X-Mal Deutschland - C/D

Hi dere

Have you heard their last album, where they sold out and sung in English and lost all their fans (according to AMG)? I haven't.

KLASSIK!

I have my own fan thread:

XMAL

on another board though

I SEEN A GHOST BUT I ATED IT

http://www.newwavephotos.com/XMal1/13147XMal.jpg

Xmal are awesome! Hey Skot didnt you start an xmal pic thread some time back?

JA! DER LINK IZ ABOVE

EVERYONE SEZ THAT FETISCH IS THE BEST ALBUM BUT THE BEST ALBUM IS REALLY TOCSIN.

the last stuff i bought was the viva album and the sickle moon 12 inch. I WISH I STILL HAD MY AWESOME SICKLE MOON 12 INCH ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!

i never heard the last album.

live tag fur tag 1985 style:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=daXlEEIAqs4

the video for dreamhouse from the last album is...um...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=spz8Kd9hqrM

sad? weird?

although the list of bands that took that path is endless, so it's not really weird at all. it's just that they were so cool!

I'LL MUUURDAAARRR YOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH.

I liked Xmal quite a bit, yeah. Tocsin made a real impression. I don't know that I'd say I LOVE them, but they did do some nice things.

And yeah...that Dreamhouse video. Holy shit, that is weird. I hadn't heard any of that stuff before. I don't even know if it's sad so much as weird.

And yeah, Tocsin was better than Fetisch, btw.

Tocsin is the best thing! I love the cavernous drumming and the fucking SUBTERRANEAN bass, man.

Matador is also a cool single from their English LP.

These guys are due for a reunion tour.

I started this thread cos I was listening to Tocsin on my home on the tube yesterday, I love that album.

"Xmal Deutschland's Fetisch is the kind of album that Batman would listen to while patrolling Gotham City" says AMG

the fucking SUBTERRANEAN bass, man

Haha! Yeah, you're not kidding! Tocsin had also one of THE very best 4AD sleeves ever in my opinion and hell, that's saying something. If you own it on anything other than vinyl, you're really missing out.

Saw 'em live. Supporting Nick Cave on his first tour IIRC. Nice!

Oh my fucking god. These people.

I want you to listen to "Nachtschatten" and tell me that isn't the gothiest of the GOTH.

I used to play this album when I was a teenager but god, it sounds so much better now.

Oh my god this is some hella gothic old skool shit right here:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn306/Floridian_20/XMal-1.jpg

Check out the song "Xmas In Deutschland". God Siouxsie can just take a break and eat a sandwich, because this band outdid her. Sorry.

Oh my god, I just can't...doesn't anyone know this album?

I know that Scott Seward knows this album. Who else?

I know it

I got about 3 Xmal albums at Sue Ryder, along w/ 2 This Mortal Coil LPs, about £1 each

i lurve this album, especially the first five tracks, up to "Augenblick"... "Mondlicht" is kinda the aural equivalent of riding through the nightsky on a broomstick... while the Siouxsie comparison is valid i still think they did something different, they were channeling some old skool German romanticism...

What year is this actuall? It feels very similar to Garlands actually but with maybe an added touch of tribal witchcraft.

Been listening to the latest from Menace Ruine recently - they're nominally a BM outfit, but they seem to have arrived at a very similar sound to the Xmals from a different starting point.

"tocsin" is from 1984. tribal witchcraft puts it well. i have to repost that video from a live performance of "orient" (from their first album "fetish" from 1983). the way she rolls her eyes. absolutely irresistible. and there is a nice noisy guitar in that song. unfortunately the sound quality is pretty awful. but what a catchy song. neue deutsche welle pop meets goth rock meets drone rock.

Aw, HELL yeah. That's way too much fun.

haha, wow. awesome. thanks!

I'd never heard their late period stuff, but jeez...

oh I just saw that it had already been linked upthread. Sorry

Well, that's okay, now it's embedded at least!

I know and love Tocsin! Their first album Fetish is equally great if not better. They started losing it a bit by the third album, although it includes some great songs like the definitive version of "Polarlicht". By the 4th album most of the original members had left and they became a cross between 80's Heart and Belinda Carlisle (in a bad way)...

i just bought the Sequenz 12" cuz of this thread, I remember this band but never had any of the albums. I'll listen to it when I get home.

Sequenz is a fantastic EP actually, "Jahr um Jahr" would probably be more famous if it was on one of the albums, it's a classix x-mal stomper...

as for the fourth album "Devils", i never even knew it existed until not so long ago, and i haven't heard it apart from the few videos on youtube as it's been out of print, but there was an interview with Anja Huwe in a German webzine a couple of years ago (the occasion was her art exhibition) where she basically says they fell out with the producer and the record company while recording, the demos were amazing ("super hart") according to her. wonder whether they'll ever surface, she says they considered given them away for people to hear them, as she claims it wasn't really them on the published album. also has anyone ever heard the demos they originally sent to Ivo from 4AD that got them signed to the label? they're meant to be something else as well... anyway here's that interview, it's in German i'm afraid:
http://www.unruhr.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=30

wow - flatsharing with Neubauten in Hamburg. rock n roll

I used to have the Sequenz 12" and forgot all about it until now. I will have to dig that one up again.

They get a mention in Mick Mercer's bullshit goth top 30 on Quietus - where he says that X-Mal is reforming!!

If the Xmals are reforming, I'd guess ol' Mick would likely be first with the news.

He does admit the list is entirely subjective right up at the top. I've just spent twenty minutes googling names I didn't recognise, and there's actually some quite interesting forgotten post-punk / proto-goth curiosities in there.

Yeah, that's a fun article, to be sure. I'm curious about some of that stuff.

Also I'm really pleased to see that Danse Society record get some props, cause that is one hell of a record.

http://www.jinxville.com/illustration/nightcrawler.jpg

I can't find any other mention on the internet of this possible Xmal reunion

X-Mal reunion, wow!!! I hope it's true... I did see them a few times in the mid to late 80s and when they were on they were very good!

Yeah, seeing them now would be hysterical and awesome

okay woah, woah. Have you guys heard this "Grosstadtindianer" 7" from 1981? I had no idea they had anything out pre-4AD. Fun stuff.

Heh. Mercer's list has a curious aside, with editorial insertions I admit I'dve done too, alarmingly blinkered as this comment is:

Many may wonder where The Cure, Banshees, Joy Division and Damned are in this Goth chart? Well, put simply, bands are defined by their audience [No they aren't, Ed] and none of these bands ever had a majority goth crowd [That's debatable. Did the Mission for instance? Ed]. None of these bands were goth bands [Utter tripe. The first three were. Ed] They may have had similarities, they may have inspired many goths, but that isn’t the same thing.

There is no way in gods earth you can claim the Banshees in particular did not have "a majority goth crowd", for the love of... I thought Mercer was an expert on this stuff!

Yeah I don't really know what to think about Mercer. He's a bit daft sometimes. I love that he championed The Dancing Did, though (and wrote the liner notes in their CD). Funny thing is, I don't see them as goth in the slightest! Pisses me off that the song he chose is probably the only thing in their entire discography not on that CD. Ah well, at least he made me aware I was missing it.

I'm amazed he included the Mish in his top 30, who really were terrible tosh and I dont know anyone who liked them that much even at the time - and yet he snubs all the "obvious" bands just because well thats what he does? I dont know.

I remember reading his review of "Burden of Mules" by Wolfgang Press and it was a bizarre attempt at surrealism, I think. It went on about nipple tweaks and ended with "kick over the cheesboards!"

Them were the days etc

*his review of it in NME or whatever in the 80s, that should say.

Haha! I'd love to read that. Burden of Mules was a mighty weird record.

Yeah it doesn't really bother me that he left some obvious bands out, I mean it gives him a chance to highlight other less well-known things, but including the Mission is pretty bizarre if that's what he was trying to do.

Regarding X Mal, though, I hate to say it, but to me the Sequenz 12" was when they jumped the shark. Awful.

Do we take this to a poll of the Mercer list, or have we had enough Goth polling?

More importantly, any independent confirmation of the X-Mal reunion rumour?

Oh wow, I don't know if I'm ready for a poll of the Mercer list! I'd have to do more research to be able to fairly vote in that, I think. I only checked out stuff there I didn't know if it was from the early 80's. There's plenty of stuff there from later on that I wouldn't know about. Perhaps not surprisingly I only liked one of the things I downloaded, and it was that Kabuki single. Oh, Zero Le Creche sounded pretty cool as well. I'd like to hear more of them.

Still if there's a single thing in that list as good as that Danse Society record, I'll be very, very surprised.

Hey you wanna do a poll? Bring it on!

Regarding X Mal, though, I hate to say it, but to me the Sequenz 12" was when they jumped the shark. Awful.

all three tracks are really strong in my book, you don't even like Polarlicht? it was their first post 4AD release on their own label and it does sound a bit more polished than what came before (is that what you don't like?) Viva, the third album that came after this, definitely has a more commercial sound/different direction that is hinted at on this EP and is quite a mixed bag for me too

Polarlicht is one of their best - although I'm more familiar with the Peel version (studio version seems to add more polish indeed)

found a mint unopened vinyl copy of Tocsin this week, giving it a spin now.

Just saw that Anja Huwe had a solo album out last year - anyone heard it?

not last year - it came out 2 weeks ago, so haven't had chance to listen to it yet

a compilation of Xmal Deutschland's pre-4AD singles was also released at the same time

wow that cover art is rough... whither 23 envelope. maybe they'll reissue Viva! (or Devils, which I've never actually heard)

listened to Anja's album, it's pretty good! don't think Xmal fans will be disappointed

Yeah. Thought she would go down the cabaret chanteuse route but this is actually pretty goth

Devils (their fourth and final album) is on Spotify now and it's not as bad as I had heard (I like Viva though)... "Searchlights" and "Sleepwalker" are pretty great! The musical distance between this and Fetisch is pretty breathtaking.

kinda sounds like the Cranberries?