Pleased to see (via Emerald Daze) that a new compilation of “early 80s German proto-electro” features a track from Grauzone, sadly neglected post-Factory Swiss gloomsters who are probably riper for a revival now than they were (I’m sensing a theme here) when their discography reissue on PIAS Germany under the title Die Sunrise-Tapes, back in 1998, received virtually zero attention from the US/UK press (I didn’t even know until tonight that it existed). Some of the tracks on their one s/t album (issued in UK by EMI, amazingly enough) are strongly reminiscent of Cure ca. Seventeen Seconds (perhaps surpassing it), but then there’s “Marmelade und Himbeereis” which wraps their sound around a waltz-time schlagerisch tune you could imagine singing drunkenly in unison down the lokal ... or the menacing stomp of “Wuetendes Glas” that kicks off the second side ... or “Kalte Kriecht” which really opens up like a lost track from Twenty Jazz-Funk Greats with Carteresque synthschmears wiping around back behind the sequencer and drums and whispers ...
And with all of that it’s pleasant to listen to — I mean, pleasant, it wraps itself around you like a warm sweater, or really what it feels like is being at home on a winter night — a few feet away it might be dark and wet and cold, but this right here is ... comfortable. It’s weird namechecking TG or the Cabs talking about a record that goes down this smoothly — rueful but not tortured, dark but not black ... they can’t quite restrain their innate ability to write real tunes, and they can’t quite not swing.
Some links for the europhones:
