Tainted Pink Turns Blue

Pink Turns Blue released their album Tainted this Friday, October 1, 2021, and I fell head over heels for it. This band is so good that I wanted to listen to Pink Turns Blue’s back catalogue. I had heard one of their albums some time ago, and I wanted to refresh my memory of them. I blocked off time this morning to listen to the new album and sample some of their back catalogues, but I was easily distracted and ended up wanting to hear every song from every album. That was too much of a good thing, so I am only talking about one album today, Tainted.

The band Pink Turns Blue got their start in the post-punk/new wave/darkwave/gothic rock scene in Berlin in 1985. That sentence is an excellent example of why I don’t like pushing artists into genre boxs’. If Two Worlds Kiss, the first record for Pink Turns Blue, came out in 1987 and thanks to the bands’ days of playing small clubs all over Germany, people recognized some of their songs. Having a record out made them suddenly feel like they were a real band. Walking On Both Sides became their first hit and got them up to number 5 on the Swiss single charts. That’s a good start.

Fast forward to today, and I am listening to You Still Mean Too Much To Me, a single from the new album Tainted from Pink Turns Blue. And as of today, it sits at #4 in the INDIE DISKO TOP 40. That’s respectable. Two albums from the same band thirty-four years apart, and they are still in the top ten charts.

Today Pink Turns Blue is a trio consisting of Mic Jogwer (vocals, guitar), Reubi Walter (bass, keyboards) and Paul Richter (drums). In the first generation of gothic rock, Pink Turns Blue was a duo consisting of Mic Jogwer and Thomas Elbern, plus A. Drumachine. They named themselves after a Hüsker Dü song. Hüsker Dü was a band that influenced them, along with The Chameleons, Clan of Xymox, and The Cure.

Their debut album ‘If Two Worlds Kiss’ brought dark undertones into their new wave sound, essentially advancing the darkwave sub-genre while becoming a seminal album in the post-punk genre. Emerging from the fear and uncertainty of a divided Cold War Germany, the band went on to release 11 full-length LPs, the latest being ‘The AERDT – Untold Stories’ in 2016.

On October 1, the ‘Tainted’ LP will be released digitally across digital platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. Black vinyl, strictly limited to 500 copies with an 8-page booklet, will be released on October 29. CDs, which come with a 16-page booklet, are available now. All of these formats can be purchased exclusively via the band’s website, https://pinkturnsblue.com

So, what did I think about the album? HIT THE BRAKES! I went off on a rabbit trail there and had to do some severe delete and start again.

What did I like? Well, the music is top-notch for starters. It’s not a mystery why this band has been around for 34 years. They are good at making music. I like it when a band can take less and make more. For example, there are only three people in the band Pink Turns Blue, but they make it sound so expansive. That is a natural talent, folks. It often floats by under the radar, and not too many pay attention to it. But I did, Mic Jogwer on vocals and guitar, Reubi Walter driving the bass and keyboards, and Paul Richter providing the percussion make this recording sound rich and full. Well done, guys.

Pink Turns Blue beim New Waves Day am 18.05.2019 in der Turbinenhalle Oberhausen

On ‘Tainted,’ the band added an electronic element that harkens back to their early days when Pink Turns Blue was a duo consisting of Mic Jogwer and Thomas Elbern, plus A. Drumachine. The album title itself relates to the state of our world: climate change, its effects, the reaction to it, the split within society, isolation, health risks and financial uncertainty.

“When I travel the world, I encounter two types of people. Many are sad and void of hope that mankind is able to change. Others just don’t care or are sarcastic about just everything. I guess this makes me angry. I see all those toddlers with their lives before them, playing and laughing and inheriting a world in disarray just because of the greediness and irresponsibility of their parents. A call to try so much harder! Instead of using excuses for missing or inadequate action, mankind really has to get its shit together – now,” says Mic Jogwer.

“Obviously, young people seem to realize the cost of our shortcomings much better: all the carelessness about using resources, polluting the environment, the threatening effects of global warming, a poisoned environment and extinct species. They are at the beginning of their lives and the world is in crisis already. But most of us are using excuses or alibi “actions” to cover up our indifference or complacency. We pursue our own advantage at the expense of others even if the calculation does not add up in the end: if we don’t incorporate sustainability in our actions all will lose.”

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