Alexander Hacke‘s Blast is a comfortable read, no daunting blocks of text and plenty of archival black and white pics to entertain you along the way. Each chapter’s contents is conveniently bookmarked by handy subject markers that have you skipping against the flow, dipping in and out of the action with ease.
The writing flowing is as chronological as memory allows, with plenty of character-building hindsight blurring the timeline, fire-flying with obsessive nuggets. Who would have thought Neubauten’s Andrew Chudy’s metallic sensibilities were inspired by listening to The Beatles through the rattle of a foil-wrapped stereo or that his (leotard-clad) school friend Blixa Bargeld had a fashion line in industrialised debris?
Blast catches that chaotic fervour of those pre-FM Enheit Neubauten years, sees a fifteen-year-old Hacke sabotaging his education in favour of seeking out the like-minded, feeding his appetite for experimentation, filling cassettes and the odd 12-inch vinyl disc with his own Borsig project as well as being instrumental in the creation of P1/E, Mekanik Destruektiw Komandoe, Blässe and later Sentimentale Jugend (bloody love that cassette). Chapter one reads like most people’s whole autobiographies and you’re only on page forty-four. Having the unbelievably fortune to play with Neubauten early on, sharing percussive duties with Andrew as Blixa smashed into his guitar screaming “I’m dancing for your apocalypse” … ah, those were the days. Backstage, an impressed Mufti (Einheit) forging a friendship with Alex and Blixa… A streetwise Christiane F catching Alex’s attention; as first loves go, Christiane F was a high bar. A touching mail romance that became more, had him cosying up in Hamburg.Back in Berlin, Neubauten Mark II were grinding slowly into view, with Einheit helping out on that double single “Kalte Sterne“, then becoming an official band member on their Kollaps debut along with Mark Chung (who also turned out to be very good with the band’s finances). Christiane F’s growing fame having Alex disappearing with her to the USA, somewhere he would visit again and again, a fondness for ten-gallon headwear and cowboy boots can’t hide.
His open-minded enthusiasm bleeds from the page, is really enjoyable to get caught up in, with plenty of anecdotal kudos and funny stories emotionally wrapped in loads of reflective honesty. An even keel of the good bad and the ugly affixed to Hiroshima‘s lo-fi charm, painting skulls on the Berlin wall after his first love fizzles out of view like a deflated balloon. You get a real sense of Alex Hacke’s sonic obsessions with reverbed space, feedback and sampled sounds, an insight to his make-do early recording techniques and how technology was making things less awkward. An alchemic attitude to sound that suited Neubauten’s powderkeg. A mystical approach that extends into sound production and beyond, a knowledge base that just grows outwards, makes for a versatile all-rounder who has the capacity to pull his ideas into reality with enviable ease.As Neubauten became big, tours of the USA and Japan led to plenty of after-show crawling on all fours back to his hotel room. Wish there was more nitty gritty to the band’s chemistry as albums are mentioned, but his involvement is never really expanded upon. Although tantalising insider insights do weave their way in and out of the book’s 268 pages, it’s the peripheral characters that surround the action, that are given the warm examination, flow out in an uncontrolled rush of page-turning with a sense of humour that lurks in the most unexpected of places.
Between playing in Neubauten it’s fascinating how easily he slips into Rowland S Howard‘s shoes (as he departs to form These Immortal Souls) to record and tour with Crime And The City Solution. More after-show mayhem is pursued, including saving of Simon Bonney from a heroin overdose, something Alex never really dabbles with – kinda get the feeling he despises that junkie aesthetic; alcohol, hash, amphetamines and LSD are far more preferable, although MDMA did apparently turn him into too much of a (and I’m paraphrasing here) “fucking hippy”.You really get a sense of the time and place, moreover Hacke’s headspace within context to them, something a good writer firmly latches on to. People and events glow in the reminisce, flutter like graspable shadows as he lives life to the full, sometimes regretting the odd hedonistic plunge. Finally settling down from the wild-boy lifestyle, even raising a baby son with new love Angela. The fall of the Wall leaves him nonplussed, as the Berlin he grew up with is slowly torn away and commercialism-sullied, a continued decline I feel Neubauten’s “Youme & Meyou” song eloquently captures decades later.
After forging his own musical style, Hacke decides to lean into the conventional, ventures to his (new to me) Jever Mountain Boys period. Rising above noise music’s snobbery, breathing new life into Americana and bluegrass, plenty of heated live action ensues that even yields an album and dedicated German following. Their “Ace Of Spades” Motörhead cover has to be heard to be believed. For somebody this embroiled with experimentalism, it’s a weird avenue to pursue, but that lived sweat of the music’s heritage he expands upon is certainly worth adoration. Reading further, he’s expanding his palette further with that Tiki-themed extravaganza, befriending fellow musician Roland Wolf and inviting him into the Jever fold. A multi-talented musical whizz who gets an unusual seal of approval from an exacting Blixa as he guests on Neubauten’s Tabula Rasa.Alex’s description of these days is quite frank and heartfelt; on hearing Wolf is tragically killed in a car crash, everybody at the funeral having a different piece of the prism, his fiancée Danielle de Picciotto beginning years of therapy. A melancholic air compounded by Neubauten hitting troubled waters as two important members up-end and leave as the advance money for their still half-finished new album Ende Neu was all gone. A recipe that has destroyed lesser bands, bleak times indeed.
Alex finding solace / distraction in the monied world of Ben Becker, marrying his musical sister Meret Becker and having a baby daughter, even playing a really convincing Sid Vicious (those snap shots were like wow) in a stage show; Ende Neu finding new direction as Meret’s chanteuse background seeps into Neubauten’s world, unlocks a lasting song-form obsession in Blixa that will thread continuously through all the albums that followed.
The recent gaps in membership repaired by the Die Haut duo of Jochen Arbeit on guitar and Rudi Moser on invented percussion; Alex switching from guitar to bass duties as the new blood quickly bore fruit in the form of its follow-up Silence Is Sexy, on the back of which another successful world tour was had, before they all opted for a sanity-saving hiatus.
Didn’t know much about Hacke’s solo work before; was aware but never ventured forth, and I’ve got to say when you read about the three-year making of Sanctuary it gets you wanting to dive straight in there and make up for lost time — talk about a labour of love! Same can be said of his love of Turkish music and the subsequent film works that followed – I’ve already earmarked Head-on, Crossing The Bridge, and The Cut (looking forward to the squealing guitar on this one) for future viewing. Love when a book inspires beyond its binding, leads you to exploring further afield.After splitting from Meret, Alex finally finds lasting love in the “artistic mirror” that is Danielle de Picciotto. A creative romance that has remained fruitful to this day, I’ve already made a mental note to track more of the duo’s work based on the three chapters dedicated to this deeply felt unity. A unity that transformed that speed-taking-sleep-deprived hallucinating teen into a far wiser, healthier fifty-(now sixty-)year-old whose advice on leading a “unique … true to yourself” existence are words to live by, and is still giving conformity a serious kicking.
-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
