ONMENS – De Kolonie, Ghent, Belgium – 12 July 2018
ONMENS (‘Not-Human’ in English) is a diabolical Belgian two-motor generator “forged in the filth on the floor after the collapse of Belgium’s rave-generation. They set out to violently beat the party back into electronic music. With influences varying from techno over Hardcore
to noise and punk, the duo pushes buttons with their deliberately left-field sound.”
Live OMENS turns into a devilish organism that blows all of your senses from start
to finish as they proved once again last Thursday when crushing my hometown, Ghent. From the moment this exorcistic two-piece takes the stage reality becomes a thrashy hallucination. Singer Sigfried Burroughs spits, sneers, screams, shouts, steams, shakes, spins and moves like a savage serpent, like a raw power Iggy Pop, on tons of speed while hitting keys on his pc, now and then, to punk the whole shebang up to a sort of volcanic electro bewilderment. On his right guitarist Kasper Van Esbroeck produces otherworldly, deranged psych-o-delic riffs like if he is a modern-day Jimi Hendrix. Demonic, filthy, razor-sharp and totally mind-twisting. I’m sure you get my ecstatic drift and heavy appetite for this remarkable band by now. Indeed, folks, Onmens is an impressive garbage noise beast. One of the most fascinating acts around. Here’s an idea of what we got two days ago, here’s what their mental live shit is all about…
(thanks to Wouter De Sutter for this cool footage)
Some visual shots…
Trash triumph…
Purple haze…
Create your own trance at home with their
new, excellent DOOPGROND album…
THE GARAGE FLOWERS – Aap, Ghent, Belgium – 8 July 2018
They look like and resonate like a mean mix of American proto-punk legends the New York Dolls, the British late 70s romantics The Only Ones, led by iconic frontman Peter Perrett and Iggy Pop‘s nasty Stooges. They call THE GARAGE FLOWERS, they
are from London and they hit my hometown Ghent in Belgium yesterday with some agitated, flamboyant rawk ‘n’ roll havoc and flaming twist and shout hullabaloo. Filthy
riffs, rousing hooks and sticky licks is what this rip-roaring quartet is all about. What
we got was a dynamic and fervent mix of garage fun and amplified turbulence. Add
tons of sweat and many fresh beers to fight the thirsty heatwave conditions and you
will understand why the small club turned into a steamy sauna in the end. Their latest single CRASHING THE PARTY will give you a shaking idea of what happened last night…
THE DARTS – ‘Le Communal’, Saint-Léger, Belgium – 1 July 2018
Dedicated Turn Up The Volume followers know that all female American garage gang THE DARTS – The Devilish American Roaring Turbo Squad – has a V.I.P. room in my earsystem. Last Sunday they landed for the second time this year in Belgium with yours truly at the first row, enjoying the tropical heat on and off the podium, in a packed club.
So for those who lived on Mars the past year, I’ll detail, once more, the reasons why our adrenaline’s stream went gaga again. Because these four fired up ladies roar, rumble, rock, roll, jump, twist, scream, shout, yell, rebel, stand up, lay down, crack, burst, boil,
twirl, rotate, electrify, steam, boom, captivate, spin, sway, dance, pirouette, hop, whirl, discharge, sweat, capriole, thunder, flash, drumfire, erupt, trigger, resonate, glimmer, glisten, flicker, twinkle and make America great again. Capeesh? Despite the sultry heatwave the Californian black and white rockers did that and so much more again.
Hail hail!…
Fact: the band played in the small village of Saint-Léger, in the middle of nowhere, next to a church annex large graveyard, and I actually sensed that all second world war heroes and martyrs buried over there had a great time especially with the opener of the rowdy set… ‘
Here are some pics of the heated blitzkrieg show…
‘Twist and Shout’ maestro Nicole Laurenne with one leg at the time…
Vampire Christina Nunez on bass…
Michelle ‘The Human Riff’ Balderrama…
Blonde drummers like Rikki Styxx have more fun…
Sisters in crime…
Hair band…
Sonic fight…
Guitar crash…
So that’s how a keyboard looks like on the inside…
Setlist…
All war heroes and martyrs in Saint-Léger woke up for one night…
And here’s THE DARTS burning
new double A-side single… SUBSONIC DREAM / BULLET
.
Mexico based quartet EXPLODED VIEW scored one of the boldest & most intriguing albums of 2016 with their self-titled debut LP. A puzzling collection of darksome pop
songs with awkward structures, psychotropic rhythms and claustrophobic vibes. An audacious record revealing new sonic secrets with every spin. Yesterday the quartet
played Belgium again, this time in Vorst, Brussels. It’s almost impossible not to look
the whole concert to charismatic German frontwoman Annika Henderson aka Anika.
Her staring eyes have a spellbinding effect! She has Bette Davis‘ eyes! Mysterious,
ominous and truly hypnotic! A natural-born femme fatale who almost whispers
the darksome songs, therefore adding some more enigma to the curious picture.
At times I wondered what was exactly going on in her mind. No way to figure that
out. Her seductive presence is a closed book. Fatally attractive and unfathomable,
but at the same the perfect vocalist for Exploded View‘s adventurous and contrary approach to pop-ular music. Enthralling band, mind-affecting sound and a totally
mesmerizing frontwoman with a magnetic vox. Special! Like listening to a David
Lynch movie. If you never heard of them here’s ‘Summer Came Early’, a tempting
musing from their same-titled 2017 EP…
The most fascinating performance I witnessed last weekend at the two-day indoor London Calling Festivalin the wonderful city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands was by a
band called PORRIDGE RADIO. What started as the bedroom project of Brighton based singer/songwriter Dana Margolin turned into a full 5-piece team. I think she wanted some sonic help from other like-minded musicians to get rid of her gnawing demons. Her 2017 LP ‘Bad Breath‘ is not an easy-listening-journey. It clinks and feels like Margolin recorded it in her basement instead of her bedroom. Far away from the daylight, far away from the world’s daily shit. Her minimalist reveries remind me at times of Public Image‘s 1981 album ‘The Flowers Of Romance’ where doubt, fear, anger, rage, despair and questions without answers come together and do your confused head in. The sound of being human in
an inhuman world. Have a listen for yourself right here…
.
Live, last Saturday, full orchestra Porridge Radio created a séance-like atmosphere with Margolin’s intimate introspection on record turning into a sort of exorcistic happening.
I was wondering all the time when the band would explode, when their fiends would
show up on stage, when their cutting lullabies would turn into deafening nightmares. Thirty-five minutes of tremulous tension messing up our minds. Loud/quit/loud/quiet reflections with a razor-sharp, melodic edge. A, both, weird and compelling experience. Can’t wait for their next step.
LONDON CALLING FESTIVAL – Amsterdam, The Netherlands – 25 May 2018
Fervid YorkshiremanYUNBLUD, a spectacular 19-year-old artist, who spent most of
his childhood on Denmark Street, Soho, London is a solid gold future star. His explosive fusion of hip-hop, ska, punk-pop and vivid rap-rock slams is simply irresistible. Last
Friday this fresh phenom was on my must-see list at the stupendous two-day indoor London Calling Festivalin the wonderful Paradiso venue in AMSTERDAM. I knew beforehand that his most devoted are 14-18 girls (I was totally surrounded by them
near the crowded front of the stage), but I was curious to know why this teenage hype
was the highly acclaimed artist of this festival with only one EP, just released a few
weeks ago, under his belt. And? Well, that ecstatic young gunslinger came, saw, jumped, screamed and conquered The Netherlands. On record, he sounds more like a flammable modern-day punk-pop version of Eminem, but on stage his band turned the volume up while the hypnotic man in the middle explored every corner of the podium and sounded
at times like a red-steaming hip-hop incarnation of Rage Against The Machine ‘s frontman Zack de la Rocha . With his non-stop stream of sky-high energy, boiling intensity, shout-along crackers and his charismatic, flamboyant and hyperkinetic presence Yungblud proved tremendously why he’s a gigantic star in the making. Believe the hype! Never
heard of this pumped-up youngster? Check the heat here…
THE FRANKLYS – Kinky Star – Ghent, Belgium – 19 May 2018
Turn Up The Volume follows – completely legally – this 4-headed all female turbine for some time now, for all the reasons you should follow this steaming squad too. THE FRANKLYS know the art of producing raging garage grrrl hullabaloo perfectly. They know pretty damn well how to rock, how to roll, how to hit, how to roar, how to get your unsuspected mind and lazy limbs going totally berserk. These four electrical amazons come at you with tons of steamy horsepower. They hit you mercilessly, non-stop, without brakes, as you can hear on their 2017 debut longplayer ARE YOU LISTENING? A smoking powerhouse from the exploding start to the smacking finale. Have a heat check for yourself right here with one of the album’s powerful uppercuts…
Yesterday the London based engine came to play Belgium for the first time. The 40-minute set felt like a blitzkrieg eruption of nasty riffs, booming beats and clamorous punk flare-ups. A series of blistering punches landing just between your eyes and ears. Committed emotions wrapped in cast-iron bangers. All performed with confident conviction, in-your-face persuasiveness and streams of feel-good sweat. I will remember this Saturday night as the soul-saving medicine against another pointless, massive media event surrounding another sick look-how-ridiculous-rich-we-are prince/princess wedding day. God Save The Franklys! Come back soon, ladies…
Atlanta garage squad THE COATHANGERS release a live album, simply titled LIVE,
on 1 June. It was recorded across two nights at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, California
last November. The record is a career-spanning collection, with songs from their
2007 self-titled debut through 2017’s Parasite EP. “It’s like our anthology… our
entire career in 38 minutes,” says guitarist/vocalist Julia Kugel.
Along with the longplayer, the band will also launch some live videos from those shows. Here’s the first clip, a hot rendition of HURRICANE from 2011 LP ‘Larceny & Old Lace’…
Talking about sweaty live action! Here are some impressions
of The Coathangers hitting my hometown Ghent, Belgium last year…
THE SPECTORS – Café Afsnis, Ghent, Belgium – 16 May 2018
DEFINITION of POP MUSIC “Songs with a good rhythm, a catchy melody, and are easy to remember and sing along to. They usually have a chorus that’s repeated several times and two or more verses. Most pop songs are between two and five minutes long, and the lyrics are usually about the joys and problems of love and relationships.” – Definition provided by English Club Website.
DEFINITION of CHARISMA “A special power that some people have naturally that makes them able to influence other people and attract their attention and admiration” – definition provided by Cambridge Dictionary
CHARISMATIC POP BAND according to TURN UP THE VOLUME!
A group of inventive musicians with a bag full of sticky tunes, addictive melodies and hum/sing-along choruses. A team of musicians turning accessible songs into irresistible earworms. A band fronted by a glamorous singer/bassist assisted sonically by a big-time banging drummer and a scintillating duo of exhilarating guitarists producing contagious electricity. You want an example? Well, here we go, folks. Yesterday night Belgian quartet The Spectors matched my charismatic-pop-band-definition just perfectly. Why? Here’s
a first why for starters… Borderline, the sparkling single from their new album, which should actually be a hit in a world not dominated by corporate record label sharks licking the asses of corporate radios who’s ONLY reason of existence is scoring huge listening rates, therefore they need corporate shit music, unlike this shoegazy indie pop pearl…
I’m sure I’ve made my point, but to convince also those four stubborn doubters,
hiding there in the back behind that lousy, new Editors LP, here’s The Spectors‘
new album OOH AAH AAH in full…
