If there is one thing that can almost be taken as a silver lining for lockdown, it’s the fact that lots of people that were fortunate enough to be unaffected had a lot of time indoors. That meant that the whole creative arts industry pretty much had a free holiday, and many great things came out of it. Charli XCX’s what I’m feeling now stands out as one of the ‘Lockdown Greats’ in my opinion. Also, last month, Bauhaus released the new song ‘Drink The New Wine’ which was recorded last year with the four members sharing audio files. The track employs the Surrealists’ ‘Exquisite Corpse’ device whereby each artist adds to the piece without seeing what the others have done. You can hear the track below.

Bauhaus have used this ‘exquisite corpse’ technique in the past to great effect. The title refers to the very first ‘Cadavre exquis’ drawing rendered by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert and Yves Tanguy which included words which when strung together made up the sentence, ‘Le cadavre exquis boiara le vin nouveau’ (‘The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.’)
For the recording, the four musicians each had one minute and eight tracks at their disposal plus a shared sixty seconds plus four tracks for a composite at the end. All done without hearing what the others had laid down. The only common link being a pre-recorded beat courtesy of Kevin. The final playback came as a synchronistic revelation. This process makes it very easy to create completely nonsensical music. It happened quite regularly in the past with poetry, the Parisian Surrealist Movement really introduced some interesting specimens from poets like André Breton. But hearing this technique in a popular music format seems to be taking on new ground.

The Brixton date comes in the middle of an extensive US tour the band are soon due to begin. So, if you’re desperate for a little Bauhaus and don’t manage to bag a ticket, then you can either plan yourself a nice trip to the states or head to mainland Europe for one of their festival sets. They are appearing at the now-famous Primavera Sound 2022 alongside many of the biggest names in music today; The Strokes, Gorillaz, Jorja Smith, Disclosure, and many many others.

Photo credit: Gary Bandfield

The London show will be on the 30th of October in Alexandra Palace with support Hope. The Mexico City shows will take place on the 23rd and 24th of October and will be supported by Soriah and Automatic. New tickets are available here for Mexico City and here for London, previously held tickets will carry over to the new dates.

When the band postponed the original tour dates in May 2020, they released a statement saying; “Due to the pandemic, we are now entering a challenging phase when many listed shows will be labeled ‘postponed.’ We are, however, looking at alternative dates for these performances. This situation is unprecedented and incredibly dynamic with a continually moving target. We, the band, and our team are working diligently to establish new time frames for the concerts, please note — ‘where possible,’ original tickets will remain valid for the new dates.”

The band was formed in Northampton in 1970 and released four albums between 1980 and 1983 with a fifth following in 2008. In 2018, Peter Murphy and David J played two sold-out nights at the Roadmender in Northampton, the venue where they made their debut. They then reunited with the whole band at the Hollywood Palladium in LA in 2019, with the plan to head out on a world tour.

This comes following the release of the bands reissued albums as vinyl for the band’s 40th anniversary last year Frontman, Peter Murphy will also be reissuing his first five solo albums as vinyls later this year via Beggars Arkive.

Tickets for the shows are on sale now, the tour dates are below.
23/10/2021 – Frontón México – Mexico City
24/10 – Frontón México – Mexico City
30/10 – Alexandra Palace – London