Poptone ‘Poptone’ Review: Bauhaus, Love and Rockets and Tones on Tail vets reunite for live recordings of their classic back catalogue. 

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Last year former Bauhaus, Tones and Tail, and Love Rockets members Daniel Ash and Kevin reunited as Poptone, rounded out by Haskin’s daughter Diva Dompe on bass.

Click here for my recent podcast interview with Kevin Haskins

And now the group (named after a track by fellow post-punkers PiL) are releasing their eponymous début album (due June 8 on Cleopatra Records), which features live recordings from all their various projects in a recent Part-Time Punks radio session for L.A. radio station KXLU.

Kicking off with a simmering cover of Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel, Poptone sees the group playing fast and loose with their entire discography, but with a clean, polished production that feels crisp while never losing the live recording atmosphere.

Love and Rockets’ Mirror People gets a punchier, heavier facelift, while Tones on Tail’s Movement of Fear dials up the Goth atmosphere, with Ash’s ethereal sax hanging in the air like tendrils of cigarette smoke.

Ash’s serrated guitar-work sounds as fresh and inventive as ever, burrowing like a fuzzy battering ram on No Big Deal, conjuring swirling E-bow textures on Christian Says, and basking in a glorious psychedelic workout on their college rock fave Ball Of Confusion.

Dompe ably holds down the bottom end, while providing nice vocal harmonies to Ash’s velvet croon. And Haskins percussion skills have lost none of their power, as heard on the whipcrack beat of Tones on Tails’ dance club faves Go! and This Is The Pops. They end their set with a nod to their Bauhaus legacy on a mesmerizing rendition of Slice of Life,

Poptones feels like a modern-day Peel Sessions, capturing the band’s live raw energy, with a reinvigorated sound that brims with enthusiasm and rekindled music chemistry. It should also whet fan’s appetite to catch them on their upcoming 2018 tour dates and hopes that some original material may follow in the near future.

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Poptone Live Dates

June 20 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
June 21 Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall
June 22 Detroit, MI – The Loving Touch
June 23 Toronto, ON – Opera House
June 25 Montreal, QC – L’Astral
June 26 Boston, MA – Middle East
June 27 Wantagh, NY – Mulcahy’s
June 28 Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
July 1 SilverSpring, MD – The Filmore