CD OF THE WEEK (July 1999) :

KISS MY JAZZ "In A Service Station"
(Heaven Hotel 1999, HH99021)

My opinion

Including the "hidden" tracks at the beginning of thie "In a service station" there are all in all 25 songs by Kiss My Jazz that are being released onto the Low Countries ("A truckdriving song" and "Untill the UFO is out of sight" are on it twice, though) : if you already knew some of the earlier releases of this collective of musicians around Rudy Trouvé, this is probably a prospect to bring water to your mouth. And that's quite justified.
"A truckdriving song" and "Elton is a truck" are worn-out country, "Easy Money", "This Machine" and "Walk Like a truck" are chaosrock somewhere between Beefheart, Sonic Youth and Steppenwolf, that is skillfully clubbed down before they can become a full-fledged pop-song. "Small Town Lovers Stroll" is something completely different : unadultareted bossa-nova. "Untill the UFO is out of Sight" - the best "song" of the album - is shaking pop with Stef Kamil Carlens swinging behind a huffing & puffing organ.
Those are the best succesful song. "One of these blackouts" also containts enough material for two very good pop songs, but ends up being nothing but two only half-developed ideas. On "My finger on your trigger" and "Crazy Little Baby" singer Dave Robertson goes on the sensitive tour - sounding like "Bawb Dylan" unfortunately. "In ruins", "A remarkable confession" and most of the hidden "In a Ghosttruck" seem recordings of a tired orchestra in their dancehall by midnight, with a singer that has just gotten a warning from the police to sing quietly or else to get a fine for noise annoiance.
Between all these featured styles, the jazzy aspect of the music - something that was clearly present on the earlier work - is moved far back "In a service station". Kiss My Jazz is about as closely related to that form of music as the insult "Kiss my ass" with the wish of being kissed on the behind.
It's always difficult to compare apples and oranges, but as fas as baskets with apples ànd oranges go, we found that other recent lo-fi Heaven Hotel-release Mitsoobishy Jacson that little bit better. So, It's not all gold that shines, but more than enough to brag about a good catch.

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, and I'll put it up here !

This album in the press:

- Raymond Rotteveel in Oor : "This coöperation results in an entertaining CD of which the songs cannot be put in one collection, but that put together still forms a captivating unit - or a multi-coloured collage perhaps. ... Gadverpielekes, da's pas lekker!"
- Dirk Steenhaut in De Morgen : "On In a service station the octet is headed in a new direction : it now plays a frayed country that Trouvé himselfs classifies under "truckdriving songs" ... This results in beautifull songs ... all recorded live and on various places. It al remains pretty lo-fi ..."

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

More about this band :

- the Kiss My Jazz-bio in the Belgian Pop & rock Archives.
- More about the members of Kiss My Jazz can be found on the pages about Dead Man Ray (Rudy Trouvé), Zita Swoon (Stef Kamil Carlens, Aarich Jespers, Thomas De Smet), Evil Superstars (Mauro Pawloswky), DAAU (de Lenski's) etc...
- Booking the band : as far as I know Kiss My Jazz doesn't perform on stage)
- contact : Heaven Hotel (tel : +32/(0)3/458.29.93 - mail heaven.hotel@pandora.be

Where to buy this CD ?

You can order this CD from a number of locations (prices researched on July 19, 1999, but nothing guarantees they still are the same when you read this).

Shop	Price of the CD	Shipping + other expenses	Total	Direct Link
Frontstage	665	50	715 fr.	Frontstage
Azur	727	0	727 fr.
HVH-Megastore	758	54	812 fr.
Proxis	606	95	701 fr.	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.

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