NEWSARCHIVE

Period : August 1-15, 2001
In this issue : Zita Swoon, Lester, Groove Cartel, Bolchi, Magnus, Soulwax, Toots Thielemans, Novastar, Helmut Lotti ...

August 9, 2001

BELPOPTOP JULY : ZITA SWOON
Yihaa or Yahoo .. here's the new edition of the Belpoptop, your verdict on the current state of affairs in Belgian Pop & Rock releases. Zita Swoon's banana queen powered her way from naugth to one, and Mauro's still clinging on to n°2. Other newcomers in the list of July are Zornik, Filip Kowlier & Sue Daniels.

Current Belpoptop
1	Zita Swoon "The Banana Queen"
2	Mauro "Let Me Know"
3	Das Pop "The Love Program"
4	Tom Helsen "Slowly"
5	De Mens "Denk je nog aan mij"
6	Venus in Flames "Cynthia's Gone"
7	Yum "Fake"
8	Zornik "It's so Unreal"
9	Filip Kowlier "Welgemeende"
10	Sue Daniels "Constant (raving)"
	Give your opinion : >>> Vote Here <<<

Although it's officially summer, there's a record number of new suggestions for next month's list that I could pick from recent releases :
- Millionaire "Body Experience Revue" . Millionaire is the exciting new band of ex-Evil Superstars guitarist Tim Vanhamel (also known from his guitar work for dEUS on the Ideal Crash tour) & friends. This is a first single, a full CD will be out on PIAS in September.
- Ozark Henry "Rescue" . After his jazz-like excursion in the project Sunzoo Manley, Piet Goddaer is returning to his main band Ozark Henry. As a prelude to a new full cd coming up in the next months, he's now issued the single "Rescue". Watch out for his performance on Pukkelpop this month.
- Automatic Buffalo "What if we made love in the end" . The single "All Men Are Equal" missed the current top 10 by one measly vote, so we're willing to promote a 2nd song from the debut EP of this Luc De Vos/Ashbury Faith project.
- Wawadadakwa "Ayama Zira" This very festive combo from Antwerp made an "ode to all women" with the help of "het knappe Koor", and released this cheerful track as a single, with a number of remixes by DJ Stephanie etc ...
- Marka "Letches Bong". Serge Van Laeken, aka Marka, started out in the eighties with Allez Allez, but has been fine-tuning a solo-career in french chanson with a twist for some ten years now. "Letches Bang" is the prelude to a new album coming out this fall.
- Gido Van Gent "Mayuko / Plant den boel moar vol". Gido doesn't conceal where he's from (Ghent that is), by singing in the local dialect. A debut album "GidovanGent", produced by dirk Blanchart, is coming up in September.
- Mauro "Finish it all off (with love)" Mauro - that other ex-Evil Superstars - keeps on releasing songs from his debut album "Songs from a Bad Hat" at a great rate. "Let me know" and "Faint Smile" both topped this list in the past, let's see if "Finish it all off" makes that three in a row.
- Gore Slut "Stop". Gore slut is another one of the bands of Rudy Trouvé (dEUS, Dead Man Ray, Kiss my jazz ...). Stop is a first teaser for the album "Girls+Turtles", which will come out on Heaven Hotel/Virgin in the month of September.
- Jean-Louis Daulne "Zusje" . Jean-Louis Daulne is the - slightly - lesser known brother of Marie & Anita - Zap Mama - Daulne, but he has been steadily building his scat/funk/chanson-career as well. "Zusje (P'tite soeur)" is a tri-lingual single from his third album, which is simply entitled "Jean-Louis Daulne".
- Lester "Small Lies" . Lester is a new band, consisting mostly of ex-Beautiful Babies, and have taken their name from the main character in "American Beauty". "Small Lies" is their debut single. Check 'em out at Marktrock in August.
- Groove Cartel "Ultra Love" ("latin house" band recently signed to Universal, this first single features mixes by Llorca & Tcheelab, another production of Frank Duchêne)
- Bolchi "Get Your Groove On" Another fresh project in the dance-sector (formerly known as Bolchi 'n Imagu) whose demo was picked up by Studio Brussels. This band from Ghent around Jeroen De Pessemier promise to self-release this mix of pop & dance soon.
- Jo Lemaire "La saison des amours" : After toying around with the repertoire of Edith Piaf for a while, Jo Lemaire is now heading back to her own songwriting. A full album, "Flagrants délices" produced by Frank Duchêne, is coming up, and this is the first single of it.
- Mud Flow "Oh Yeah" (re-formed after a split, they too will be releasing a new - 2nd - album soon)
- Paul Michiels " Daydream" (another cover by the ex-L&M&Soulsister, but this is no wonder, as he'll be releasing a full CD "Forever Young" with nothing but cover in the next weeks).
- Tanja Dexters "Shake Your Thing". Her "thing" now features dark coloured hair!
- D.A.A.U. "Piano Dub" One of the two tracks with vocals (by Angélique Willkie) from the "Life Transmission" album has been released as a (promo only) single, in a oembwaweebhoewadijabedabetundee mix, done by their producer/technician Phil Evans.
- Moiano "Putain Putain" . This is the cover of the legendary TC Matic song that won Peter Lesage & Co "de Prijs", the yearly contest for new bands on Studio Brussels. They turned this Arno-Aerts song into a sexy & funky track.

August 5, 2001

SMART UPDATE
Nothing much seems to going on at the moment, but here's a few of the titbits that are popping up here (and there).

• Tom Barman (the dEUS singer/guitarist) is still busy preparing his film, but he also announced last week that there will be a release of a mucic project he's currently involved in. The project is called Magnus, and it involves Tom & CJ Bolland (Anglo-Belgian techno producer & remixer, biggest hit probably "Sugar is sweeter", worked with all the "big names" and did remixes for acts so diverse as Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Moby and Hooverphonic - not to be confounded with the Dutch producers duo Bolland & Bolland). They're currently recording a CD with Magnus, hoping to finish by november, meaning a release won't come before March 2002. After that, plans still include the shooting of the movie and then ... a new dEUS album.
• Soulwax had pretty much cancelled all their shows this summer (e.g. Lowlands, Reading) as they were in the recording studio with all the equipment & stuff. Indeed, the new cd is finally more or less on the way (current plan is a release in early spring 2002). Now they decided to do a few gigs after all, as they were invited to the Summersonic festival in Japan. To "rehearse" for this trip to Japan, Soulwax was revealed to be the surprise act at the Lokerse Feesten. See them on monday evening, at Midnight.
• from Het Staatsblad (the publication of official Belgian laws & legislation)
  By royal decree of July 4th, the following noble titles were bestowed upon :
  - concession of personal title of baroness to Mrs. Hilde Franckx;
  - concession of personal title of baron to the gentlemen Jean-Marie Bogaert, Pierre Romeijer, Georges Schnek, Jean Stéphenne, Jean-Baptiste said Toots Thielemans, Eugène Traey en Olivier Vanneste;
  - concession of a personal title of knight to the gentlemen Salvatore Adamo, Arthur Blanckaert alias Will Tura, Jacques Leduc, Pierre Lulsens alias Pierre Arty en Gilbert Seresia.
  All three musicians which were thus knighted declared to be very honoured by the title.
• The recognition of the talent of Toots Thielemans doesn't stop at the Belgian borders: he received an Edison honouring his entire career during last month's North See Jazz festival in The Hague. Toots also has a fresh new album out: finally his coöperation with ... Werner has been put on CD.
  On July 17, Toots presented a new live CD at Brosalla Jazz. The cd, which simply carries the title "Toots Thielemans & Kenny Werner", is his first release with the pianist Kenny Werner, although they have been playing together for the last four years. The CD is out on Universal Records (Buy it at Proxis).
• A remarkeable appearance in the hallways & backstages of Belgian rock these days is spotted to be Joost Zweegers of Novastar. The man is floating! The reason for his happiness: He has just finished six days playing at the venues of Neil Young European tour. And apparently, the appreciation for each other's act was mutual.
  A next release of Novastar could be a live album, as these shows were digitally recorded.
• Hooverphonic isn't going to the Oppikoppi festival in South-Africa in the end. An eager replacement has been found in the Limburg wacko blues band Blues Lee.
• Coco Jr. has seen that the sun is out there shining, so he promptly replied by releasing a new single: backed up by "Vibes Alive", it's a soulful/groovy version of the Animals classic "House of the Rising Sun". The backing band consists of The Recipe (backing band of Rohan Lee - formerly the rootsreggaeband The Vibe) & vocalists Chantal Kashala, Nina Babet & Wah'tanga Rema.
• Although his last album "Latino Love Songs" didn't completely live up to the expectations of the "Lotti goes classic" series, Helmut Lotti still has decided to do a part 2 of it. With a repertoire of songs such as "Cucurucucu Paloma", "Maria Helena", "Quien Sera", "Amor", "Somos Novios" he had no trouble compiling a 2nd "latin" CD, which will be released on September 18. A single is already out, "Quizas, quizas, quizas" (this could mean yuck, yuck, yuck - my spanish isn't so good).
  On September 8th, he'll be recording the TV-special, not in Mexico as last time, but in the somewhat less inspiring surrounding of the Limburghal in Genk. Tickets: 0900/84.100.

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