Burnin' The Ice

Nick Cave, new in Berlin, entered the world of Die Haut in 1982. The result is a furious album that paves the way for the music that Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds have been making since 1984. BURNIN' THE ICE has not been available for a long time. Now the record is being reissued on vinyl – and after many years, it closes a gap that drove Cave completists to despair.No wild god has fallen from the sky yet. Not even Nick Cave, perhaps the best music performer of the present day. Cave has worked hard for his power, his aura, his reputation. An important early milestone on this journey: BURNIN' THE ICE, released in 1983 together with Berlin band Die Haut. An album like a contemporary document. A ticket to the diffuse and adventurous Berlin of the early 80s, right in the middle of Nick Cave's hot period between The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds.BURNIN' THE ICE captures the moment when Nick Cave and Die Haut first developed the music that would later make him seem larger than life. The sound on this record is existential and experimental. Interested in ecstasy and excess. Relentless and uncompromising.Nick Cave's work is actually considered to be well documented. BURNIN' THE ICE was the exception. That is about to change. The Hit Thing label, curated by Larry Mullins, part of the Bad Seeds' live lineup, has established a reputation with releases such as Morphosa Harmonia and Mullins' own production Camissionia. Hit Thing is the perfect label to finally shed new light on this long blind spot in Cave's discography: BURNIN' THE ICE is receiving a long overdue LP reissue. With new vinyl mastering by Doug Henderson, responsible for the mastering of Swans, among others. An LP that was almost thought to be lost is available again.A flashback: June 1982, The Birthday Party, originally from Australia, based in London since a few months, are performing in Berlin. A support act is still needed for the show, Die Haut are the logical choice. A group unlike any other. Inspired by the style of bebop jazz musicians, the music of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band or New York no-wave acts like DNA. Christoph Dreher, Martin Peter, Remo Park and Thomas Wydler perform in suits, don't talk to the audience, dispense with a lead singer and everything else that conventional rock bands do. “For us it was about energy and improvisation,” says Christoph Dreher. “What we absolutely didn't want was to be a band of people-pleasers.” Nick Cave, lead singer of The Birthday Party, is overwhelmed. In London, a lot is just for show. In Berlin, they mean business.After that, things happen very fast. In July 1982, Die Haut records the first single, “Der karibische Western,” in London. Nick Cave drops by the studio and can be heard whistling on the B-side, “Die faulen Hunde von Tijuana.” In August, the Cave camp moved from London to Berlin, with a first stopover at the loft of Die Haut guitarist Christoph Dreher on Dresdner Strasse. For a few years, this apartment was the sociotope of a scene that does not exist in such a concentrated form in London. “400 Deutschmarks rent for 250 square meters, initially even with a rehearsal room in the basement,” says Christoph Dreher, recalling the special conditions in the divided city. That was how it was in Berlin in the early eighties: “You got by on extremely little money.” A life in artistic, creative intoxication. And, yes, intoxicating substances were also involved.But they also worked hard, with a lot of discipline. “Three to four rehearsals a week were standard,” says Thomas Wydler, the Swiss drummer of Die Haut, who came to Berlin from Zurich in 1980 and was saved by Die Haut, as he says: “Until I met these people, I was in danger of getting lost in the city.” In December 1982, Die Haut set about recording a new album. After the short and, as Christoph Dreher says, “still a bit strange and sterile-sounding” first mini-LP Schnelles Leben, the actual debut. With Nick Cave as guest singer. He agreed immediately when the band asked him. Berlin was out of the question as a production location, “the studios were too big and too expensive,” recalls Thomas Wydler. Initially, the plan was to go to Weilerswist near Cologne, to the Can Studio, which was housed in a former movie theater. When that didn't work out, the choice fell on Studio Funk in Aachen, where Dreher had lived before he moved to Berlin. One advantage was that the musicians could stay overnight in the kitchen of Dreher's brother.First, Die Haut record the tracks as instrumentals. The guitars (mostly played by Remo Park (deceased 2016) and Martin Peter (deceased 2006)) duel, Christoph Dreher's bass pumps pressure into the sound, Thomas Wydler plays staccato drums. It sounds like music from a post-structuralist film noir. After a few days, Nick Cave joins them, together with Anita Lane, his partner, who helps him with the lyrics. “Nick always carried around some kind of folder with notes and