First ever live album from Eighties techno-pop band Vivabeat arrives in March

Since I covered the great recent reissues, I'm looking forward to hearing this...

Eighties techno-pop band Vivabeat will release its first-ever live album, Wild World (Live in Los Angeles 1980-84), on March 27 via Liberation Hall Music. The album is available for presave and preorder here. The album’s first single and video, a live version of the band’s best-known song, “Man from China,” is also out and available here.

Two never-before-released tracks, “Glisse le Rat” and “I’m Right,” appear on this new package. The 14 songs were recorded at three live shows in Los Angeles over a four-year period and capture different stages of the band’s career. The Whisky a Go Go date was one of Vivabeat’s earliest shows and features its original lineup. The Lhasa Club was a mid-career performance, and FM Station was the band’s final show ever.

The band's co-founders, keyboardist and vocalist Marina (del Rey) Muhlfriedel and bass player and primary songwriter Mick Muhlfriedel spearheaded the live project after first reissuing their debut album Party in the War Zone and The House is Burning on Rubellan Remasters in late 2023, followed by expanded editions of Party in the War Zone Expanded and another incarnation of The House is Burning with Liberation Hall Music in 2025.

“I had doubts we could make a live album work given the primitive quality of the recordings,” said Vivabeat’s Marina Muhlfriedel. “I’m so glad to have been proven wrong. The live tracks on Wild World capture a wilder, edgier energy than our studio work, bringing me right back to who we were at the time.”

“The process of digging into the various tracks after so long was challenging but so worth the effort,” said Vivabeat’s Mick Muhlfriedel, who produced and engineered the Wild World project. “I was repeatedly struck by how good the playing was at different points in Vivabeat’s career. Most of all, Terrance Robay’s live vocal performances were practically flawless. I truly wish he were still with us to hear Wild World.”

After combing through archival cassettes and videotapes, Mick was able to compile the Wild World, thanks to significant recent advances in production software and AI. After digitizing the long-languishing source material, he spent months assembling the album, using a “stem splitter” to convert the original two tracks into multitracks, separating the vocal and instrumental tracks for mixing. While the technology has improved significantly, it took considerable effort to bring the live tracks into shape. Once Mick’s process was complete, the band worked with engineer Thomas Ross Johansen to finalize the EQs and ensure consistency across the project.

A five-song video from The Lhasa Club show (the only live footage of the band) will also debut on YouTube on March 27. A mashup video of The Lhasa performance of “Man from China” and imagery from the band’s original 1979 “Man from China” video is now live on YouTube.

Marina is currently a writer living in Los Angeles. She occasionally performs in a Backstage Pass reboot and hosts Our Lips Unsealed, a rock ‘n’ roll storytelling show. Mick is the president of a large youth soccer nonprofit, The Downtown L.A. Soccer Club, and is completing a new album with his Buff Roshi project featuring Holly Beth Vincent.

Track listing:

1. Jet Set (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
2. On Patrol (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
3. Not Dead Anymore (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
4. Wild World (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
5. I Know Your Room (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
6. Pop Girl (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
7. I’m Right (Live at the Whisky A Go Go, 1980)
8. Glisse le Rat (Live at FM Station, 1984)
9. Angry Red Planet (Live at FM Station, 1984)
10. Last White Man (Live at FM Station, 1984)
11. Gray, Gray Gray (Live at FM Station, 1984)
12. The House is Burning (but there’s no one home) (Live at FM Station, 1984)
13. Shine (Live at FM Station, 1984)
14. Man From China (Live at The Lhasa Club, 1983)