Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 15:33:09 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: American Dreaming During the month of July, 4AD US unleashed a batch of releases, some reissues, some things that were deleted for a while and some brand new stuff as well. The following is a critique of these specific releases and how they were handled in a reissue context. The music itself is amazing of course... Sound quality on all is good. BAUHAUS : In The Flat Field No cat. number aside from bar (5263700132) and matrix (4AD13). Reissued at the the perfect time to cash in on the Bauhaus tour, This is a perfect album to see genuine domestic availability finally. One extra track was added to the existing bonus trackks featured on the original UK compact disc version (CAD13CD). This track is "Terror Couple Kill Colonel 2", the one recorded at Beck Studios in Wellingborough and up until now only to be found on the B-side of the "Terror Couple Kill Colonel" 7" (AD7). This is a nice additional track but sadly, the graphics were not updated with this 18th track info and the running time listed in consequently wrong. Seeing "Bela Lagosi's Dead" on this reissue would have been nice but "Crackle" from Beggars Banquest took care of that. Inside notes also not updated for added unlisted track. Available in the UK and Canada as GAD13CD. Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 11:05:40 -0000 From: Roy Burns Subject: I'm a rabid 4AD whore!!!! Bauhaus In the Flat Field (4AD) Although Goth never had much of a...ahem...prayer of becoming one of rock's force majeures, the pale and devoted can still be seen kicking around late night donut shops even today. Much of their gloomy disposition can be traced back to the four young Londoners, in Bauhaus, who became the unwilling forefathers of this small, but fervid, scene at the dawn of the '80s. By the time of In The Flat Field, which somewhat brazenly did not include the previous year's classic "Bela Lugosi's Dead" single, the band had most of its core flavors in place - spare but hypnotic rhythms, big-time guitar dynamics, and the dour operatics of Peter Murphy's lead vocals.If the album suffers a few losses in structure and focus due to the band's self-production, it delivers ultra-lucid examples of the sheer ferocity of Daniel Ash's punk-noir guitar ("Dark Entries," "Double Dare") and Murphy's basso-to-screech-and-back-again maneuvers ("In The Flat Field," "Nerves"). If the lyrics were self-indulgent and sometimes outright dodgy, Bauhaus' ability to successfully flirt with minimalism, electronics and neo-psychedelia exhibit how far ranging the bands vision could truly be. Sadly, by the time they made their impressive performance during the opening sequence in 1983's chic Bowie/Denueve vampire flick The Hunger, the band was all but over. And while the most recent retrospective Crackle might feature more highpoints, the addition of the nine bonus tracks here makes this a hard re-issue for both purists and the curious to pass up. --JoE Silva