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Rotterdam EP. Tramhaus
Tramhaus is making a name for itself fast. With only a 7" single out the band found itself on festival stages and abroad already. What is good comes fast, we say in our country and to all appearances this goes for Rotterdam's post punk band Tramhaus. With the name of its hometown on top, the band releases its first EP. Four songs that are as diverse as they're good. 'Make It Happen' can be found on this blog already, after it was released as a digital single some time ago. I'm not sure, but I've have the idea I'm listening to a new version. True or not, I may be adjusting to the impact Tramhaus has on me, this song is a perfect example of how Tramhaus can hold back and still build up a tension, begging for an explosion, that only truly comes with 'Amour Amour', a dirty, sleazy punkrocker where the distortion pedals are opened full throttle. 'Make It Happen', Rotterdam's slogan to attract tourists, is a treasure trove of subtleties and anti-promotion in the lyrics if I ever heard some. Crime, stabbings and hit and run driving. It's all in there. "Make it happen!"
'Marwan' is another tight and jangly song, where singer Lukas Janssen shows he's more attitude than singer. To me it's a question whether his voice will hold should things get truly out of hand with the band's popularity. The song is another example of why Tramhaus seems to be leading the Dutch alternative rock pack already. 'Marwan' is a combination of tough chords and jangly lead notes, exemplifying modern post punk. And then the band explodes, all subtleties go overboard. This is the kind of music when being present live, I need to take a few steps back to get out of the room in one piece, not to speak of a set of earplugs.
The change to 'Seduction, Destruction' is huge. Although it could also be the relaxed coda of 'Marwan'. Only when the band kicks in, it becomes truly clear I'm listening to the fourth song of this EP. Again, such a different approach, until I come to the chorus. It makes Canshaker Pi sound like a bunch of choirboys at their first mass practice. It is an orgy of noise Tramhaus produces. The contrast with the verse is so huge. All seduction is set aside, as "boys will be boys", as Janssen sings. This is pure destruction. Total abandon. Making amends at the end comes too late, is futile even. Destruction won by a knockout.
Rotterdam EP is totally convincing. Tramhaus is on route to greater things for sure.
Contemplating to cover 'Compromise' and coming up with Hey Compromise instead, is what happened to Cold Expectations recently. The band wanted to commemorate songwriter Tommy Keene but wrote it's own song instead. The song is a strong, up tempo powerpop song, built around a keyboard hook that pops in and out of the song regularly. Singers Steve Prygoda and JoEllen Saunders Yannis trade lead vocals and deliver some nice harmonies inbetween. Built up from tough sounding drum and bass parts Cold Expectations is able to deliver a nice melody over the toughness. As a musical love letter, as the band calls its tribute to Tommy Keene, Hey Compromise obviously succeeds.
A second single within a few short weeks. Litzberg is treating us no little. Sometime Soon has that urgency associated with 1970s and 80s punk bands, with a hint at pop music hidden beneath the extreme urgency. Sometime Soon sounds like the band members are hounded by a couple of demons about to overtake the slowest member. The pace is relentless, while the guitars are screaming out in fear. Just listen to how the song starts. A lone guitar is calling out, a second one responds, before the bass and drums kick in. And then it all drops away. There's only the rhythm section left when Mathijs Pieters starts singing. There's no respite for the wicked though. Soon it becomes clear that there's no saving this situation. All there's left to do is to keep on running. The bass and drum set an enormous pace, in a clear sound, in the middle of the mix. The two guitars are at the extremes. It looks like if you want to find out what paranoia sounds like in music, Sometime Soon is your song of choice.
Also New Zealand's Soft Plastics returns to the blog. It is also a song that looks back into the past, musically. The guitar sound is classic The Cure, the song is not. Easy To Forget is far more open in mix and sound. Soft Plastics shows itself from a melancholy point of view. Sophie Scott-Maunder sings in a very dreamy way. The band as a whole does not fully follow her, which makes me hesitate to call this single dreampop. Scott-Maunders' bass playing is too present for that. On the other hand there's a dreamy interlude that simply makes the song lift off. The result is a song that is part beauty, part moderate toughness and part alienating. It draws, pushes, draws, pushes away. Don't come too close it seems to say. "Would it kill you to be truthful?, the singer asks, matching the mood of the single. Easy To Forget is an interesting single on a few levels. That should be enough to get you interested.
More music from New Zealand. The new single from Dartz' upcoming album 'The Boys From Wellington, New Zealand', out on November 4, shows two sides of the band. No Dogs At This Party starts as an almost ballad, before the punkrock side bursts loose. A long guitar intro does not really seem to be going anywhere. When guitar two comes in the chord progression gets a spine. The singer sings like Mick Jagger around 1965. Young with nothing to lose and a world to win. And then the song properly starts and Dartz gets into its own. Yes, this is punkrock but also a shot of good old rock and roll in a wilder sense. Dartz knows exactly how to make this song sound just right. The only question I have left, is who cares about dogs at the party? There are other things to worry about these days. That said, No Dogs At The Party is great fun.
De Vlaamse band Winston stond enige weken geleden op het blog met 'Versailles'. Deze week is de nieuwe single Rambo uit. Liefhebbers van rock songs van een paar decennia geleden zullen veel bekends tegen komen. Een gitaarriff van een beperkt akkoorden wordt telkens herhaald. Dat maakt het een eenzijdig, maar ook zeer overzichtelijk nummer. Ik merk dat ik het prima hebben kan bij de tweede beluistering. Zanger Simon Alice René kijkt terug naar zijn jeugd. Rambo in het zwembad tijdens de vakantie in Frankrijk, Luc Nilis op het pleintje naast de kerk en dat alles op ruige gitaarmuziek, die nergens echt uit de bocht vliegt. De dromen die iedere jongen had. Wie er in de fantasieën de hoofdpersoon was, dat wordt bepaald door het geboorte jaar. Ik was Thierry la Fronde en Willem van Hanegem, bij gebrek aan vakanties in Frankrijk, gewoon op het schoolplein en het veldje naast Lindenkamp. Rambo is een lekkere, zeer overzichtelijke rocker.
Oh, yeah. Ride Your Light is exquisite in its sleaze. This song makes me feel like I'm dragged through the mud down to the cowshed and back, while coming out totally replenished. ALiX surely does everything right in this psychedelic, stoner rocker. Distorted guitars over a tough bass guitar (Gianfranco Romanelli) and a sound drums (Andrea Insulla), making and taking all the space needed to prop up Ride Your Light. I had never heard of ALiX. It is an Italian four piece led by singer Alice Albertazzi (the prominent tambourine is hers as well). Guitarist Pippo di Palma roughs and shakes the songs with (overdubbed) guitar parts. Both are sounding as if they are to unclean to touch. After a hiatus of nine years ALiX is back with a great single introducing the album 'Last Dreamer', to be released on 25 November. Ride Your Light sounds like the right way to shine some light on your comeback alright.
More from New Zealand and a return to the blog for Vera Ellen. Her new single is a nice jangly indierocker. She's singing, judging the video, from the vantage point of a man, strutting proudly among the ladies. Self-assured but also a clear parody, especially when the monkey comes out of the sleeve, as we say here. "I would kiss you if I knew how", a homewrecker in mind only. Vera Ellen has this nice edge to her voice and makes music that I'd put straight into the Courtney Barnett basket. She has the same mix between slacker and determination. A strummed guitar with a little distortion, bass and drums is the basis of Homewrecker. Add a few harmonies, singing and lead guitar, and you have the complete picture.
Blacklist plays a classic 80s rock track with Nightbound. The tight band keeps it all together while the guitars play out a dual solo somewhere in the song, Add some slick synth sounds or synthesized guitars, and all singer Joshua Strachan has to do, is sound tough and he does. It makes Nightbound a feast of recognition, as the mid 80s Van Halen, e.g. 'Why Can't This Be Love', comes by as does a tougher band like Iron Maiden. What makes it even more 80s is a The Edge guitar and Simple Minds synths sound. The consequence is Blacklist sounds almost like a retro act, instead of a band having released its sophomore album last week, 'Afterworld'. (There is 13 years in between the two albums.) The nice tough way Nightbound started caught me anyway and made my head go up and down. Yes, it's that kind of song alright. Also in 2022.
Another trip down the memory lane of rock is presented by Boston's Diablogato. This song sounds like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep were put in a blender with Lynyrd Skynyrd. The result is a great rocking song called Jet Black Night. It is the kind of rock song that seems to have it all. Had Drew Indigaro been born a few decades earlier, he would have sang with the greatest, instead of a, with all respect, fairly obscure Boston band. The twin guitars, Indigato and Charlie MacSteven really battle it out, with some great, thick chords, some nice lead and slide on top of it all. I hear some thick Hammond sound in there but do not know who's playing it. Johnny Custom and Jessy von Kenmore take care of the deeer end together, making sure everything sticks together. Jet Black Night does everything right in my ears.
Wout de Natris
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