PINK ROOM – Luminous Dash Festival at Kinky Star, Ghent (Belgium) – 3 March 2018
Luminous Dash is a highly popular Belgian website with a massive heart for Belgian musicians. The passionate people (all volunteers) behind the site have Belgian music
in their sonic DNA, and they do not restrict themselves to inform everybody daily
about what is going on in our little country by writing until their fingers turn blue.
Oh no, last year these dashing music junkies started a monthly showcase festival, organized in various small clubs, for flamboyant bands with a Belgian passport.
Yesterday Luminous Dash already staged their fourth edition and it was noise trinity
PINK ROOM that made my day last night in a packed Kinky Star in my hometown Ghent. A furious 3-headed garage grunge monster, led by demonic loudmouth Bart Cocquyt. A magnetizing primal screamer who makes me think of Kurt Cobain on a high dose of amphetamines instead of brain-damaging heroin. At one point I really thought
his heated head would explode as the forcible energy this frontman/bassist developed was truly smashing. Assisted by battering drummer Jonas Calu and devilish guitarist Glenn Janssens (the one who forgot to wear his Hawaii shirt), Cocquyt turns this diabolic
trio into a trashing MC5 powerhouse. Hell yeah, kicking out the jams was what Pink Room did ferociously. Merciless riffs, clamorous tantrums and tons of decibels is what this punk combo produced non-stop. And as these crazed guys just released their first EP I’m sure we’ll hear more from these colorful gang in the near future…
Move your furniture, clear the room, open windows and doors – so your neighbors can enjoy too – and listen here to Pink Room‘s red-hot, 4-track debut, titled RELATIONSHIT
and find out why I’m in a euphoric state…
From the beautiful city of Palermo in Italy, here’s… JUJU
Experienced and eclectic singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist GIOELE VALENTI is the ingenious mastermind behind spellbinding psych collective JUJU. Valenti is not only an exquisite musician but also a fascinating, broad-minded human being with a multicolored vision on mankind’s past, present and future. The way he combines astonishing soundscapes with profound reflections on our troubled planet is nothing less than remarkable. Last year Juju released OUR MOTHER WAS A PLANT LP. A trippy work of transcendent vibrations. From cinematic Pink Floyd echoes to Hawkind‘s spacey escapades and some king-sized Massive Attack jams in between. After seeing/meeting signor Valenti last month in my hometown Ghent (Belgium) where the band played an impressive set we got in touch for this interview. Let’s start the acquaintance first with one of the highlights of the LP…
. Welcome Gioele at Turn Up The Volume!…
1/ You were in several bands before, Gioele. When and why did you start the JuJu project ? “Back in 2015. The reason is always the same, I think: to make music without frontiers. In this case, I just wanted to say something on the migration of masses we’re facing in this particular historical moment. Sicily is one of the poles of the crisis, in the Mediterranean, we have been defined as the ‘gate of Europe‘… a term with a very ambiguous semantic value, because it could conceal a discharge of responsibility from a political point of view. Anyway, I think that migration of bodies, languages, symbols are a very fertile soil for an artist’s imagination.”
2/ What’s the story behind the project’s name? “Juju is a West African word. It refers to a system of belief. JuJu can be a spell, can be incorporated objects, amulets… It sounds good, with its powerful witchy meaning. I love playing with symbols.”
3/ When did you know “this is how I want to sound, this is what I want to tell the world”? “Mmm, it’s quite hard. Riding on a highway with God as co-pilot, facing the hell of passion and the transcendence of a free-form spirit. I’m a songwriter, and I’m a drop in an ocean, so I’m just following the path of my predecessors, with a light in my head and an abyss of shadows behind. Sorry, I know it may sound a little naïve, but I cannot define myself better than this.”
4/ Only two months in the new year and I already saw two great Italian bands play Belgium (Secret Sight and JuJu) and I interviewed two (The Bankrobber and Japan Suicide). Is that a coincidence or is a new Italian wave on its way to conquer Europe? “When I hear “conquer” I’m scared. It has to do with a tradition with which we have to break. I feel closer to the spirit of Renaissance. Sweetness, otherness proposal, brotherhood in the beauty. As an Italian, I can only claim an aesthetic supremacy over the pettiness of politics. Anyway, it’s great to see great Italian bands around, sure.”
5/ Which song would you pick as Juju’s signature track? “‘In A Ghetto’, I think. It’s the one with my friend Capra Informis from Goat at the djembé. I think it incorporates all the magic I’m just trying to express with JuJu. I hear on that track the feminine power of soil and a mood that is close to a Mercurial point of view. The transformation is the point. We are all living in a ghetto, in a way. Call it drugs, sex, technology… we are not free as human beings. It’s sad.”
6/ What’s the story behind the album’s title ‘Our Mother Was A Plant’ and how is it related to the music and to the image on the LP’s front sleeve? “I was reading a lot of beat literature. I love the lysergic aspects of life, and I think that we should demonstrate more respect for plants… they are very ancient beings, more powerful than we think. The relation with the cover instead is more subtle. If we’d be able to expand our consciousness over a routine world, we would find a deep connection. No separation, no sexism, no racism, in a word brotherhood. There’s a Maya greeting called ‘In Lak’ech’, it means ‘I am another yourself‘. The ‘A Chosen Few’ was the first motorcycle club made by black people. They opened to white people. I think that is a very successful experiment of integration. Al those meanings mixed together make sense to me. Tout se tient, they say in France.”
Artwork album…
7/ JuJu’s music covers a whole range of psychedelic genres and is influenced by several decades of mind-expanding music. Is it also a reflection of your private record collection? “Definitely. I love music and I live through rhythm. JuJu is a tribute to the great music I have grown up with. From Mozart to Joy Division, Tom Waits, John Zorn, Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Billy Idol, The Cure, Janis Joplin, The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Telescopes, Procol Harum, The Doors, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Angelo Branduardi, Ligeti, Ennio Morricone, Grieg and so on and on…”
8/ What movie would you pick to visualize JuJu’s music on a big screen on stage when playing a show? “Lord Of The Flies, 1963. The human being is flexible and adaptable. The deepest fears are the same everywhere.”
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? “Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The hard part would be to explain the concept of a ‘selfie‘ to the master of portraits!”
Selfie-portrait of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
10/ Plans for 2018? “I’m desperately planning to not make plans! As Woody Allen once said:’If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.'”
Many thanks for this highly interesting and rich interview, Gioele! Mat the road rise with you and Juju…
Belgium‘s striking collective TUBELIGHT, led by singer/songwriter Lee Swinnen has just released their sophomore longplayer, titled EXPERT BY VIRTUE, THEREOF. The band makes a truly spectacular, sonic U-turn. From dark, psychedelic musings on their debut album Heliosphere to The Fall inspired wickedness and the Velvet Underground‘s raw
jam electricity and eccentric stories on the new record. I was speechless after one spin.
A true tour de force with a rip-roaring result. Swinnen sneers and spits, at times, like
the late, great genial badass/narcist Mark E. Smith did whole his turbulent life with one notable difference, the fact that Swinnen actually can sing (Isolation / Snake Oil Salesman / Reverberate – Ribbit Parade). At times it feels like the LP was recorded in 1967 in New York City in Andy Warhols’ Factory club (Nervous Jim / Complexity / LSD Coy Boy). Yes, ladies and gents, trust me, I’m euphoric for the right reasons. And on top of it the revamped line-up nailed it live, yesterday in my hometown Ghent (Belgium) at their album release party. Now a 5-piece with Ray Manzarek‘s spiritual grandson on organ Tubelight played a non-stop stunning set with a I Wanna Hit bravado. TUBELIGHT is dead! Long live TUBELIGHT!
Here’s EXPERT BY VIRTUE, THEREOF…
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Yesterday’s album release frenzy in De Ruimte, Ghent…
ELEFANT – Kinky Star, Ghent, Belgium – 21 February 2018
For those who still haven’t a clue about who das Belgische Lebenslied OrchesterELEFANT
is I can tell you that this mumbo jumbo combo consists of one nutcase, one screwball, one cuckoo and one wacko. Together they are four deranged noiseniks making Krautmetal music and screaming German nonsense all over it. Let’s have a closer look at all these wicked characteristics, so you can understand who these white monkeys actually are…
NUTCASE according to the Cambridge Dicktionary “Someone who behaves in an extremely silly way or
an offensive term for someone who is mentally ill.”
WACKO according to Cambridge Dicktionary “A person whose behaviour is strange and different
from that of most people.”
SCREWBALL according Dicktionary.Com “A whimsically eccentric person, totally nuts.”
CUCKOO according to Oxford’s Dicktionary ” A silly or slightly crackbrained person.”
GERMAN NONSENSE examples… “Raus, raus, raus, Schweinehunden!
Alles hat ein Ende nur die Wurst hat zwei!
Das Leben ist so krank wie ein Elefant!”
KRAUTMETAL according to Turn Up The Volume’s Dicktionary “Loud racket made by a nutcase, a wacko, a screwball and a cuckoo.”
They SOUND like this…
… and this
…and this too
They LOOK like this…
Nutcase…
Wacko…
Screwball…
Cuckoo…
I hope, dear readers you’re all aware now of what this mental gang is all about!
Danke für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit, liebe Leserinnen und Leser, auf Wiedersehen…
JUJU – Kinky Star, Ghent, Belgium – 18 February 2018
Despite the fact that on an average Sunday evening the majority of humankind prefers to fall asleep in front of the TV this cool, small club in Ghent (Belgium), called Kinky Star (one
of Turn Up The Volume‘s fav hang-out places) was packed with hungry psych fans eager to watch/hear Italian collective JUJU, a mind-expanding squadra build around experienced Sicilian sound explorer and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti (Lay Llamas, Herself). Last year they released sophomore LP debut album ‘Our Mother Was A Plant‘ via Fuzz Club Records. A truly impressive, trippy work of transcendent vibrations. From cinematic Pink Floyd echoes to Hawkind‘s spacey rock escapades and some stellar spellbinding tribal jams to pump up the beat. Something like this…
If you’re hooked on exciting, elevating stuff like here above you just ignore TV and jump out in the cold night to get a mind-massage by this tremendous artist and his fabulous orchestra because what you get is trance injected jams that infiltrate your bloodstream instantly and kaleidoscopic wizardry covering several decades. From 60s cult heroes Iron Butterfly‘s psych power to British dance experts Leftfield‘s hallucinogenic vision and many woozy influences in between. Bewitching music without sonic frontiers, rhapsodic music with an appetite for continuous discovery, upraising music to absorb on record and on stage. Valenti ‘s sparkling guitar play and distorted voice are upfront, but he surrounds himself cleverly with inspired musicians in order to translate his amplified reveries to the utmost and the result was just flabbergasting. A riveting journey from start to finish. Magnifico!…
REPTILIANS FROM ANDROMEDA – Kinky Star Ghent, Belgium – 15 February 2018
REPTILIANS FROM ANDROMEDA is a smashing punk and roll turbo out of Istanbul, Turkey led by the utterly charismatic frontlady Aybike Çelik Özbey and guitarist Tolga Özbey. Last Thursday they hit my hometown Ghent (Belgium) with crushing rock and punk firework. To be honest I’ve never heard of this trashy tornado until yesterday when I checked the band on YouTube and found this thunderous slam clip, which made me totally exciting to go out and see the band live…
And what a night it was. From the very smoking start to the burning end this 4-piece engine developed a non-stop rawk ‘n’ roll fury fueled with a tremendously clever mix
of own sledgehammers and covers of timeless crackers such as The Stooges‘ nasty firecracker ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ and legendary girl punks The Runways‘ striking smack ‘C-c-c-c-c-c-c-cherry Bomb’. A blistering set capable of inflaming the whole city. BIG FUN! MASSIVE TUNES! HOT PERFORMANCE! Rakish singer Aybike is the eye-catching star in the middle looking like a cross between the Plasmatics‘ Wendy O. Williams and Blondie‘s Debbie Harry on a wild night. Steamy, sexy and sweaty. You don’t need to go to big arenas to go bananas, on the contrary. To hell with mega bands playing mega arenas,
you find the real stuff on the club circuit. Damn right! Thank you, REPTILIANS FROM ANDROMEDA for proving me right!!
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…
From the great unknown to the rockabilly of tell em all to go to hell…
From loving/hating Valentine’s Day to the Queen of Hearts …
From a beach house to an adoring, crouched audience…
From a dog day to a restless year…
From fear to queer, from a dream to a scream…
Here’s the whole set reproduced on Spotify
(except for ‘Kate Bush’ cover of ‘Hounds Of Love’)
AUTOBAHN – Kinky Star – Ghent, Belgium – 11 February 2018
I know it’s early in the year, but this rip-roaring post-punk fireball out of Leeds will, without a shadow of a doubt, end up way high in my end-of-the-year-2018 list of most impressive concerts. AUTOBAHN is a 5-headed unit formed back in 2015. They released their second, self-produced, mind-bending LP THE MORAL CROSSING last November. A dark colored and gloominess filled triumph, inspired here and there by ideas charismatic frontman Craig Johnson got after seeing the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra doing Beethoven’s Ninth. Regarding the band’s state of mind on the new record, Johnson stated earlier that “our negative episodes don’t last long. Actually, as a band, we’re more optimists. I don’t mind talking about stuff people don’t usually want to talk about: execution, rising from the dead, depression,
feeling utterly lost and unsure where to go.” Fascinating stuff, I hear you think. Absolutely! Something like this…
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And live, this thunderous squad turns into a whizz-bang turbojet as they demonstrated brilliantly in my hometown Ghent yesterday. The decibels go up, the intensity goes up
and the pace goes up. In the middle there’s Craig Johson, with a natural born scary stare Liam Gallagher would pay hard cash for. The man bites blusteringly like a haunted man
who just escaped from reality’s horror. Like a boiling volcano that can explode any time while his ear-splitting complices provide the matching soundtrack. A vivid avalanche of hyperkinetic riff salvos and rambunctious drums/bass energy to pump it all up. You hear agitated echoes of early Joy Division paranoia (circa ‘Digital’: I feel it closing in / Day in / Day out ) and monumental goth flashes. No stops, no unnecessary blah-blah stories between two eruptions, no bullshit. Just forty rabid minutes of sonic neurism and hair-raising fury.
A trance-like Erlebnis created by a blazing British collective that loves to perform in Europe (5th time in Belgium) in order to escape the narrow-mindedness of the UK music business. Thanks for coming! Any time! This footage will give you an idea of their startling impact…
You can stream/purchase newest album THE MORAL CROSSING right here…
Sonic havoc that thrills us in a way we want to scream out loud…
11 February 2018
The alternative music scene in my hometown Ghent, Belgium is just exploding the last few years. It feels like thousands among us are in a band. Not only to get free drinks, not only to seduce adoring company and not only to scream their heart out without being arrested. No, I’m talking about some really quality gangs that will mess up your head, your brain and the rest of your hungry body the way you like it 24/7. Like this loud 3-piece named SKISKA SKOOPER. I never heard of this high-voltage noiseniks until yesterday when they played one of Ghent‘s cool bars, called De Kleine Kunst (‘The Small Art‘ in English). These havoc junks delivered a smashing set that almost blew the roof of the place and with new single ‘PINK HARLOT’ they prove that their sonic ambition is to break the sound barrier on their upcoming debut album. Discover here why my head is still buzzing…
Stunning video’s that will impress your eyes and your ears…
THE CURE – Poland 2016
This is what happens when hundreds of loyal THE CURE fans work together to make a movie about their idols, a document for eternity and one fellow fanatics can download
for free. The Polish devotees all contributed video’s and photos to a project realized by a Polish fan-site to stitch together an enormous amateur multicam of the band’s concert in Poland in October 2016. The final result: a 2-hour-43-minute concert with 31 songs. You can download the film for free righthere. And you can watch it here…
The project was undertaken by the fan-site THE CURE PL. The organisers say their goal
was to assemble the best quality audio and video possible and, in doing so, they gathered more than 350GB of footage, which included everything from phone clips to Blu-ray and 4K quality files. They also obtained near-soundboard audio to use over that footage.
Must see document for all THE CURE fans all over the planet…
