| CD REVIEW Mandaï Distribution special 2 : Das Simple – Mudweiser – Oxen – Quelqu'un Ramasse L'Arme Du Crime - Traffico |
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Mandaï Distribution special 2 : Das Simple – Mudweiser – Oxen – Quelqu'un Ramasse L'Arme Du Crime - Traffico As promissed, the second part of this Mandaï special coming at ya real quick-like. The added release (mentioned in the first special) is the one by Quelqu'un Ramasse L'Arme Du Crime. ----------------------------------------------------- Hard to believe this quartet consisting of Julius (fuzz bass), Z (drums), Arnalux (guitar) and Ramon Kalifa (guitar, vocals) is based in Marseille, France...because they don't sound French at all! Founded in 2008, the guys set about spreading their peculiar hybridisation of balsy Noize Rock, Psychedelica, and Punkified Jazz and by goodness, what they bring on their debut full-length is one serious MF'ing calling card! The thing is, they bring things in a very varied way, at one moment sounding chaotic-like-hell (but obviously with underlaying if indeed complex melodies) in a Melt Banana way, and acidic vocals to boot. At some moments the mood is calmer and instrumental, and reminiscent of Prog greats like King Crimson and even Frank Zappa. At other moments the pumping bass and strong vocal stylings remind you of the freaky stylings Nomeansno. And some reviewers even hear influences from the likes of Shellac (okay, check!), Dazzling Killmen (cannot confirm – still have to hear that band for the first time, I'm afraid), Godheadsilo (same remark), Mr. Bungle, Meshuggah, and then some (including Kourgane, Singe Blanc mixed with Rope, Trout Mask Replica, Tomahawk, Chevreuil, Zëro, Cheval De Frise, Don Caballero, Fantomas, Melvins...)...but eventually what all comes down to, is that Das Simple has just given us a far-from-simple yet incredibly exciting debut album, and we can only hope that their future material will evolve along the same lines! To get yourself an idea of what DS sounds like, check the music player at (http://) dassimple.com.dassimple.php for the first two songs on the album. For more material also check (www.) myspace.com/das_simple (full-length versions of the humorously titled “All The Nice things You Can Buy In Dubai” and “Coloured Food Tastes Good”, plus a full-length “Plesim” and sampled versions of the songs available on the band's own website). In late June the band starts a tour which should bring the quartet to Switzerland, the UK (help still wanted to fill in the days of inactivity), and even the Café Central in Brussels (Belgium)...where the guys will be playing on July 10. Crikey...wish I could go, but I'm afraid I have to work then! Still, seems like a perfect opportunity for anyone into this type of music to check out the band in a live setting. Meanwhile, all I'm left with to do, is to catapult Das Simple in my “Best Albums Of 2011”-lists! Yeah Baby, and a second Mandaï makes the year-lists! 98/100 ----------------------------------------------------- To fans of Stoner Rock/ Metal, this Montpellier based southern French quartet (d'ya get the pun?) may well thread a somewhat more “regular” musical path, but I'm sure people not into that sub-genre will agree that what this band brings is far removed from “mainstream”! Founded in 2005 as a threesome (a twosome of which formerly of Eyeless) the band became a complete unit in 2006 when Lofofora singer Reunojoins the fold. In July 2007 the band self-releases its 5-track EP Elvis Loves Me, which eventually leads to a deal with French label Head Records for the release of the band's May 2009 debut full-length Holy Shit (a 10-tracker including new versions of 3 of the EP's songs)...to which we now get an extension! The word “mudweiser” stands either for a mud-covered pick-up truck, or the day-after shit after a night's boozing, but Mudweiser stands for strong Stoner Rock with Metal fringes and the occasional pornographic touch: of the 4 songs on this 12-inch EP (total playing time just over 23 minutes) two contain samples from “hot” movies). Any lovers of Stoner can go get themselves this vinyl goody without even thinking...and doubters can always listen to the songs posted at (www.) myspace.com/mudweiser (only “She's like Cocaine” is from the current EP, but then again it is also the one songs pushed forward for possible radio airplay). Great stuff, this! 92/100 ----------------------------------------------------- Another Aftrican Tape release, and again an American band, in fact an instrumental act which has been around for a while already. Oxes is part of what is known as “The Baltimore Rowdy Collective”, which stages practical jokes (usually involving a confrontational and outlandish racket) in public places, events comparable to the Lettrist scandals and Luther Blissett. During their earlier performances Marc Miller (guitar) and Natalio Fowler (bass) stood on large black boxes (pedestals) to symbolise a superiority over the audience as Rock Stars. They occasionally stepped down to walk into the crowds and stand in front of individuals while still playing, attempting to make 'em feel uncomfortable. Drummer Christopher Freeland would also occasionally come down from behind his drum set, barging around on stage to mutter incomprehensible sentences, only to return to his seat and kick in a new track. Interesting trivia: Miller and Freeland respectively have the same birth and death date as Jimi Hendrix. Releases? Things start around the end of the '90s when the band releases the 2-track (vinyl) single Panda Strong on the new defunkt Reptilian Records, and follow that up with a split release with Big'N (already mentioned in the Big'N review of last February) on Box Factory Records. 2000 sees the release of band's self-titled debut full-length on their new label Monitor Records, which is followed in early 2002 by the fake split 10-inch with Arab On Radar on Wantage Records (what happened was that the band had rehearsed a couple of new tracks which were completely in the Arab On Radar vein, and this gave 'em the idea to do this fake split). Before the release of their second full-length Oxxxes (released later that same year both on vinyl and CD), the band also released the Half Half + Half”/ “Everlong” 7-inch (again on Monitor). The wait would be long for new material, as the Oxes EP was released only on February 2005. After this, things around the band become rather uncertain. In 2006 the band along with Monitor Records filed a trademark infringement law suit against t-shirt manufacturers Old Navy for releasing a t-shirt with an image of a flier for one of the band's non-existent previous shows. At one point Natalio Fowler moved to Italy (and from there to Berlin, Germany), and the other members remained musically active with Miller forming Microkingdoms and Freeland releasing an album under the name Frenemies (if I ain't mistaken, he also started recording other bands, like Lower Dens and Wye Oak...but then again that might also be Miller, as my info source ain't none too specific). In my search for extra info on the band, I tried to access the band's and Monitor Records' pages from the band's page on Wikipedia, but I was unable to get a connection. I díd find a page at Last.fm, but that brought some confusion, as it also listed an EP titled Iniciación al placer (all tracks of which downloadable after a short additional search). Then, I found out that this EP was released by a 5-piece band, origin unknown...still, the title sounds Spanish, don't it?...and so do the songs, by the way! Anyway, Oxes is back with these simultaneously released 12-inches, which will take the listener back somewhat in time, as each 12-inch contains one new track, the rest being re-mixes (performed by Cex, Jason Urick, and MRC Riddems of Dalek fame). Weirdly enough, a remix of each original can be found on the other EP! And now while the original tracks are interesting enough, it's the re-mixes which always tickle my fancy...because those quite often give the original recordings a completely new lease on life. Some remix artists even go about transforming stuff to such a point, adding electronics or other instrumentation to the point of making the new track almost completely different from the original one (except for a couple of chosen passages, of course, where indeed you'll recognize something). Personally, I lóve these kind of remix EPs, and I'm sure I'll be asking the local record store to order me a copy of these jems! Oh...right, you need to know where you can listen to some Oxes music, right? Well, there's some old tracks at their Last.fm page, and of course you can listen to samples of a couple of the albums at the trusted online sales sites (check Amazon.com and iTunes, for sure!). Third addition to the year-lists of these two specials! 98/100 ----------------------------------------------------- If you're looking for a band which might get accepted even more by the mainstream in music, the Limburg Province Belgian melodic Post-Punk “Quality Indie Rock” act Traffic is most definitely it! Originally founded as We Came As Dirt in late 2005 by the trio of guitarist Joris Adriaens, bassist Dave Haesevoets, and drummer Wim Gijbels (all of whom had been in such bands as Trouble Loves Us and Watchman prior to that, and had a common deep appreciation of '90s “Emo” music), the combo initially envisioned to emulate the sound of The Promise Ring to their best ability. For a while the bassist and drummer thought they could pull off singing vocal harmonies alà Hot Water Music, but soon had to admit to themselves as somewhat lacking in that area. For a while the band got into the proverbial rut, but then Dave came across an old college buddy of his, and invited him over to a band's practice for a listen, a beer, and possibly the voice to match it all. Serge Servadio had it all and then some, as off Jan. 1st 2006 the band (rebaptised to its current monicker) not only had a classy lead singer, but also a second guitarist. In the time to follow the band gained a very nice live reputation, leading to sharing stages with the likes of Paramount Styles, Herman Dune, Mintzkov, The War On Drugs and The Hickey among others. In 2007 Traffico finished third in the Limbomania band contest, and eventually used the prize money to record 5 songs with producer John Morand (known from having manipulated the knobs for Sparklehorse, Avail, Lamb Of God, …). The plan was to self-release those 5 songs along with some extra self-recorded new ones (hey, thumbs up guys...I sure cannot hear a difference between the songs you recorded yourselves and those produced by Morand) somewhere in 2010...which is when the guys struck a deal with Liège based collective Honest House, who released the band's 9-track CD later that same year. The ensuing deal with Mandaï now sees the album re-issued in a limited deluxe CD+LP package. The band still likes to hint at The Promise Ring, but has yet to be credited for that by their peers. After all, the band's calmer approach to layered harmonies with energetic hooks, twists and turns turned out somewhat “heavier” than originally intended, and has seen the band being compared to the likes of Minus The Bear, Fugazi, and Pinback...which is actually great company to be with! For your listening pleasure and first acquaintance with the band, they've posted 3 songs (“Flights Cancelled” nót from this album) at (www.) myspace.com/traffico. Check it out, or go see the band in live conditions sometime (only date posted at the moment of writing is at the Kaaipot festival in Turnhout on June 25...but I'm sure you'll find the guys at other festivals during the Summer as well). 90/100 ----------------------------------------------------- Behind this somewhat weird bandname (translates as “Someone Picks Up The Crime Weapon”) hides the lone Huy (Belgium) based artist known as Gil Kockelmans. With no additional info available but what's on the info sheet, I'm resolved to quoting that in order to give this review sóme sustance... “...In between Freejazz, Dröne and Noise/ Blues, this craftsman is constantly improvising and getting inspiration out of the endless continuity of a railway that journeys from A to B. On the contrary, he is deliberately eager for widely unpopulated pristine lands in which animal force and instinctive power intermingle into naive play and subconscious realms. All those sound sensations are transcribed and recorded at Huy's The Block Bunker, a place in which boundaries have turned into utopias and ongoing dreams. To put it in a nutshell, BB is a place where the old merges with the new through a process of time and its subdivisions – days, hours, seconds, etc – to adopt candescence and structure so as to give birth to the FUTURE...” Okay...that latter part sounded straight-out weird, uh? The thing is, to most people not into experimental music, the sounds Kockelmans creates will be weird too! Personally, what I dig most on this 13-track album (total duration a mere 28 minutes due to 6 short tracks only about 1 minute in length and 2 others not reaching the 2-minute boundary), are the instrumental tracks: album opener “Transversal Attitude”, shorties “Commando Insecte”, “Les Biens Feteurs: Vie En Accélere” and “Traque Continentale”, plus “Machine à Vent” (the latter, with 4:35 one of the longest tracks on the album). Plenty of the vocal tracks have a more song-geared structure, albeit in a very “progressive” mode...and the vocals themselves, a hybrid between slight distortion and whaling/ scream whispering/ squealing, are somewhat weird to get used to. Difficult to describe as well, and the best way to understand what they're like is to actually listen to the music. Regretfully, none of the 3 songs posted at (www.) myspace.com/gilkockelmans are off this album, and the songs posted are not quite comparable either, except for some of the vocals (still, with QRL'ADC there seems to be some distortion on the vocals, you know). Hey...last minute find: Kockelmans is also a member of Huy based band Volt Voice, who have a self-titled album out n Honest House. Or...how small the world is sometimes, right!? 90/100 Tony. |
