Botanique Brussels | TURN UP THE VOLUME

5 Reasons Why Manchester’s Motorik-Dance Machine W.H. LUNG Should Be Your New Favourite Band

29 May 2022

Electro-driven pop/rock team W.H. LUNG (named after a Chinese supermarket
in their native Manchester) are reaching for the stars with their ecstatic exuberance.
Check their two LPs released so far: Incidental Music (2019) and Vanities (2021)

I saw the band play last Wednesday (25 May) in the basement of the historic building Botanique in Brussels. They made my head spin, out of control, made my heart beats
in overdrive, and made ME a fan just after a couple of firecrackers.

5 reasons why W.H. Lung should be your new favorite band!

1. The band’s hypnotic Krautrock/pop inspired waves of overwhelming electronic ravishment energize every single muscle, every single nerve, and every single limb
on the spot.

2. To get an audience going bonkers you need titanic tunes and W.H. Lung
have plenty. No, not one dull moment with these Manucians.

3. A charismatic frontman/woman is always handy to whip up the crowd even more.
And, yes, with Joseph Evans they have a non-stop dancing showman, singing and
swinging without breaks.

4. Mind you, W.H. Lung is not only about electronic fuzz and buzz. The bouncing drums/bass tandem takes care of the groovy continuance and their guitarist is a bit
of a sound wizard.

5. Synth stimulator Hannah Peace is totally focused on her work, provides
vocals now and then, and gives the band an extra glamorous touch.

Get up, stand up, and jump up and down like
crazy to their fabulous album Incidental Music…

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W. H. LUNG: Facebook – Instagram – Spotify

(All photos by Turn Up The Volume)

UNIK UBIK – Modern Day Prog Rock Unit Dynamized Brussels With Hot Saxed-Up Energy

Posted on May 9 by JL

On stage

9 May 2022

Band: UNIK UBIK
Who: A French/Belgian prog rock fourtet
Albums: Unik Ubik (2014), Maximum Axis and
their newest I’M NOT FEG SHUI .

Where/when: Botanique venue, Bruxelles – 5 May 2022

Oh blimey, what a find. Primarily Unik Ubik are prog rock fanatics with emphasis on rock who – I’m quite sure – have all Zappa and King Crimson in their record collection. Mind you they’re no copyists whatsoever and as prog rock has never been away (if you know young British gunslingers Black Country, New Road you’ll definitely understand what I mean) they don’t sound dated at all.

UU have their own Van Der Graaf Generator‘s legendary saxophonist David Jackson named Jean-Baptiste Rubin. The man has four lungs and blows as if his life depends on it. At times
I really thought his head would explode. His stamina is off the charts. And to have a breather he bangs a big drum now and then. Bingo!

Sébastien Delhaye takes care of the guitar electricity and intense vocals while having
a sip of his gin Hendrix now and then, and the drum/bass tandem rumbles with strength. As I said at the start: what a find. Plutôt unique. Keep on rollin’ in the free world UU.

You can stream/buy their new, fuzz and buzz,
album I’m Not Feng Shui here.

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UNIK UBIK: Bandcamp – Spotify – Instagram

Saxophones in arms

Riff Manic SILVERBACKS From D.C. Triumph In B.C.

Posted on May 7 by JL

On stage

7 May 2022

Band: SILVERBACKS
Who: Up and coming indie guitar team from Dublin City, Ireland
Albums: FAD (2020) and the a.w.e.s.o.m.e new one Archive Material

Concert: Botanique venue, Brussels City, Belgium – 5 May 2022

HIGHS

1. Guitarist Kilian O’Kelly is a riff wizard. He produces riff after riff after riff the way NYC’s Television maestro Tom Verlaine used to blow minds with his electrifying guitar style.

2. Fluently French-speaking frontman Daniel O’Kelly (yep, Killian‘s brother in crime) is the man in the middle of this Irish team. His sharp-edged vocals made me think of David Byrne in his early talking heads days when he articulated his words like an anxious misfit.

3. Bassist and vocalist Emma Hanlon is the band’s silent one. She’s extremely focused throughout the concert while plugging her bass and when she comes up front for the lead vocals on Wear My Medals and Up The Nurses she looks a bit shy and nervous which made her really cute.

4. No fillers, all killers. On record and on stage.
All rollicking ripsnorters all rip-roaring rockers.

5. After a short technical problem the band explodes once again with psychedelic knockout Recycle Culture. Hair-rasing. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

D.C. triumph in B.C.

LOWS: None.

Here’s an idea of Silverbacks‘ live swagger…

Stream ARCHIVE MATERIAL here…

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Buy the album via Bandcamp

Brooklyn Funks Up Brussels – GUSTAF Show Glittering Gripping Guts In Belgium

Posted on November 15, 2021 by JL

15 November 2021

Band: GUSTAF
Who: Swirling 5-piece from Brooklyn
led by Riot Grrrl Lydia Gammil

Brooklyn Vegan: “There are a lot of bands making arty post-punk, but
very few who have a front person as magnetic, funny, and occasionally,
scary as GUSTAF’S Lydia Gammil.”

I was looking forward to this gig for a long time, well actually since I heard this hot hit
team for the first time with their sassy single Book and when their stunning debut album
Audio Drag For Ego Slobs – released early October – tested my stereo’s resilience I was totally sold. Imagine head-spinning Strokes riffs, dance-adrenalized B-52‘s razzmatazz and early Parquet Courts jingle-jangle jaggedness. Sounds pretty awesome, right? You betcha.

Yesterday night the 4 pumped-up Amazons and one glitter jacket boy showed their gripping guts and their funktastic swagger with a non-stop edged post-punk-disco exhibition in Brussels.

And yes, glamorous front punkette Gammil is soemthing else. She jumped on stage
with that early John Rotten stare and started sneering about her former boyfriend’s
dog, her best behavior, and spitting gibberish like “I don’t wanna ruh ruh, I don’t come
to repeat, get ready cause I won’t ruh, ruh blearghhhh”.

Meanwhile, the bassist pumps up the jam, the glitter boy produces motorik Tom Verlaine riffs, the drummer beats relentlessly and in front of me, Tarra Thiessen moves in sensual ways while hitting a series of small rattling stuff, from a cowbell to metal shakers and lots of other pit-a-pat items in between.

Here’s an idea of the Gustaf vibe…

No excuses whatsoever to not purchase their debut LP via Bandcamp…

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GUSTAF: Facebook

All you need for a rattling party

(Live pics by Turn Up The Volume)

FAT WHITE FAMILY Puzzled BRUSSELS With Psychedelic Mood Swings…

Posted on June 13, 2019 by JL

FAT WHITE FAMILY – Botanique, Brussels – 12 June 2019

Turn Up The Volume! followed British desperadoes FAT WHITE FAMILY since the day his ears got perplexed by their 2014 debut LP Champagne Holocaust, a controversial piece of drug-fueled mental disorder. Since then I saw these anarchistic misfits going entirely bonkers on stage 3 times. Three unforgettable gigs. Chaotic, insane and baffling. Best fucking live band in the world I wrote back in 2016 (review here). Then key members
Lias Saoudi and Saul Adamczewski took some time off to get clean(er) and making great stuff with other projects (The Moonlandingz and Insecure Men). Now three years and two FWF full lengths (the second was Songs For Our Mothers) later the Family is back. New album SERFS UP is as their two other LP’s half brilliant/half mediocre (meaning they made so far, a one and a 1/2 masterpiece). Yesterday they landed in Brussels to entertain
a sold out hungry club.

HIGHS
* Saul Adamczewski‘s mind-blowing psychedelic guitar play
was off the charts and dominated pretty much the whole concert
* The old jackhammers (like ‘I Am Mark E Smith’, ‘Tinfoil Deathstar’ and
‘Whitest Boy On The Beach‘) still carried the show and were the ones who
made the crowd go sickly bananas
* The set’s closer ‘Is It Raining In Your Mouth?‘ (from the debut LP) was (again)
the indisputable FUCKING INSANE KNOCKOUT HAMMER with frontman Lias
Saoudi‘s vox going totally apeshit beyond normality. One day his head will
explode while screaming his brains out…

LOWS
* Most of the time Saoudi‘s vocals got lost in the guitar-oriented mix.
A damn bloody sin as his voice is ESSENTIAL!
* Most of the new songs are sensuous and smooth and undermine
the feverish flow when played live. Pump them, up, cowboys!
* The new LP’s groovy killer cut ‘Feet‘ got lost in a cacophonic
mess-mix, so its hypnotic swagger got slaughtered. SHAME!

CONCLUSION: Maybe my expectations were too high but this show was half brilliant/half mediocre, half speed/half valium like their albums, but still way much better than many of the current competition. Fix the mix, drop the slow ones or pump them up and become the most challenging and dangerous band in the world again, you motherrockers!

PICS

A wall-of-Saul-psych-guitar-sound…

One Fat White Family member down…

Meet and greet with the stunned fans…

Rest of the gang…

Head of the family…

Stream new album
SERFS UP! here…

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FAT WHITE FAMILY: Facebook

(All concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)

New York’s BODEGA Electrified Brussels With Their Riffs Charged Punk Chants…

Posted on February 13, 2019 by JL

BODEGA – Botanique Venue, Brussels – 12 February 2019

As I said before on repeat New York‘s dazzling hit-and-kick quintet BODEGA is one of
the most thrilling new bands around. They spit and sneer sharper and hookier than
their wide awake jingle jangle mentors Parquet Courts, they resonate like if Talking Heads and Tom Verlaine’s Television were rattling punks rather than exploring new wavers and they clatter as contagious as those British early 80s outsiders Delta 5 once did. Bodega‘s debut longplayer Endless Scroll, released last July, ended up as one of the best three albums of 2018 in Turn Up The Volume‘s list. A rollicking, astonishing record.

Yesterday in Brussels the New Yorkers did exactly what I expected. They turned up the heat, the audience’s adrenalin and their own uninterrupted vitality for a full hour. Nikki Belfiglio, one of the two vocalists, stole the show visually. In the middle of the stage, she hit one cymbal relentlessly with her rhythm stick while shouting and clamoring and dancing graciously all around the podium in between. Guitarist and main singer Ben Hozie is the electrical riff generator whose biting vocals cut like a Swiss knife and who turned ‘Truth
Is Not A Punishment‘ (the 2.49 min closing track of the album) into an almost 10 minutes trance like psychedelic jam with some terrifically frenzied help from second guitarist Madison Velding-Vandam . Quite surprising as most of their songs balance around the
2-minute mark, but it worked perfectly. They played a couple of new ones that fitted in smoothly but they got everybody going ballistic with yell along crowd-pleasers ‘Name Escape’, ‘Gyrate’, How Did This Happen’ and ‘I’m Not A Cinephile‘. Wham Bam! Electrifying performance! if you never heard of this motherrockers here’s an idea of their live vibrancy…

BODEGA: Facebook

The riff generator…

Thank you, Brussels…

Stream ENDLESS SCROLL here…

(concert pics by Turn Up The Volume!)

IT IT ANITA – Belgian Noiseniks On Their Way To New Sonic Adventures…

Posted on May 7, 2018 by JL

IT IT ANITA – Les Nuits Botanique Festival – 6 May 2018

Dedicated followers of this blog know that Turn Up The Volume‘s ears and eyes get tremendously excited when IT IT ANITA, flamboyant noise junks out of Liege, Belgium
hit the stage. Which they did yesterday on the closing night of Les Nuits Botanique Festival in Brussels. Sandwiched between metallic noise duo The Body and Danish
post-punk hype Iceage (what a disappointment) the band stuffed their 40-minute
set, except for a couple of golden hammer oldies, with new songs. First impression regarding the fresh stuff: surprising, adventurous, intriguing, trippy and compelling.
It’s quite clear that this impressive quartet doesn’t want to repeat itself all over again.
It’s not that IIAA became an arty farty avant-garde jazz combo overnight, luckily not,
but this kick-ass 4-piece definitely wants to explore new sonic areas. We will obviously
need more listens of the new material to really see/hear the whole picture, but this
gig was certainly a loud and clear signal that a fascinating fresh longplayer is waiting
in the pipeline to be released in September. Until then let’s all go berserk to brand
new, clamorous single Another Canceled Mission…

Picture this.
Brussels yesterday…

Smashing energy…

On a mission…

Tons of electricity…

Meet and greet with the fans…

Turning up the volume…

IT IT ANITA: Website – Facebook – Twitter

(pics by Turn Up The volume)

Blistering Dublin Tornado FONTAINES D.C. Impressed Brussels With Smashing Performance…

Posted on May 5, 2018 by JL

FONTAINES D.C. – Les Nuits Botanique Festival, Brussels – 4 May 2018

Last March Turn Up The Volume discovered this up and strongly coming Irish gang FONTAINES D.C. with the release of their hair-risings single Chequeless Reckless.
A paranoid post-punk-punch activated by manic drums and resounding guitars while singer Grian Chatten spitting and sneering in a frenzied Mark E. Smith way, word by word, syllable by syllable. So I was pretty curious to see if these outspoken youngsters could translate their rip-roaring grit and grinta on a podium. Oh my, oh my! This mean Dublin machine rumbled, thundered and stormed like a relentless sonic tornado. They nailed it big time in a dazzling 35-minute set, getting big compliments afterwards from the two mind-splitting headliners of the night, punk madmen Idles and metallic monsters Metz. Trust me, Fontaines D.C.‘s future looks pretty ace! Their hammering in-your-face drones activate your limbs instantly while young, agitated and charismatic frontman Grian Chatten is the magnetic eye-catcher in the middle. His body language and physical looks reminded me (and many other spectators) of – YES – the late, great icon Ian Curtis . Highly intriguing and irresistibly hypnotic. I guess you get the picture by now. This is a band for the future. Tremendously exciting and cuttingly outspoken. The following two smacks will definitely convince you why I’m going totally euphoric about this gloriously explosive turbo…

CHEQUELESS RECKLESS

BOYS IN THE BETTERLAND

Picture this…

Genuine grinta and grit…

Thunderous electricity…

Setlist…

FONTAINES D.C. Facebook –Twitter

(pics by JL/Turn Up The Volume!)

Gloomy Melancholia At Its Nostalgic Best With An Eight ‘INSECURE MEN’ Orchestra In Brussels…

Posted on April 29, 2018 by JL

INSECURE MEN – Botanique, Brussels – 27 April 2018

INSECURE MEN is a new musical project formed by lifelong friends Saul Adamczewski (guitarist/songwriter for the most fascinating band in ages: Fat White Family) and Ben Romans-Hopcraft (frontman of London’s indie popsters Childhood). With both having
a variety of difficult personal experiences (hopefully) behind them the pair recorded and released a gripping don’t look back in anger longplayer. Produced by Sean Lennon (yes, the son of…) this gripping self-titled debut is to the heavy-hearted side of my ears a first-rate achievement. Gloomy melancholia at its very best. A captivating melting pot of cynicism injected stories drenched in highly affecting retro pop orchestrations. Romantic Wurlitzer tunes for 50s ballrooms with young, insecure people looking for much-needed attention on the dance floor. Something like this sweet little gem…

Last Friday the band – actually an orchestra of eight including a sultry saxophonist and
a teenage-looking pedal steel guitarist – hit Brussels. They translated, after a rather slow start, the weirdly glamorous and smoothly catchy feel of the album just perfectly onto the stage. At times this concert felt like an intimate campfire-like gathering in some dark alley of a big city with sticky sing along musings as nostalgic as the old-fashioned design of most of the band’s suits. As we all know, vulnerable and heartbreaking romanticism is timeless and ageless. The crowd, ranging from 16 to 60 years old, was into it until the very end when all present clapped and swayed along to darksome lullaby closer ‘Burried In The Bleak’ after Saul‘s hot shower in ‘Whitney Houston and I‘. It was good to see the once-troubled frontman smile again…

Hear this…

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INSECURE MEN: Story – Facebook – Instagram

Picture this…

Insecure frontman…

Childhood echoes…

Smooth sax…

Ballroom nostalgia…

Setlist…

(concert pics by JL/Turn Up The Volume!)

EZRA FURMAN Enkindles Brussels – From Gripping Turmoil To Euphoric Rock ‘N’ Roll Exhilaration…

Posted on February 15, 2018 by JL

EZRA FURMAN – Botanique, Brussels – 14 February 2018

From depressing parking lots to captivating singer/songwriter/performer
From losing his innocence to a boy named Vincent to ‘us vs the world’ feel
From driving down to L.A. to playing a sold out show in Brussels last night
From peeling an orange every morning to sucking the blood from a wound
From covering the wonderful Kate Bush to playing ardent Chuck Berry riffs
From psalms to transangelic exodus on four wheels, to loving you so bad…