Four Second Fiddles. Global Charming

A new Global Charming album? Did I miss an email? I was pretty confused when I read somewhere that there was a new album by the Amsterdam postpunkers. And, no I had not missed an email. The band changed label and dropped off my radar.

That does not keep me from listening now that I know. Spotify is there and why not use it? My first impression is that in the five years since 'Mediocre, Brutal' not a lot has changed. Global Charming can still be found in the same niche. Perhaps it leans a bit more on the stalinist/Stachanovite rhythm of Talking Heads circa 'Fear Of Music', played a bit louder or brutalist and with even less compromise than the New York new wavers of old, but that is about it.

It is near five years that 'Mediocre, Brutal' was released, an album that I kept playing well into this decade. Come 2025 it was laid to rest among the thousands of records in my collection, replaced by all the newer postpunk (and other) albums of recent years and months. Listening to Four Second Fiddles, I have to admit that my first response is that the album does not add to what I already have. Yes, new songs, but very little new angles or songs that immediately grabbed my attention, like the first album certainly did. It being Global Charming, one of my favourite new bands from this decade, I will give it a second chance and come back to the album soon.

Several listening sessions further Global Charming and I are where we left off. I know exactly why I had a little quivers during the first session. Of all the new generation postpunkers Global Charming is the strictest. It comes closest to the bands that got me off listening to new music in the early 80s. Why I stopped reading 'Muziekkrant Oor', as it was called then. Bands I still can't listen to for the most part. Don't ask me why I do like Tramhaus and Global Charming. I do not really know, but forced to give an answer, it probably amounts to this: that I enjoy the adventurism in both band's music. The lack of dogma, as that is what I disliked so much at the time. Besides that, I can also point to bands like Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys paving the way. Both bands combine early 80s postpunk or punkfunk with golden melodies

On Four Second Fiddles Global Charming is somewhere halfway. Somewhere between the strictness of punkfunk and on the lookout for a good hook. In a certain way Four Second Fiddles sounds as if the band is awkward, even amateurish in its arrangements. But don't be fooled, the band's riffs are spot on. When the synth enters, it's always making a song stronger. Jilles van Kleef (vocals, guitar, bells), Sara Elzinga (guitars, synths, vocals), Fokke de Wit (bass, vocals), and Sjoerd Bartlema (drums, percussion, synths) know exactly what they are doing and to great effect.

Compared to Tramhaus nearly everyone in this country plays second fiddle. The four second fiddles in Global Charming deserve the same level of attention though. With its new album the band not only starts again where it left off. At a minimum the band re-enters at the same quality level. In time, who knows how I'll score the album. In any case, it is a must have.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Four Second Fiddles here:

https://globalcharming.bandcamp.com/album/four-second-fiddles