If there ever was such a thing as true German No Wave, then Camping Sex were probably the only band to make it. Being kind of a legendary underground outfit, this band basically only really existed for this one album right here, made up of Lesley Campbell, Matz Müller and Max Müller/Florian Koerner von Gustorf who would go on to form Mutter later on. This album, described by Thurston Moore as "ultra-experimental trash that was super influential on Sonic Youth", is probably one of the most nihilistic projects to come out of the 80s German underground. Endless walls of noisy, clipping guitars, playing the same riff as consistently as a steamroller, dissonant basslines and thundering drums, this album just sounds ugly from front to back. Sure, the harmonic progressions are rather conventional, but the more and more the persistence of ugly sounds comes through, the more you question your own sanity. Max Müller is on top of all of this nonsense, squelching out some incredibly mean-spirited and antagonistic lyrics about split Germany, the meaninglessness of love, feeling like nothing and saying no to life in general. He not only just pukes out these lyrics, he puts in these absolute nonsense-vocalisations that spit on any sense of accessibility. It's the full brunt of mid-80s Berlin paranoia, fueled by garbage recording equipment and hatred, filtered through an four-piece band. It's ugly, it's loud, it's angry, it has its fury in the right place.
A perfect album to lament how garbage the 80s in Germany were to, Camping Sex put out the nastiest and ugliest thing to come out of Germany in that decade. Truly a trailblazing album not just here, but also for a couple of American bands as well. Just, pure spite, nihilism and hatred, it's fun! No, actually! For real! Trust me!
Sophia Schöneseiffen (Hurricanslash auf RYM), 2022
