The 1980 Listening Post - Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

 Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

#436

by Chris Roberts

November 3 1980

Bauhaus

In The Flat Field

Genre: Bauhaus

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Chris’s Rating: 4.89 out of 5

Allen’s Highlights:

Dark Entries

Chris’s Highlights:

Double Dare

A God In An Alcove

Stigmata Martyr

Nerves

The PAAAAANNNGSSS of dark delight! Nothing says “step into Summer” like the Haus of Baus! It’s time to get down… way down!

A Listening Post thread recently discussed how KISS’s glam-metal may have inspired the Raider Nation, but their look didn’t match up with their decidedly lite music. Bauhaus does not have that aesthetic problem. Hell, the band named themselves after an art/design movement. How much more black can Bauhaus get? The answer is none. None more black. 

When the great Satanic-panic drove suburban parents to burn their kids’ Ozzy and backwards Judas Priest albums, they really needed to be worried about In The Flat Field. It’s bleak, nightmare-driven stuff, the soundtrack to Kubrick-directed Eraserhead outtakes on a UHF channel. Drone and buzz, often propulsive, broken, angry and sinister, like brittle-spittle-sparks. Perfect for your cinder block graveyard dungeon ritual grainy security cam. Still, ITFF is riffy and listenable compared to say, Swans. “Nerves” even has a little damned tango bit!

Prior to this review, I’d never listened to ITFF in the original 1980 vinyl form. The only reason I don’t give the album a full 5 is because it doesn’t include “Dark Entries,” which was the lead track on all subsequent CD releases. “Dark Entries” is a great single, with cool cover art, and worth looking up all on it’s own. 

Still, the real advantage to the 1980 ITFF is you dump all the significantly worse tracks tacked on to fill out CD-length editions (everything after “Nerves”).  “Double Dare” and “Stigmata Martyr” are my standouts, but I can’t really pick a song to focus on. In most cases, you’ll be clearing the room of the uninitiated if you put this on. Those that stay will learn to love it. A modern equivalent might be the black metal of Deafheaven—atmospheric, theatrical—where the gateway is some abrasive singing. While Peter Murphy was a KROQ star with Cuts You Up, here his voice takes some getting used to. Then you realize he’s Johnny Rotten doing a Jim Morrison impersonation with some Fred Schneider and Black Francis thrown in for good measure.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4aTnxFNp2RSddhkYf0VYeW?si=0_cU9TEsSq6egTNZd0dGkg