FEX's first live album captures them in 1985, right before they might have broken bigger. Recorded at two small German clubs, the Roxy in Paderborn and an unknown venue in Uelzen, these tapes sat on cassette for forty years. The sound is remarkably good for the source, restored and mixed by Zoey Cairns. You get the band's range in one go: the psychedelic opener Skyscraper with its slap bass groove, the synth-pop ballad I Got My Eyes On You, the blues-rock of It's Good To Know, and the driving 1970s rock of Waiting Song. Subways of Your Mind, the track that became famous online as "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet," appears in a version from Uelzen that might be the best one yet.
The four-piece lineup is tight throughout. Ture Rückwardt sings and plays lead guitar, Michael Hädrich handles keyboards and backing vocals, Norbert Ziermann holds down bass, and Hans-Reimer Sievers drums. The engineer Hase brought his own mixing desk to these shows, and it shows in the clarity. The set moves between new wave, synthpop, and heavier rock without feeling scattershot. Some of these songs had never been heard before this release. The cover photo of a bridge in Kiel that no longer exists fits the mood: a band looking back at what they were, while already planning new material.
If you got into FEX through the lost wave searches, this is the live document that fills in the gaps. It is not a polished studio artifact. It is a band playing to small rooms, knowing they had songs that could fill bigger ones.
