Bauhaus – Crackle

Beggars Arkive

OK, let’s start with the fact that this is a beautiful vinyl issue of an album that was only ever available on CD. Its gatefold packaging is wonderfully done and the 180-gramme vinyl mastering in gorgeous ruby red plastic makes this a collector’s item if you’re a fan of the band.

Compilation albums are always difficult to review because of the very nature of the way they are put together, as one person’s all-time favourite track is another’s exact opposite; and because albums are generally constructed to sound like a uniform whole, compilations always tend to have a slightly disjointed feel. This is especially true if the band in question changed their sound and style over the time they were together, and the Japan album Assemblage springs to mind here.

Kicking off with “Double Dare”, you get all the things that made Bauhaus extraordinary in one visceral track. David J and Kevin Haskins‘s rolling rhythms are stabbed at by Daniel Ash’s splinter guitar sound and Peter Murphy’s howl from the depths of Hades. As this is taken from the band’s first album In The Flat Field, it sounds like a primal scream of a band emerging from a Killing Joke post-punk sound to start heading towards creating something more darker and sublime. The title track from the album follows, full of skittering drums and some of Murphy’s most dramatic vocals.

“The Sanity Assassin” was a fan club-only single release from 1983 and presents a more musically mature band resting on angular David Bowie themes from Scary Monsters, but also keeping the melody in a singalong with one eye on commercial acceptability, which by that point they had achieved. “The Passion Of Lovers” is the single from Mask that should have been a hit with its jaunty rhythm and, double dare I say it, catchy chorus.

Side two seems to be the big hits side, starting as it does with Burning From the Inside’s hit single “She’s In Parties”. A wonderfully constructed song, full of Bowie preening and posturing that has a hint of artiness about it, it’s the sound of a band whom by that time were willing to take chances. Here they were moving their sound away from brooding gothic epics and ignoring that the audience might want that, and heading towards a sound with more artifice. “Kick In The Eye” follows from Mask, then their biggest UK chart success single, a cover of Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, to which they add a bit more balls and venom. Another single-only release, “Dark Entries” has its downward-spiralling riff with added extra punch from Ash’s claustrophobic guitar breaks. This side finishes with Mask’s “Hollow Hills”, a wonderfully eerie piece and a paean to pagan rites of old; Ash’s guitar is haunting, while Murphy’s vocals are some of his finest from this period.

“Silent Hedges” from The Sky’s Gone Out is one of my all-time favourite Bauhaus tracks, and for me sums up the sound they were aiming for, with acoustic guitars playing a lilting melody under some great Murphy lyrics, and this is Bauhaus without the bombast. Even when the drums and bass kick in, the track still seems arty and aloof, like a painting in a gallery, and it’s the bands melody and subtlety that carry it off with aplomb. The side finishes with the band’s behemoth, the mighty “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” (apparently this is something called the “Tomb Raider mix”), and my original 12” of this was played to death in the early ’80s, so its hard to have any perspective on it. I am surprised that the energetic live version from Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape wasn’t used on this compilation, as the vibrant performance on that is incredible and shows the band at height of their live power.

Side four starts with “Terror Couple Kills Colonel”, which was the band’s third 7” single, all sweeping guitar melody of a rolling post-punk sounding rhythm, and sounds weaker than I remember it back in the day, like its production is slightly subdued. “Spirit” captures the band in all their glam greatness, with a touch of Brian Eno spilled into the mix. By this time, Bauhaus could turn out tunes that were both thought-provoking and foot-tapping. “Burning From The Inside” sounds like a band slightly losing momentum and a bit of an odd choice for this compilation, as I think “Slice Of Life” would have fitted better here. The side ends with “Crowds”, a B-side from the “Telegram Sam” single of 1980, which is a odd little piano and vocal piece with some venomous lyrics spat out over some of Ash’s oddest guitar playing set on record. It’s a good way to end the album, and a suitable epitaph to a Bauhaus compilation.

If you’re looking for a good overview of the band’s work, then Crackle is a good place to start, especially as the vinyl sounds as wonderful as it looks.

-Gary Parsons-