Back in the late 1970s, Thomas Eicke (a.k.a. Tom Diabo) was just another punk kid in Wuppertal, Peter Brötzmann’s hometown and good candidate to Germany’s own Manchester. A brain cancer diagnosis changed Diabo’s life, as he spent most of the 1980s battling the disease. Although he kept playing with the bands he was part of, Diabo also recorded several songs as a sort of personal journal, committing them to tape in his own bedroom, from 1980 to 1985. Diabo passed away in 1988, barely 30, leaving behind a trove of songs that was released under the Dark Star title later that year. Basically a posthumous-loving gesture for his friends and those in the Wuppertal punk scene, the LP is now being reissued by Captured Tracks’s Body Double Ltd imprint, and it includes songs previously only available in a private pressing commissioned by Diabo’s family.
A post-punk amalgam of Our Cancer Year and The Year of Magical Thinking, listening to Dark Star can be a harrowing experience. These songs make no effort to hide Diabo was well aware he did not have much time left (“I don’t want to make hits/ I want to live,” “How does it feel to be a living legend?/ You try to find a way to yourself,” “My companions were killed by infections […] If there is a heaven, there is a hell, for sure” are a few sample lyrics). That said, tagging these songs in such a mournful way would do them a disservice; these are catchy, rocking tunes that on the one hand gave Diabo some levity, but could also fit comfortably in Ariel Pink’s Mature Themes or Arthur Russell’s Another Thought. The variety of styles is impressive, moving from nervy, new wave-ish pop melodies, to reverb-soaked vocals and a deadpan delivery predating John Maus, or a Neil Young cover by way of Joy Division.
Dark Star will be out June 23 via Body Double.
Dark Star tracklisting:
01. Suspicious
02. Nothing Is Real
03. Alone On The Top
04. The End Of The Line
05. Heaven
06. Back To The Hearts
07. Dead End Street
08. Life Is No Fun
09. Son Of Thunder
10. Love Is A Nice Dream
11. Girl
12. New Ted In Town
13. Barstool Blues
14. Stage Of Fools
15. So Long
• Body Double: http://www.bodydoubleltd.com
• Captured Tracks: http://www.capturedtracks.com
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