In the Flat Field

Recording

Following a 30-date tour, Bauhaus set out to Southern Studios in London to record their first album. As the band had a clear conception of what they wanted the record to sound like, they opted to produce it themselves. While most of the album was completed with the planned release date of September 1980, the group found it difficult to record a version of "Double Dare" as good as the one they performed on disc jockey John Peel's BBC Radio 1 programme. Bauhaus applied to the BBC to use the Peel sessions version, but due to obstructions from the Musicians Union, the process took over a month.

Release

In the Flat Field was released on 3 November 1980 by record label 4AD. It was met with a negative response from critics, but topped the independent charts and made the UK Albums Chart for one week, peaking at number 72.

The album was first released on CD by 4AD in April 1988, with eight bonus tracks including the singles "Dark Entries", "Terror Couple Kill Colonel" and a cover of T. Rex's "Telegram Sam." Five of these bonus tracks had been previously compiled on the 4AD EP in 1983.

On 19 October 2009, 4AD/Beggars Banquet reissued the album as an "Omnibus Edition", featuring the 24-bit remastered CD of the original nine-track album in a replica mini-LP sleeve (with corresponding inner sleeve featuring the lyrics), plus a 16-track bonus disc of singles, outtakes, alternate recordings and original versions. The set came inside a semi-long box, coupled with a 48-page book that included comments from band members, photos, complete lyrics, complete tour date information for 1979 and 1980, and an essay by Kevin Brooksbank on the formation and creation of the band, the singles and the album.

Critical reception

While In the Flat Field received positive reviews in fanzine publications, the album was "absolutely slated" by the British weekly music press, according to Bauhaus biographer Ian Shirley. NME's Andy Gill described the album as "nine meaningless moans and flails bereft of even the most cursory contour of interest, a record which deserves all the damning adjectives usually leveled at grim-faced 'modernists'." Dave McCullough of Sounds' was also negative: "No songs. Just tracks (ugh). Too priggish and conceited. Sluggish indulgence instead of hoped for goth-ness. Coldly catatonic."

In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic praised the album, writing "few debut albums ever arrived so nearly perfectly formed". Trouser Press described it as "a dense, disjointed patchwork of sounds and uncertain feelings, supported by a pressured, incessant beat. Delving deep into the dark side of the human psyche, Bauhaus conjures up unsettling images of a world given over to death and decay."

Legacy

Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote: "In the Flat Field practically single-handedly invented what remains for many as the stereotype of goth music—wracked, at times spindly vocals about despair and desolation of many kinds, sung over mysterious and moody music". In 2012, Sonic Seducer magazine listed In the Flat Field at number 4 in its list "10 Key Albums for the Gothic Scene", calling it a work that had shattered outdated ideas of rock music. Music author Dave Thompson described it as "one of the most courageous albums of the age."

Track listing

All tracks written by Bauhaus (Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J, Kevin Haskins), except as noted.

Personnel

Credits are sourced from the liner notes of the original release.