Album of the week : Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

This Belgian band's epynomous debut album proved you can play modern, rocking music without guitars. A clarinet, a violin, a cello and an accordion are all it takes for them to play something that reaches from klezmer to classic rock (they managed to squeeze some Led Zeppelin into Doorloop at live performances). Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung would change their name into DAAU for the following albums and their music would grow into something a bit more conventional (although you should definitely check out their Radiohead cover Of R*D*H*D (2 + 2 = 5) to understand how unconventional their music remains...).

Their debut album was released in 1995 and it definitely was something new. But even today, the album still stands firm as a house. The "warning on the sleeve is not without cause : "magisches theater - eintrit nicht für jedermann - nur für verrückte - eintrit kostet den verstand" (magical theater - admittance not for anyone - just for the mad - admittance will cost you your mind). The music (there is no singing on this album) still succeeds in capturing your attention to release it only after hours past the last note. At times you hear something which is vaguely reminiscent of something you know, what can't quite catch... (in Doorloop, you probably cán pin it down to Ravel's Bolero). This album does what most excellent debuts do : although it has been followed by probably better records, it remains the one that gets played more often.

I have seen this band play live on the tour that followed the release (which is why I know of the Led Zeppelin piece...) and they were really awesome. Check out their tour dates (they'll play some Swedish shows in february 2008...) !

Enjoy these tracks :

• V² - Drieslagstelsel (mp3)
• Doorloop (+ traditional) (mp3)

You can buy their debut album and their other albums here

The band offers you 4 of their songs for free on their website (here, under downloads) : Catfish blues, Voodoo sim, Mary go round and Gin & tonic.

Next week's album of the week : Kurr - Amiina

Album of the week : Post pop parade - Chris Price

If you like your records to sound like the ones you remember from the eighties, this album is a sure bet ! Chris Price has made a poppy record, however without losing sight of today's music scene.

Admittedly, the first associations when hearing the complete record, were Kraftwerk and Erasure, but listen to the raps in Heat Up and mistake it for Fat Lip in Chemical Brothers' recent single The Salmon Dance. If the songs don't sound very eighties (e.g. Taken) they definitely sound quite nineties (And She Was) with their bleeps which could well have been The Orb-inspired...

Overall, this album may not have the quality (nor the ambition) of a today's Achtung Baby or Kid A, but if you like something to go well with the dishes you're doing or ironing your shirt, this is definitely the right album (to all you sarcasts : this IS meant as a compliment...). It's also very suitable for Friday or Saturday evenings, before going out : it'll get you in the mood for sure ! It combines the best of early hiphop (Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata,...) with a Pet Shop Boys nose for pop.

Funny how Chris Price calls it post-pop...

Enjoy these tracks :

• Heat Up (mp3)
• Radioactive (mp3)

You can buy the album here.

Or even better : Chris Price has informed me that blog readers can buy at for about a dollar less : send 12 USD and your address to sales@chris-price.com or mail them at info@chris-price.com for full information. This offer includes free worldwide shipping.

Next week's album of the week : Die anarchistische abendunterhaltung - Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

Album of the week : The fat of the land - The Prodigy

Try singing The Prodigy's Smack my bitch up at a feminist convention, and you'll understand the impact of words on people fighting for a cause...

The single, following Breathe and Firestarter, raised high expectations for this album, back in 1997. For me, those expectations were not entirely met. True, the three songs I already cited, are good Prodigy material, and there are some more songs that remain quite good. But most of the songs contain at least one good idea, but sadly the idea's not been worked out thoroughly, which leaves me a bit unsatisfied. Although, I will not deny that I have enjoyed and still enjoy most of the album. The L7 cover Fuel my fire is probably the weekest song, and Narayan isn't exactly among the best The Prodigy have ever done, but hey, you can skip songs on your CD player, can't you...

Following the release of this album, their tour led them to Brussels (Vorst Nationaal), where I saw their concert. Unfortunately, that concert was a bigger disappointment : they seemed like a good CD-player : loud and good sound quality, but the songs differed far too little from the studio versions...

Still, enjoy these tracks :

• Serial thrilla (mp3)
• Smack my bitch up (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : Post pop parade - Chris Price

Album of the week : Puta's fever - Mano Negra

I remember that the first song of the 1990 edition of the Rock Torhout festival that I could properly listen to after having entered the festival site, was a cover (didn't know that then, however) of Bobby Fuller's I fought the law. The band that opened the festival was having a massive radio hit with King kong five, and their mix of all kinds of languages and all kinds of music genres blew me off my feet.

Today their lead singer Manu Chao has a relatively succesfull solo career, but I still prefer their breakthrough album Puta's fever.

It has witty lyrics in French (Pas assez de toi, La rançon du succès) as well as Spanish and even Arabic sung songs. It has punch, a sort of gypsy punk attitude, but also downtempo songs that touch your heart.

Enjoy these songs :

• Rock 'n roll band (mp3)
• King kong five (mp3)
• Sidi h' bibi (mp3)
• El sur (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : The fat of the land - Prodigy

Album of the week : This is somewhere - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Think Bonnie Raitt ! Think Heather Nova (on Oyster or Siren) !

Yes, now you've reached the place where you could meet and hear Grace Potter...

On her latest album This is somewhere, she and her band bring you songs which we could so easily call americana. Personally, I prefer the uptempo songs (like Mr Columbus, Ah Mary and Mastermind), but you've got to give it to them : they bring us some brilliant slows, on which I'd dance with a beautiful woman any time of day ! Apologies (tears almost have to well in your own eyes listening to this) and Falling or flying (never heard anyone sound like Heather Nova this much, not being Heather Nova herself...) have musicians taking you along on their trip and a voice heavy with cigarette smoke and heartache.

I regret to say I don't think Grace Potter will ever become big here in Belgium (haven't heard of her on the radio yet, so if it weren't for the internet, I would have remained in oblivion about her too...) : this is just not the kind of music many over here listen to, but hey... they're so wrong !

Think Bonnie Raitt and think Heather Nova, and think even better : that's where you'll find Grace Potter ! And keep listening to her album, over and over again...

Enjoy this song : Ah mary (mp3)

Listen to all songs on the album on her website, under Media.

Buy the album here

Newt week's album of the week : Puta's fever by Mano Negra

Album of the week : Human race ignition - Tekton Motor Corporation

In 1994, when I visited the Pukkelpop festival for the first time, I saw a Slovenian band that did something no one else ever did (not to my knowledge anyway) : they performed with two heavy trucks among their instruments. Unfortunately, as they had to play indoors in the "Dance tent", Tekton Motor Corporation couldn't do it there, but they did when playing in open air.

Something else they did which was unique and which was the reason I was curious enough to go and see this unknown band, they sampled Formula 1 race cars.

I really enjoyed the concert : it was good dance music ! So I bought their album, Human race ignition, and have enjoyed it occasionally since...

The sounds of the F1 race cars were recorded at McLaren testing sessions in France, Michael Andretti and Mark Blundell being the drivers.

The album has three songs on it, but each song consists of 4 to 5 parts, which can be distinguished quite well. You can listen to Tek I (mp3), which consists of : Cognitive Magnitude, Ignition, Dreams and The Horizon. Each song has race car sounds in it, along with guitars and a lot of techno sounds. This may not be the best dance music there is, but the race car sounds give it that extra spice to make it stand out anyway...

The band only released two albums (Human race ignition with the tracks Tek I, Tek II and Tek III ; Champions with the tracks Tek IV and Tek V !), and they made it to the first Mind The Gap compilation of the music magazine Gonzo Circus.

You can buy the album here (although there seem to be different versions of the same album...). My version of the album was released by Dreamtime Recording (KT 8 11CD).

Next week's album of the week : "This is somewhere" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Album of the week : Because of the times - Kings Of Leon

Kings Of Leon have blown me away with their single On Call, which made me curious to hear more from them. Their album Because of the times proves them to be a band that can really, really rock... Somehow, in a strange way, they reminded me of The Black Crowes : the melodious rock, the way even more down-tempo songs carry that energy,...

Opener Knocked up already enters with a hook that goes straight for your mind, to never leave it again, as does On call. But I also like the wide open view of songs like Trunk and Arizona. You can actually feel and see the roads ahead, amidst of the lonely desert (at least, that's how I picture Arizona...).

Enjoy these tracks :

• Knocked up (mp3)
• On call (mp3)
• Trunk (mp3)

You can buy the album here.

Next week's album of the week : Signs by Badmarsh&Shri

Album of the week : Damaged - Lambchop

Kurt Wagner has been making some of the most astonishingly beautiful music that I've heard over the years. This is the kind of music you may wake me up for any time, and this is the kind of music I'd love to hear being performed in a church or monastery (as Tindersticks did years ago in a small town in my country...)

Lambchop is as alt.country as you can get, and I definitely love it.

On Damaged the band brings us music that touches you to the very bone. Listen to the three songs below, and you'll catch my point... :

Paperback bible (mp3)

Beers before the barbican (mp3)

The decline of country and western civilization (mp3)

In addition, here's a live version of "Up with people" (mp3)

You can buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Because of the times - Kings Of Leon

Album of the week : Blowback - Tricky

In 2001 Tricky released Blowback, an album on which he collaberated with various artists, such as Alanis Morissette, Ed Kowalczyk (from Live), Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante and Flea (all Red Hot Chili Peppers), Cyndi Lauper,...

The result was an album which once again showed what Tricky is capable of. The powerful songs strike you in the face, though I have to admit the album starts stronger than it ends...

Enjoy these songs :

Excess (with Alanis Morissette) (mp3)

Evolution revolution love (with Ed Kowalczyk) (mp3)

Something in the way (Nirvana cover) (mp3)

Buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Damaged - Lambchop

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

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

Album of the week : Kill uncle - Morrissey

I'm driving your girlfriend home
and she's saying how she never chose you
"turn left", she says so I turn left
and she says
"So how did I end up
so deeply involved in the very existence
I planned on avoiding?"
and I can't answer

I'm driving your girlfriend home
and she's laughing to stop herself crying
"drive on", she says so I drive on
and she says
"So how did I end up attached to this person
when his sense of humour gets gradually worser?"
and I can't tell her

I'm parking outside her home
and we're shaking hands
goodnight, so politely

I know little lyrics that describe so accurately the painful hurt of people drifting apart whilst using so little words and so trivial details, as "Driving your girlfriend home" on this week's album.
Morrissey, former singer of The Smiths, was quite unknown to me at the time, when I first heard Sing your life, a song taken from Kill uncle. I really loved the moody swing to it, how it sounded rustic and familiar and yet in touch with the spirit of those days...
I guess the album must have been about the tenth CD I ever bought (now I have hundreds of them, and hundreds of LP's, tapes and singles -both vinyl and CD), so there must have been weeks when I listened to almost nothing else but this soothing, lamentful, peculiarly warm voice, singing lyrics which seemed divine in its simplicity.
Listening to it today, I still feel that touch of how Morrissey paints you a picture so familiar and so right-on-the-spot you can actually feel as if it's your life sung...

Enjoy these songs :

Our Frank

Driving your girlfriend home

Buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Memories of the future - KODE9 + THE SPACEAPE

Album of the week : Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn turns out to be a country & western star. I would probably have never heard of her (I'm not really into C&W, "Nashville style") if it hadn't been for her collaboration with Jack White (yep, the one and only...). He has produced this album, co-written it, and even sings and plays guitar on it. He has helped to make this record one of those rock-injected country albums that lift the artist to a higher level.
The opening track (Van Lear Rose) sets an example for the rest of the album, with a nice storyline and a musical expedition to where a wailing guitar and a lingering voice meet. I especially like the up-tempo songs on the record, and I really dig the stories Loretta tells us. The album ends with Story of my life, an autobiographical song that makes the circle round.

Enjoy these songs :

Van Lear Rose (mp3)
High on a mountain top (mp3)
Mrs. Leroy Brown (mp3)

Buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : Kill uncle - MORRISSEY