the killer Crime & the City Solution
Album info
Album-Release:
2023
HRA-Release:
18.10.2023
Album including Album cover
- 1 Rivers of Blood 05:33
- 2 Hurt You, Hurt Me 04:27
- 3 River of God 04:14
- 4 Brave Hearted Woman 05:13
- 5 Killer 08:41
- 6 Witness 04:10
- 7 Peace in my Time 05:03
Info for the killer
the killer was recorded in Berlin by the second incarnation of the band to be based in the German capital. Core members Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams were joined by Frederic Lyenn (Piano, Bass, Synth), Donald Baldie (Guitar), Georgio Valentino (Synth, Guitar), Chris Hughes (Drums, Percussion) and Joshua Murphy (Piano, Guitar), and for the first time they worked with a producer, the legendary Martin J. Fiedler, who also added Synth and Mellotron to the album.
The first studio album in 10 years by the band founded in the late 70s as the SIdekick of The Birthday Party has an oddball charm and earthy verve and takes you into a world that often seems unreal, which is essentially shaped on the 7 songs by Simon Bonney's half-sung, half-spoken narratives, which are performed by a profoundly acting band in which, besides Bronwyn Adams (violin, backing vocals), a squad of new musicians is at the start. The sixth album, recorded in Berlin but made Down Under, has a magical atmosphere, drifting through the semi-darkness with the use of earthy or expansive guitar and piano as accompanying instruments alongside the rhythm section. The album was created as a side product of Bonney's work in aid programmes in the Indo-Pacific region, where he visited countless places exposed to high levels of violence. Throughout the album, Simon weaves in motifs of uncontrollable forces of nature, personalised in the figure of a farmer who does not even make the futile attempt to control them, but seeks to accept them in order to work with them.
Crime & the City Solution:
Simon Bonney, vocals
Bronwyn Adams, violin, backing vocals, loops, found sounds
Chris Hughes, drums
Georgio Valentino, synthesizer, guitar
Baron Anastis, bass
Donald Baldie, guitar, piano
Crime & the City Solution
Crime & the City Solution VI, the latest embodiment of the band Simon Bonney formed in 1977 in Sydney, includes Bonney on vocals, Bronwyn Adams on violin, backing vocals, loops and found sound, highly respected Berlin based Australian drummer Chris Hughes, Floridian synth and guitar maestro Georgio Valentino, Berlin based bass player Baron Anastis and long-time collaborator and friend, Melbourne guitarist and pianist Donald Baldie.
Formed in Sydney by Simon Bonney at the age of 16, Crime & the City Solution’s early performances from 1977-1979 had a big impact on key figures of the early Melbourne art-punk/post punk scene. In 1984, Bad Seed Mick Harvey shipped Bonney to England to form the London based Crime with their friend the brilliant and ever influential ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard, with his brother Harry Howard on bass and Epic Soundtracks on drums. Two years on, having toured Europe, the UK and US and released several EPs and an album, this lineup reached its zenith at its finale in a historic swansong performance in Wim Wenders’ cinematic masterpiece ‘Wings of Desire’.
Bonney has said his true voice and the definitive sound he sought emerged with the next, Berlin based incarnation of Crime & the City Solution, which recorded three studio albums and a live CD between 1986 and 1991. With a more experimental sound, which drew less on Melbourne post punk scene roots and took a more explorative musical approach, this lineup was 50% Berliner and featured Einstürzende Neubauten’s Alexander Hacke on guitar, ex-DAF/Liaisons Dangereuses electronic genius Chrislo Haas on vintage Korg patchbay synth, and free jazz bassist Thomas Stern. The lineup was completed by Australians Mick Harvey on drums and Bonney’s longtime lyrical collaborator Bronwyn Adams on violin.
In 2012, now based in their new home city of Detroit, the band returned with their fifth studio album, American Twilight: “as much an elegy to the American Dream that’s turned into a global nightmare as it is a damn fine rock & roll album” -The Quietus
This album contains no booklet.