BAUHAUS Vinilo y CD

Review: Originally recorded live in-studio in 1974 but not released until 2003, Stairway to Escher is from Italian jazz rock group Bauhaus (not to be confused with the UK post-punks) in their only documented session. The band created a dense and expressive fusion sound that extended improvisation, sharp interplay between members and moments of delving into cosmic themes. The music draws clear lines to groups like Perigeo, Napoli Centrale and Germany's Out of Focus, though Bauhaus distinguishes itself with a more raw spirit. The rhythm section anchors the music with nimble, constantly shifting grooves while saxophone, electric piano and guitar alternate taking the lead. Festa's electric piano work evokes Chick Corea at times, and Calabro's fuzzy and expressive guitar tone adds a rock bite that keeps the music in line. With its seven instrumental tracks, Stairway to Escher often begins with mellow intros before launching into fiery jazz rock climaxes. The jams occasionally can wander but rarely falter. The key is that the spontaneity of the performance remains engaging and the recordings were never intended for release only adds to the album's unpolished charm. This reissue is a fine example of vintage European fusion, making for a warm and rewarding listen.

Review: The new Bauhaus BBC Sessions release hears British goth pioneers Bauhaus at their most vital, documenting the three-year period that they swept the airwaves like vampire bats with a hearse's worth of recordings made for UK radio. Spanning early post-punk urgencies to the relatively more textured darkness of their later work, these sessions were recorded for shows hosted by John Peel and David Jensen, flapping through alternate takes of 'Double Dare', 'In the Flat Field', and 'Third Uncle'. Together with a recent vinyl reissue of a 1983 performance at the Old Vic in London, which snapped a shot of Bauhaus at the peak of their dramaturgic snarks, both releases provide a compelling, rough-edged, bouffant counterpart to their studio albums, before goth went bird's nest: Bauhaus live and direct, with all the mood, menace and momentum fully intact.

Review: Captured in San Francisco in December of 1982, only over six months before their original dissolution in July of the following year, this live performance from gloom maestro goth rock pioneers Bauhaus leans heavily on material from their (at the time) two-month old third full-length The Sky's Gone Out including their opening cover of Brian Eno's 'Third Uncle' and 'Silent Hedges', as well as 1981's career height sophomore classic Mask, with cuts such as 'In Fear Of Fear', 'Kick In The Eye', and 'Hollow Hills' making appearances. Some love is shown to their debut In The Flat Field with the inclusion of 'Spy In The Cab', but most noteworthy is that the set features an early live unveiling of 'She's In Parties', which wouldn't see release for another four months with the band breaking up just a week before the single's adjacent album Burning From The Inside would drop.

Review: "Bauhaus are the founding fathers of goth rock, creating a minimalistic, overbearingly gloomy style of post-punk rock driven by jagged guitar chords and cold, distant synthesizers. Throughout their brief career, the band explored all the variations on their bleak musical ideas, adding elements of glam rock, experimental electronic rock, funk, and heavy metal.

It's an excellent single-disc overview of the group's brief career, containing all of their essential songs, from ''In the Flat Field'' and ''Bela Lugosi's Dead'' to ''Ziggy Stardust'' and ''Burning from the Inside.'' It's nice that there's finally a thorough single-disc retrospective of the groundbreaking goth quartet.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music

And finally the 1998 compilation makes it onto vinyl. The tracks have been re-sequenced for the format and there's a special substitution of an unreleased hybrid mix of ''Bela Lugosi's Dead'' featuring a 1982 studio vocal over a live backing track. The two disc set is packaged in a gatefold sleeve and, with under 20 minutes playing time per side, the cut is loud with minimum compression.

Side 1
Double Dare
In The Flat Field
The Sanity Assassin
The Passion Of Lovers

Side 2
She's in Parties
Kick In The Eye
Ziggy Stardust
Dark Entries
Hollow Hills

Side 3
Mask
Silent Hedges
Bela Lugosi's Dead (Tomb Raider)

Side 4
Terror Couple Kill Colonel
Spirit
Burning From The Inside
Crowds"