Period : October 10-15, 2001
In this issue : Access To Amsterdam, Camden, Kris de Bruyne, Spencer The Rover,
Praga Khan, Millionaire, dEUS, Das Pop
October 15, 2001
ACCESS TO AMSTERDAM
From Wednesday
to Saturday, Amsterdam is the host of the very first Access To Amsterdam
"International Music and Media Conference". Leaning heavily on
the concept of the American South-By-SouthWest-conferences (SXSW), the goal of
this new organisation is to act as a meeting point for industry and bands. All
through the days there will be debates and workshops, while the nighttimes are
reserved for showcases of bands (over 300 in all, mostly Dutch).
A number of Belgian beginning bands and subtoppers have taken the opportunity
of heading North and presenting their stuff on a stage of an Amstardam café
or hall. They are:
- on Wednesday : Admiral Freebee, Timnaa, Yum,
Janez Detd, Lunascape, Angelico,
Vive la Fète and Agent 5.1
- On Thursday : Sharko, Tom
Helsen, The 1's (formerly: The Buckweeds), Moonlake, Sioen, Flip
Kowlier, Buscemi, Mintzkov Luna, Eden,
Zornik, Starfighter, Riguelle
& Hautekiet.
- On Friday : Stache, Kris Dane, Airlock,
ABN, Reiziger,
Eavesdropper and Sunzoo Manley
- On Saturday : Golden Green, Soul
4 You, Venus in Flames, Bherman, Mindstab, Boenox, Cocktail Lounge Performers,
The Dill Brothers and The Revelaires.
There will also be a 'Flemish Meeting Point' at the Brakke Grond, where visitors
can get info about the Flemish bands performing on A2A, music magazines, newspapers
and Internet-access (don't forget to bookmarkt this page!) and a "happy hour"
with our main argument: free beer!, organized by Muziekcentrum
Vlaanderen.
More info on the site of A2A or music-zine
Kindamuzik.
NO NEWS FROM MILLIONAIRE There
is absolutely no Millionaire-news this week. A pity, really, as this gives
me no opportunity at all to talk about how f*cking great the debut album "Outside
of the Simian Flock" is.
I mean, if there was some talk about a new single, or a change in the line-up
or the start of a small tour, I would've been able to add a few lines about how
this is the finest Belgian release of the last three/four years, or say a few
words of what a rush of energy Tim Vanhamel and company could give you, or how
I would advice everybody to go and listen to the songs from the debut album at
the site of Mao-magazine (see the MP3-page) so that each
and everyone could hear what a world class song "Petty Thug"
is. But no, there's no Millionaire news.
Seriously: don't
let this album pass you by ...
Somewhere in between the bombing of Afghanistan and the bombing with new releases,
I must've lost track of some releases last weeks. They are:
CAMDEN GOES MISCELLANEOUS Axl
Peleman has been known for some time as the baldheaded Antwerp-speaking dude
from French Quiz, but he is also a musician ladies & gents: with a history
of playing the bass in Ashbury Faith,
Angelico, the
Paranoiacs, Automatic Buffalo and many many more, he has now gone more or
less solo for the first time under the name Camden.
Although, solo might not be such a good description, beacuase on stage, Camden
already has become a trio, with drummer Michael Schack (see Blue
Blot) and guitar-player Mario Pesic (of D-Tale).
On the album, called "Miscelaneous", most instruments were done
by Axl himself, but there were lots guest musicians, such as Joost Zweegers (Novastar),
Marc Bonne (drummer for Toy, Roland
etc ...) and Gert Bettens (K's Choice). On one song in particular, "Mr. HSP",
"solo" is definitely not a good description, as it played by no less
than 62 bass players at the same time. Unlike his work for Ashbury Faith or AngeliCo,
Camden shows a much more relaxed side of Axl Peleman, with the single "Black
Paper, Black Ink"
as one of the hardest song on it (the rest is closer to the acoustice B-side of
the single).
More info about Camden from Axl Pelemans personal site.
KRIS DE BRUYNE OUTLAWED Outlawed,
or "Buiten de Wet" is the title of the newest album of grumpy
veteran Kris De Bruyne. It has become
kind of an "old-fashioned" album - in the sense of "old-fashionedly
good" and with classic songs (especially the mocking "Ik lach me kapot").
Co-responsible for this new impulse in Kris De Bruyne's music are no other than
Mauro Pawlowski (a surprising choise of guitarist, as he gained his fame
with the alternative Evil Superstars,
but nowadays also seventies-like solo as Mauro)
and de Bruyne's steady piano-companion Michel Bisceglia (see also Jo
Lemaire, Johan Verminnen ...). The album
was prepared on a boat, but recorded in Pino Guaracci's studio in Genk, and as
the bio says "Kris de Bruyne refuses to bend himself to the laws of commerce
or the formats of the radio's. He is true to himself more than ever when he sings
about love, about his village Sint-Amands, about his daughter Hannah (and a wild
gig in Poperinge with Roland), about his dreams
that collide with the letter of the law". His lifelong friend and writer
Bart Plouvier also provided lyrics to one song, the talking blues "Uit
liefde voor Hannah (zweer ik de slechte vrouwen af)".
SPENCER THE ROVER A
release from a new name on the scene is certainly Spencer the Rover, with
a self-titled debut album. Although the band itself doesn't exactly consists of
newcomers: nucleus are Koen Renders and Herman Acke, who have a history in the
fine bands Stormdaisy (with the unlucky Günther van Passel) and Ivan's
Land (who had some great singles in the nineties such "All in Good Time").
After the split of this band in 1997, they have now included Peter Thijs and Niko
Westelinck (the drummer of Mercelis, and
in 1999 also solo for a while as Niko) in their
band, and found a new name (the title from an English traditional). As such they
recorded this gentle CD in November 2000 with Geert van Bever (Dead
Man Ray, Sue Daniels ...) and released
it one of the past weeks.
As their bio says - "the result is more than satisfactory: an album filled
with miniature songs, covering all the aspects - even the sadder ones - of a love
life. You want names? Search somewhere between Neil Young, Ron Sexsmith and Crowded
House, and ask some bystanders when you get there."
They'll present the CD on a concert in the AB club on November 6, free for whoever
is going to the Travis concert in the main hall that night. More info at the site
of the band.
Yesterday, the "International filmfestival of Flanders Ghent" opened
its cinema doors, and since the theme of that festival has been "filmmusic"
for some years, there is also some belpop-related newsbits coming from that sector:
PRAGA KHAN FALLING Praga
Khan has written the entire soundtrack to the movie "Falling".
This film - an adaptation of the book of writer Anne Provoost and the debut of
director Hans Herbots - has it's première on the festival on October 15.
Praga Khan isn't exactly making a debut in a soundtrack with this, but as far
as I know it's the first time he has written an entire score (earlier, songs of
this and other of Maurice Engelen & Oliver Adam's projects was used in blockbusters
as "Basic Instinct", "Sliver", "Bad Lieutenant",
"Virtuosity" and "Strange Days").
To promote the event, Praga has put together a "unique" concert, which
will be held in De Vooruit in Ghent on October 16. In this concert, he will perform
some of the music from the film with projections from it in the background, together
with lots of guests.
Of course, Axelle Red will be there,
as she is the vocalist on the titletrack "Falling"
(now also available as a single). Roos Van Acker (formerly of Eden)
is also no surprise, as she was protooled in the song "Rhythm",
that was released before the summer. Other guests are Han Stubbe and Simon Lenski
(of D.A.A.U.), Sofie of Groove Cartel,
Jasper Steverlinck of Arid, Deborah of Lords
of Acid and Koen Buysse of Zornik.
On the official website for the film, there
are 4 MP3's from the score to be found in the soundtrack section. Falling will
hit the regular cinema's in Belgium on October 24th. At KinkKong,
there's a video-interview with Praga Khan about the movie.
dEUS on DVD Tom Barman, the director-in-spe (still having some trouble finding the
budget for his planned movie "Vrijdag, Vrijdagavond"), was selected
and "honoured" to be sitting in the jury that will decide on the winners
of the filmfestival. In the margin of the interviews he's giving about this new
role, there's also some dEUS-news seeping
out.
Not everything is clear yet, but this is for sure: Later this month, dEUS will
release a new single. Members of the band talked about it as being "a
Christmas single" before, but this is now thought to be related to the timing
of the release instead of a feared candelight+mistletoe+santaclaus content. This
single aims to attract the attention to a compilation of the dEUS-singles
which does have some christmas aspiration (namely to find itself under your christmas
tree). For the fans, there will be a special edition of it, with a DVD
containing all the videoclips dEUS has shot so far (most of them directed by Barman
himself), and loads of extra material. Update : the single is going to be called "Nothing Really Ends"
and will be on the radio next week (see the MP3-section
for full audio and video of the song), the compilation will be called "No
More Loud Music" and will appear November, the DVD will be called "No
More Video", and should be in the shops in December.
DAS POP
The
boys of Das Pop have also written a
soundtrack, or rather a musical background (15 new pieces of music) for a movie
called "Les enfants de l'amour". This belgian film debuts at
the festival on October 10, and was directed by Geoffrey Enthoven - talking in
semi-documentary style about a torn family.
The music to this film seem to be some sort of a trade, since the company producing
it - fobic films - is also setting up a
film about Das pop, of which the synopsis goes "What would happen if
an author/director and a 5 piece pop band (authors/musicians) would bring their
creativity and talent together and would work together on a new CD/album on the
one hand, and on a longplay movie on the other hand, joined together by the same
subject, theme ?"
Meanwhile Das Pop have just started their conquest of the rest of Europe (with
Belgium and Holland pretty in the bag), kicking off a 15 days clubtour
in Germany and Austria, briefly touching down in Luxemburg and France also.
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