Free music : Scala

The all girl choir Scala, with the Kolacny Brothers, has a new album. It will be out soon in a de luxe edition, because the regular (digital) format is available for free download on their website. Just fill in your name and e-mail, and you receive a link to download all the songs on the new album.
Contrary to their previous albums, it's not a cover album. This time, the Kolacny Brothers wrote all of the songs.
If you want to know what they sound like, here's a teaser :

• their cover of Smells like teen spirit (Nirvana)
• their cover of With or without you (U2)
• their cover of Friday, I'm in love (The Cure)
• their cover of The bitter end (Placebo)

To download the album, go here

Big in Belgium : Monza

Monza, named after the famous racing track in Italy, is a Belgian band around Stijn Meuris (whom many remember from Noordkaap). They have released their third album earlier this year, called Attica!
For me, this album is their best so far. More diverse, more to the point and with a much better finishing touch, it beats everything they have released before. And I firmly believe that you don't need to understand the lyrics in Dutch to enjoy these songs :

• Wie danst er nog ? (mp3)
• De dag is helder (mp3)
• Lobby (mp3)
• Wenen in Wenen (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat

Belgian band Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat is really something special. With their mix of folk harmonies and post-rock, they are definitely a band on the right label, being K-R-A-A-K. On the 23rd of September they will release their new album, The Nebulous dream, on Conspiracy Records. They will launch the album with a show in Gent, at the Vooruit, with support act Guapo, on the 3rd of October.
Here are some songs from their previous album, An interlude to the outermost :

• The firesky (mp3)
• Salt (mp3)
• You will reap a whirlwind (mp3)

You can buy the album here, and the new album is for sale (after release, of course) here

Big in Belgium : Arno

Arno (Hintjens), once the frontman of Belgian rock stars T.C. Matic, has been enjoying a lot of respect from musicians all over Europe (and perhaps beyond?). He has worked with many great artists, covered many great songs (including some unusual suspects like Salvatore Adamo's Les filles du bord de mer). Actually, he's probably the biggest living legend in Belgian music, always performing for crowds of crazy fans...

Enjoy these songs :

• It's all over now (mp3) : a Womack & Womack cover, originally played with all star band Charles et Les Lulus
• I'm not myself (mp3) : featuring Tom Barman from dEUS and Stef Kamil Carlens from Zita Swoon
• Les yeux de ma mère (mp3)
• Putain putain (mp3) : orginally a T.C. Matic song

You can buy the album Give me the gift, which features all above songs, here

Poésie Noire

In 1992, Belgian band Poésie Noire, originally a 7 piece band, but later reduced to 3, ceased to exist, after their record company failed to release their newest album Delirious. Eventually, EMI would release it, their band name having changed to TBX, but since it wasn't successfull at all, EMI dropped it from its catalog soon afterwards.
They had had some success however, having opened for Dead Can Dance and The Sisters Of Mercy, and having released 14 albums and mini-albums. The album that has been my personal favourite, is Love is colder than death, which offers us a good view of their new wave sound and their dark lyrics. It was released in 1989.
Enjoy these songs :

• Love is colder than death (mp3)
• The lake (mp3)
• Oblivion (mp3)

You can buy the album here or here, as it's very hard to find...

Big in Belgium : Bobbejaan

Bobbejaan Schoepen is one of those old time stars from the fifties and sixties, who got very famous in Belgium. I wrote about him once in my post about Dead Man Ray and its lead singer Daan.

Earlier this year, after a long, long silence (35 years!), he released a new record, which got a sort of American recordings treatment, albeit on a smaller scale. With some help from Daan and Elko Blijweert (from Dead Man Ray), Nathalie Delcroix (from Laïs), Geike Arnaert (from Hooverphonic) and Axelle Red, as well as from his song Tom and his wife Josée, he recorded 12 new songs (well, actually one of them is a sort of remake of one of his most famous songs in Dutch, De lichtjes van de Schelde). The record sounds a bit like the Rick Rubin produced Johnny Cash songs, but it also sounds very Flemish and the songs certainly do a lot of justice to the singing voice and whistling by Bobbejaan.

Also, the records is a musical hommage to aged men. It's about getting older and viewing your life in retrospect, and about the experience one gathers throughout one's life, about losing your youth, strength and fysical ability.

Enjoy these songs :

• Je me suis souvent demandé (mp3) : singing in French, together with Axelle Red, Bobbejaan wonders about the bigger and smaller questions of life...
• Flower of Shanghai (mp3) : Daan sings most of this song, about the long-distance love of a sailor in a far away port...
• On a carousel (mp3) : mostly instrumental, with a lot of whistling (something Bobbejaan was famous for in his oldest songs), and with a spoken (Dutch) introduction...
• Verankerd (mp3) : this song is probably the best of the whole record : it's about being old and sick (cancer), but still wanting to live, it's the song which offers the rich palet of Bobbejaan's singing (the voice of an old and experienced singer, a lot of country influences, but at the same time it sounds about as provincial as it can get) and it hits the mood of the lyrics so right on that's impossible to resist to the beauty of it, even if it is sung in Dutch... Of course, as Dutch is my mother language, I cannot judge it, but I wonder if you hear the richess of this even if you're unfamiliar with the language (I would guess so). So please give it a try (and feel free to leave a comment about it...)

You can buy the record Bobbejaan here

Big in Belgium : Headphone

They are one of the rising stars of the Belgian alternative scene : Headphone !
I really, really dig their newest single, She is electric, which has just about all the right ingredients to make it here and anywhere (if promoted properly, as beautiful music in itself is not enough to conquer the ears of foreign music lovers, in today's giant mass of musical production). This is the video for it :


Enjoy these tracks from their debut album :

• She is electric (mp3)
• Ghostwriter (mp3)
• Film (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Arsenal

Two Belgian bands I know have a name that is all too familiar to all of us soccer fans. Galatasaray, named after a successfull Istanbul side, and Arsenal (just like the London based top team) have experienced different paths of success.

Arsenal have released their third album, which took shape during an unexpected trip to the Finnish frozen lakes. They originally set out for Norway to record their songs, but ended up in Finland. The experience resulted in an instrumental album, which was used as a soundtrack for the TV show De Poolreizigers and in their third album, Lotuk. For this album they were able to work with some of their heroes, including Grant Hart (from Hüsker Dü), John Garcia (from Kyuss), Shawn Smith (from Brad, Pigeonhed and Satchel).

Enjoy these songs :

• Lotuk (mp3)
• Diggin a hole (mp3)
• Who we are (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Big in Belgium : Hoover(phonic)

In 1996, when Hooverphonic released their debut album, they were actually called Hoover (but for legal reasons they had to change their name if they wanted to release music outside of Belgium, if I remember well...) Their music was sort of triphoppy and didn't go unnoticed, as one of their songs was used by Bertolucci for Stealing beauty.
Apart from the radio edit for 2Wicky (mp3), I have also added the DJ Pulse Dub (mp3) of that song as well as the song the original sample was taken from : Walk on by (mp3) by Isaac Hayes.


You can buy the Hoover(phonic) debut album A new stereophonic sound spectacular here

Man X

Country-based rock from Belgium, that sounds quite peculiar, doesn't it ? Well, back in 1991 Man X tried it, with moderate success. They got some airplay on the radio and appeared at some (smaller) summer festivals. They were best known for their covers (of John Denver and Hank Williams), which I like to date.

Enjoy these tracks from their album The key to your heart :

• Bitter tears (mp3)
• I saw the light (Hank Williams cover) (mp3)
• Country roads (John Denver cover) (mp3)

I have found no information on where you can buy the CD, unfortunately...

Lazy Monday : David Shea

Unfortunately, the album which introduced me to David Shea (his collaboration with Belgian artist DJ Grazzhoppa) is on vinyl, so I can't let you hear any songs from that.
Shea is an extraordinary musician, always in search for something new and experimenting and collaborating with various artists. He has lived in Brussels, Belgium for a while, and now he lives in Australia.
All the information on his life and his work can be found here, so I won't bother you with it right now, but I'll just let you hear it for yourself (all tracks are taken from the album Satyricon) :

• The wheel (mp3)
• Cave canem (mp3)
• The dream (mp3)

You can buy the album Satyricon here

You can buy the David Shea/DJ Grazzhoppa album Down river, up stream ! here

The Clement Peerens Explosition

The Clement Peerens Explosition started as a joke by the men who made a hilarious radio comedy show, Het leugenpaleis, on Studio Brussel. And then they became so popular that they made some more songs, and after a lot of years in which petitions were being initiated for them to have a reunion, they did indeed return to stage earlier this year.
Their band leader, so-called Antwerp pop and rock expert Clement Peerens (his real name is Hugo Matthysen), claims after all they do no more play some AC/DC riffs in reverse order, adding lyrics in the Antwerp dialect.
Enjoy :

• Vinde gij mijn gat (niet te dik in deze rok)? (mp3)
• Dikke Lu (mp3)

You can also watch them at their reunion concert, singing probably their biggest hit (Vinde gij mijn gat..., which means something like "You don't think my butt's too big in this dress, do you ?")

It seems impossible to buy their music on the internet, but keep searching, maybe you'll have some more luck...

The Tabasco Collective

Antwerp based The Tabasco Collective has entered one of the country's finest rock concours, Humo's Rock Rally. They've reached the semi-finals, and I think they could do very well...

Enjoy these songs :

• Once around the block (mp3)
• Coca coma (mp3)
• 900 corners (mp3)

If you want to buy their music, contact them at info@thetabascocollective.be

Rewind the video : Music for life

Belgian radio station Studio Brussel will be hosting the second edition of Music for life, an action to support the Flemish Red Cross and its water campaign in Namibia. Three DJ's will be living in a glass house, eating nothing and drinking only water, for 6 days. Dutch and Swiss collegues will do something similar in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Genève (Switzerland).
You can support the action by buying a song on the radio, or by buying this song from Fixkes and Axelle Red : Over 't water



You can buy the song here

The effect of passing windows, reading : Marjan Debaene

A giant poster saying Wolfish times hanging on a window near my daughter's school, has catched my eye several times. Curious as I got, I ended up googling the title of the promoted CD and ended up at the website of Marjan Debaene, a Belgian female singer-songwriter who has released her debut album more than ten years ago.

Containing songs she wrote between 2001 and 2005, her third album was released in the fall of last year. She got some airplay with the first single (Charlie Chaplin) on national radio (but not the station I usually listen to) and has opened for Luka Bloom and neeka. She played gigs in the UK and in Bosnia-Herzegovina (being the first Belgian pop or rock artist to play there since the war), but all of that would have passed by me if it hadn't been for that poster !

Enjoy these tracks :

• Charlie Chaplin (mp3)
• Do you want me (mp3)

You can buy the album here

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

Somebody's watching me

Antwerp based band Capsule have released a very well-sleeved debut album, Haunted house, in 2006. It has a very goth-like look, but actually the music rather bluesy and jazzy. On the album they cover Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I put a spell on you, as well as a rather surprising Rockwell cover : Somebody's watching me (mp3).

You can buy the album here

This is the video to the original Rockwell song :

rockwell - somebody's watching me
Uploaded by chilavert

RMX : Bring it on - Goose

This is a Belgian band that invariably got picked to be the band with the best live show on all the major Belgian festivals they've played the last two years : Goose !

Enjoy the remix for their latest single :

Bring it on (Tronik Youth edit) (mp3)
Bring it on (album version) (mp3)

Watch the video :



Buy their debut album Bring it on here

Sweet Coffee

Sweet Coffee are a Belgian band with a laidback sound, and they offer you their new single on their website : Downtown (mp3) Enjoy it !

They'll be presenting their new album Naked City tonight at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.

Buy Sweet Coffee stuff here

Song of the day : 25/8

Krewcial is a Belgian, local hiphop star, who has released two albums so far and who had a radio show on Studio Brussel some years ago...

Here's his track, 25/8 (mp3), from the album "25/8".

At his website, you can listen to some songs he made with Tom Kestens (from Lalalover) and Sandrine, which his record company doesn't seem to know what to do (here)

Buy his records here

Due to some problems I have had with the server hosting my files, I haven't been able to post much in the last week.