Belgium gave to the world a few quite exciting artists. Well, my first “acquaintance” at age of 6 was René Magritte. Few years later I was crushed by Front 242, after a while, a Dutch friend of mine introduced me TC Matic (the former band of Arno Hintjens), dEUS are still on the top of my favorites list, and there are a few others as well. Kingdom of Belgium might be a small country – 11,787 square miles (30,528 km2) – , but it’s only prove that “size don’t matter” in some particular cases. Still, Belgium is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU’s headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.
In addition, I had in my mind “In Bruges”, the black comedy directed by Martin McDonagh in 2008. And somehow, in my subjective perception, the Belgian art scene delivering mainly pretty gloomy stuffs. Some like it hot, while others chosen the darker path. ITP makes no exception.
I, The Pheonix is a project born in Brussels, the brainchild of Jean-Paul Frenay and Vincent De Puydt, as they call it: “an organic platform”. ITP – far as I heard – is quite an unique something. Label it industrial seems unfair. Rather is a disturbing mixture of dark-wave, garage and gothic rock, a twist of psychedelic and progressive rock, some tasty spices of noise and industrial and lot of creativity. Read more I, The Phoenix – Self Titled (2010)
post rock
The Locomotive Sound Corporation – Self Titled (2011)
Aureien Dubois-Pham from the Domino Media Agency bring them to my attention and well, it was a quite nice surprise.
How many times in the last few decades it was declared: “rock is dead!” and get buried? I think indie is dead. Or at least I thought so. Then out of blue appeared Jack and Meg White and at the break of the century they had their own little revolution and gave new sense for something which faded out of sense. Since, we’ve got The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Black Keys and a few other exciting acts. Now we’ve got to add another name to this list: The Locomotive Sound Corporation.
Instead Alison Mosshart we’ve got more like a raging PJ Harvey from ’93 (“Rid of Me”) and raw, garage rock with roots back to Sonic Youth. And the Parisian band got a fan-friendly attitude: this self titled, five track debut EP scheduled to be released on July 11, 2011 can be listen and downloaded from their Bandcamp page for $1 (“or more”). Read more The Locomotive Sound Corporation – Self Titled (2011)
Allcoy – Loud Music For Quiet People (2011)
Promised to be the new grunge revelation, Allcoy have delayed only one decade and so.You can get a taste of what they call “Allcore” at their Bandcamp page and buy their debut album if you like it. And these four guys from Detroit, Josh Augustine, Bryan Aldrich, Anthony Palsgrove and Drew Easton, delivering a pretty tasty alternative rock material with catchy grunge after-taste. It might be kind of out-dated and retro, but still, they write some good riffs, catchy themes and put together a couple of groovy rock songs. When most of the trendy bands are completely predictable, something “out of the beat”, even if it’s quite familiar, are sometimes a bless. And Allcoy brings back something from the rawness of the early Nirvana, the heaviness of Godsmack and the attitude of Stone Temple Pilots and blended all of this elements in their own high-energy rock. Read more Allcoy – Loud Music For Quiet People (2011)
Pop Evil – War of Angels (2011)
“Last Man Standing”, the leading single of the second full-length album by Pop Evil was released last fall and it’s a strong, powerful, 101 % American rock/metal song with all its best characteristics. “Monster You Made”, the second single from the album, was released on June 7, 2011 and it’s a power-ballad, maybe we chances on the charts, but actually quite pale and pointless. The album it’s right between great rock songs and themes and pale, faceless, plastic and second-hand taste like indie/post grunge whatevers. Good to hear catchy, beefy riffs like “Last Man Standing”, “Boss’s Daughter”, “Epitaph” or “Black & Blue” have, I see (hear) no sense in the Pearl Jam meats Bon Jovi copying “Let It Go”, “Next Life”, “Purple” and the mentioned “Monster You Made” ballads and cliches. Read more Pop Evil – War of Angels (2011)
Naisian – Mammalian (2011)
Far off from the Brit scene and tends, Naisian from Sheffield, brings to the surface a tumultuous, contorted metal with roots back both to the classic Black Sabbath sound and the mixture of sludge and post-hardcore riffs, in their music is a perfect balance between dark and noisy elements and sometimes psychedelic, other time warm and calm, spacy moments. James Borrowdale – guitar and vocals, Adam Zejma – guitar and vocals, Micheal Aitken – bass and vocals and Jordan Garlick – (only 🙂 ) drums, create a quite exciting and unique blending of intense metal and avantgardist surfing. “Mammalian” can be listen and downloaded (“name your price”) from the band’s Bandcamp page. It worth every minute and every penny. Read more Naisian – Mammalian (2011)
Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)
“Kuu” is the Finish word for “moon” while “Kauna” means “long”. Kauan started by Anton Belov in February 2005 at Chelyabinsk, Russia. Belov also play under the moniker Helengard with Alina “Witch_A.†Roberts (Inferno, ex-Semargl) and in the project called inea with Ilya Rikhter (from K Seven and R Is For Rockets). Kauna started as a folk black band and in 2006 Lubov Mushnikova joined the band as a violin player. The duo moved in the direction of folk doom and grown into folk rock/post rock maintaining their gloomy, epic sound. Even though the band is from Russia, they writes lyrics both in Russian and Finnish language. “Kuu…” is their forth full-length album and it’s probably their most sophomore, experimental and colorful release up to date. Read more Kauan – Kuu.. (2011)
Amnesis – The Pier (2011)
Terry Gilliam’s film, “12 Monkeys” (1995) was inspired by, and takes several concepts directly from the pretty obscure French film “La jetée” made in 1962 by Chris Marker and known in English as “The Jetty” or “The Pier.” The film, by the way: black and white, runs for 28 minutes and the plot is quite simple, the main character – appears as “The Man” – is a prisoner in the aftermath of the Third World War, in a destroyed, post-apocalyptic Paris where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries. Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods “to call past and future to the rescue of the present”. They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel, but eventually settle upon the prisoner, whose key to the past is a vague but obsessive childhood memory of a woman (who features obviously as “The Woman”) during an incident where a man was killed on the boarding platform (the jetty) at Orly Airport. Read more Amnesis – The Pier (2011)
The Horrors – Skying (2011)
When you’re bloody bored or just feels like you’ve got it all, you stair down to your shoes and spit off something “new”. So, what the heck is shoegaze?! Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The name was coined in a review in Sounds of a concert by the newly-formed Moose in which singer Russell Yates read lyrics taped to the floor throughout the gig. The term was picked up by the NME and Melody Maker and they used it as a reference to the tendency of the bands’ guitarists to stare at their feet—or their effects pedals, seemingly deep in concentration, while playing. So, it’s not quite a subgenre, we’re just re-labeled something. Just like nobody’s emo anymore, everybody are metalcore, perhaps it sells better. I’m just scared to ask what the fuck is Nu gaze? 😆
Back in 2007 I kind of like “Strange House”, the debut album by The Horrors. It wasn’t about “shoegazing”, it was punk rock with horror and gothic rock shades and aromas, it was raw. I’m not gonna lie to you, I think I missed “Primary Colours” in 2009, or I just can not remember it in that mindless grinding of releases. I’m getting too old for this. Read more The Horrors – Skying (2011)
Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
Combining elements of classic British progressive rock and jazz, not so popular genres nowadays, probably may seem commercial suicide, but this extremely exciting eight piece band from Barcelona, Spain, delivering an absolutely groovy and colorful mixture of jazz, jazz rock and progressive rock, their music overlapping the classic sounds of the 60s and 70s, but introducing modern, avant-garde textures, glows, experimental turns and subtle colors, creating unique, new musical fusions.
Founded in Barcelona in 1999, the band is named after a radically creative children’s TV show from the early 1980s – Imaginary Planet. Their music should appeal to listeners of such diverse artists as: Anekdoten, AKA moon, Area, John Coltrane, King Crimson, Avishai Cohen, Steve Coleman, Deus ex Machina, Gabriel Faure, Gilgamesh, Hatfield at the North, Pat Metheny, Nucleus, Soft Machine, Van der Graaf Generator, Frederic Mompou, National Health, Weather Report, Kenny Werner, Frank Zappa, and John Zorn. Read more Planeta Imaginario – Optical Delusions (2011)
Black Spires – — (2011)
“This is a collection of demo’s, not a real album,” and it’s available for FREE DOWNLOAD at the band’s Bandcamp page. Black Spires are a new band from Ghent, Belgium, consist of Olivier Copejans – music, vocals, guitars and programmed/played drums and bass, and Kristof Luyckx – guitar, working together since 2010. Imagine H.P. Zinker playing Pink Floyd songs (the 1967-1972 period) in a garage. It’s quite exciting, a little bit psychedelic, but cutting, drowned in the garage/noise rock approach and sound. Slower, tensioned moments are twisted into explosive, noise rock avalanches, they use exciting shifting of moods and themes, maintaining an intense groove, alternating subtle, sometimes acoustic moments with intense and inspired rock themes, noisy releases. Read more Black Spires – — (2011)
