The west is lonely

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The west is lonely
Studio album from Downwards

Publication
(s)

1982

Label (s) Phonogram GmbH , Mercury

Format (s)

LP

Genre (s)

Punk rock

Title (number)

10

running time

31:33

production

Down , Nick Launay

Studio (s)

Hafenklang-Studios Hamburg , The Town House ( London )

chronology
Amok Coma
(1980) 		The west is lonely Downward
(1988)

The West is lonely is a music album by the Hamburg punk band Abwärts . The LP was released in 1982 by the German major label Phonogram GmbH / Mercury and is assigned to the punk rock genre.

Music genre

The West Is Lonely is the second downward album. It sounds somber and darker than anything that previously appeared from Downwards, and can certainly be viewed in the context of the emerging Gothic culture. Critics put it in line with releases from British post-punk bands like Theater of Hate and Killing Joke .

Band boss Frank Ziegert confessed in an interview with Diedrich Diederichsen in 1988 that Abwärts had been forced by the punk audience at the beginning of the 1980s not to present any sophisticated compositions: “[...] we were literally afraid to make music. Everything always had to be hard, that was the word: hard. We increased ourselves into a senseless aggressiveness that had nothing to do with us at all, I wasn't really always tough and neither were the others. "

History of origin

Unsatisfied with the care of their previous independent label ZickZack Platten , the group wanted to work more professionally and offer their next album to a major label. Work on it began in the autumn of 1981 at Hafenklang Studio Hamburg . A whole month of self-financed and self-produced studio recordings was followed by a week of mixing at The Town House in London by producer Nick Launay . At the end of 1981 the album was finished, which was then offered to various record companies for publication. For an advance payment of allegedly 50,000 DM, the band finally signed with the German major label Phonogram.

The West Is Lonely is the first downward release without Margita Haberland , who left the group in 1981.

Track list

Page A:

  1. The first time it always hurts - 3:08
  2. Paper - 1:43
  3. Stone - 3:39
  4. The word for Sunday - 4:45
  5. From a garden shed - 3:24

Side B:

  1. Agent - 2:27
  2. Depressed - 2:27
  3. Be happy - 3:38
  4. Loving Animals - 3:22
  5. Monkey Dance - 3:00

Publications and tour

The album was released in April 1982. For publication, Abwärts went on an extensive tour from May 11 to June 13, 1982 with trips to Switzerland and Amsterdam . The group made a spectacular appearance at the Munich Rock Days Festival, at which FM Einheit destroyed parts of the stage structure. At some concerts, the newly founded Toten Hosen played the supporting act . Down, in turn, was engaged as the opening act for The Cure tour. On the title The first time it always hurts , Muscha and Trini Trimpop produced a video clip and the group even published a homestory in the youth magazine Bravo . Despite all this, the album did not achieve the sales figures we had hoped for. As a result, FM Einheit and Marc Chung left the band for good to concentrate on the Einstürzende Neubauten , of which they had already joined as full members in 1981. In addition, drug problems also led the band to bury themselves for the first time.

It always hurts the first time is represented on various Neue Deutsche Welle compilations, e.g. B. the sampler Die Neue Deutsche Welle. Everything for home , published in 1982 by Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft mbH / Polystar .

reception

The album met with some rejection in the music press. However , it was voted "Record of the Month" in Spex magazine . Fans and musician colleagues found very benevolent words for the record - an argument that finally found its echo in the letters to the editor of music magazines such as the Sounds .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diedrich Diederichsen: Rebellion, a symbolic process. Down . In: Spex . February 1988, p. 30th f .
  2. ↑ See History, on the official downward homepage ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ See VA - Die Neue Deutsche Welle. Everything for home at Discogs , accessed July 7, 2014.
  4. ↑ http://www.indiepedia.de/index.php?title=Spex-Backissues_(1980%E2%80%931984)

Web links