Thanks to some personal duties I must attend to, there will be no post today, nor possibly tomorrow (we will see). For today, I leave you with a fine Belgian prog-psych album from 1976 by the near-forgotten band Dragon. Enjoy!
-
-
A note of thanks to one of the great oddball reissue labels, Vreemde Opties Records, who operate out of Belgium. Apparently, they have taken the time to license used-bin treasures like this and remaster them well enough to sound spectacular on your computer (or however you choose to listen to these). This one, of course, comes the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show. It’s a collection of music which appeared on said program many years ago, and I never thought I’d see this gem reissued. Bravo.
-
From my friend, the rather legendary Drem Bruinsma‘s project, BlindººCoyote manages to expertly weld together wild electronic music with a relaxed back beat, making the music adventurous but, ultimately, pleasant to listen to. From BlindººCoyote’s Bandcamp site: “This 33-piece album consists of a deep reflection on a period, albeit a difficult one, from Covid and Confinement to hospitals and surgery, from treatment and opiates, from chronic pain to hope and fear, from social isolation to remaining in touch with the outside world by being online. With this album ends a chapter, a period with a very demanding character. I hope…
-
With the exception of Christian Vander, I cannot think of too many people whose name would be so heavily associated with zeuhl and avant-progressive rock in general than Guy Segers. The former bassist of the legendary Univers Zero has collected some of the finest names in avant and progressive rock to make an album loaded with wildly improvised music. It’s an astounding, challenging release – one which no listener would ever get bored of. Kudos to Discus Music for releasing this gem. The list of musicians should be enough to entice even the newest of zeuhl fans: Julie TIPPETTS (Vocals)…
-
Our dear friends at Lost Tribe Sound have on offer an ambient album perfectly designed for headphone listening by a project new to me called Drawing Virtual Gardens, a Belgium-based artist called David Gutman. From the promo material, which does a wonderful service introducing David’s work: “At the core of Drawing Virtual Gardens ’22:22,’ there is a keen sense of the nocturnal, and a blurring of lines between the waking and the dream state. Focusing on small synchronous events within these hypnagogic periods, Gutman takes inspiration and translates them into musical cadence. Blankets of dense sub-bass coat minimal dub-like rhythmic…
-
The Netherlands is a country so incredibly rich with music, yet they do an awful jon promoting it. Welcome, then, to the wild world of Dutch jazz, courtesy of Belgian label Sdban Records. From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Delve into the Dutch jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s with a selection of classic and rare hard bop and cool jazz tracks from artists like Herman Schoonderwalt, the Diamond Five, Wessel Ilcken and Tony Vos. Holland never sounded this hip before! “Jazz is garbage and a caricature of the modern orchestra; it is garbage arranged by half-grown musicians for the…
-
Severine Day hails from Belgium, and she produces an post-punk sound that brings up memories of bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, French cold wave bands like Clair Obscur, and even a touch of Nico, but with a sound that is as modern as it is authentic. It’s a thrill to hear such music still being made for those of us who grew up during the genre’s heyday.
-
Our friend JOHN 3:16 (a quote I subscribe to as well as a band whose work is consistently brilliant) has paired with the Belgian project Be The Hammer and the pairing have produced an album that, while fresh and brutally punchy technologically, also has a flair for reminding the listener of everything from Skinny Puppy to Front 242, and perhaps a bit of Central/Eastern European post-punk. This album is going to get a lot of attention, surely.
-
Minimal Compact was an Israeli band which left a sizable imprint with their music during the 1980s and 1990s, and both Malka Spiegel and Samy Birnbach continue, as far as I know, to record great music. An unbelievable post-punk shuffler from 1981, by Tel-Aviv-Brussels band Minimal Compact! This tune is one of our favorite tracks ever and we’ve been wanting to reissue it since day one. But this is no ordinary reissue! The 12” includes an unreleased instrumental version plus a spaced-out extended dub mix by the living legend, Mad Professor! Members of the band recorded for such legendary labels…
-
Pogus Records has released a treasure from Belgian electroacoustic composer Leo Kupper, who is finally being recognized as a master of his field.