RECORD TURNOVER 80s HITS #237
Just a month after Anja Huwe of Xmal Deutschland performed to a Grauzone audience in thrall, 4AD are announcing the release of a massive triple-vinyl reissue of the seminal German ‘goth’ group’s 1983-84 output.
Titled Gift: the 4AD Years, this release is a testament to the longlasting effect and legacy of the Hamburg group. They borrowed the name from an 60s socio-political treatise by communist author Rudolf Leonhard. Vocalist Huwe says that ”when we started, the punks said it was not punk and the avant-garde people said it’s not avant-garde”.
Their first two LPs Fetisch and Tocsin came out on the British label 4AD, after the co-founder Ivo Watts-Russell had heard a demo sent in by the group, which originally had an all-female lineup. Keyboard player Fiona Sangster was from Scotland, so she would have felt right at home when Xmal Deutschland were picked to support Cocteau Twins in London in 1982.
This was just a couple of years after they got together in Hamburg, where they released two singles on local independent Zickzack (which is still alive today, after a sporadic 90s). The second one, ”Incubus Succubus”, is probably their most well-known track today – later released by 4AD in a new version.
The upcoming 24-track release on 4AD includes the entirety of the their first two albums in remastered form, as well as the track from their 1983-84 singles on the label. Set for release on May 9, you can pre-order it here.
If you can’t wait you should check out Anja Howe’s solo LP on Sacred Bones from last year called Codes. At the same time the label also put out a compilation of Xmal Deutschland’s pre-4AD EPs, called Early Singles (1981-1982). This was released along with a video for ”Allein”, a track recorded live at the Nosferatu Festival 1982.
