Xmal Deutschland had an extraordinary impact on British audiences in the early Eighties, having cast a spell through staccato rhythms, unmediated channels, and mysterious (to most at the time) language, further carried by the unique vision and strength of the women involved. Commemorating their ‘4AD years’ (1983-1984) forty years on, the mysteriously enchanting group returns now with a brand-new release entitled Gift: The 4AD Years, out 9 May.
+ Pre-order 3xLP in transparent red vinyl, crystal clear vinyl (Germany exclusive), 2xCD +
+ Pre-order Gift T-Shirt on the 4AD Store +
The limited-edition 3xLP boxset contains 2025 Abbey Road remasters of their two albums released with the label (the feverish Fetsich and titanic Tocsin), as well as tracks off other related releases and EPs including Incubus Succubus II and Qual, creating a package pulsating with power and poise. Gift’s striking cover artwork — featuring photography by Peter Schulte — was designed by Timothy O’Donnell, based on original art by 23 Envelope. It accompanies original sleeve photography by Nigel Grierson. Rounding out the package is an additional photo booklet containing images by Kevin Cummins, Paul Slattery, Sheila Rock, and more, as well as text by Chris Roberts.
The extraordinary impact Xmal Deutschland had upon British audiences in the early Eighties is difficult to convey forty years on. A spell was cast by the staccato rhythms, unmediated channels and mysterious (to us) language of their music, and by the vision and strength of the women involved. Their breakthrough support slot with Cocteau Twins and first two albums with 4AD dazzled and dug deep, speaking in tones and temperatures unlike any band before or since. “And at some point, it seemed to people we just… disappeared,” muses singer Anja Huwe. “So this myth of Xmal Deutschland just got bigger and bigger over the years…” Gift reminds us of a past which sounds like an alternative present, wrapping — in distinctive style — Fetisch, Tocsin, and related EP tracks in a package pulsating with power and poise.
Photo by Kevin Cummings
Like most bands commonly labelled ‘goth’ or ‘gothic’, the visually striking, black-clad and dynamic-haired Xmal preferred ‘post-punk’. They genuinely were, having been inspired, in terms of attitude as much as sound, by witnessing developments in London from their home base of Hamburg. And, as part of the Neue Deutsche Welle, playing live with bands like DAF and Palais Schaumburg, and as friends with Einstürzende Neubauten, radicalism and self-reinvention were in their ice-cool bloodstream. They took their name from an early Sixties socio-political treatise by communist author Rudolf Leonhard.
“When we started, the punks said it was not punk and the avant-garde people said it’s not avant-garde. So nobody could really say what it was,” Huwe told me back then. “It was… Xmal Deutschland, you know? This really strange band from Hamburg. It comes from our bodies, our souls, and yes, our hearts. Of course we take ourselves very seriously.”
“You’re influenced by your environment, of course,” said Fiona Sangster, “but then again, we’re not typically German at all.” “It’s wrong to falsify,” added Manuela Rickers. “You must do what you feel.”
The formative line-up of Huwe (then on bass), Rickers (guitar), Scottish-born Sangster (keyboards), Caro May (drums), and Rita Simonsen (vocals) soon underwent a vital tweak when Huwe was pushed up to the microphone by the others for learning-curve shows and singles on Hamburg label ZickZack. Wolfgang Ellerbrock came in on bass, laughing at being described as “the token male”; and Manuela Zwingmann arrived on drums. It was this quintet which recorded Fetisch, and the singles Qual and Incubus Succubus 2. The UK indie charts lapped up the Germans’ gung ho guile.
Co-produced by Ivo Watts-Russell, who’d been impressed by an “incredibly raw” demo tape, Fetisch was released in April 1983 and moved in comparable chilly, wilfully murky waters as peers like The Banshees, Bauhaus, The Birthday Party, and Joy Division. Yet its sheer single-minded focus, the chants and commands of Huwe, and the razor-cut riffs of Rickers, gave it a blinding clarity, an impossible-to-ignore charisma. Tracks like ‘Boomerang’ and ‘Orient’ still whisk the listener away to a diamond-sharp dimension. “The music is quite beautiful, but the lyrics are absolutely black,” Huwe said at the time.
Xmal Deutschland – Gift: The 4AD Years
4AD0730
Fetisch
A1. Qual
A2. Geheimnis
A3. Young Man
A4. In Der Nacht
A5. Orient
B1. Hand In Hand
B2. Kaempfen
B3. Danthem
B4. Boomerang
B5. Stummes Kind
Tocsin
C1. Mondlicht
C2. Eiland
C3. Reigen
C4. Tag für Tag
D1. Augen-blick
D2. Begrab Mein Herz
D3. Nachtschatten
D4. Xmas in Australia
D5. Derwisch
Incubus Succubus II
E1. Incubus Succubus II
E2. Vito
Qual
F1. Qual – 12” Remix
F2. Zeit
F3. Sehnsucht