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If there ever was such a thing as true German No Wave, then Camping Sex were probably the only band to make it. Being kind of a legendary underground outfit, this band basically only really existed for this one album right here, made up of Lesley Campbell, Matz Müller and Max Müller/Florian Koerner von Gustorf who would go on to form Mutter later on. This album, described by Thurston Moore as "ultra-experimental trash that was super influential on Sonic Youth", is probably one of the most nihilistic projects to come out of the 80s German underground. Endless walls of noisy, clipping guitars, playing the same riff as consistently as a steamroller, dissonant basslines and thundering drums, this album just sounds ugly from front to back. Sure, the harmonic progressions are rather conventional, but the more and more the persistence of ugly sounds comes through, the more you question your own sanity. Max Müller is on top of all of this nonsense, squelching out some incredibly mean-spirited and antagonistic lyrics about split Germany, the meaninglessness of love, feeling like nothing and saying no to life in general. He not only just pukes out these lyrics, he puts in these absolute nonsense-vocalisations that spit on any sense of accessibility. It's the full brunt of mid-80s Berlin paranoia, fueled by garbage recording equipment and hatred, filtered through an four-piece band. It's ugly, it's loud, it's angry, it has its fury in the right place.
A perfect album to lament how garbage the 80s in Germany were to, Camping Sex put out the nastiest and ugliest thing to come out of Germany in that decade. Truly a trailblazing album not just here, but also for a couple of American bands as well. Just, pure spite, nihilism and hatred, it's fun! No, actually! For real! Trust me!
Sophia Schöneseiffen (Hurricanslash auf RYM), 2022
Our take: Germany’s Static Age Musik brings us a reissue of this 1985 German underground punk / no-wave obscurity. There’s a blurb on the hype sticker where Thurston Moore says Camping Sex was “super influential on Sonic Youth.” I suppose that might give you some indication of what Camping Sex is all about, but if it weren’t for that quote, Sonic Youth wouldn’t spring to my mind as a comparison for Camping Sex. To me, they sound more like Flipper, the Birthday Party, or Laughing Hyenas… like those bands, Camping Sex’s songs are built around dissonant textures riding atop steady, even slightly bluesy grooves. That groovy aspect of Camping Sex’s sound makes me wonder if they also absorbed some of their modus operandi from their country’s tradition of groovy underground bands like Can, Neu!, and Kraftwerk. Vibe-wise, though, Camping Sex is pure art punk… emotionally raw, cathartic, abrasive, and fucking loud, like a lot of mid-80s US punk. If you played it for me and I didn’t notice the lyrics were in German, I might guess this came out on Homestead Records. Like a lot of this music, this isn’t so much about traditional pop hooks as riding waves of emotional turbulence, ebbing toward reflection and flowing into periods of gestalt. I like the music, but to me the accompanying booklet is just as interesting, jam-packed with arty photos of the band.
A perfect album to lament how garbage the 80s in Germany were to, Camping Sex put out the nastiest and ugliest thing to come out of Germany in that decade. Truly a trailblazing album not just here, but also for a couple of American bands as well. Just, pure spite, nihilism and hatred, it's fun! No, actually! For real! Trust me!
Sophia Schöneseiffen (Hurricanslash auf RYM), 2022
Our take: Germany’s Static Age Musik brings us a reissue of this 1985 German underground punk / no-wave obscurity. There’s a blurb on the hype sticker where Thurston Moore says Camping Sex was “super influential on Sonic Youth.” I suppose that might give you some indication of what Camping Sex is all about, but if it weren’t for that quote, Sonic Youth wouldn’t spring to my mind as a comparison for Camping Sex. To me, they sound more like Flipper, the Birthday Party, or Laughing Hyenas… like those bands, Camping Sex’s songs are built around dissonant textures riding atop steady, even slightly bluesy grooves. That groovy aspect of Camping Sex’s sound makes me wonder if they also absorbed some of their modus operandi from their country’s tradition of groovy underground bands like Can, Neu!, and Kraftwerk. Vibe-wise, though, Camping Sex is pure art punk… emotionally raw, cathartic, abrasive, and fucking loud, like a lot of mid-80s US punk. If you played it for me and I didn’t notice the lyrics were in German, I might guess this came out on Homestead Records. Like a lot of this music, this isn’t so much about traditional pop hooks as riding waves of emotional turbulence, ebbing toward reflection and flowing into periods of gestalt. I like the music, but to me the accompanying booklet is just as interesting, jam-packed with arty photos of the band.