The early-to-mid eighties 4AD roster was a magical one. Alongside those incredible Cocteau Twins releases, came a whole load of intriguing names that sprang off the pages of the music press and impelled me to check them out: Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, The Wolfgang Press...
And of course Xmal Deutschland. If the release of Incubus Succubus in 1982 brought this Hamburg-based band some richly deserved attention, it was far from the whole story, as this collection of Peel sessions shows. It brings together the four sessions the band recorded between 1982 and 1985.
Although they continued to perform and record until 1990, the period bookended by that first and final Peel session represents the band's golden period. By 1987, only singer Anja Huwe remained from the original line-up. Despite a major record deal with Phonogram and a support for The Stranglers at Wembley, the band's best years were behind them and these sixteen tracks recorded for John Peel represent the work of a band who truly demand more serious investigation than they have perhaps been given in the years since.
Get it here. You can hear tracks from the album in both my Dandelion and FSK shows this month.
It's also worth checking out this compilation of the band's earlier work.
