Die Haut And Nick Cave - Burnin' The Ice

Part of Berlin's vigorous, Wall-shadowed counterculture, Die Haut's abrasive mix of sexless funk and doomy guitars suited then-neighbour Cave as The Birthday Party began to dissolve. Cave added vocals to four tracks on this, Die Haut's long-lost debut, most memorably on "Truck Love", a deliriously trashy road movie, roughly conflating lurid pulp, Nietzsche and Christianity—a reminder of his snarling youth. Die Haut's drummer, Thomas Wyler, would soon join him in the Bad Seeds. Die Haut themselves are most poignantly captured on the DVD, a 1982 live performance—all sharp suits, blank stares and stiff dancing. A vivid relic of a grey age.

Rating: 3 / 10