Reviews van Nederlandstalige Muziek
Reviews van Nederlandstalige Muziek
Frits - Dankzij de dijken - +4 - 1995
Nits & The Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra - Hjuvi - +1.5 - 1992
The Nits - Tent - +1.5 - 1979
Frits - Dankzij de dijken - +4 - 1995
This is a collaboration between Freek de Jonge and The Nits. I have
to admit never having heard about Freek de Jonge before, but from
the liner notes I conclude that he has been around for a long time.
Maybe not as a rock singer, but rather as sort of a cabaret artist.
On the other hand I'm fairly familliar with The Nits, owning nine albums
before getting the three in this batch of reviews.
Since I didn't know of Freek at all, and the most recent Nits album
I've heard, "Ting", was a bit of a disappointment, I was uncertain on
what to expect. And it didn't start of too well. The open "Quo Vadis"
is a piano-rock tune, a bit too simplistic for my taste. But then comes
"Vieze ouwe man". And "Een fantast" And.. there are so many songs full
of wonderfulcraziness it's difficult to name them all.
The Nits have always been more pop than rock, and their sound has
most of the time been leaning towards the beautiful rather than the
noisy and burlesque. But here they are bending the curves quite a bit,
matching Freek de Jonge's vocals very well. Some songs *are* smooth,
like "Sarawak". But then you have "God wat ik ben blij" which is very
angst-ridden. What is good is that there is a good mix between the calmer
numbers, and the more chaotic ones, so you get a chance to catch your
breath, although is is the more chaotic numbers that makes this album
such a thrill.
Here I've said "smooth" and "chaotic", but while "God wat ij ben
blij" *is* chaotic, you cannot say that about for instance "De zand-
loper" which opens with that sort of a monotone chant of a priest in
mass, but the words and none that he would sing. (No, they are not
filfthy, they just doesn't have anything to do with church.) "Vaders
stem" on the other hand is calmer song, but with nice harmonies.
And we shouldn't forget the title track, the old Nits favourite "In
Dutch Mountains", now with Dutch words. (And talking of that, the
fact that The Nits have sung in English has always been a little
minus in my book. Finally I find them with Dutch vocals, and it is
one of their very best albums!)
As I said, I don't know about Freek de Jonge, but it seems safe to
say that it is not his singing alone who have made him famous. As a
singer his range seems quite small; he almost talk himself through
the songs. Rather it seems that a lot is the lyrics. My knowledge of
Dutch mainly comes from its similarity to German and Swedish, so I
get don't get all of it, but the lyrics seems to be meaningful,
personal and least of all trite.
All and all, this is a formidable album. You can recognize some
of the typical devices that are typical for The Nits, but Freek
de Jonge's more playful and less strict singing adds a completely
new dimension to it all. So next time you are in Amsterdam or
Brussels, drop to a record store and get this album!
Nits & The Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra - Hjuvi - +1.5 - 1992
So, also The Nits have made a work for group and orchestra. I generally
tend to like these kind of collaborations, but I'm only mildly en-
thusiastic about this one. Why? Well, it's not that its bad, but some-
how...
The subtitle is "A Rhapsody in Time", and the piece is divided into
"rooms". Some of the rooms are also divided into parts, and the track
numbering on the CD goes along with the parts, so room 12 is track 19.
The problem is that the division between many of the parts and the rooms
feels arbitrary. There aren't really pauses, but it all flows on con-
tinuously for almost an hour. You could have fewer rooms/parts if you
wanted to. Or more.
Yes, some rooms stand out very clearly like "Room for Percussion" and
the four vocal numbers, of which two are taken from "Ting", which was
their most recent regular album at the time (and my least favourite
Nits album). Typically these are the rooms that are not written by
Rober Jan Stips alone. (Overall this appears more as a Stips work,
than a collective Nits effort.)
The style of the music is best described as "impressionistic". Many
of the rooms offers music that flows around without any distinct
theme. Orchestral ambient music if you like. It doesn't sound overly
original, although I can't pin-point and say: "that's taken from...".
One exception though: The first part of a room called "Pianata" re-
minds me of the last movement of Keith Emersons piano concerto. The
liner notes say "Bela goes America", and maybe both Stips and Emerson
took the inspiration from Bartok.
So, I guess the reason that I don't find this work being of any
extraordinary listening, is that it doesn't offer much more than
tranquille background listening.
The Nits - Tent - +1.5 - 1979
"Tent" is their very first album, and certainly quite different from
would come later. Listening to this album, they don't appear very
special. Synth-pop seems to be the appropriate label, even though there
is an unusal amount of electric guiitar. The electric guitar, by the
way, is much more present here than on later albums. Overall, they
sound like a fairly normal band. I guess that this is not very remark-
able; it only tells us that they hadn't found their own special form
by then. It could be worth adding that their double-live CD "Urk" in-
cludes material from "Work", their third album, and on, but no songs
from the two first, "Tent" and "New Flat". Probably not without reason.
But if we regard this as a typical synth-pop album from 1979, how is
it? Not bad. Synth-pop albums are often fairly inoffensive, unless
they are too sleazy, and "Tent" isn't. The songs are quite catchy and
exemplary short. And the lyrics are witty. In fact, if we are talking
lyrics, we have no problem to recognize The Nits from their later
works; here they had already found their own way, with small stories,
atmospheric descriptions about various topics, often with a humouristic
slant.
--
Erland Sommarskog, sommar@enea.se, Stockholm
[ The rec.music.reviews FAQ is posted regularly and can also be obtained at: ]
[ Anonymous FTP - at ftp.digex.net in /pub/access/awrc/rmr/FAQ.txt ]
[ World Wide Web - http://www.access.digex.net/~awrc/rmr/ ]
The Scene - Rij, Rij, Rij - +2 - 1988 - Netherlands
The Scene - Blauw - +2.5 - 1990 - Netherlands
The Scene - Avenue de la Scene - +1.5 - 1993 - Netherlands
Pol & Misj - Sex en dialoog - 0 - 1992 - Belgium
Raymond van het Groenewoud - Nooit meer drinken - 0 - 1977 - Belgium
The Scene - Rij, Rij, Rij - +2 - 1988 - Netherlands
The Scene - Blauw - +2.5 - 1990 - Netherlands
The Scene - Avenue de la Scene - +1.5 - 1993 - Netherlands
The Scene from the Netherlands is a band which has their own
distinct sound. Not radically different from everything else,
but enough of their own style to make them interesting. Take
a gnawing guitar, add a strong organ backing, male lead vocals
from Thé Lau and female backing vocals from the bass player
Emile Blom van Assendelft and you have the basics.
Sometimes the songs are slow, more often they are upbeat,
but the mixture is often the same. Generally it works best
with the faster songs, but there are exceptions such as the
surging "Beschaving" on "Avenue...". But there are never any
real weak tracks, except one: "Borderline" on "Rij, Rij, Rij",
a cover sung in English.
While the basic style is the same on these three albums,
there are still individual difference. "Rij, Rij, Rij", is a
little poppier, and has several sungs which sticks severly
to your mind: "Kom omhoog", "Hartslag", "S.E.X".
"Blauw" sees them at their peak. Songs as "Iedereen is van
de wereld" and "Geloof" demonstrates their recipe at utmost
perfection.
"Avenue de la Scene" opens more slowly than the other albums,
and we have to wait to the fifth song, "Mijn straat", until we
get the typical quick Scene rocker. The album is not as strong
as the other two - or "Open", that I have since before - but
is certainly not weak. Besides the already mentioned songs,
the half-slow "Recht van bestaan" belongs to their top material.
Pol & Misj - Sex en dialoog - 0 - 1992 - Belgium
Being shopping in Brussels I decided that I did not want to buy
acts that I knew well, but also try some new Dutch-language act,
preferably a Flemish one. With the magnetic attraction of the word
"sex", the choice fell on Pol & Misj.
While several of my blind acquisitions had proved to be huge
successes, this is not such a case. Together with the producer Bert
Hermelink, ex-Toontje Lager, they play all instruments, and judging
from the photo on the back cover, their instrument is the guitar.
And, sure enough, the guitar is the only instrument that has any
emphasis. The rest consists of drum and keyboard sounds in a fairly
unspecified manner. They are no guitar heroes though, but rather
electrified and poppified troubadours and for the musically venture-
some there is not much to find here. Two songs are worth some mention:
the opening "Oostende" which is a decent pop song, and the slower
"Ik mis je". The rest is fairly bland and forgettable.
Raymond van het Groenewoud - Nooit meer drinken - 0 - 1977 - Belgium
The first song I ever heard of Raymond van het Groenewoud was "White
Lady", which I taped from the Swedish radio in 1978. That's a catchy,
funky song with a good-minded humouristic slant. I have to admit that
at the time I didn't catch that the vocals were in Dutch... (There
are a few more lines in English beside the title to fool you.)
Much later on, I have gotten to know some more of his works: the
1984 effort "Habba" and a few more songs on a tape from a friend.
While "Habba" has some good moments, the overall impression is fairly
bleak. Still, I opted for this album at my Brussels visit in April.
To wit: this is the album with "White Lady" on it.
And let me say it immediately: "White Lady" is the only song on
this song on "Nooit meer drinken" that really stands out. The rest
is not very much to write home about. Sure, this album offers a blend
of styles, and those who are familliar with my reviews know that this
helps to get a good rating. But it is not sufficient. While he tries
both rock, funk, schlager, ballads and music-hall, it is all done
fairly superficial - except for "White Lady" which really has a good
arrangement. The emphasis is always on the vocals, so the music is like
cabaré music: you write something which fits the atmosphere of the
number, but you don't put much effort into it. Some songs enverves
more than other, party-pop songs like "Crazy Pub" and "Feest" I'd
rather be without, while rocky of funky songs like "Meisjes" and
"Zjoske schone meid" are certainly standable, but in no way remark-
able.
Anyway, I don't think I will buy anymore Groenewoud albums...
--
Erland Sommarskog, sommar@enea.se, Stockholm
[ The rec.music.reviews FAQ is posted regularly and can also be obtained at: ]
[ Anonymous FTP - at ftp.digex.net in /pub/access/awrc/rmr/FAQ.txt ]
[ World Wide Web - http://www.access.digex.net/~awrc/rmr/ ]
[home] [thuis] [nieuws] [bladen] [events] [links] [more-links] [fotos] [music] [werk] [tourism&travel] [sport_hobby] [cultuur] [taal] [geography] [misc]