NIEUWSARCHIEF

Periode : 3-5 oktober 2001
In dit deel : Ozark Henry, Mint, Danaë, Venus in Flames, Marc Moulin, Mud Flow, Millionaire, Marka, Monza, Marc Morgan

October 5, 2001

BELPOPTOP SEPTEMBER : OZARK HENRY
Only 4 songs survived from last month's list, and Ozark Henry shot from 9 to 1. Newcomers galore (Hooverphonic, Eden, Monza, Yum, Dear Liza, Chitlin' Fooks & Camden), with even an ex aequo at spot n°10.

Current Belpoptop
1	Ozark Henry "Rescue"	Vote, and win a CD-pack of Dear Liza
2	Zornik "It's so Unreal"
3	Hooverphonic "Jackie Cane"
4	Mauro "Finish it all off (with love)"
4	Zita Swoon "The Banana Queen"
5	Eden "Push Up"
7	Monza "De Ogen Van Jenny"
8	Yum "Day One"
9	Dear Liza "Let Me Know"
10	Chitlin' Fooks "Not Enough Tears"
10	Camden "Black Paper - Black Ink"

New songs you could pick for next month's top are:

• Raymond van het Groenewoud "Keineig (verliefd op haar)"
  "Een jongen uit Schaarbeek" is the name of the 18th (or so) CD of Raymond van het Groenewoud, and "Keineig" (translated that would be "oh I'm so totally in love with her") could be about the producer of the album, Christine Verschorren, who happens to be the curren Mss. van het Groenewoud.
• Zita Swoon "My heart belongs to someone else (I wish it was mine)"
  After the exuberant "Banana Queen" single, Zita Swoon are shifting their gears down with this more subdued and beautiful song, and a CD that was recorded live in the Jet Studio's for TMF.
• Starflam "Amnésie Internationale"
  The album "Survivant" has just gone to "gold" status her in Belgium (+15,000 copies), quite unprecedented for a Belgian rap crew. And now there's a second single with a dope video-clip, Zap Mama singing, and some hard-hitting lyrics.
• Mauro "Everybody's Friend"
  The rate at which PIAS keeps releasing singles of the album "Songs from a Bad hat" is dizzying, but they are absolutely right: if it takes that to convince everybody it's a truly great album, than it's worth every effort. Co-singing on this track is Carol Van Dijk of the Dutch band Bettie Serveert, who you can also hear on the Chitlin' Fooks song currently in the list.
• Laïs "Le Grand Vent"
  Laïs have just returned from a small trip to China (in the footsteps of Eddy Double You), and now the ladies are releasing a new single. It's an a-capella coöperation with Gabriel Yacoub (Malicorne, the author of the song) and a possible forebode of an acoustic/live album.
  
• Mint "Half-Lit Cigarette"
  Currently touring with Monza, Mint is a relatively new band from Limburg who finally are grabbing some attention (read: airplay on Studio Brussel) with this self-released single.
• Clouseau "Ik Geef me Over"
  The brothers Wauters are not throwing the towel, but they are surrendering on their new single, the forerunner of a new Clouseau album that can be expected later on this month.
• Praga Khan & Axelle Red "Falling"
  Maurice Engelen and Fabienne Demal have coöperated on the soundtrack of a new Belgian Film, and "Falling" is both the title of the film and of their titletrack. This month they will be performing live on stage in de Vooruit in Ghent, with lots of other special guest joining in.
• ABN "Breekpunt"
  In between fighting off legal battles with the authorities or people who don't like to be sampled, ABN are releasing a 2nd single from the "Nachtschade" album. This "Breekpunt" (point break) reminisces of their "ex-Liefdadigheid" song.
• The Semitones "One Shot"
  They are getting rave reviews all over Europe, but still remain largely unknown in Flanders, the Brussels band Semitones. "One Shot" is the single from their newest album "Glitch".
• Venus in Flames "Safe Haven"
  Jan de Campenaere is releasing a 2nd single, a track that was already featured on the first Venus in Flames EP "Cynthia's Gone". Nice: it's available for free via his website (see the MP3-section of this site)
• Danaë "All Over You"
  Danaë Van Oeteren is one of the new female singers who are getting response from record companies and audience. After the up-beat single "Little Girl in Me" (see suggestions May 2001) and the release of her debut CD "Rain", "All over You" is her 2nd single.

October 3, 2001

MMmmmmmm ... the letter in fashion this year. And this month's barrage of new releases seems to particularly focus that part of the alphabet. Frankly, I don't understand why record companies somehow seems to think that each and every release does have to come out in September or in March (and October/November if it's a compilation). It's not like it's the auto-salon and every carmaker has to present it's new models now. Or is it? The attention all these releases are getting is so small (and so is my budget).

M is for MARC MOULIN
Marc Moulin is a synth-freak whose love for the keyboard has brought him to release jazzy solo-albums, Soft-Machine-like jazzrock with Placebo (not the Brian Molko Placebo), groundbreaking electropop with Telex and Eno-like ambient stuff ("Messaege"). 2 years ago, Marc Moulin got the opportunity from the legendary Blue Note label to record a CD with them, and to mix all these styles on it. The result he came up with on the CD "Top Secret" is contemporary jazz with an electric foundation, and can be easily compared with the works of St.Germain or US3. Although this is already his 4th solo-release, he admits that all the previeous ones were "inbetweenies", so he considers this as his solo debut.
The album was recorded with Djaffar Bensetti on trumpet (he usually plays Khaled), Belgian jazz-guitarist Philip Catherine, saxophonist Johan Vandendriessche, Bart Maris (Jaune Toujours ...) on trumpet ... The first single from it is "Into The Dark", with vocals by Christa (a singer he met when he was juroring in "Pour La Gloire").
More info about Marc Moulin's Blue Note project and a few audio tracks from the CD can be found at the Belgian MSN site.

>>> Buy Marc Moulin "Top Secret" at Proxis <<<

M is for MUD FLOW
On September 14, Brussels-based band Mud Flow released it's second album, called "Re*act" (out on Viva Disc, Distribution Sony). On it 11 tracks that seem to be less whimsical and more powerful than their good but inequal debut "Amateur" of two years ago. The album was produced by Mike Butcher (Arno, Starflam ...). You might have already picked up the song "Oh Yeah!" on the radio, as this is now on the playlists of both Radio 21 and Studio Brussel at the same time (still a rare fact, or so it seems).
Two weeks ago, the band had the pleasure of introducing the album to the public at a night of "Les Nuits Botanique", but the pleasure was only with the audience, as they had both an amp on fire and singer Vincent Liben had a carcrash on his way to the gig. In the end though, they came out alright, as can be heard on this audiostream of the concert on the site of the RTBf.

>>> Buy Mud Flow "Re*act" at Proxis <<<

M is for MILLIONAIRE
He had us waiting for a long time, but now it's finally here and living up to the wild expectations everybody was having about it : the debut CD "Outside the Simian Flock" of Millionaire.
Millionaire is the band built around Tim Vanhamel, the wilde sidekick of Mauro Pawlowski in the Evil Superstars and interim-guitarist during dEUS's "Ideal Crash"-tour.
As the bio says "The Cd with which they present themselves to the world is called "Outside The Simian Flock" and if that doens't count as a mission statement, then the music will do so: a hot-blooded, greedy, rücksichtslos rocking, blindly racing along young-turk-racket of a band that goes all out for it, with all means provided kindly by the devil ànd with the approval of their mum." The single that was released earlier this year, opening track "Body Experience Revue" is indeed a good introduction to the music of Millionaire.
You can prelisten the entire album (if you have a good connection and Flash 5 installed) at MaoMagazine, who also set up a mini-site for the release and distributed a nice booklet with an interview in their last issue.

>>> Buy Millionaire "Outside the simian flock" at Proxis <<<

M is for MARKA
Serge van Laeken, aka Marcassou - as he was known when he was playing the bass in the eighties funkwave Allez Allez - aka Marka - as he known since he went solo - has delivered his new fifth CD. It's called "Avant Après" (translated that would be "Before After").
On the album, there's the typical mix of Marka songs, mixing chanson, ska, witted humor, a little bit of punk energy (he finally set his version of his heroes The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go" on this disc as "Resterai-je ou"), and his very own irrisistable Belgitude (for example the opening track "Je Parle", the lyrics go "Je parle Flamand, je parle François, je parle je toutes les langues parce que je suis Bruxellois."). Among the guests on the album there's Vanilla Coke, Perry Rose or the entire Galician choir Ialma.
More info about the new album at Marka.be

>>> Buy Marka "Avant Aprés" at Proxis <<<

M is for MONZA
There's some good news about Monza, there's some bad news, and there's even worse.
Starting with the bad bit, Monza - as you all know by now the new band of ex-Noordkaap singer Stijn Meuris - had to do a last-minute change in the line-up: bass-player Bart Zegers was kicked out of the band and is replaced from now on by Luc Weytjens (who is strangely enough a keyboard player).
On the worse : yesterday Stijn Meuris came on television, and they sat him next to Freddy Willockx. That sure was no pretty sight. Jesus wept.
OK, the rest of the news is pretty good, as after the excellent singles "Van God Los", "De Stad kan zo koud zijn" and the current "De Ogen van Jenny", the - very long awaited - album has finally descended from heavens and is also called "Van God Los". It counts 12 tracks, plus the videoclips for "Van God Los" & "De Ogen Van Jenny".
News & stuff about the band at the very active Monza-site or on Humo's wild site, where you can listen to real-audio of 4tracks and an MP3 of album track Viva Las Vegas.

>>> Buy Monza "Van God Los" at Proxis <<<

M is for MARC MORGAN
Not very well known in Flanders, Marc Morgan has a long history of chanson & rock behind him in the South : Objectif Lune, les Révérend du Prince Albert, les Tricheurs, La Variété ... before he went solo in 1992. After his solo-debut in 1992 "Un cygne sur L'Orénoque" and the well-received 2nd album "Les grands Espaces" in 1996, he has now returned to the scene with his third solo-CD enitled "Les Parallèles se rejoignent" (the parrallels get together).
The album was released on September 28th on Viva Disc (distr. Sony) and counts 11 tracks, all written and composed and even produced by the man himself. In the beginning of September, there was a 2nd single released from it "Je reviens de loin" (i come back from far), after the track "Scaphandrier" announced his come-back back in July.
More info at his freshly renovated website at www.marcmorgan.com

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