In the Eighties, my devotion to the 4AD imprint first compelled me to find anything that anyone from This Mortal Coil played on. So that pushed me to the Xmal Deutschland records on the label. Those resonated with me because they sounded like Siouxsie & The Banshees, and prefigured what I'd hear from bands like Caterwaul a bit later. I was hooked.
Xmal Deutschland seem like real pioneers with the gift of hindsight. Their brand of goth rock still stands on its own terms, the sound of a wildly original approach at the time in Germany, and one which, in the Eighties, was ahead of the curve in terms of this sort of stuff. On March 8, Sacred Bones are offering up not only a new solo album from Anja Huwe, frontperson for Xmal Deutschland, but a collection of early singles from the band too. "Allein", today's song, is from the Early Singles (1981-1982) set. It's a hook-filled number, with a corrosive riff that is positively heavy.
More details on Xmal Deutschland's Early Singles (1981-1982) below.
[Photo: Ilse Ruppert]