Period : September 9-21, 2001
In this issue : Jo Lemaire, Johan Verminnen, Eden, Camden, Coco Jr., Yum, Kris
de Bruyne ...
September 21, 2001
Hey, I go on a little trip to France, leave the site for a couple of days,
and guess what happens: the WTC crumbling, talk of WWIII and an ecomic recessions.
Well, thanks a lot !
The Belgian music scene doesn't seem to be very affected so far, as it is now
literally buzzing with release activity (september is thé month for new
releases). Today: you're never to old to swing.
JO LEMAIRE: SWING A LA FRANçAISE In
2001, Jo Lemaire is creeping out of
the skin of Edith Piaf, and re-takes off where she left it in 1997, or as she
announced in her bio: "Done with the fin de siècle
feeling, now it's time for joyful and optimistic swing, à la française".
With the help of producer Frank Duchêne (ex-Hooverphonic,
and producer for such diverse acts as Groove Cartel, Gorki,
Kolk ...), and songsmiths Michel Bisceglia
and Ronny Mosuse she has recorded the album "Flagrants
Délices".
Preceded by the single "La saison des amours",
this album contains two types of songs: on the one hand acoustic french popsongs,
and on the other hand some big band tunes.
On the tour that kicks off simultaneously with this CD, she is also backed up
by a big band (not so big, in fact, just the musicians from the Piaf-tour with
some extra brass and two backing vocalists) - in a "scenic direction"
by Kurt Van Eeghem. The repertoire includes a few
remakes of her own songs (eg. "Tintarella di luna", her first
hit when she was still with Flouze), a few
covers (e.g. Jeanette's "Porque Te Vas"), and of course the songs from
the new CD.
Tourdates for this Jo Lemaire show are here.
JOHAN VERMINNEN: SWING 'TIL DAWN In
2001 he started touring very soberly with Michel Bisceglia on piano ("Luistervinken"),
but now Johan Verminnen has chosen
a very different direction: he hits the road with a big band. With the program
called "Swingen tot morgenvroeg" (swinging 'till the break of
dawn, a wordplay with a song of his that was called "zingen tot morgenvroeg")
- tourdates a here.
There is also an album with the same title and content, and a double celebration:
50 years of age, and 30 years on stage. As he sings it himself in "Jongen
van 50"
: "Deze jongen van 50 - wil maar één ding - veel gevoel
en veel swing, dus ik dans en ik zing. Deze jongen van 50 - waarvan houdt hij
het meest, van het vieren van feest, blij om wat is geweest..."
Somewhat related is the news that Johan Verminnen has agreed to play the part
of Captain Haddock in the musical "Kuifje en de Zonnetempel" (Tintin),
as a replacement for the regular captain Henk Poort.
BELPOPTOP AUGUST : ZITA SWOON, AGAIN Zita Swoon's "Banana queen"
didn't have a lot of trouble fighting off the other songs for the top positions
in this month's Belpoptop. New in the list are Mauro, Millionaire and Ozark Henry.
With sixteen valid newcomers and an already impressive top 10, next month's
outcome isn't easy to predict. Here are the new releases that could enter the
list next month:
Darling Nikkie "So Easy"
Picked after a vote on the Studio Brussels website, this is the 2nd single from
the DarlingNikkie.com album of Nikkie van Lierop (Lords
of Acid, Jade 4U ...)
Chitlin' Fooks "Not Enough
Tears"
Pascal Deweze (of Metal Molly) and Carol
Van Dijk (of the dutch Bettie Serveert) gathered up some friends to play mellow
country songs, and do so splendidly on the debut album "Chitlin' Fooks".
DJ Krush "Danger of Love"
Dj Krush is a Japanese mixwizard with international acclaim, but the reason this
track is featuring in this list of new Belgian songs is the fact that the vocals
for this Massive Attack-like track and single from his album "Zen" is
done by Marie Daulne (Zap Mama)
Machiavel "Heaven's Rules"
Well over 25 years Machiavel is Wallonia's
prime rock band, and they're celebrating this again with a double compilation
album called "Anthology", and a brand new single.
Eden "Push Up"
Eden seem to be reasonably unaffected by the departure of Roos van Acker, as they
have found a very resembling replacement girl in Nathalie. See the MP3-section
for a free version of this song.
Johan Verminnen "13 stielen"
Johan Verminnen goes big band this year, with the show "swingen tot morgenvroeg"
that will be playing in halls all over Flanders soon. 13 stielen is a first single
from an album from that show.
Camden "Black Paper - Black Ink"
Camden is a band/project put together by Axl Peleman (Ashbury
Faith, Angelico, Paranoiacs,
Automatic Buffalo ...), and "Black Paper - Black Ink" is the debut single.
Hooverphonic "Jackie Cane"
Finally, Hooverphonic are releasing the most catchy song from the "Magnificent
Tree" album as a single.
Mudflow "Oh Yeah"
Brussels-based band Mudflow have struggled through a bad time, have reformed,
and went into the studio with Mike Butcher (see Arno
...) to record a 2nd album, which should also be out this month.
Coco Jr. "House of the rising sun"
Reggae-mad Coco Jr. has assembled a backing band called Vibes Alive and made this
summery version from an old Animals-classic.
Dear Liza "Let Me Know" Dear Liza is the band of female singer Els Artois, who, although they were
still participating in Stubru's demo poll earlier this year, are now already counted
among the "revelations" of this year. "Let me know" is the
2nd single on Ars.
Monza "De Ogen Van Jenny"
Close to releasing the long-awaited debut album "Van god Los", Monza
released the third single "De Ogen Van Jenny".
Yum "Day One"
Another single from the debut album "Monokid". The single version is
a remix of the album track done by Ronald Prent (Scorpions, Faith No More, Iron
Maiden, Def Leppard, Rammstein, Guano Apes ...)
Marcel Vanthilt "Ghequetst (ben ick van binnen")
Marcel Vanthilt (Arbeid Adelt! and such)
has teamed up with Ad Cominotto (Charles &
Les Lulus and such) to stage a show "U Nu" that wants to put the
x (of sexy, and exiting) back into poetry. This song is set to words from a 13th
century poem.
Marc Moulin "Into the dark"
Marc Moulin is best known from his wacky electropop with Telex,
but his origins were firmly into jazz (Sam Suffy, Placebo), and he has now returned
to it to make an album for the Blue Note label. Into the dark is a first release.
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