39 Clocks

The German duo 39 Clocks came of age during the late '70s, but they had no truck with the punk scene; instead they were inspired by the Dada movement, echoing rockabilly and the art-damaged side of the Velvet Underground. The duo eschewed formalities like names or choruses as they alienated local audiences and released records that nobody paid much attention to. History treated them well, however, and even though they didn't make any albums after 1987, their first two albums (1981's Pain It Dark and 1982's Subnarcotic) became touchstones for crate diggers and people looking for off-kilter, inventive, and weird post-punk music. Songs from the albums ended up on collections and mixtapes, reissues were made, and in 2019, a career-spanning box set (Next Dimension Transfer) was issued that cemented their place in the post-punk firmament. The story began in the mid-'60s when Jurgen Gleue and Christian Henjes first met as kids in Hannover, Germany, and realized they shared a lot of the same interests, such as comics, drugs, making films and music. With a series of bassists and drummers, they played in bands throughout the '60s and early '70s before they harnessed their energies under the name Killing Rats in the late part of the decade right around when punk was hitting Germany. They positioned themselves as anti-punks who did things like play vacuum cleaners on-stage, stage odd performances featuring mummies, give themselves numbers instead of names -- JG-39 for Gleue and CH-39 for Henjes -- and basically antagonize people who had shown up to hear Sex Pistols knock-offs. Their sound was a combination of rockabilly rumbling, Velvet Underground artiness, and garage rock attitude all delivered with a sarcastic, almost tossed-off air. Though the duo did record some songs while they were going around as the Killer Rats, their first single, 1980's "DNS"/ "Twisted & Shouts," was released under the name 39 Clocks. Their debut album, 1981's sparse and wiry Pain It Dark, was recorded in a studio in Hannover and featured JG-39 and CH-39 performing all the musical chores apart from drums, which were played by Christian Kuschel on a few songs and a drum machine on the rest. The duo followed it up quickly with their second album, Subnarcotic, in 1982. It again had the duo doing most of the playing and singing, with Kuschel and Rüdiger Klose providing drums. The sound of the record was more abrasive and expansive, as they sought to take their music further from the punk mainstream. They continued to play shows to oft-bewildered audiences, then split up in 1983 after an appearance at Hannover's Psychotic Splash Festival in 1983. Gleue and Henjes went their separate ways musically -- the former started the band Exit Out, the latter the Beauty Contest. The lure of working together was strong, though, and they returned in 1987 to record the album 13 More Protest Songs, a wild and woolly collection of psychedelic noise folk and VU-inspired weirdness. The reunion was not long lived and they split up again. Both continued working as artists and musicians through the years -- Gleue mostly recorded under the banner of Phantom Payns and Henjes had multiple bands. The 39 Clocks story seemed like an odd post-punk footnote until their music began to be rediscovered. De Stijl released a collection of the band's work titled Zoned in 2009, then in 2012 Bureau B reissued the group's first two albums. The band's reputation was bolstered by these reissues and continued to grow as songs appeared on compilations and mixes, including 2015's Cherrystones Presents Critical Mass (Splinters from the Worldwide New-Wave, Post-Punk and Industrial Underground 1978 - 1984.) In 2019, the band worked with the German label Tapete on a collection that would round up all their recorded output. Next Dimension Transfer contained their first two albums, an unreleased live set from 1981, their 1987 reunion album, and a revamped version of a collection that first came out in 1985 under the title Cold Steel to the Heart and was now titled Reality Is a State of Mind. The set also featured extensive liner notes created by the band that reflected their Dada-inspired attitude perfectly.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo