Soundtrack of our lives : Benjamin Schoos
Singer-songwriter and producer Benjamin Schoos is a Belgian phenomenon. Creator of Freaksville Records (with its ever-expanding roster of cult artists) and online radio station Radio Rectangle, he’s a prolific musical catalyst. Unlike the majority of his contemporaries, who sing and record in English to court a more international audience, he chooses to perform in his …
Live Review: Hong Kong Dong/the Poneymen, Le Hangar, Liege 15.04.2016
Le Hangar gigs are always an enjoyable affair. The Leffe prices are the best in town and there’s a large open fire in the centre of the room full of crackling logs, giving a cosy campfire ambience, (you still have to go outside to smoke though!). Tonight’s show is free, as part of a larger …
Album Review: The Last Shadow Puppets – Everything You’ve Come To Expect
Alex Turner and Miles Kane are back as the Last Shadow Puppets, still playing at the Riviera bad-boys like Morecambe & Wise at their cinematic best. As on their debut album, they skid on Shirley Bassey strings arrangements like dogshit in a badly-lit car park, and merge Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ histrionics with 50s pizzazz, yet still …
Album Review: Peter Baumann ‘Machines of Desire’
Peter Baumann reportedly met with his old Tangerine Dream bandmate Edgar Froese in January 2015, to discuss a reformation of sorts. Sadly, Froese’s demise some weeks later put paid to any such plans, but the rekindled desire of Baumann’s to return to music has resulted in ‘Machines of Desire’. As Baumann himself puts it: The …
Album Review: Field Music – Commontime
Sometime in the gloriously messed up late 80s I remember a friend playing me the ’25 ‘O Clock’ mini-album by ‘The Dukes of Stratosphear’, a blast of fabulous neo-psychedelia, that even in our stoned state, a few tracks in, we collectively began to realise was XTC getting their rocks off under an alter-ego. Their follow-up …
EP: The Winter Typres – Holding Hands In Public
‘The Winter Tyres’ is a five-piece acoustic pop band based in Belgium, that came into existence when Brian Bordello (The Bordellos) found a battered C60 cassette down the back of the sofa, that he’d made aeons ago entitled “Songs For a Girl to Sing”. These songs were sent to his old friend Claire Wilcock, and …
Album Review: David Bowie – ‘Blackstar’ – A Post-Script
Around a week ago I had the enviable task of reviewing the ‘Blackstar’ album (hey, it’s what we do and I got lucky – see below for original review). Like everyone, aside from the man himself (and his closest circle), I had no idea I was reviewing David Bowie’s parting address to the world. On …
Album Review: UNDERWORLD – ‘Second Toughest in the Infants’ Re-issue
Following on from the groundbreaking Underworld Mk 2 album ‘dubnobasswithmyheadman’, 1996’s ‘Second Toughest in the Infants’ just kept running with the template of hypnotic dance/rave/techno/acid house/pop its predecessor had alchemically distilled from the ether. The bold 16 minute opener ‘Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love’ comes out of the trap like a greyhound, cramming a …
Not Forgotten – DEVO ‘Duty Now For The Future’
Devo’s first album ‘Q – Are We Not Men? A – We Are Devo’ was by all accounts a messy, protracted birth, brought about in no small way by casting Brian Eno as the midwife. Despite many moments of genius, Eno’s forté of making pedestrian bands interesting had never been more surplus to requirements, his …
Live Review: Boogarins, Reflektor Club, Liege 01.11.2015
I spoke briefly to Rapha, the bass player of Boogarins after the gig, only long enough to ask him to describe their music in a few words if possible. He replied “Free Jazz Pop Rock”. It’s as good a phrase as any, but I would be doing a poor job, and the band a disservice …