This week kicks off with a beautiful EP from Dutch soil and ends with the latest single of a Dutch band that, only three songs into its career, the alternative music scene is drumming up a lot of attention towards. Do we do hypes? If we do, this is it, folks. In between something old, something new and everything in between. Enjoy!
Onder Het Gras. De Breek
Na de af en toe magisch mooie EP 'Jas' komt De Breek met zijn tweede EP en dat schept nogal wat verwachtingen op basis van dat mooie voorgaande. Het komt echter helemaal goed, dus niet gevreesd. Het trio Sander van Munster, David Pino en Steef Hupkes slaan weer toe met een aantal nummers die invloeden laten horen van Spinvis naar CSN en verder de sixties in, maar is bovenal De Breek. Daarvoor heeft de band al voldoende eigenheid ontwikkeld, die deze conclusie rechtvaardigt.
Titelsong Onder Het Gras, herbergt zoveel in zich dat het bijna onbegonnen werk is aan een beschrijving te beginnen. Onder het gras is thematisch enigszins verwand aan de jas die onder het water lag. Psychedelisch qua tekst, niet qua muziek. Daar hoor ik een, bescheiden, The Hollies intro in, The Kinks harmonieën, The Avonden overgangen en Spinvis muziekstukjes en nog veel meer. Naar het einde toe wordt het toch nog een beetje psychedelisch in de eind vokalen, zoals The Kinks dat ook heel onverwacht konden doen, circa 1967. Het nummer staat, eigenlijk ligt natuurlijk gezien de context, met zijn voeten in de klei. De opbouw is heel karakteristiek en dat maakt het toch een De Breek nummer. En let op die lead gitaar die het nummer opeens een heel stevig body geeft.
'Haal Je Zelf Maar Uit Elkaar' en 'Kleine Lettertjes' zijn al eerder op dit blog voorbij gekomen. Toch wil ik er nog wel op wijzen hoe mooi de nummers in elkaar zitten en gewoonweg zijn. Met Onder Het Gras heeft De Breek, vernoemd naar een waterplas in Noord-Holland, waar ik op het Trekvogelpad ineens tegenaan wandelde, een heel mooie EP toegevoegd aan het oeuvre. Waar blijft de cd/lp?
Burning Wish. Pennies By The PoundLast year the Finnish band Pennies By The Pound featured on this blog for the first time. In 2022 the band releases a new single and again it is not hard to discern the band's love for prog rock. If anything Fish era Marillion can be found in Burning Wish. At best this is a step towards getting acquainted with the band. The listener can find a lot to his liking on the single. What is lacking is a new take on the roughly 40 years old genre. These are familiar high and byways Pennies By The Pound follows. That said I find that the band does a lot right on its latest single. The rhythm assists in giving the song an alive, bouncy vibe and the guitar solo is sprinkling little bolts of light over the darker mood. As long as Nanook does not eat the yellow snow singer Johannes Susitaival sings about, things should end just fine for Burning Wish.
Butterflies. WunderhorseWhen the ties that bound Dead Pretties got too tight Jacob Slater jumped ship and started out on his own under the name Wunderhorse. His first album is slated for September and is called 'Cub'. If its opening song and single is anything to go on, 'Cub' will be a wonder of alternative, darkish rock with a few great accents showing the musicianship of Jacob Slater. Butterflies has this transparent sound that is paved over just as easily by big guitars coming out of every corner. There's always another melody to be found when a musician keeps going in search of it. From a dark riff to higher up arpeggios and light solo notes, Wunderhorse plays them all. With influences ranging from Donovan's 'Atlantis' to grunge, a lot comes by in the three minutes something the single lasts. The dreamy voice of Slater tops it off. The light and the shade, it's all here alright.
Any Minute Now. Screeching Weasel
14 Albums and me having no clue as to who or what Screeching Weasel is. That has changed because of the band's new single Any Minute Now, that reached me through two different sources. Screeching Weasel is a punkrock band from Chicago that knows how to keep a song short, tight and providing the elements that make it so nice to listen to. A great bass, I think that is where Any Minute Now starts and ends. The bass player in my band calls it a walking bass and it seems like a right description for what is happening here. I love listening to the runs played here on the bass. From it the tight guitars and drums play and the singer, Ben Weasel, can do their thing. The harmonies finish it off. And of course, a nice and tight solo of about seven seconds is the icing on the cake. Nothing new, all just right.
Pixies are one of the most influential, alternative rock bands from the late 1980s, early 1990s. At the time the band passed me totally by. Too alternative for me and I never looked back. You can't listen to everything and so it went under the bridge. Come 2022 and the single There's A Moon is presented to me. I hear a great rock intro and a tough voice starting to sing over that intro. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what I'm hearing. Is it representative for Pixies? I have no clue. 'Doggerel' isn't out until 30 September, I have to be patient for some time to learn more on the new music. The tight rhythm section that truly gives a drive to There's A Moon, gives space to a dirty rocking sound to develop over it. I know Pixies is one of the bands to influence Nirvana, and the reason for that is all over this single. More in the bare bones of the song than what lies over it. It's all in the drums and bass. Surprisingly nice There's A Moon is.
Chair. Third Party Incidents
Third Party Incidents is a London band about to release it's first single later this month, called Chair. This single is of the kind that spells sheer excitement, noise and willpower. Chair as such is a song full of energy and spunk. A chair is the last thing someone listening to this single needs. Movement is impossible to stop and comes with the territory. The little extra is the small element of Britpop that is injected into the sound with the result the pop shines through when all is said and done. On the basis of this first song I'd say, let more songs come on fast.
Silence Is Golden. The Beths This is actually an exciting moment. The previous first single by The Beths came close to a music changing experience. And now there's a new first single, two years later, 'Jump Rope Gazers', long behind us. No, nothing can probably top the experience of 'I'm Not Getting Excited', no, really?!, but rest assured, the energy coming from Silence Is Golden, the weirdness, the normality, the explosions in sound, the huge waves of energy coming at me is just so alright. The Beths do it again. That is the short and simple conclusion. Elizabeth Stokes' songwriting skills are able to surprise me once again. The song falls into The Beths' comfort zone, so mine as a fan as well. Not all is totally predictable though. The sheer madness of Jonathan Pierce's guitar solo or Benjamin Sinclair's bass solo are to outstanding for that, not to forget the band going at it for 120% in the interlude, only to fall back into an a capella ending leaves me short of breath. Silence Is Golden is all but silence. Breathtaking it is. Oh, what a long wait it is until September for 'Expert In A Dying Field'.
Black Film. Gentlemen Rogues
It is getting close to 30 years ago that I discovered music like Gentlemen Rogues plays in 2022. It was an album called 'Whirligig' by one album wonders The Caulfields. There may have been dozens of albums better at the time, this was my discovery then. It was all very new to me at the time. Black Film holds it all. Good old rock, powerpop and a heart of gold coming with the melodies. The Beatles meet a harder kind of rock, something like that, "yeah, yeah, yeah". Black Film is a tough song but without forgetting that melody is where music starts, in my book that is. Let these melodies be all over the single. A tough voice is what tops the single off. It all simply falls together in the pleasantest of ways.
Recitals is the latest signing to the Flying Nun label from New Zealand and is from both Wellington and Auckland. The song is a hodgepodge of sounds and influences that seem to bounce into and out of the song at each and every moment. The bio says something like the music being the amalgam of the members', seven no less, influences and taste. Having listen to Rock Dove a few times, I can only underscore the bio, as I have a hard time keeping up with all that I'm hearing. At times it is as if all members have written their own vocal melodies and musical thoughts and ideas and strewed them all over the song at the same time. Chaos it is here and there. There's no denying though that it is intriguing how Recitals manages to let a song that starts out as a hippy kind of love song get totally out of hand, and not a little at that. This song flies of the rails without anything stopping it until the groove on the vinyl runs out. Fascinating yet daunting Rock Dove is.
Not everything needs to be totally energised to have an impact. Make It Happen shows the new Rotterdam band on an easy plain until "Rotterdam, make it happen" comes by. The explosion that follows sounds very familiar to people who can call themselves connoisseurs of the Dutch alternative rock phenomenon of the last few years, or Global Charming if you're not. This single has an intrinsic inner tension, shown by the bass and the lead guitar riff. The singer can sing whatever he likes. Shooting in the back or stabbing in the chest. What he next shares as a message is not quite clear to me: "Rotterdam, make it happen"? I'm not sure if I'm about to visit the city soon then. I'll go and look at Tramhaus somewhere else, just to be sure. All joking aside, Make It Happen is an important next step for Tramhaus as the band shows its relevance and diversity. Tramhaus can go anywhere next.
Wout de Natris
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