Unlike the prescribed nature of radio now, the John Peel show was a bold risk-taking affair — late night listening tuning your ears to the unexpected, giving you advanced insights of things to come. Tantalising Maida Vale breadcrumbs that were sometimes immortalised in wax, which over successive years inadvertently documented a band’s shifting shape.
That scouring effects wash and contracted tautness of “Geheimnis” clawing behind Anja Huwe’s urgent delivery. The early years had a satisfying rawness to them, the warring vocal style even now remains refreshingly unhinged, full of jackal-eyed intent. Shimmering sensually, then flooded screams as “Zinker”‘s intro ( which would became “Stummeskind”) bursts out into a riff-roared scarecrow. “Qual”’s “I murder you” vocals manically shining to guitar and keys that sound like a cave-mouth release of bats.
The “Sehnsucht” scorch of the flipside continues a year after the first session, treats us to the tilted tribals of “In Motion”, which I think appears nowhere else but here; and an early buzz-cut version of “Reigen” ending on the spectring incisions of “Vito” that toss and scissor like the fleshy curves of a Francis Bacon tableau.The silky doomatics that would typify Tocsin follow on the second record. A Peel Session from early ’84 that includes many fan favourites, including the hypnotic “Tag Fur Tag”, which never fails to take me straight back to my bedsit days, all ending to the darkened majesty of “Nachtschatten”, complete with imagined occultist arm and hand gestures
Gliding on to the polished precision of the last side. The only Peel Session that was ever commercially available back when there was a record shop in every town and in my opinion it’s the best session of them all. A forerunner to Viva’s sophisticated charisma circa ‘85, showcased an intoxicating sleekness that rounded the spiky volatility of previous years.The moon-lit alabaster of “Polarlicht” that finds Anja’s vortexing command tied to a satisfying drum splatter and spiralling halflings. A softened apocalyptical sensibility curing in the pirouetting glints of “Der Wind” (another session exclusive) driven into the battling dynamics of “Jahr Um Jahr” – a prickly pear – later force-fed into a zesty redux on their (aurally satisfying ) Sequenz EP. A pleasure succinctly ending on the slumbering reflectives of “Autumn”, which neatly epilogues the whole in a gentle curtain close.
As a long time fan, this collection is as essential as their holy trinity (sans Devils), even if I’m still grappling with the at odds with the music photo shoot of the cover.-Michael Rodham-Heaps-
