Go Away White

1978年、パンク・ムーブメントの中で結成され、その後そのダークな音楽性とシアトリカルなステージングで「グラム・ロックの継承者」として注目を浴び、後のオルタナティブ・ロック・バンドや、ひいては日本のビジュアル系バンドにも多大な影響を与えた80'sニューウェーブの代表格BAUHAUSが、有終の美を飾るラスト・アルバムをリリース！18日間という短期間で、すべて1曲ワンテイクでレコーディングされた本作は、真のカタルシスを聴く者に与える革新的なサウンド。その妙なる響きの中にサイケデリックな味付けを施し、Jimi Hendrixが所有していたVox wah wahペダルを使用するなど、ポップでありながら実験的なサウンドを展開。ポスト・パンクのバンド群の中でもひときわ強い輝きを放ったバンドの、終焉を飾るにふさわしいタイムレスな魅力を放つ10曲を収録！

It's perhaps appropriate that Bauhaus' first new studio album in 25 years is also, apparently and finally, the last. After following their 1998 reunion tour with a second in 2005 and after that eventually led to the band debuting a full range of new songs on the road, the signs for a possible new future seemed strong, but in a weird echo of the past the quartet once again disbanded before an album release. However, perhaps the best and most surprising thing about Go Away White is that it doesn't resemble Burning from the Inside or any other Bauhaus album -- rather than trying to recapture the past, the four members sought to meet in the middle where they had ended up, at least in part. It's most noticeable in Peter Murphy's singing; rather than trying to be the young hellion of In the Flat Field once again, his solo performances set the tone here in both the richness of his voice and controlled dramatics of his performance, as readily heard on the wordless singing that begins the haunted moodout "Saved." However, where the band fully lets rip, as on "Adrenalin," he certainly shows he's still got the pipes for a full-bodied howl. Hearing the dynamics of Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins working as a band in the studio again nearly a decade after Love and Rockets initially wrapped up is equally enjoyable if slightly different in feel, alternately suggesting where all three had been together and individually as well as reaching back to the original feeling of the quartet, rough and sometimes harsh but at the same time tempered with many sonic surprises. Whether it's the flow of J's bass and the shimmer of keyboards on "Undone" or the full-on dub growl-into-piano and handclaps of "Mirror Remains," Ash coming up with some utterly screwy feedback shapes as he goes, they all still have striking power. "Endless Summer of the Damned," perhaps the strongest song on the album, best captures the group as individuals and as a unit, Ash's alternately nervous and volcanic guitars, the rumbling tribal punch of the rhythm, and Murphy's stellar delivery (especially on the chorus) all combining perfectly to produce something that is at once recognizably Bauhaus and yet couldn't have been done by them the first time around. Above all, thanks to a relaxed and almost playful feeling that surfaces just as much as the intensity, Go Away White sounds like the four were trying one last time to reclaim the idea of Bauhaus as band and ethos from all the many limiting cliches heaped on it, something which the album title, taken from the song "Black Stone Heart," slyly hints at. If this is at last it for Bauhaus, they did not depart by going into the black. ~ Ned Raggett|

奇跡の再結成を経て届けられた25年ぶりの新作にしてラスト・アルバムとなる本盤は、耽美な暗黒サウンドが絶え間なく響き渡り、聴き手の感覚を歪ませる一枚だ。たった18日間で作り上げたそうだが（しかもすべて一発録り!）、まさに全パワーを出し切ったかのような刹那的で緊張感溢れる内容となっている。この漲るクリエイティヴィティーはいったい何なんだ?　大パノラマの中で繰り広げられる美しくも儚い夢幻絵巻に、ひとつ歴史の終焉を感じた。
bounce (C)柴田 かずえ