Preparing for Pukkelpop Festival (1)

From today, we'll start preparing for Pukkelpop festival, which host many, many bands (some still to be announced) on 16th, 17th and 18th of August. First up : Belgian band Starfucker, who won "Labodelux", a talent contest, which earned them the right to open on one of the stages of the festival. It turned out to be the "Skate stage", where they'll perform their neo-punkdisco. You can listen to "Boys will be boys" on their website.
Bedouin Soundclash from Toronto mix reggae, rock, punk, soul and ska and they won't have released their second album, Street Gospel, when they play their show in the "Club" (it's available worldwide on 21st of August). On their website you can have a taste of what they sound like, with "Walls fall down".
Another Belgian band is Rye Jehu, who sound like Blink-182 have hired Dick Dale. If you click on the radio on their website, you can listen to 4 songs. Here's the video to 3 calls for alcohol :


Bloggers all over the world have grown to learn Voxtrot, who have become a huge internet hit. Listen to Kid gloves (mp3).

Starfucker's first single can be heard on their website and is not yet for sale.
Buy Bedouin Soundclash records here
Buy the Rye Jehu EP here
Buy Voxtrot records here

The Blind Boys Of Alabama

Here's the song which turned out to be a goldmine for Moby :

Run on for a long time - The Blind Boys Of Alabama (mp3)

Check out their website and buy their records here

Lazy Monday (on Wednesday...) : Yndi Halda

Due to being very busy on Monday (the end of a semester means a lot of work for a teacher...), we present this week's edition of Lazy Monday on Wednesday... Hope you'll still enjoy it though...

Today, we bring you a fine (and long) tune by the Canterbury (UK) based Yndi Halda, which remind me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros, Do Make Say Think and A Silver Mount Zion. Their name is Eddic (an ancient language) for "enjoy eternal bliss", which is exactly what they have called their debut.

We flood empty lakes - Yndi Halda (mp3)

Buy their records here

And for your pleasure (and for helping you forgive me I am a bit late with this post), we add a Sigur Ros track :

Starálfur - Sigur Ros (mp3)

Buy their records here

Album of the week : In the fishtank 7 - Low + Dirty Three

In the fishtank is a project of Konkurrent Onafhankelijk Muziekbedrijf. This is fish seven : Low and Dirty Three. In this collection of short length cd's, Konkurrent invites bands to whom they are strongly related, to record while touring in Holland. These bands are given two days to put down on 24 tracks 20 to 30 minutes of whatever they like : regular songs, funny versions, improvised pieces,...
In November 1999, Low not only accepted this invitation, but they extended it to their friends Dirty Three. Both bands played the Crossing Border festival in Amsterdam when they recorded 6 songs together.
Dirty Three seem to add some more tristesse to the songs Low play and sing, and according to the liner notes on the CD, the combination of Low's open, desolate sound and the melancholic yet folky violin of Dirty Three's Warren Ellis inspired Mimi to indulge in a more crooning way of singing and Alan to play some amazing banjo.
They throw in a Neil Young cover (Down by the river), which takes its time to open up like a blooming flower in the first rays of sunshine on a summer morning...

Enjoy these tracks :

I Hear... Goodnight (mp3)
Down by the river (mp3)

Buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Blowback - Tricky

RMX : Intergalactic - Beastie Boys

Intergalactic, the first single from the Beastie Boys album Hello Nasty, has been remixed by Prisoners of Technology/TMS-1 for the CD-single. They add some drum 'n bass flavour to it, which makes it an even more danceable song than it already was...

Prisoners of Technology are a London based drum 'n bass collective, consisting of DJ Magic, TMS 1 and K Dub, who are also known as Kids Of Death, Kangaroo Kid and The Musical Scientists. You can check out all of their releases here. They don't seem to have released anything since 2004 though...

Intergalactic (Prisoners of Technology/TMS-1 re-mix) - Beastie Boys (mp3)

Buy the single here

Buy Beastie Boys stuff here

Big in Belgium : Dead Man Ray / Daan

One of the weirdest musical experiences in my life must have been the live performance of a soundtrack to an old movie by Belgian band Dead Man Ray. The movie "At the drop of a hat" (its original title in Dutch being "Café zonder bier" A bar without beer, also called "De ordonnans") stars the one and only Belgian cowboy Bobbejaan Schoepen, singer/actor/founder of an amusement park.

Of course Bobbejaan Schoepen sings most of the songs in the original movie, but Dead Man Ray composed new music to the movie, which they played live while the movie was being shown. However, the screening of the movie was not as regular as you would suppose : they seemed to "scratch" the movie : some parts were being repeated, rewinded countless times, some parts must have been missing, which made it quite hard to understand the story of the movie (honestly, I couldn't tell you what it's about...).

Dead Man Ray are currently on a break, as leadsinger Daan Stuyven has been busy with his solo career for quite some years now, with a lot of success. If you ever get the chance of seeing this guy performing on a stage, don't miss it ! It's definitely worth it...

For your enjoyment, I have posted a song by Dead Man Ray, a song by Daan (from one of his solo albums) and a Bobbejaan Schoepen song from that movie (the title song, so to speak...) :

Beegee - Dead Man Ray (mp3)

Housewife - Daan (mp3)

Café zonder bier - Bobbejaan Schoepen (mp3)

Buy Dead Man Ray records here

Buy Daan records here

Buy Bobbejaan Schoepen stuff here

Thou

I'm not that particularly fond of Belgian band Thou, but I've always really liked their single Speakers (mp3) from their album Elvis or Betty Boop, which you can buy here...

Lazy Monday : Koop

The German record label Compost has been famous for its "The future sound of jazz" series, and its releases of artists like Ben Mono, Fauna Flash, Trüby Trio,...

Today we bring you a song by the Swedish duo Koop :

Whenever there is you (mp3)

You can listen to different songs from their latest album (Koop Islands) here, when you click on tracklist.

Buy the album here

Death Proof

Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown have convinced me of the talents of Quentin Tarantino (I still have to see Kill Bill, which I'm planning to see as a marathon, but I haven't found time yet to do so...), so it was with high expectations that I went to see Death Proof in my local cinema this week.

Granted, it ain't the big blow-you-right-out-your-chair as was Pulp Fiction, and the plot line is far from well-devised as was Jackie Brown's, but some typical Tarantino features receive a check-in-the-box : the music (it's cool, some long forgotten or even unknown past tunes that go very well with the atmosphere of the movie, its essential part of the whole experience,... yep, all there !), the dialogues, the action. The dialogues have received a bigger part in the whole movie, sometimes too big a part I must say. There's only so much coolness in talking about French hamburgers, and here Tarantino has crossed the line... The action scenes however (those car chases, those other car scenes : wow !) are what you would wanna go and see the movie for : they're breath-taking.

I also love the acting of Kurt Russell, who plays Stuntman Mike. He breathes danger, and every inch of his face warns you of hell around the corner...


You could say this movie has 2 parts. The first part is set in Austin, Texas and although it has a slow start, once Russell appears, there's enough suspense to get you going. In this part we see Tarantino playing the bartender Warren himself. He's not an unforgettable actor, and here he's not even half as good as he was in Pulp Fiction or in From Dusk Till Dawn.
You gotta love the lapdance scene however : it's all you'd expect from Quentin Tarantino. He takes enough time to let the whole scene build up to the sensual thing it's supposed to be, the music is right-on and serves the scene very well and the camera seems to be everywhere, showing you above, under, left, right, front ànd back ! You get dragged into it all the way... Too bad the first part of the movie ends with the rather pointless dialogue between the sheriff and his deputy (I think), which gives you little information, and which I think could have been left out or replaced with something shorter and more to-the-point...

The second part of the movie is set in Lebanon, Tennessee and now we find 4 other chicks that cross the path of Stuntman Mike. The twist of the story (after a very long fastfood restaurant dialogue, once again way too long...) succeeds in pulling you right into it, and this is where the action gets really serious. The pace is very well this time, and you are taken by surprise to hit "The end" suddenly... Luckily, we are being treated once more with a very fine tune (a Serge Gainsbourg cover/adaptation by April March) that gets stuck inside your head for the next two days (at least...)

I enjoyed the movie, and I wouldn't mind seeing it twice...

For my review in Dutch, go here...

Album of the week : Memories of the future - Kode9 + The Spaceape

If you're into drum 'n bass, triphop, dub,... you might really dig Kode9 and The Spaceape. Their debut, released on the Hyperdub label, is one of those records which blend so well with Various, Burial, Skream, but also with Massive Attack, Primal Scream's "Echo dek", Krust,...

Watch and listen :

Nine samurai (mp3)

Also listen to Sine (mp3), which is a strange kind of a cover of Prince's "Sign of the times"

Buy this record here...

Next week's album of the week : In the fishtank 7 : low + dirty three

Lampshade

Lampshade are a Danish band that have released two albums so far : Because trees can fly (2003) and Let's away (2006). Their music has a dreamy edge to it, although one could also drown in their guitars at times. Melancholy reigns, and the Scandinavian accent (sometimes they even sing in Danish) makes you long for the long winter nights, when snow is falling and the fire is on, your socks are warm and a blanket covers you while you're reading some romantic novel...

Enjoy these tracks, which you can also find on their website :

He is right in my mirage (mp3)

Plakka Plakka (mp3)

(both from Because trees can fly)

New legs (mp3)

Disse fugle (mp3)

(both from Let's away)

Buy their records here

Lazy Monday : Ansatz Der Machine

Today we'll be listening to a band that was unknown to me untill only recently : Ansatz Der Machine.

This Belgian band was listed on an alternative radio and magazine music list for several weeks with the song you can enjoy below, but I never heard the song on the radio. Luckily, their MySpace offers you the comfort of listening to exactly the sweet song that got them some local fame...

And just today, I found their debut album in our local library, and I found out they have two of their songs on offer on the website of their record company.

Listen to this relaxing song :

Over-expozed frozen stars - Ansatz Der Machine (mp3)

Also enjoy this song :

Indian beauty - Ansatz Der Machine (mp3)

Buy their debut album (The postman is a girl) here...

The Van Jets - Our love = strong

Check out The Van Jets...

You can watch the video to their new single ( Our love = strong ) here

This is a previous release, that they made available on their website for a while : Electric soldiers (mp3)

Buy their records here

Luisterpaal : check out new albums

If you want to check out new albums and are not afraid of "experimenting" and following the lead, here's something for you :

LUISTERPAAL

Here you can listen to albums from all king of genres, chosen for you by the Dutch website 3voor12.nl. Although in Dutch, I'm sure you'll find your away around their website, which includes a lot of audio and video material from almost any artist you can think of...

PS The link to Luisterpaal will remain on the left hand toolbar, under "Other blogs and websites"

God = dEUS

This grafitti slogan could be found all over my town in the nineties, and it has to be said : Antwerp based band dEUS has made some great records so far... Four albums, one compilation albums and two EP's (Zea and My sister = my clock) have brought us some of the greatest Belgian songs ever, and then we haven't mentioned the bands surrounding dEUS (side-projects and new projects by members and former members) : Zita Swoon, Kiss My Jazz, Dead Man Ray, ...

Enjoy these fine tunes :

Theme from Turnpike - dEUS (mp3)

Sister dew - dEUS (mp3)

Buy dEUS records here...

Brussels based dance band Neven used a sample from "Theme from Turnpike" on one of their songs only months after dEUS released it...

Heads or tails - Neven (mp3)

Buy Neven records here...

Two Gallants

You can listen to the new Two Gallants song "Seems like home to me" here on their website...