Finally! This is an album the world has been in desperate need of for a long time.
Before goth garnered its label, the fallout of punk – post-punk, new wave, whatever, and all of the myriad splinters – threw out a slew of bands who were dark, brooding, and spiky in their sound. Sonically, stylistically, lyrically... in practically every way, they couldn’t have been more disparate, beyond the fact that they did tend to pitch toward the darker side of things, and attract a shared fan-base. No-one with ears could legitimately claim that The Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus sound alike. But anyway, of all of the bands to emerge from this angsty, agitated melting-pot, X-Mal Deutschland stand out as one of the sharpest, hardest, most cutting, brutally angular bands of the period.
As much as the trebly guitars and relentlessness of the jagged sound are key, it’s the emphasis on dominant percussion that is a defining feature, often overlooked, when considering what it is that’s different and the key to the power of the bands which define that quintessential early ‘goth’ sound: The Sisters of Mercy and The March Violets, with their amped-up mechanoid drum machines driving those reverb-heavy guitars overloading with treble, and the thunderous tribal beats of X-Mal and The Danse Society really do stand out as a contrast to the predictable percussion of everything that came before, and the majority of their peers.
Their debut EP, which featured ‘Schwarze Welt’ b/w ‘Die Wolken’ and ‘Großstadfindianer’ was dark, stark, lo-fi, primitive, raw., both featured here are fucking brutal: despite wibbly, almost Krautrock analogue synth tones bubbling away, the former is so sharp and abrasive as to rip the top your head off; the flipside is sparse, minimal, showcasing a crisp mechanised drum sound with a desolate nuclear wind ripping through it – and lasts a metre minute and a half.
This was but a prelude to what is, arguably, one of THE definitive singles, a song that was absolutely the blueprint for what became goth, along with Bauhaus’ ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, ‘Incubus Succubus’. Dark, stark, serrated, and referencing things vampiric, it’s a monster which towers over the nascent scene. And until now, it simply hasn’t been available anywhere (although a red vinyl reissue, limited to 500 is forthcoming), and hasn’t been made available on CD. With the 12” currently commanding upwards of £20, it makes this an absolutely essential release, and an absolute bargain as well.
They may have mellowed in the wake of their debut album, Fetisch (1983), but their early career was defined by some stark synths, grating guitars, thumping beats, and bucketloads of raw fury and aggression, amplified by their overt German-ness, and nothing quite touched the angularity and abrasion of their early output.
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The album comes with bonus cuts, too, as mentioned in the liner notes: ‘Bonus tracks on the compilation, “Kaelbermarsch” and a gritty live version of “Allein,” further accentuate their fusion of toughness with the quixotic decadence of atmospheric synthesizers. The band’s pursuit of something greater is palpable with this release, a reflection of a time that introduced accessibility to new means of making music following the onset of punk. These are quality additions, with ‘Kaelbermarsch’ having been featured on ZikZak label compilation Lieber Zuviel Als Zuwenig around the same time as their debut, and ‘Allein’ – in quite different form from the version which would appear on their debut album – capturing the band’s early live power.
In the minefield of singles compilations and reissues – which are, by and large welcome, for many reasons, particularly when said singles aren’t album cuts and feature b-sides unavailable elsewhere – I’m often finding it difficult to separate the original release from the bonus material, and yes, it does matter. The track sequencing and overall content of a reissue should give a sense of the band’s chronology and evolution. The sequencing of Early Singles makes most sense on vinyl, with a bonus track closing each side, following the three songs of the 12”, and there’s no questioning the quality or value of these two extras, and as a whole, Early Singles captures X-Mal honing their sound, balancing bleakness and aggression – as well as a strong sense of groove, as showcased on ‘Jung Alt’.
Unlike the utterly needless upcoming Record Store Day LP East West are bashing out featuring the Sisters of Mercy’s first two 12” releases on Warners for some exorbitant price, this release is one that’s for the benefit of the fans rather than their exploitation.
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