What's Another Year? - It Was 2008

If you have been reading this years entries on this blog, you may think you don't need to read this years report. You could do just as well do read it. I don't think 2008 was any spectacular year, just another year, like so many. But surely some nice things were done.

Releases: there were many releases with my music and I must say I am still proud of them all. No highlights per se, as they are all highlights. The latest Beequeen, the first Zebra CD, the releases by Pick-up, the various releases by Freiband. All mighty fine.

In 2009 there will be more releases, such as the long awaited 'Mouthless' LP by Pick-up on Important Records and hopefully a third and fourth LP. The third one is done now, and had interest from a label, but we didn't hear back from them; work on the fourth one has started. In disrespect of what Wander said, one release per format, there will be a second CD, this time for Divine Frequencies, all played on analogue synths and some field recordings. Wander will also indulge in a 3"CDR with their one and only excursion in noiseland. No label yet. More releases on My Own Little Label, after a six month rest. Roel and me already did a bit of work on a new CD by Zebra, and have serious plans for a great christmas 7".

Concerts: highlight was of course the trip to Russia, apart from two trips into Germany, the only foreign expedition done. Fine gigs were also Freiband and Beequeen in Maastricht, the odd small concert at O Tannebaum and in Leeuwarden. Things could have been better at Extrapool, Lux and Worm, oh well. I wish I didn't went to Eindhoven. Next year, I have a concert on the 10th of January in Extrapool with a few cassette machines and perhaps on the 5th of february in Heerlen. I'd love to play out more. Contact me!

The Labels. Again proud of all releases I did this year, 'Outwaard' by Z'EV, 'Dislocation' by The Hafler Trio, 'Tilburg' by THU20, 'Loop End' by Pick-up and all the MOLL releases. Best sold release of this year was the 3"CDR by Bass Communion and Freiband, no surprise there. It will be released as 10inch vinyl by Tone Float early 2009 as part of a bigger package with other Bass Communion works on vinyl. Plans for releases include a new Brombron CD by Francisco Lopez/Richard Francis, a CD version of 'Fin de Siecle' by Illusion Of Safety, LPs by Mirko Uhlig and one by me (both highly limited), 'The Name Of Someone', by The Hafler Trio, ending my relationship with Andrew McKenzie and perhaps something by Jim O'Rourke - at last. I signed a deal with IODA to get MP3s on all the official sites, which should be going early 2009. I do hope physical sales will fare better, but hey 'its the crisis, stupid'.

Art? I was extremely proud of the film Harrie Timmermans did on me and my participation in 'Frozen' (which had a re-run in another Gallery in Amsterdam, which name eludes me right now, I'm sure it's on the CV). I just completed a short soundtrack for a film 'IJzig Vuur' by Jan-Kees Helms (the old man from Lor Teeps), which will be shown in January in Amersfoort. I hope to have it on a business card release before that.

Otherwise - it was great to meet Peter Hook, even though he just mailed me he still didn't hear my Zebra CD. Had some interesting new hallucination experience this year (well, three of them) - not to be repeated that often. Building now a new studio space at Extrapool - open for rental soon, if you love old analogue gear.

Future. I hate this time of the year, makes me always quite depressed, and it will be gone in a week from now. So thinking about the future is something I am not good at. But in 2009 both Kapotte Muziek and Korm Plastics will exist for 25 years. There might be some sort of celebration for the first and, if sales remain this bad, a burial for the second.

happy new ear

Seven Short Gigs

I have not been doing this for several years, say 8 or so, but tonight I returned to play Sinterklaas again. Seven 15 minute house gigs for small children. Singing (me!) and telling, and giving presents which I didn't buy. The lower the social class the more religious they were, and the more they smoked in front of their children. Amazing as usual, although not the great stories as before, when I did trailer parks, pubs, restaurants and the local youth prison, but a fine gig as usual. Well seven to be precise.

Two New Releases

Today I received some copies of a CD by Oba Masahiro, called 'Prot', which offers five tracks of ambient and sweet techno inspired remixes. Out of these five tracks four are remixed, one by me. It says 'Frans de Waard remix', which, honestly I would have preferred 'Freiband remix', since the musical style is rather from Freiband. Other remixers are by Set In Sand, Motorofaam and Aoki Shintaro. Quite nice, and of course I few some to sell. Labelwebsite


Not for sale by me, is the CDR release on Moving Furniture Records, a new CDR label by Sietse van Erve, Orphax fame etc. His first release is by Russia's Five Elements Music, with whom we travelled from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back. He took the Kapotte Muziek recording from St. Petersburg and created a new piece of it. Of course part of the big Kapotte Muziek by... series, yet not on Korm Plastics. Highly recommended for lovers of drone music. Labelwebsite

Doubts Even Here

Last years main meet & no greet was of course Freek and me going to see Jonathan Richman, this year it was just me solo going to see Section 25 featuring Peter Hook in the unlikely surroundings of Oss. Unique only dutch concert is what they advertise with. The website said they'd be playing 6 Section 25 songs and 12 Joy Division/New Order. So who'd be singing those, I wondered. I am surprised to see that De Groene Engel is somewhat like my local Doornroosje venue, and bump in to various people I know, including Mark who tipped this event for me, and Mic, Jan and Jasper. A curious gathering of goths, old grey men, some with their teenager children. Support act was Kevin Hewick, of whom I bought his first Factory 7" in what was it, 1981, and thought 'oh shit, great artwork, but they also release shitty records' (and I never got into Stockholm Monsters either). Anyway one minute of a big oversized man with an acoustic guitar is pretty much enough for me, so I joined the smokers outside (as somebody said friday night, a non-smoker actually, 'at concerts you smell all the cheap after shave and farts, I wish people would smoke again at concerts'). Then Section 25 started, without Hooky on stage, with 'New Horizon' and within minutes you know why we have to regret the death of Martin Hannett: Larry Cassidy can't hold a tune in a bucket. His brother on drums, and two youngsters on guitar and bass, were great, really great. But the singing was a major let down. They played for about 35 minutes, more than six songs that is, when Hooky comes and plays 'No Love Lost' with them. The big moment has arrived. They play a bunch of songs ('Interzone', 'Shadowplay', 'Temptation', 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'She's Lost Control' (with a much too loud sample I must add), 'Dreams Never End' and 'Ceremony'), of which 'Dreams' was sung by Hook, which was great, but Larry sings the rest, which again is a let down. Its a bit like seeing a Status Quo cover band featuring Rick Parfitt, if you get my drift. When things are over, people cheer, and Larry says 'you have to do better than that' (proving Tony Wilson right, with Cassidy being a big whiner), two encores are played, with Section 25 first with too many sequences running from the mixing desk, which was rather painful, with the sound continuing and the band stopping. With Hook on vocals 'Doubts Even Here' (which seemed an appropriate ending). I lurked at the backstage and see on the screen that Hook will be DJ-ing for another hour, but I have to miss that. When the man comes out, I ask for an autograph but forget the 'please' at the end (remarkable that people who use the word fucking all the time, but also need the 'please' word - there is something I fail to understand about the english language), so Hook says 'only if you say please' and walks on. I follow him and say 'oh Peter, please can I have your autograph, please' which he then does on my copy of 'Get Ready', which happens to be my favorite New Order CD (though many disagree). I pull out also the Zebra CD and Hook says, 'what's that, it looks like my Hacienda book' and says its my band and I give him the CD. He shakes my hand (I wonder how many people give him stuff, and how much will land on the bottom of the canal) and somebody asks me if I can take a picture of him and Hook, which turns out to be a great picture, and he fucks up mine with Hook. See above. Oh, well another most memorable evening has come to an end (well, in Oss, as I continue in Nijmegen of course and see various people from the concert later that night in Merleyn). Fucking hell! I wish I had a recording.

New Compilation

Today I received some copies of 'Table For Six: All Quiet? #3', which is an ongoing affair from EE Tapes. I know EE Tapes since the early cassette days and he released a Shifts CDR before and Shifts is on 'The Walls Are Whispering'. On this new compilation six artists have considerable longer pieces. My piece is entirely made from hiss taken from old cassettes, pieced together in a dramatic way. Very quiet and very loud. Its called 'Wortel (Root)' and is the companion of a piece to be released soon 'Root (Wortel)'. Other artists are Neuestrasse, Stormhat, Anemone Tube, Bruno De Angelis and (ad)vance(d). Fine line up, great CD. I have some copies for sale, or go to the label website

The workshop in Cologne was nice too, see picture above. Here is a link which includes all raw material as made by the participants, a rehearsal with them, the concert with them, and the full concert by Kapotte Muziek. Use or re-use freely. It is quite a big file. Perhaps a newspaper article will be published also.

Updates at last

I know. I have never been good in keeping diaries, so my blog is a bit behind. The Eurovision noise contest was big fun. An endurance test for the jury, but soaked in wine, so it was good. See the evidence above.
I released two new LPs. One is a live recording from THU20 from last year's concert in Paradox in Tilburg. Not that this info on the cover. We all forgot to put it on. Also the very first LP by Pick-up on Plinkity Plonk is now released, and I am quite proud of that one. Great music, great cover. me thinks.
Last friday and saturday Roel and me worked on some new Zebra music, our album of classic (rhapsody, sonates, symphony and that kind of stuff). A tiring session, in many ways, but some satisfying result, we feel. I should post some MP3s on myspace, come to think of it.
While being in Rotterdam I also played with Beequeen, the full trio line up. For some curious reason the computer was a bit slower at the concert (though tempo was unchanged, maybe its the weather, electrical or ghostly activities - Radboud Mens, the expert at hand, also had no clue, so there is hardly a lesson to be learned), so the first four songs are off, but once restarting the programm things worked out well. Still seven nice songs. Download the entire concert
here
Next thursday Kapotte Muziek will be doing a workshop in Cologne, again at the Kulturbunker ('there is no reception in the bunker' a wise man once remarked while playing shortwave radio) for youngsters (16-18 years old). They will learn to solder and do field recording. Kapotte Muziek will also play solo and there is a concert of Tarkatak (and perhaps we'll do something with him too)
And much further away is a small concert at Extrapool's Tape Treff on January 10 where I'l be using two cassette decks and two microphones - I hope. Its about cassettes, so maybe should go as Kapotte Muziek. Well, enough time to think about it.

The Good & The Bad News

I recently learned that Maria of Atak passed away in June, at the age of 30. This is very very sad news. When I was in Japan in 2007 at the invitation of Atak, Maria took care of everything, and I mean everything to make us (me, Evala, Pan Sonic and Keiichiro Shibuya) happy at concerts and in between concerts. Maria was certainly the best host one could have for such a tour. I think back with fond affection to her, and wish Keiichiro, her husband, all the strength he needs. I intend to make some music in her memory. More here

Last week I spend time to create a new blog with all known live recordings by Beequeen for free download. It shows our development, failures and success. I can't imagine anyone downloading them all, but there is some fine stuff, like our concert with Girlfriends, dream machine music, the AVE festival, Metamorphasen and if you want one good Beequeen concert from the USA (which are essentially all the same), I'd say download the one from Rochester.

On September 20th, I'll be part of a jury for the Eurovision Noise Contest."European countries compete against each other for the title of "The Best European Noise Act Of 2008." Every act gets 11 minutes to show their skills to the audience.
A professional jury constisting of Dr Bibber (performance), Frans de Waard (music) and A3 (costumes and outfits) will give a professional reply to what the act showed them. Your host for the whole evening will be Wouter Jaspers, who personally booked all the great acts. The winner will get a release on ZXZW Records and of course the honor of being "The Best European Noise Act Of 2008."
The Eurovision Noise Contest will be organised in collaboration with Vatican Analog."
More at the website of ZXZW