August 27, 2000

A NEW SEASON ON STUBRU
1 september nadert met rasse schreden, en daarom nam Jan Hautekiet op het laatste zomerfestival de gelegenheid te baat om de verzamelde journalisten het herfstprogramma van studio Brussel te presenteren. De voornaamste nieuwigheden zijn:
- het morgenblok (6-9) van alle weekdagen wordt voortaan gepresenteerd door Nathalie Delporte, die daarvoor werd weggehaald (of weggejaagd) bij Topradio. Hopelijk brengt ze daar geen plaatjes van mee.
- de tussenblokken (9-11) en (14-16) heten voortaan "Music@Work" (met dank aan The Tragically Hip, zeker) en worden gepresenteerd door Christophe Lambrecht en Jeroen Roppe.
- Het avondmagazine "Puls" verdwijnt, en wordt vervangen door "Radar", een programma met Roos van Acker dat ook op zoek gaat naar allerlei actualiteit maar "laagdrempeliger" dan voorganger "Puls". Een keer per week mag een luisteraar een volledig uur zendtijd volprogrammeren, en de "demo van de week" wordt opengegooid naar internet waarbij surfers zullen kunnen kiezen uit enkele mogelijkheden per week.
- De avondblokken (21-23 uur) zijn The Hop op maandag, Krapuul de Lux op dinsdag, ZIPt (een nieuwkomer, over multimedia) op woendsdag, De Bom (snoeiharde gitaren) op donderdag en Switch (allerlei dance) op vrijdag en zaterdag.
- In het weekend werd De Maxx wat langer (van 13-17 uur) en Club Brussel afgevoerd (vervangen door een verzoekprogramma genaamd "Wildcard"). Nieuw zijn ook een programma genaamd "Rock Bottom" met Jan Sprengers op zondag van 18 tot 21 uur (met roots en hedendaagse rock naast mekaar), en een liveshow genaamd "De Nachten" (naar het gelijknamige Antwerpse culturele evenement), met wekelijks vanop verplaatsing schrijvers, poëten en muzikanten die geacht worden elkaars kruis te bestuiven.
Het volledige programma uiteraard te bezichtigen via de Studio Brussel website

SARAH BLOWN AWAY IN FLORIDA
Sarah, the brownhaired singer who already made a small mark on the popscene in Belgium with "True Love is Tough" in 1998, her Eurosong-participation with "He's The One" in 1999 and her debut album "The State I'm In" of the same year, is busy recording her second full-lengt CD. The ambitions of the record company are quite clear, as they are teaming her up with some fine names : Marc Vanhie (formerly of the Machines) again wrote the bulk of the songs with Kris Wauters (of Clouseau) and Rick Baron, but on this CD there is also going to be a song written by two of the trio that wrote Natalie Imbruglia's world hit "Torn". This song, entitled "Blown Away", will also be the first single of the album and already had a video shot for it.
The album - current working title "Starlite Dinner" - is being recorded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as that is the place where the producer of the new CD lives : Erwin Musper, a Dutch technician/producer who has worked with Doe Maar, Toontje Lager, Anouk and ... Eddie Van Halen, Bon Jovi & Normaal.

STARFLAM LIVE & DIRECT
Starflam, currently being recognized both North and South of the language frontier as probably the best Belgian hip-hop-crew, have released "Live and Direct".
At the time of the release of "Bled Runner", the date set for the second Starflam album was September. Since that target doesn't seem to be met, their new record company Warner is "keeping the iron hot" with the release of a 8-track live CD. The performance on it was recorded in February of last year, when Starflam did three gigs in Brussels on two evenings; two of their own in the Ancienne Belgique, and one as an opener for Rage Against the machine, who were playing Vorst. The CD is a somewhat limited edition, so better hurry up if you want it.

MARRAKECH EMBALLAGES ... PART II
Think Of One, the many-faced band from Antwerp, is releasing a second CD with the formula "Marrakech Emballages Ensemble" as of next week, on the label de Beek (distribution Lowlands) again. On Cucamonga, the Radio 1 program, one song was aired already, named "Trap Het Af!" (Get lost), a song that tackles the racism not uncommon in these parts of the world, by reciting some of the harshest comments & predjudices made about immigrants to a morrocan tune and chorus in Arab. The CD will be presented on that same radio-show on September 4th and on some of the gigs they are doing right now (Lowlands, Pukkelpop, ...)
This new cd comes only few months after the last effort of Think of One, when they released the completely very different sounding "Naft". The band is even touring with two programs at the same time, since a number of gigs of this month are in that formula. An overview of the crazy touring schedule of David Bovée, Roul Poriau & C° can be found on this site devoted to the "Muziekmakerij".

MACHIAVEL BREAK OUT
If you're really quick and have a ... erm ... taste in music, you might catch another glimpse of the living "eurock" legends Machiavel, as they are one of the opening acts of this weekend's Bon Jovi concert at the racing track in Ostend.
As if that wasn't enough, there is also the news that HKM is re-releasing one of their early albums on CD (earlier albums in the same series are Shampoo, or Ferre Grignard's french album) : you can now get "Break Out" of 1981 in just about the original edition.
The band also reports on its website, that EMI has some plans to issue a new - and mid-priced - compilation of the band in October (in a series with also material of Radio's, Soulsister & André Bialek). The previous "best-of" of Machiavel (20th anniversary Machiavel) sold over 25,000 copies here in Belgium, mainly in the South, earning it gold status.

NAME THAT BABY
Any couple that will name its newborn baby "Belgian Pop & Rock Archives" (or even houbi) will receive a free packet of chewing gum! I admit, 5,000$ for calling it IUMA might be sound more attractive at first, but hey .. this is for a good cause ... ;-).

August 21, 2000

Current Belpoptop

Mauro "Faint Smile"

An Pierlé "Tower" (Da Remix)

Praga Khan "Love"

K's Choice "Almost Happy"

Arid "All Will Wait"

Dead Man Ray "Woods"

Janez Detd. "Take On Me"

Hooverphonic "Mad About You"

Novastar "Caramia"

Gorki "XTC"

-> Vote Here

BACK FROM NOWHERE : THE BELPOPTOP
Visitors to this website who have been coming here a long time, might remember that we once tried to start a thing called "The Belpoptop" : a list with 20 singles of Belgian bands, decided by a top 5 that you could send in. Well : It's back, with a vengeance. Or sort of.
I've decided to give it a second go: the prodedure has been simplified very much (only 10 songs now), the voting system revolutionized (let's hope for the better) and new prizes have been found (I'm giving away a "New Veins"-cd with tracks by Atomic, Flexa Lyndo, Kris Dane, Orange Pecco, Fence, Betty Goes Green, PPz30 and L. Santo, collected by the goodfellas at Pritt).
To kick the thing off (a new list will be compiled twice a month), I've made a random top 10. Sort of. Subjective, true, but this is now up for your evaluation.
So go ahead and vote now ...

August 20, 2000

THE GREAT DRUMMER SWAP
Exciting times for Belgian drummers, or so it seems, as there are some changes to report:
- Hooverphonic, which is just a trio these days, has hired the services of Mario Goossens for the tour that is starting next week (in Pukkelpop). The group is getting quite a good buzz from the industry people who have heard their upcoming album "The magnificent Tree", and that tour is shaping up to quite an ambitious one : they start of with a number of festivals (Pukkelpop, Leeds, Reading, Les Nuits Botaniques). After that, they head over to New York and will tour for a month in the States. Negotiations for gigs in Japan, Australia and New Zealand are close to being finalized, and the rest of Europe will probably also get covered.
- Mario Goossens was the drummer for the Hoodoo Club (now defunct) and after that for a short while the drummer of Noordkaap (now also defunct). So far, no problem.
- But : Since Mario Goossens is also the drummer of the - much talked about - new band of Stijn Meuris named Monza, this project had to reshuffle their agenda. The plans as they are now include recording an album in the spring, a release just before the summer, and a big presence at the summer festivals (this is a correction of the earlier message that said Monza wouldn't record until the fall of 2001, thx to Stijn Meuris himself).
- But n° 2 : Since Mario Goossens was drumming with Angelico, and that group has quite a lot of ambition and some wind behind their sails, making it unfeasable to combine the two calendars, Mario has decided to leave Angelico. Not to worry for the girl-led lot, since a prompt replacement has been already been found : Dirk Jans.
- Dirk Jans in his turn is drummer for De Mens (just made one hell of an appearance at Marktrock) and De Kreuners (just made one hell of an appearance at Boogiewood). Both these groups weren't plotting any major world-domination schemes for the next months, so they won't probably have to look for replacements. However, both Kreuners and De Mens will be recording a new album in the months ahead.

EXTRA TENT AT PUKKELPOP
As if the two days of Pukkelpop indie-band frenzy weren't packed enough, news just came in that there will be an extra stage at the festival next weekend : ChateauXCrapule will be the name, (K-RAA-K)³ and Morr Music will be the style (both examples of DIY philosophy : initiatives based on idealism and a wayward taste in music and radiating a strong sense ofidentiy. "Underground" without the accompanying sloppiness or laisser-passer mentality), Smout & Jansen the organizers. A tent with a capacity of about 400 persons will host visuals and bands such as Looplizard, Galacticamendum, Géographique, B.Fleischmann, Vo, Herrmann und Kleine, Styrofoam, Synthemes+, Phonem, Arovane, Daan Stuyven and the Think of One Marrakech Emballages Ensemble on Friday, and Phonem, Galacticamendum, Styrofoam, Herrmann und Kleine, Benjamin Franklin, Looplizard, Kurt Ralske, Dirty Three, Kpt.Michigan, Geschmacksverstärker and Köhn on Saturday.
The timetable for the entire festival is now also finally known (see the Pukkelpop-site for that). Belgian bands on the line-up will be Mauro & The Inferno's, Das Pop and K's choice on the main stage, Thou on the Marquee, Buscemi in the Dance Hall, Janez Detd. on the skate stage, ABN on the hip-hop stage, Fence, An Pierlé and Hooverphonic in the Club. Other highlights include Placebo, De La Soul, Reprazent, Blonde Redhead, Herbaliser and Les Rhythmes Digitales on Friday, and Sigur Ros, Therapy?, Calexico, Underworld, Pinback, Coldplay, Saint-Germain and Cypress Hill on Saturday.