The Belgian Pop & Rock Archives ... Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen
 
  Home | CD-reviews | Z | Zita Swoon        
           
 

CD OF THE WEEK (April 2000) :

"PLAGE TATTOO/CIRCUMSTANCES"
MUSIC BY ZITA SWOON
(2000, WEA, 8573 82117 2)

Songs (click on the -icons for a small audio-sample)
1. Up to the moon (daytime)
2. Circumstances
3. Stay with us
4. Spider grinder
5. Into his arms
6. Hungry
7. For blood effects in his mouth
8. Learn to dance with her
9. Drop
10. People can't stand the truth
11. I am a lover
12. The washing
13. Little Marie
14. No midi
15. Up to the moon

lyrics & music : Bjorn Eriksson, Stef Kamil Carlens, Aarich Jespers
Produced by Stef Kamil Carlens & Aarich Jespers
Recorded at home

Musicians :
- Bjorn Eriksson
- Stef Kamil Carlens
- Aarich Jespers
with :
- Tom Pintens
- Roel van Camp
- Tamayo Ocano
- Marie Roofthooft
- Georgio Chitschenko
- Stephan Duncan
- Eva Van Riet
- Rudy Trouvé

Artwork : Aarich Jespers & Tom Hautekiet.
Photographs : Bache Jespers

 

My opinion

Modern dance, that's a probably unforgivably huge "gap in my culture". The last dance-play that I saw, must be dated in 1989 or so. Even the fact that a large part of the beloved Zita Swoon set up such a play called "Plage Tattoo / Circumstance" with Les Compagnie C de la B, and this spectacle passed (by my door) in Genk, hasn't managed to change that fact.
A musical testimony of the play (something that's closer to my interests) has now found its' way onto a cd, originally intended to be sold only at the plays itself. We can only guess what reason (missed deadline? record firm pressure? Belief in the quality of the work?) came up to distribute it in the normal circuit.
It's unlikely that "Plage Tattoo/Circumstances" will become a bestseller, because for that the offering is to fragmentary, too hermetic, too queer. On a musical level, the cd can best be described as "The Sound Hobbyist" (the extra cd that came with ZS's last CD in the first pressing) meets "The Sylvie & Babs High Thigh Companion With Tittillating Orchestrations by the Murray Fontana Orchestra" (Nurse with Wound, LAYLAH Records 15). Cut-ups, Steven Hawking voices, a lesson English-Italian, a techno-sequence, a conversation during the parking of a car, fast-forward tv-channels, a Japanese woman in child labour, industrial percussion ... and in between all that a pedal-steel guitar, a little waltz, a jingle, a riff. That from this weird collage beautiful things can come, is witnessed by the track "Into His Arms", the most beautiful moment of the cd. Also pretty good : the percussion-driven "I am A Lover", the end of "Circumstances", bits & pieces of "The Washing" and "Hunger", the frail "Little Marie".
It takes some time getting used to, wins in power with time, but I never got to the point where I could understand it or get rid of the question "why?". All this makes it for me without a doubt of all the Zita Swoon CD's the one that has least touched me. Aside from that, it's of course a must for all Stef-fanatics, a memento for those that saw the play, and a nice "peculiar" sop until the next full-line-up Zita Swoon CD.

 

And your opinion?
Did I get it all wrong, or was I spot-on ? Do you want to share your opinion about this cd ? Send it in ...
Your name or nick:
Your e-mail:
Your opinion:

 

This Album in the Press

- la in Humo "Plage Tattoo is not the true successor to the excellent "I Paint Pictures on a Wedding Dress", but contains good stuff nonetheless".
- dp in Uptomusic "The fifteen tracks are full of abstract minimalism and are barking up a lot of musical trees. At one moment you hear rhythmic percussion and a waltz, another moment you hear eery guitars and shouty vocals. ... People with a bit of patience and an open mind for kind of cacaphony, will discover quite a few nice sound fragments".

Did you see a good (or bad) review of this album ? Tell me about it !

 

Where to buy this CD ?

You can order this CD from a number of locations (prices researched on March 10, 2000, but nothing guarantees they still are the same when you read this).

Shop
Price of the CD
Shipping + other expenses
Total
Direct Link
Frontstage
649
0
649 Bef.
Frontstage
Azur
657
0
657 Bef.
Proxis
684
0
684 Bef.
PRoxis

The lowest price is in yellow, the highest in red. This price comparison doesn't take things into account like deduction of shipping expenses when ordering more than 1 cd, bonus points, differences in guarantees ... Shipping prices are those for customers in Belgium.

Have you seen this record elsewhere on the net, do you own an online-CD-shop with Belgian products in it, or if there's something wrong with my calculations : let me know.

 

More about this group :

- Very soon : www.zitaswoon.com
- Zita Swoon bio in the Belgian Pop & Rock Archives
- Presentation of the play at Frans Brood Producties
- Other Zita Swoon reviews here : "Disco Adventures", "Life=A Sexy Sanctuary"

 

 

Other recent CD's
Do you want to announce your record here? It's easy (and free) ! Click here for the conditions.

 

 

   

Content + Audio
My / Your opinion
Press reviews

More on Zita Swoon
Where to buy ?

More Album reviews

Deze pagina in het Nederlands

The best place to buy Belgian CD's is Proxis.com - the biggest internet cd-shop from Belgium

Site
Homepage

Alphabetically
Chronologically
By Genre
At Random
Most Popular

PopNews
Belpoptop
Charts
Interviews
MP3
Forum

Help
Links&sources
Statistics
What's New?

Search for:
in
 
           
 

Dirk Houbrechts stopped working at The Belgian Pop & Rock Archives (you can read his personal statement here). The website is now entrusted to the Flanders Music Centre (www.muziekcentrum.be). Contact: webmaster@muziekcentrum.be.

Watch it : This site pays royalties, and was built and maintained in accordance with the terms and conditions negotiated with SABAM, the Belgian society of copyright-holders. Consultation of this site is free, but this exludes downloading, reproducing or public performance of any part of this site. Please do not copy. Link!

Last update to this site : March 2002.

    ^ up