A politician in musical distress

Last night Dutch garage rockers Traumahelicopter played in talk show 'De wereld draait door'. Watch former parliament chair, Gerdi Verbeet, now featured table guest on the show, on the side during the two songs.

Click here.

Sonic storms and soft tranquility: DeWolff live LVC

You can listen to 'Voodoo mademoiselle' here.

Dutch psych rockers DeWolff drew a well filled LVC in Leiden on a Thursday night. Warm vintage Hammond sounds, deeply distorted guitars and a tight drum swept over the heads of the audience. An audience that captured people of all ages. From teenagers to people in their sixties, DeWolff attracts them all.

Touring after its latest album, DeWolff IV, that received a positive and well read review on this blog (click here), the band is good, near smoking and will most likely only get better. It is not the sort of music that I play very regularly, like its ancestors, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, etc. Still it's music that I truly like, without playing it often. And definitely something that I had been looking forward to see live.

I wasn't disappointed. DeWolff set down a great set and grew in the performance to great improvisational heights. Something like twelve songs were played, in just over two hours. The longer the encore lasted, the bigger the smile on my face became and the more heads around me I saw nodding along to the powerful rhythm. Heads of young and old. The mood changes the band took us through were mesmerizing. Hence the title of this post: "Sonic storms and soft tranquillity". DeWolff played us all in a superb way. According to the setlist they played two encore songs, 'Gold and seaweed' and 'The thrills', but if they'd told me it was one, I'd believed it also. Lasting 45 minutes! The band played around this central theme and took off in guitar and organ solos, battles and all, and the big drum solo as if it was 1972, to get back to the central, loud and driving theme. As such it comes close to progrock, but in general its too loud and rocking to be called prog. Psychedelic is more close to the truth.

The show itself was a showcase for improvisational rock, but also for several "real" songs with 'Crumbling heart' really sticking out here, as well some blues based outings like 'Medicine'. There's one thing missing, I could not help but noticing: the hit song. If DeWolff manages to come up with its "Black night", "Immigrant song", or even its "Paranoid", airplay will follow and make sure that great songs like "Voodoo mademoiselle" and "Crumbling heart" will be heard by a wider audience then now. The potential is there to do an "El Camino", as this album sprang to my mind during the show several times. Wild and exciting riffs, some good refrains and a potential for harmonies, all is present already.

In its own right DeWolff seems at the top of its playing at this moment. Seeing how young they are and already have four albums under the belt, I'm truly looking forward to hearing where this trip is taking me. The LVC gig was a great start of my personal gig season!

Wo.

You can order DeWolff IV here

Wateramp EP. Palio SuperSpeed Donkey

You can listen to 'Mr. Dickhead' here.

The spirit of The Outsiders is spreading over The Netherlands. The Dutch band that scored hits in the years 1966-1967 and almost all very good is famous with garage rock fans from all over the world. And now a band of Dutch youngster that could be grandchildren of Wally Tax c.s. has released an EP that emulates the atmosphere of Outsiders' records like it's 1968. Sam Vermeulen throws his lyrics into the world with abandon and the same dashing sneer as Wally Tax had back then.

Luckily it's not all music for old geezers. Next to an undertone of punkrock there's a The Libertines element in several songs, the 'we are playing songs here, but see if we care, but in the mean time we are incredibly good' element. The enthusiasm of Arctic Monkeys in its "Dancehall days" is in there without the riff meistering.

Palio Superspeed Donkey is a group of extreme youngsters from Amsterdam that is taking alternative pop Holland by storm. TV, live radio, shows, it's all there. And quite rightly so. The youthful enthusiasm definitely shines through in several songs on Wateramp, meaning that perhaps technically not everything is the best I've ever heard. Some breaks are even a bit rusty sounding, but who cares when so much fun is going around as on this EP. There's time enough to get better when someone is only 15 or 16 years old. There are no guarantees, but if someone is this good at thatage, what's in store for the world?

Palio Superspeed Donkey offers bare music. Basically what you see is what you get. There may be a vocal overdub, but the drums, bass, guitar sound is basically it. The sound is dry, not a lot of twiddling with effects has taken place in the production process. Recorded may be a better description. A sound that fits the music on the brink of (brit)pop and indierock. Mr. Dickhead rocks out (with a very teenage video), with a "Oops, I've said it again" Britney quote in the lyrics.

Wateramp EP is over before you know it, but it also over so fast because I'm really enjoying myself. 'Reflection of my thoughts' is the best song the Barat-Doherty tandem has never written. It has this driving force with the singer holding back, which gives a special effect to the song. The Libertines are dead, long live Palio Superspeed Donkey!

When the band ends Wateramp with 'The homeless' where they prove to be able to go one level deeper than any of the songs before that, I'm convinced that I've been listening to the future. Palio Superspeed Donkey is a band to watch.

Wo.

You can order Wateramp here

Hein's hoekje, deel 5: Concert the KIK

The Kik, foto Wo.

Hein is 11 en rapporteert regelmatig over zijn muzikale uitstapjes aan WoNo Magazine en WoNoBloG. Hier is deel 5.

we waren naar het paard van troje en wist helemaal niet waar we naartoe gingen en toen ging ik het opzoeken en het was THE KIK ik wist even niet wie het was dus ging ik research doen en het bleek van dat leuke liedje:„simone!" dus we gingen naar Den-Haag ik was best enthousiast en toen waren we in de zaal met eerst een voorprogramma van een tweeling (gitaar en een cello) maar toen kwam the kik veel humor hebben ze trouwens wel haha en toen simone kwam was iedereen super enthousiast en op dat moment hoop je dat je Simone heette want dan werd je op het podium!!!!!!! En natuurlijk gaan ze weer lekker flauw weg en gaan weer terug (heel erg flauw •~•) en daarna gewoon terug naar huis en dan lekker slapen!!! 

Dit was Hein en nog prettige feestdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar!!!!

Company. Andy Burrows

You can listen to 'Hometown' here.

Andy Burrows as a solo artist is in view since his duo Christmas album of 2011 with Tom Smith of Editors. This is always followed by "ex-drummer of Razorlight" and that he had co-written Razorlight's big hit 'America'. Now there is a full solo album by Andy Burrows and it is interesting. So who knows the ex moniker may not be necessary anymore soon.

Burrows presents himself as a singer-songwriter in the best west coast tradition. What I like most about the album is that the listener is allowed to focus on the songs. Most songs are kept small, without too much effects. The songs hold up as the melodies are interesting enough to follow through and listen to without missing embellishments. A lot of attention was put into harmonies, not only in the form of singing together, but also in finding spots in the song where phrases can be repeated outside of the first line of singing.

'Keep on moving on' could have been a CSNY song. So the guitar antics midway of the song come as a big surprise. These sort of surprises are one of the stronger points of Company. 'Maybe you' comes with a trumpet solo that seems totally out of place in this ballad, as it is also somewhat wild sounding, in this rustic song.

Company is not a 2012 album. It could have been made years ago by someone of the likes of Tim Hardin. Of course there are some influences shining through the album that are of later date, it's the intention that counts here. 'If I had a heart' is the brother song of 'Roscoe' on Midlake's 'The trials of Van Occupanther' album. The harmonies come uncannily close to what Midlake is capable of.  Pure plusses for Andy Burrows. In general there definitely is a The Beatles element in Company, in the way The Beatles could keep their ballads on albums very small. Perhaps even Bee Gees without the nasal singing if its 60s hits. 'Stars in the sky' gives away this influence most.

The downside of Company is that over ten songs the album is a bit uniform. If I do not listen intently to the album, the songs become a bit of a blur and fade into one. When I do truly listen to the album a lot of beauty is presented. That makes that I'm a bit ambiguous towards the album. Approaching the songs individually nearly each one holds up as a beautiful song, altogether it may just be a bit too much of a good thing. Company does end in my favour though, as I keep coming back to it so far. Enough to listen to which is of interest.

Andy Burrows has proven with Company that he is a singer-songwriter within his own right. I've already listened more often to this album than all Razorlight's albums combined. I'm looking forward to hearing more in the future.

Wo.


You can order Company here


or here