January 3, 2001
GET YOUR VOTE IN FOR THE ZAMU-AWARDS
ZAMU
is once again shaping up for their awards to the best local artists & bands
of the year 2000. Most of the voting is reserved for the people in the music industry
& press, but the award of "best song of 2000" is decided on by the
- surfing - audience.
The nominees (drum roll, drum roll) for this year are :
- for
best album : "
The Magnificent
Tree" by Hooverphonic , "
Novastar"
by Novastar, "
Eindelijk Vakantie"
by Gorki, and "
Oude Maan" by Jan
de Wilde.
- best
vocals : Joost Zweegers (
Novastar),
Sarah Bettens (
K's Choice), Jasper Steverlinck
(
Arid), Geike Arnaert (
Hooverphonic)
-
Focus (newcomer) :
Das Pop,
Venus,
Janez Detd,
Bruno
Deneckere
-
Live act :
Soulwax,
De
Nieuwe Snaar,
El Tattoo Del Tigre,
Hooverphonic
- best
musician : Lars Van Bambost (
Noordkaap,
Novastar), Fritz Sundermann (
Laïs),
Steven de Bruyn (
El Fish), Bert Embrechts (de
laatste show-band)
-
author/composer : Joost Zweegers (Novastar,
Tom
Helsen ...), Luc De Vos (
Gorki,
Jan
de Wilde,
ABN ...), Daan Stuyven (
Dead
Man Ray,
Daan ...), Jan Leyers (Team Spirit,
Aaron Tipping,
Soulsister ...)
-
Producer : Jo Francken (
Janez Detd.,
AngeliCo,
Ambrozijn
etc...), Alex Callier (
Hooverphonic),
Frank Duchêne (
Gorki, etc..), Jo Bogaert
(
Technotronic,
Jan
de wilde)
- Music
Event :
Arno & Friends ( Amnesty
Int.),
Think Of One - Naft, I Love Techno,
Rock Werchter
-
Roots music : Philip Catherine,
El Fish,
Laïs,
Ambrozijn
-
Popular music :
K3, Helmut Lotti,
Belle
Perez, Gunther Neefs
-
Pop/rock music :
Hooverphonic,
Novastar,
Dead Man Ray,
K's
Choice
-
Dance music :
Buscemi,
Praga
Khan, Marius, Sven Van Hees
- Best
media (this is actually the most important award, as the winner
of this will by my successor ;-p ):
Zazou
(VRT Radio 1), Plankenkoorts,
www.jazzinbelgium.org,
"May I Quest You An Askion" (collected interviews by Humo's Marc Didden)
-
Best Song :
Voting for this last category can be done at a page on the
Planet
Internet site until the 28th of January.
The award-ceremony will be held in the AB in Brussels on February 13th. There
will be a live webcast of the event from the same internet-provider, and Canvas
will show highlights of the event in "Plankenkoorts", a few days later.
GOUDEN METROPOOL
Gazet van Antwerpen, on the other hand, is calling for votes in their contest
"De Gouden Metropool" (the golden metropole - a fine name with me, but
maybe the "brown" metropole would've been a better name?). In the category
"Music", the nominees are Novastar (again), Hooverphonic (again!) and
K3.
Voting for this award can be done on this
page.
January 2, 2001
LISTS & STUFF
"Looking back, on the road behind", is the first line of Jan Leyer's
hit "Only your love will do" 
,
and a sound suggestion for what everybody should be doing in these first days
of this new week, month, year, century and millenium.
Kicking off with a highly subjective year-in-review:
A YEAR IN BELGIAN MUSIC
Despite a very large number of releases (have there ever been more full CD's
by belgian artists & bands than in 2001? And have there ever been more of
those with "major" record companies?), I found the year 2000 as such
not a very exciting one, contrary to the "hype" that still reigns the
press. dEUS was missed dearly, Noordkaap's
farewell left a bitter feeling, K's Choice
can't seem to keep the momentum going.
On the international level there were the adventures of Hooverphonic
& Praga Khan in the US, and of Soulwax
in the UK, but shouldn't the bro's be making a new album? Via, Heaven Hotel &
Oyster records went bankrupt, PIAS was sold to the Germans. The folk-world
made a breakthrough to the record companies, but apart from Laïs
not yet to the public. And which are the bands that came storming on the stage
to make it big the next years? (Venus in Flames? Admiral Freebee? Kamino? Rumplestitchkin?
Angelico? as usual: only time will tell)
On the up side, there were the breaktroughs to the "general public"
by Novastar & Hooverphonic,
at last the release of the first Das Pop-album,
and a very sound general level on almost all releases. Other plusses were that
Wallonia is finally also starting to generate some interesting bands (Sharko,
Vanilla Coke, Mud Flow, Airlock, Venus
...), and that it is finally allowed to have some good-time music without thinking
too much about the street-credibity of it all (Whodads,
El tattoo del tigre, Wawadadakwa).
Put in list-form, this lot sums up the year for me:
1.
Novastar "Novastar"
2. Das Pop "I Love"
3. Bruno "Down the Road"
4. Hooverphonic "The Magnificent Tree"
5. Thou "Put us in Tune"
6. Tom Helsen "Tom is doing great"
7. Dead Man Ray "Trap"
8. Buscemi "Our Girl in Havana"
9. K's Choice "Almost Happy"
10. Jan De Wilde "Oude Maan"
The outlook for 2001 is looking quite interesting however, because the
new year should see releases by Zita Swoon,
Mauro, de Mens,
Pieter-Jan de Smet, Lunascape's debut, Zop
Hopop's 2nd album, Monza's first releases, Millionaire (Tim Vanhamel), DAAU,
and a dEUS-compilation.
As for this site (still a non-commercial, one-man initiative, btw) 2000
has been incredible (a Zamu-award as "best
media" in March, E-publisher of the year by Inside
Internet in September, interview in the Zipt-studio in November...), crowned
with an amazing number of visitors (over 600,000!
1999 had almost 300,000, the first year 64,000). I wonder how on earth 2001 could
be able to top that.
LISTS
- De Eindafrekening
(the listeners chart to the Flemish alternative radio Studio Brussel) had considerably
less Belgian entries than last year (which had a record 10), but still more than
usual: Arid defended the honours at n°2 with
"Me & My Melody", Hooverphonic
was at n°6 with "Vinegar & Salt" and at n°16 with "Mad
About You", while K's Choice finished
at n°15 with "Almost Happy" and Novastar
at 26 with "Lost & Blown Away".
- Donna's Top 2000 of all times
had about 180 Belgian bands & artist in it, with the most of them being by
Clouseau, Raymond
van het Groenewoud & De Kreuners.
Highest up in the list was the sentimental "Afscheid van een vriend"
by Clouseau.
- IFPI & Ultratop listed the best-selling albums of the year even before Christmas,
and as was already the case last years, their figures show a very different picture
in the North & the South of the country: in Flanders, almost 1/3 of
the best selling albums are of Belgian descent! The album
top 100 wasn't led by Helmut Lotti for the first time in a long while,
but K3 (with 2 albums) & Novastar
also managed to be in the 10 best-selling albums of 2000. In the singles
top 100 Big Brother almost topped the list, and the Belgian entries in
that list are likewise mostly commercial bullshit & kid's stuff (exception
: Hooverphonic at 73 with "Mad about You"). In the sales from Wallonia
on the other hand, you need a magnifying glass to find the Belgian entries : in
the album
top 100 there are only 7 Belgian releases (Lotti, Axelle
Red, Hooverphonic, Maurane,
Marc Aryan, Gauff' au Suc). The singles-list
has even fewer. Also interesting : the list of 50
Belgian albums in Flanders, and the list of 50
Belgian singles in Flanders.
