Monday's Long Song

 

A few weeks ago I featured Der Moderne Man at this place. Today, another forgotten band from Hanover – a city in northern Germany which, apart from Hans-A-Plast and the unspeakable Scorpions, has otherwise contributed little to German music – takes its place.

39 Clocks were formed in 1977 as Killing Rats, split in 1983 and reformed in 1987 for a brief comeback. They released three albums and various compilations. Their sound was dark and a bit amateurish. But they are also the ones who, throughout their brief existence, consistently played – as they themselves put it – a psychedelic beat. The result sounds as though Suicide and the Velvet Underground were jamming to a beatbox in a damp cellar. Nevertheless, their songs have lost none of their fascinating simplicity and noise to this day.

39 Clocks - A Look Into You