After 35 years, dEUS (1991-present / 8 LPs) still
is, unquestionably, the best Belgian band ever.
Here’s their jaw-dropping live rendition at Pukkelpop Fest (Belgium) in 2009,
of hypnotic psych-rock shocker Theme From Turnpike from their 2nd album
In A Bar, Under The Sea (1996)
AWESOME!
Unfortunately, some very bad news reached us a couple of days ago regarding
centipede musician Mauro Pawlowski, who was dEUS‘ guitarist for 15 years.
He has been diagnosed with Alzheimer‘s disease. He’s only 54. I know Mauro pretty well and wish him and his family all the best, hoping he can still enjoy life as well as possible under the circumstances.
Belgian Gods dEUS – without a shadow of a doubt the best band in Belgium‘s
rock history – palyed one of their two try-outs for their upcoming European/UK
tour last Tuesday at a small venue in Leffinge, Belgium.
The gigs sold out in no time.
On this new tour, commander-in-chief Tom Barman and his accomplices will play
their first 2 albums,Worst Case Scenario (1994) and In A Bar, Under The Sea (1996).
Not in the LPs chronological order. No, they zigzag through all of the tracks, which
leads to an unpredictable, exciting setlist.
I saw the band about 25 times, and they never disappointed. On stage, they inject their songs with jacked-up energy and inflammable intensity. This was (another) special night, as they performed several of their classic gems from those 2 full-lengths, like Via,Hotel Lounge, Morticiachair,Fell Off The Floor Man, Little Arithmetics, Roses, Serpentine, and Theme From Turnpike for the first time in a long while. Nostalgia ruled.
After 35 years, with a couple of hiatuses for solo projects, and 8 LPs, dEUS still are
a fiery force, and still the most prominent Belgian group today (to my ears), but also praised all over Europe and the UK.
Their sterling catalogue isn’t dated at all, thanks to their sonic versality, intriguing waywardness, and Barman‘s extraordinary songwriting skills from day one. I never
get bored with them. Hail hail!
Pitchfork: “On their fifth album, the White Stripes’ ambitions finally seem to outpace their limited musical vocabulary. Making an almost-entirely clean break with the jet-fueled blues
rock of Elephant and De Stijl, they forsake electric guitar on all but a couple of tracks, working instead with pianos, acoustic guitars, marimbas, and other assorted oddball percussion.”
Album: The Back Room
Their first one. No. 2 in the UK.
No21 in the USA.
Pitchfork: “They imitate bands with dramatic vocalists … but the best moments
on The Back Room aren’t the theatrical ones—it’s when the four of them are playing
and discovering their own chemistry”.
PLAY
. Instagram – All Albums
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AllMusic: “Don’t Believe the Truth the closest Oasis has been to great since the
summer of Britpop, when they were the biggest and best band in the world.”
AllMusic: “The group offers an album that refuses to be pinned down to a single
style. Despite the extended break between albums, dEus picks up right where they
left off with The Ideal Crash.”
The Guardian: “Hard-Fi’s edge over more derivative rivals lies in a formula
that delivers old Specials and Clash reggae vibes with the big-tune ratio of
a boy band.”
NME: ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’ will use its enigmatic mysticism to lull you into
a blissful daze so you don’t at first notice that the riffs have broken your neck.
Better. Than. Sex.”
Album: A Bigger Bang
22nd LP. #2 in the UK,
#3 in the US.
The Guardian: “There is a sense of finality about A Bigger Bang. It may not be quite
the blazing ship to Valhalla they intended, but then nor is it the unmarked grave you
might expect.”
Album: LCD Soundsystem
Debut one. #6 in the US,
#20 in the UK.
AllMusic: “Like just about everybody else these days, Murphy’s more skilled at creating isolated tracks than making full-lengths, even though this particular full-length has few weak spots and unfolds smoothly as you listen to it from beginning to end.”
This was the first single of their best album to date Islands In The Sky. A terrifically juiced-up power-pop chant triggering your limbs to get up and move. And when the under the spell of joy choir joins Bonnie Bloomgarden on the elated chorus you just know that this stunning tune is a winner.
We are living in a simulated world
And we are simulated girls!
The sassy spirit of fiery Riot grrls, the primal screams of X-Ray Spex‘s late genial vox Poly Styrene, the unbridled DIY mentality of The Slits. It’s all here to get in the macho faces of all macho males. Lads Lads Lads is a loud and clear clamorous uppercut. Trash and slash punk turmoil. Holy fucking smoke!
(Photo by Turn Up The Volume – Brugge, Belgium 2023)
“The lyrics were related to whatever we were talking shit about that day.
Dirt-cheap ’baccy and annoying, invasive TikToks. It’s hard to recall.”
Riverstone is an excessive electro-industrial sledgehammer doing your head,
your ears and your mind in. Bang-bang-bang-bang. Deafening drones, psychotic
guitars, and schizophrenic vocals, it’s all here to have an electric brain-frying
chair experience.
All-round Canadian singer/songwriter nailed it with this efferscent swirling knockout.
This is the kind of 24-Carat gold banger that makes your day, that boosts your worried state of mind, that puts a big smile on your face, that works faster than any stimulant and most of all, that gets you on your feet, triggers your best rotating dance moves and make you embrace life. Reality is not all doom and gloom, as many (mostly politicians) want us to believe to push their own power-greedy agenda. To hell with them.
These vigorous Brits hit big time with this flamboyant ripsnorter.
It’s full tilt ahead from the get-go. No brakes, no breaks, and
creeping under your skin faster than you can say this is super-duper.
A whirlwind of scorching guitars, pounding drumming, a revolving bass line
somewhere in the middle, go-getting vocals and a dynamite chorus combine
for a badass belter. 2023 was the year for 32 Tens.
This contagious cracker celebrates forer Italian football star Roberto Baggio
Kane:“I was eight years old when I first saw Baggio on TV, it was during the
1994 World Cup. I was taken back by his presence, his look and his talent. It was
the first time I’d seen a man look so different and unique. Seeing Baggio led me to
e obsessed with that Italian football team for many years later.
Baggio is one of those typical Kane tunes. Immediately recognisable with its
uplifting 60s/70s beat and blissful melody. But it’s a glorious guitar fragment
and accompanying harmonious, backing vocals that lift the song to a five-star
pop level.
This new supergroup features Shaun Ryder & Bez (Happy Mondays/Black Grape),
Andy Bell (Ride/Oasis) and drummer Zak Starkey, yes Ringo’s son, who actually came up with this project’s idea and describes it as “a fantastic psychedelic groove from a band of misfits, outsiders and innovators.”
First single Gorilla Guerilla is a mind-boggling techno-rock stomper
to start and end all (il)legal raves with and fill dancefloors around the
globe with. This seasoned collective is a mean groove machine.
The duo launched their 12th LP, called UK Grim last March.
This rattling piece is my absolute favorite.
It’s Sleaford Mods by – very good – numbers. The mods still spit and sneer
against Tories‘ merciless pressure and devastating regime. And they still do
it with rappin’ vibrations.
The waterfall wordsmith from Hull (UK) released her tip-top debut EP Chaos Of Time
and followed it with this booming corker. Glittery, glammy and trashy (like the video).
Sing happy birthday to 6-year-old princess Jodie midway. Don’t worry afterward you
can continue to pogo around the table.
10. ‘Dicks In Tanks’ by MORLOCKS (Gothenborg, Sweden)
2023 photo by Krichan Wihlbor
This Swedish turbo founded by mastermind J.Strauss had
a new flabbergasting album out, named Praise The Iconoclast,
this year.
Single Dicks In Tanks features vocal efforts from Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM,
dark ambient electro queen Karin My and black metal maestro Heljarmadr
of Grá/Dark Funeral.
Morlocks‘ cynical take on war is sharp-cutting like a first-class Swiss knife
“Salute every hard on, a call to arms / this is my klaxon / sound the alarms”.
It all starts with warning war sirens and marching soldiers chants.
90 seconds later, it’s all hens on deck when this industrial rock missile
erupts with a blitzkrieg fierceness.
Think Rammstein and NIN having a fight with riot guns.
11. ‘An Individual Soul’ by PRINCESS UGLY (Portland, US)
This blitz duo – J. Christopher-Rome (lyrics/vocals) and Christopher Moncrieffe (music/instruments) mix post-punk, early 80’s goth, shoegaze, and new wave
into their own brand of sound.
An Individual Soul is a multi-layered serpent of a track.
After a short shock intro, psychobilly guitars take over and riff
and roll all the way through, surrounded by glowing synths waves.
Add Christopher-Rome’s creepy whispering and you’ll feel transported
somewhere into a twilight zone where Goths party. Princess Ugly’s ominous
mind mystifies and the enigmatic she-devil in the video is a misleading
magnet.
These Dutch-American misfits have their roots firmly planted in both the regional
and international counterculture. They produce a raw, dirty groove influenced by
punk, provo and punk icons. Their poetry is packed with social criticism.
Huevos Rancheros, from their new longplayer Good Busy is a song about
seeing life clearly through all the haze and confidently strolling through the
daze.
It’s a tremendously sticky and melodic tune that mesmerises from the kick-off.
Stimulated by a sparkling and melancholic guitar riff à la Kurt Vile, a footstompin’
beat and word-smith Joshua Baumgarten‘s expressive storytelling it becomes an
electrifying humdinger, after a couple of spins.
The singular psych-folk-pop-rock wanderers released, this year,
one of their best albums ever withSea Of Mirrors
Wild Bird is The Coral at its relaxing best. A characteristic psych-pop gem
that pleased my ears on repeat since it came out. Breezy and heartwarming,
causing an I-feel-so-much-better-now thrill in the end.
Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr worked in 1979 on the demo
of this previously unreleased John Lennon beauty, but didn’t finish it at the time.
Now, using advanced technology and a curatorial touch, McCartney
and Starr have completed what they started with George, and turned
it into a fully orchestrated nugget of a love song
This young outfit from Newport, Wales drew TUTV’s
attention in an eye/earblink with Nice To Say Hello.
It’s only their 3rd single, but this young team sounds as if they’ve been
around for years. Nice To Say Hello is a top-pop thrill. Irresistibly catchy
and captivatingly melodic. Layers of glimmering guitars with an endearing
resonance, that brings, yes, Noel Gallagher’s strumming play of his solo
work to mind.
The charming vocals and the infectious chorus
make the sonic picture complete. Fabulous feat.
Chic Choc are three musically seasoned Amazons from NYC using drum machines,
synthesizers, guitars, voice and a variety of sound filters and pedals to make
their point.
Freedom is their crystal clear debut single that criticizes, 200% rightly so, the fact that women still have to fight for so many fundamental rights. It’s bloody 2023 and so much female injustice is still a reality.
Sonically it’s a striking EBM earworm to fill dance floors with. Brisk beats, cool chorus, sensuous vocals and a protesting choir, combine for a spirited piece. Bang-on.
18. ‘You’re So Cool’ by KAT KOAN (Berlin, Germany)
This Berlin-based songstress released her arresting debut full-length LUSTPRINZIP last year. This year, she recorded/shared three rad singles.
You’re So Cool (me?) is one of them. A sexy dance stomper with an instant impact on your hip movements. And, as usual, Koan‘s sultry voice tickles your imagination and makes you light some candlelights, and seduces you to do some shadow-dancing.
The Vanity Project is a London-based queer freak pop duo featuring Flora Jackson and Rob Paterson. The project is a multi-instrumented, multi-genre fever dream fusing new-wave, modern art-pop and PC Music influences with dashes of jangle pop, Latin alternative and drum and bass, dazzling hooks, and wryly humoured dystopian lyrics. All accompanied by eccentric visuals.
‘Eureka!’ was one of the standout singles on their debut album, named We Never Should Have Come Here, that landed last September.
Combine the madcap vibrancy of Sparks‘ early days and some glamourous Queen bombast and you’ll scream out loud Eureka!. These misfits produce
eccentric pop pleasure, sonically and lyrically, without mainstream
restrictions.
They sound kooky and look kooky, but make no mistake, this tantalizing
tandem know perfectly well how to fabricate and construct entertaining
music.
One of my all-time fav bands, on record and on stage, returned, finally,
this year with their acclaimed LP God Games and this arousing bluesy piece
is one of the highlights.
21. ‘Dead Moon Rising’ by CACTUS FLOWERS (Houston, Texas)
Cactus Flowers is a psych-rock outfit from Houston, Texas fronted by Jessica A.M., whose mother photographed bands for Rolling Stone during the magazine’s counter-culture heyday.
With Dead Moon Rising we get a mid-tempo garage blues-rock corker fuelled
by echoing, rollicking riffs, steady drum hits and arresting Jessica A.M. vocals.
This raw cracker resonates like glorious legends The Cramps in slo-mo with a
mean machine vibe, rock-and-psycho-billy swagger and hefty dynamics. From bad moon rising to dead moon rising.
(Photo by Turn Up the Volume – Lokerse Feesten, Belgium – 2022)
The British guitar pop idols will make their fans happy with their new, sixth
full-length, baptized Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations out on 12 January 2024.
This is one of the 4 singles they dropped so far. It’s The Vaccines alright.
Sickly sticky guitar euphoria. Totally crazy.
With this year’s three-part rock operaAtum chief
pumpkin Billy Corgan released one of his sonic dreams.
And with Spellbinding the band delivered a robust rocker infused with radiant synths, exploding now and then into a feverish haymaker on the flaming chorus and ending
with a dreamy fade out.
2LIBRAS is a Seattle-based Cyberpunk duo that create dark, synthy beats infused with melodic guitars and vocal harmony since 2018. Their music infuses genres of industrial, dark electro, synthwave/synthpop and rock.
Heart On was one of the singles of their notable debut album World’s End.
It just was the best 2023 Valentine tune. An intoxicating mid-tempo groover. Both spicy and funky, lustful and provocative with hypnotizing vocals. Its slow-mo synth-bass beat crawls under your skin, and progresses steadily towards your restlessly pounding motor while your mind tries to figure out what is going on. Amorous communication isn’t easy, let your heart do the talking. It’s made for it.
Clamorous frontman Alex Edkins of Canadian noise engine Metz and Graham Walsh, keyboardist of dance punks Holy Fuck, got together for a project of their own, named, Noble Rot. They have their debut ‘Heavenly Bodies, Repetition, Control.‘ out next month.
They just dropped first single Casting No Light. A motorik Krautrock-like mindfucker that circles around like forever, pushed by a pumping synth/drum/guitar riff-boom-beat that grows in hypnotic intensity along the way. Fucktastic!
This Scottish dance-funk-punk trio is on an unstoppable roll. Their new, 3rd LP Heavy Heavy is a total triumph (Turn Up The Volume‘s Album of the Month) and their swirling concert in Antwerp (Belgium) blew the roof off the building.
One of the standout tracks on the album isDrum.
A flamboyant, head-over-heels stormer.
The Belgian Gods released their new longplayer How To Replace It?,
their first in 10 years, a couple of weeks ago.
The title song is a phenomenal piece. A mid-tempo stunner, driven by big
drums and frontman Tom Barman‘s bewitching vocality. It advances with
swelling orchestration toward the grand symphonic climax.
The amazing Los Angeles Amazons delivered their
best album (so far) Islands In The Sky only last Friday.
The title track is a blissful guitar-pop earworm that sticks from the get-go
with Bonnie Bloomgarden‘s spell-binding vocals inviting you to her island of joy.
I’m on my way. Join me.
You’re in charge of your perception of your life
You can choose what you keep
And what you leave behind
This Seattle-based Cyberpunk duo – Wesley and Jewels Foster – nailed it with this arousing mid-tempo, electro-drum-beat-driven knockout from their upcoming full length World’s End. It’s sexy, catchy, trippy, and makes your blood pumping through your heart.
Newest single Scatterbrain is a riff-roaring rocker that grows on your ears
with every spin. It has a moody, shoegazy resonance annex reflective vocals.
Striking stroke. Bring on the album.
This fresh high-energetic trio features members from Shudder To Think, Guided By Voices and The Dambuilders.
Their self-titled debut LP will see the day of light on 17 March.
What If? is a freaked-out, riff-drunk sucker punch that could
easily come from a Hüsker Dü LP. Herky-jerky electricity with
a steamrollin’ sticky chorus. Wowzers.
This dark-Goth-wave duo from the City of Angels look like vampires,
they sound like vampires and they fabricate vampirish stuff.
The torrid tandem unleash their
new album KRYPT on 28 April.
Ahead of the release, to get us in the right make-up mood, they hit us
with first single I Expire. A punked-up electro uppercut to set batcaves
on fire with. One listen and the brisk beats will haunt you all day long.
In the accompanying video, Male Tears get straight in
your scared face and suck you into their wicked world.
His new song is a groovy love-drunk gem featuring the sensuous voice
of his ex-partner. It gets under your skin from the kick-off. Two spins and
you’re hooked.
NECRØ is the latest project of Portuguese musician João Vairinhos
featuring idiosyncratic singer and keyboard player Sara Inglês,.
The title track of their 6-track EPDeath Beats
is Turn Up The Volume‘s favorite.
A dark-techno-wave rumbling that stomps and whomps with intense
impetus doing your head in from the get-go. Doomed beats for twilight parties.
The tenebrous vibe at play here sends shivers down your spine, while Sara Inglês‘s
ghostly wailing is reminiscent of shadowy Siouxsie Sioux moments.
This Charlotte-based collective seduced my sensitive ears with the title track of
their 3-track EP What A Day. The harbinger for upcoming 7th LP ‘Haunted Organic Machines’.
Feel-good tunes like these are always welcome on my headphones. What A Day is
a breezy synth-scintillating vibration that triggers sensual body moves. Its featherlight tonality causes a dreamy state of mind with trancy tinglings. And when that sweet flute came on, I swear, I saw a Spring bird flutter in the blue sky.
I’ll be a pretty special one as the pair wrote a collection of bilingual duets, with both of them singing in English and Spanish and explore a variety of European music cultures. First single Lonely Town is a sweet, little pop ditty. You can sing/hum/whistle along.
17. ‘I Remember What You Said’ by Artist: DYAN VALDÉS (Cuban-American)
(Photo credit: Petra Valdimardottir)
This Cuban-American singer-songwriter, living in Berlin, played/plays
in several bands and works as a solo artist too and has now a new single
out, named I Remember What You Said.
It follows her last year’s excellent debut album Stand.
The pretty poppy song is about a nightmarish memory of a poisonous
relationship. With its agitated words-flowing drive it feels like Valdés
wants to wash away all the BS and move on. Mission accomplished.
Summit Of The Big Low is the moniker of British musician Toby Uffindell-Phillips,
who was a member of the early 00s folktronica group Sound Sanctuary.
This new piece, from his self-titled album out on 19 May, is an affecting folk-pop reverie that streams as a brisk brook. Sparkling, crystal clear, and glimmering in the sun. Its wistful tone, smooth vocals, and frisky finger-picking guitar play combine for a sweet little pearl.
This 4-piece from Nashville produces a mix of metal, opera & 80’s rock.
Their new single Prisoner is about being captured and trapped by someone’s love.
It’s a mid-tempo power ballad that slowly but surely infiltrates your ears with its
anthemic dynamics, impassioned vocals, and weeping guitars.
This musical project started in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2014 and presents a soundscape based on electronic backgrounds and a more classic rock instrumentation blended with mellotrons, vibraphone, santur, harmonium and other alluring sounding instruments. In short, atmospheric psychedelic darkness with occult undertones.
Without a shadow of a doubt in my mind dEUS
is the best band ever in Belgium‘s music history,
on record and on stage.
They rock their tails off since 1991. And a couple of weeks
ago they announced their 8th LP called HOW TO REPLACE IT
which lands this Friday, 17th February. Their first full-length in
10 years.
Ahead of Friday the Belgian Gods make us drool again with another piece off the longplayer, the title track. A phenomenal tour de force. A mid-tempo stunner, driven
by big drums and frontman Tom Barman‘s mesmerizing vocality, and advances with swelling orchestration onto the grand symphonic climax.
Belgian heroes dEUS – the best Belgian band ever, on record and on stage – rock
their tails off since 1991 and drop their 8th longplayer baptized HOW TO REPLACE IT
on 17th February 2023. Their first in 10 years. Pre-order info here.
Last November our ears got active for the first single, titled Must Have Been New. A bluesy mid-tempo power-pop ballad.
Today second taster, named 1989 went online. An even softier piece.
Seems like singer-songwriter Tom Barman has a melancholic phase.
Champion veterans dEUS – best Belgian band ever, on record and o stage, in my book – rock their tails off since 1991, announced their 8th longplayer baptized HOW TO REPLACE IT. It’ll make me and their thousands of fans across Europe happy on 17th February 2023. Pre-order info here.
On the first single, titled MUST HAVE BEEN NEW the Tom Barman led group
show their bluesy side once more with this mid-tempo power-pop ballad.
AllMusic said: “Having established its own sense of savvy white boy
urban blues on Worst Case Scenario, the band explores more ways
around it on its second effort, generally favoring a quieter, calmer
result throughout.” Full review here. Score 4.5/5.
Turn Up The Volume: What can I say? One of my all-time favorite bands,
on record and on stage, with one of the most charismatic frontmen ever
(and I’ve seen a lot). Keep going, Tommy.
