Period : August 24 - September 6, 2001
In this issue : Machiavel, Urbanus, Monza, Lunascape, Vanthilt & Cominotto,
Ozark Henry, Gore Slut, Paul Michiels
September 6, 2001
MACHIAVEL ANTHOLOGY
One
of the few bands that has it's feets of origin firmly planted in the seventies
and is still functioning today, is certainly Machiavel.
"Functioning" perhaps got to be put in brackets here, as their main
output of the last years consists of looking back on their days in the 70's, which
made Machiavel by far the most popular (sympho)rock band to come out of Wallonia.
This time, they are releasing a boxed set called Anthology. This double
CD contains the usual "Best Of" tracks ("Fly", "Rope
Dancer", "Over the Hill" to name a few) that were also included
on the "The Very Best Of" of two years ago (which sold 20.000+ copies),
but does also contain 23 tracks that were not on that compilation.
To push the fan into purchasing this one, there's plenty of niceties: like a completely
new single (called "Heaven's rules" - listen to it at MSN),
4 bonus tracks of bands in which Machiavel-members have been part over the last
years (Purple Prose, Twilight, The Responsibles).
Other rarities are "Birds are gone" (a demo from 1975) and a live take
from their concert in Vorst Nationaal in 1981.
THE RICHEST BELGIAN MUSICIANS According to Mao-Magazine,
who did some investigative journalism into the perilous surrounding of the hidden
world of "Het Belgisch Staatsblad" (which is the official publication
of Belgian law), this is the list of the richest "BV's" (the number
behind the names is the revenue of their company, in million Belgian francs):
11. Mary Porcelijn 21,2
12. Jan Leyers 20
13. Pat Krimson 18,4
14. Dana Winner 17,7
15. Chris Van den Durpel 14
16. Koen Crucke 12
17. Jo Bogaert (Technotronic) 11
18. Bart Kaëll 10,3
19. Willy Sommers 10
20. Kamagurka 9
Mind you, this list only gives insight into the capital of artists who chose to
put their earnings into a company, and a company in Belgium for that matter. Thus,
it probably is not exactly a true representation of the picking order in revenue
(where's K3, or any other band for that matter,
Arno, Maurane
...), but as the magazine rightfully concludes: "if anybody feels they've
been left out wrongfully - for example because they have transferred their money
to some exotic tax-paradise - they can always concact us to make justice happen."
MONZA LOOKS IN THE EYES OF JENNY Monza
are stepping up the anticipation for their eagerly awaited debut album (title
will be "Van God Los"), which has a release date set for October
1st. First there was the news that they are having their album mastered by Howie
Weinberg (a mixmaster who did his stuff on recordings of Metallica, Smashing
Pumpkins, Faith No More and even Nirvana). The production of the album was done
by Jo Francken (who also did most of the Noordkaap
stuff)
Secondly there is the new - third - single of the band, that is in the shops as
of September 10, called "De Ogen van Jenny".
The bikini-filled video for this song (directed by Stijn Meuris himself, who makes
for quite a contrast with the said bikini's) can be viewed from the website www.monza.be
(windows media player format).
On a somewhat related note was the announcement that Monza musicians Mario Goossens
& David Poltrock have now said farewell to touring with Hooverphonic,
although these are not showing any signs of ending the Magnificent Tree tour just
yet. Their replacements in the live version of
are Eric Bosteels on drums & one Remco on keyboards. Hooverphonic are also
about to release a new single, the catchy "Jackie Cane",
and have taken up the plan to fill Vorst Nationaal (the largest concert hall in
Belgium): November 2nd is the date for that.
September 3, 2001
LUNASCAPE BACK ON TRACK WITH B-TRACK
One
of the more incomprehensible things in recente Belgian music has been set right:
Lunascape have finally found themselves a record label that is willing
to put out their debut album. B-Track / Zomba got the honour.
Lunascape is the "ethereal ambient trip-pop music" (sic) band
of Kyoko Baertsoen (one a blue monday singer of Hooverphonic,
before Geike - and also known as the faerie in the 3D-Movie with Arid
"Haunted Castle") and Walter Hilhorst (still not German), who
have now recruited the services of Jo Mahieu (guitar), Mirko Banovic (bass) &
Didier de Vogelas (drums) for their live-band. The album was first started with
Double T / Sony, but the band couldn't publish it with them, although they had
been working with producer Ash Howe (Texas, Sinéad O'Connor, Faithless),
and already included the impressive songs "Your Shadow"
and "Tears from the Moon"
(the latter of which was co-written by Rick Nowels, known from his work for Madonna
- 3 songs on "Ray of Light" - Mel C, Dido ...).
The album release is only scheduled for January 2002, but there will be a single
in the month of October.
MARCEL VANTHILT GOES POETIC Marcel
Vanthilt, despite having celebrated his 44th birthday last week, has found
himself a new thing to focus on: poetry. First announced as "Luxemburg",
but now under the name "Vanthilt & Comminotto", the hyperkinetic
ex-MTV VJ, Arbeid Adelt-singer, TV-chaosboy
and multimedia figure, has joined forces with Ad Cominotto (see Arno,
or Charles et Les Lulus) to record a CD and
put together a theater show called "U nu!" (which means "and
now you").
In this theater production, Marcel Vanthilt travels trough the history of dutch-language
poetry, to prove that poems can be sexy, whacky, and set to music of today. The
project stems from an experiment at De Nachten last year.
From one of the oldest ducht poems "Ghequest ben ick vanbinnen"
(which is even the single) to the punk-poems by Johnny the Selfkicker, he has
set them to music (piano and soundscapes).
The show "U nu!" will tour (some 35 concerts) in September and October,
the first dates being at Zuiderzinnen in Antwerp on September 9, or in Dilbeek
on September 21 (which is the première). The tourdates can be found on
the site of the label that has put "U Nu!" out on cd, LC
Music.
OZARK HENRY's BIRTH MARKS The
only man foolish enough to give two concerts on the same day in the scorching
heat of last weekend, - a feature only matched by Walter Grootaers, who managed
to ride the 24-hours of Zolder ànd do a Kreuners
concert in Mechelen last Sunday - was Piet Goddaer. In the evening, he
freaked out with the jazzy Sunzoo Manley,
but in the afternoon he gave the first concert in about two years of his better
known project Ozark Henry (which
is now Dick Descamps on bass, Rik Debruyne on drums, and Stef Catteeuw on guitars).
In the past months, Ozark Henry has been recording a new - third - CD, with the
support of the Audrey Riley Octet, an ensemble that has a track record including
work for Blur, The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins.
The release of the album - "Birthmarks" is set for September 10th, but
right now, there is already the single "Rescue".
You can listen to the full-length version of this song from the Stubru-website
(which will be renewed from this Thursday, with a festive opening, including concerts
of Mauro, Sioen and ... Ozark
Henry).
More about the man & band can soon be found on his - to be opened - website
ozarkhenry.com.
GORE TURTLES, SLUT GIRL The
antwerp scene isn't exactly oozing with release-activity this year, but luckily
Rudy Trouvé has so many bands (Dead
Man Ray, Lionell Horowitz, Kiss My Jazz,
Cinthya Appleby ...) that there's at least always something coming out from him.
This time 'round, its the Gore Slut project (in which he plays together
with Jacki Billet, Dirk Belmans & Thomas Noppe) that released a third album,
named "Girl + Turtles".
On it, the guitar/drums quartet "perfections" their "clumsy"
guitar rock with distorted vocals, with tracks ranging from quite soft to manic
(eg the single "Stop")
to downright punky ("Freak"). The very Rudy-informed deadbeattown already
has the skinny on the CD through an interview with De
Morgen.
Somewhat related is the news that was spread at PopKomm last week, namely that
Dead Man Ray are about ready to
go and record a third album, and that they've even agreed to get a producer in
the studio with them: no other than Steve Albini (Big Black, and producer
for acts such as The Breeders, Nirvana, Bush) is said to have agreed to do the
job.
PAUL MICHIELS FOREVER YOUNG? Although
the man is already 52, Paul Michiels
is still going strong and sexy (according to those who notice that thing in a
bloke). After the success of his two covers with Jan Leyers (his former Soulsister
buddy) "Forever Young"
(originally by Alphaville) from the Team Spirit
soundtrack and "Let Me Be Turned To Stone"
(originally in 1968 by the Amercian band The Peddlers), used as the theme-song
of the VTM-series "Veel Geluk Professor", he decided to recored an album
with nothing on it but covers.
On the album "Forever Young", there is also a new recording of
his song "Females", and stuff ranging from Eddie Cochran, Jacques Dutronc
("Et moi et moi et moi" ),
Donovan ("Sunshine Superman"), The
Wallace Collection ("Daydream"
- the current single from the album) or even Dionne Warwick ("Walk on By"
).
The album was presented today, in front of an exclusively female audience (with
the help of radio Donna).
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