordered on Bandcamp or via 4AD.
[Photo: Kevin Cummins]