Crime & The City Solution

The ever-evolving Crime & the City Solution emerged in the wake of the dissolution of the seminal Birthday Party. Founded and led by evocative singer/songwriter Simon Bonney, a Melbourne, Australia native and his partner, violinist/vocalist Bronwyn Adams, they enlisted ex-Birthday Party members Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard, as well as the latter's bassist brother Harry Howard. Between 1985 and 1991 they issued seven multi-track EPs, appeared in Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire, and released five long-playing albums that included Room of Lights (1986), The Bride Ship (1989), and Paradise Discoteque (1990). They split in in 1992. Bonney and Adams assembled a new version of the band to release 2013's Detroit-recorded American Twilight. A decade later, another incarnation recorded The Killer in Berlin with producer Martin J. Fiedler. In 1985, the quartet debuted with The Dangling Man, a self-produced EP quickly establishing the band's moody, atmospheric, blues-based aesthetic. Former Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks joined Crime after the EP's release, freeing Harvey to alternate among a variety of instruments for the haunting follow-up, Just South of Heaven. Their full-length bow, Room of Lights, appeared in 1986 and featured the remarkable "Six Bells Chime," which so impressed the acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders that he invited the band to perform the song live in his 1988 masterpiece Wings of Desire. By the time the film appeared, however, the incarnation of Crime & the City Solution presented onscreen was no more; after Room of Lights, the Howard brothers and Soundtracks exited to form These Immortal Souls, leaving Bonney, Harvey, and violinist Bronwyn Adams (also Bonney's wife and songwriting partner) to relocate to Berlin, where they recruited a number of local musicians, including Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Alexander Hacke, to cut 1988's ornate, intoxicating Shine. Even more Baroque was the follow-up, 1989's The Bride Ship. In 1990, Crime returned to the studio one final time to record Paradise Discotheque, a record built around Bonney's ambitious four-part suite "The Last Dictator," a song cycle inspired by the downfall of Romanian warlord Nicolae Ceausescu. After contributing "The Adversary" to the soundtrack of Wenders' Until the End of the World, Crime & the City Solution disbanded. Harvey continued to record and perform with former Birthday Party mate Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds, Bonney began work on his 1992 solo debut Forever and followed it with Everyman in 1995. Bonney, Adams, and Hacke re-formed the band in 2011 for the purpose of recording and touring. They enlisted David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Woven Hand), Jim White (Dirty Three), Troy Gregory (Dirtbombs, Swans, Spiritualized), and Matt Smith (Outrageous Cherry, Andre Williams) to record and tour. In anticipation of a forthcoming album, Mute Records released the compilation A History of Crime: Berlin 1987-1991: An Introduction to Crime & the City Solution in the fall of 2012. In March of 2013, American Twilight was released. Following intermittent spates of global touring, the international ensemble went idle. During the pandemic in 2020, Bonney decided to submit a PhD application as an extension of his work, delivering aid programs across the Indo-Pacific region, where he visited geographical locales that were under threat of extreme violence. His application eventually gave way to songs written to process the effect of his work on his psyche. Bonney and Adams assembled a second Berlin incarnation of Crime & the City Solution. The pair were joined by keyboardist/bassist Frederic Lyenn, guitarist Donald Baldie, guitarist/synthesist Georgio Valentino, drummer and percussionist Chris Hughes, and pianist/guitarist Joshua Murphy. Titled The Killer, it was produced by Martin J. Fiedler at Klangbild Studios and marked the very first time CCS had worked with a producer.
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