Bauhaus recorded these five tracks in Northampton on January 26, 1979, at the first studio session that produced “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” The famous track remains the centre of gravity, with its stark post-punk frame and Peter Murphy’s dramatic vocal presence, but this release gives the surrounding material room to matter. “Some Faces,” “Bite My Hip,” and “Boys (Original)” had never been released before, while “Harry” dates from 1982 and originally appeared through Beggars Banquet.
This is a compact document of a four-piece finding its shape, with Daniel Ash on guitar, David J on bass, Kevin Haskins on drums, and Murphy handling vocals alongside occasional instruments. The music is spare and disconsolate rather than polished, and the five-track sequence makes a good case for hearing Bauhaus as a working band, not only through their best-known single. Leaving Records issued the session in 2018 with the band and Bauhaus Archives involved in the reissue, newly mastered from the analogue tapes by Mandy Parnell. It’s available as FLAC 16/44, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, or 320 MP3, with vinyl, cassette, and print editions for collectors of the band’s early material.
