DESSAU RED LANGUAGES 12"Category / Style / Moods: Rock INDUSTRIAL NEW WAVE49.75 / 77OBO 2008-0 S asocc1985 NOT ON LABEL 12"TITLE: RED LANGUAGESARTIST: DESSAUCONDITIONCOVER: VG+ YELLOW GENERICVINYL: VG++ TO NEAR MINTClick here for info on grading and abbreviationsRARE DEBUT WITH 2 PAGE PRESS SHEET ONLY 500 PRESSED! Click the pix for a better view TRACKS: Disc: 1 1.Red Languages2.First Year3.Crutch Of UtilityLabel: Not On Label Catalog#: none Format: Vinyl, 12" Country: US Released: 1985 Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: Industrial Credits: Bass - James Horn (2) (tracks: B1, B2) , Mike Orr (tracks: A) Drums - Patrick Benson (tracks: A) Engineer - Bobby Stewart , Michel Kestemont Executive Producer - Mark Wood Guitar - Kevin Hamilton (2) (tracks: B1, B2) , Skot Nelson (tracks: A) Performer [Instruments], Voice - John Elliott (tracks: A) Producer - Martin Hannett Producer [Assisted By] - Tom Der Voice - Kim Ervin* (tracks: A) Written-By - John Elliott (tracks: B1, B2) , Kim Ervin* (tracks: B1, B2) Notes: - released in a plain yellow sleeve. all record information printed on the vinyl itself. I grew up in Indiana, went to Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky. I majored in music, didn't like that, it was real straight arrow stuff so I moved to Colorado for a few years. In 1980 I had a chance to move to Nashville, Tennessee to get into punk rock bands down there so I did that and after about a year of being in these Sex Pistoley kinda bands, I had a chance to move to Chicago and I got into a band up there called Stations. Steve Albini was the bass player & I was the drummer. So this is pre-Big Black. This is when he was a freshman at Northwestern University and just a geek from Missoula, Montana. We did a record with a guy named Martin Hannett, who produced Joy Division and early New Order stuff. We did that and about the same time he was kinda having some heroin problems, so that record never came out. So I had a chance to come back down to Nashville. This was about 83-84 so I kinda played drums in some bands but figured out I wanted to do synthesizers and more of an industrial thing. Back in 84-85 I just formed a band of my own called Dessau. It was a city in East Germany where I knew nobody would know the name or how to pronounce it. It was just so obscure that I felt like it was right for what I was doing. Then, out of the blue, in about '86 I got a call from Martin Hannett again, just cuz I had kept in touch & he wanted to come to Nashville to vacation and stuff so he came over and he produced our first record--a limited edition EP sort of thing..a 12" we did with him called "Red Languages ". It did pretty good for what it was--we only pressed 500 so it was a very limited edition. I don't even have any of it. I'd love to find it. It was maybe a Killing Joke/ Joy Division kind of thing. Maybe less synthesizers but definitely pretty rockin' stuff. We did that and when I lived in Chicago in the early 80s, I had known Al Jourgensen even before Ministry & stuff. So I'd always kept in contact with him so I had sent him some demos & he said he'd like to do a remix of this song we had called ''Unshakeable". At the same time, I was kind of talking to this label called Carlyle, and they said, "Well, man, if you can do a remix with Al Jourgensen, we'd be into funding that & signing you". So that was our first introduction with Carlyle & that got me to work with Al and Paul so we did that. We put out the ''Mad Hog" EP which has "Unshakeable" and than at the same time, we were getting ready to work on this "Exercise In Tension" album and we had played a gig in Chicago & we were staying at Al's house & we were doing this throwaway song at the end--this "Isolation" song which I never really intended to really record. But Al said, ''Man, we gotta record that one, that's gonna be a big hit," so we recorded that with him so that was our 2nd thing we'd done with him & we had great success. We were real pleased with that, and Al always said that was one of his best productions. He was always real proud of that one. That caught us up to 89. Then in the summer of 90, Paul Barker came down for a month without Al to produce the Dessau album & that's about the time when Carlyle was running out of money and ended up folding so that never came out. We had to kinda play dead there for a couple years or so. So that caught us back up to 93 & then we started to write again & get a focus because we found out that a lot of people still were playing ''Isolation". A lot of bigger cities, in the clubs, they were still playing "Isolation" & people still knew the band so it wasn't like we were REO Speedwagon trying to make a comeback. People felt like we were still kinda current & we had worked with the Ministry guys, so we started working on demos at the Warzone(Die Warzau's studio in Chicago)--the Die Warzau guys & Jared (Hendrickson, of Chemlab and Fifth Colvmn Records) heard that and immediately wanted to just put out the demos & I said, "well, no, we need to go back in and sweeten these up a little bit with mixing and overdubs." So that's what came out as the "Details Sketchy'' CD on Fifth Column. Then, out of the blue I got a cal from Mausoleum Records through BMG and they're gonna put out my back catalogue plus some of the Paul Barker songs that were never released. So all of a sudden, after playing dead for a few years, I get 2 releases in a couple months. And we got to do the Pigface tour so all of a sudden we're kinda visible again, and I tell you what, Todd, there's a lot of people out there like yourself, that had all the early stuff & were really into it, then again there's kids up front that have no idea or even what the name of the band is. And they're digging us too. Trent Raznor wanted to get on Carlyle because he saw that we had worked with Al Jourgensen. He had sent demotapes to Carlyle with his band called Crown of Thorns. I remember Carlyle giving me a tape of this & I said, "Man, it's like bad Depeche Mode. This shit sucks'". Y'know, they gave me the tape and said, "We're thinking of signing this guy--he lives in Cleveland & he's a little synthesizer guy", and the stuff was real Depeche Modey & I've never been a huge Depeche Mode fan--I think they got better as they went along--but this stuff was real cute, poppy stuff and I said, "Man, I think this stuff is pretty lame''. So I guess they changed the name to Nine Inch Nails & right after that they got signed to TVT. So that kinda caught us up with what we were doing up to that point. The Mausoleum thing's happening. I guess that thing's selling really well, because it's everywhere, it's in Wal-Marts and K-Marts. The Fifth Column stuff is still in more specialty kinda stores & that's just because of (Mausoleum's) BMG distribution. We did the Pigface tour and we had to kinda miss a date there (in St. Louis) because we had a couple guys that decided to LEAVE THE BAND and that was kinda cool and actually in hindsight, that was the best thing that could ever happen cuz those guys were lame anyway. I'm not going to work with those kinda guys anyway that do that, so we ended up picking up one of the guitar players from Acumen. (Dessau's John Elliott - by Todd Zachritz Godsend Online) Mike Orr (bass guitar), Skot Nelson (guitars), John Elliott (instruments and voice), Barry Nelson (bass guitar), Frank Brodio (bass guitar), Tom Gregory (vibes). Produced by John Elliott. Recorded by Tom Der. Mixed by Giles Reaves and Tommy Dorsey, Alain Jourgensen and Paul Barker. Recorded by Tom Der, Julian Herzfeld, and Tom Harding.~imeem: the dessau groupThis exquisite piece of retro music history is a vinyl sound recording (not a CD). Please visit the A Sound Deal store for similar items and information on grading and shipping. Add me to your favorites for red hot sales bulletins and sneak previews of upcoming products. Combine Items to Save $$$! Click here to check the store for more!©A Sound Deal
