The Dusty Needle

FREE

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

For people who never gave up on their vinyl record collection. And hipsters.

5 reasons you want to read this newspaper: 1. Vinyl is hot, and that’s what this newspaper is about. (No, not vinyl flooring. Vinyl records.) 2. It’s full of famous and/or interesting people like Mauro Pawlowski, Bernard Dobbeleer, Red D, Dennis Tyfus, Lefto, Marc Hollander and SX. So mostly interesting people. 3. You will actually learn a thing or two. Like how we’re putting together an exhibition about the best Belgian record covers ever at Fort Napoleon in Ostend from June 25 until September 18, and how there will also be a book about the subject.

4. Your iPad is about to run out of battery. No, really. 5. Your life will be better. Scientifically proven.

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Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

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Two years ago, Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier was born. It was a book the size of a 7” vinyl record (i.e. an old-fashioned single) with seven portraits of Belgian vinyl record collectors inside. Or diggers, as they are also referred to. The book was published by Red Bull Elektropedia on the occasion of Record Store Day, and all 1,000 copies sold out before noon. That got us thinking: if there is so much interest for a book on vinyl, why not make a website, an exhibition, a newspaper and, well, another book?

You are, obviously, holding the newspaper in your hands.

There’s no sports section, no TV pages, and we also didn’t put a cartoon in. Though, come to think of it, the cartoon might have actually been a good idea.

(Next time!) We did talk to a lot of people about the ongoing vinyl revival, and about their love for what should have already been as dead as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, your Tamagotchi and – it seemed like a good idea, for about seven seconds – electric blankets.

As far as the book and exhibition are concerned: the former you’ll be able to pick up at your local record/book store starting mid-June, the latter will run all summer long at Fort Napoleon, Ostend – starting June 25. Both will feature the hottest, coolest and overall most cutting-edge record sleeves ever designed in this country. Trust us: the covers on these two pages only scratch the surface. Or don’t trust us, and find out for yourself.

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PLATE OF THE UNION

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

STILL SPINNING AROUND:

Four Label Bosses On the Past, Present and Future of Vinyl Yes, yes, vinyl is hot. But how hot is it precisely, and is the vinyl industry really in such good state? We asked four major players who know their records. Purveyors of the finest vinyl, and the perfect company to discuss the black gold market.

Honestly, ever thought we would be sitting around this table, discussing the state of vinyl, in the year 2016?

Marc: I wouldn’t have been that surprised if a fortune teller revealed this to me ten or twenty years ago.

Bart: I never doubted it a bit. The moment nobody was thinking about it, I started a vinyl-only label. In 2008. Out of sheer stubbornness. I figured that if I like something, there must be others out there who do too. The support from Rush Hour (an independent Dutch music retailer and distribution company) helped. They have a solid network, and Antal, who founded the company, told me that if I’d release my stuff on vinyl, I’d sell eight hundred copies – easily. He was right. Back then, in underground house music, it was more than enough to make it worthwhile.

Marc: Crammed started out when vinyl was the only format, beginning of the ‘80s. When CD emerged, there was a very rapid shift of format, and by 1991 we had stopped releasing our rock and pop albums on vinyl. At the same time, we had fully embraced the new wave of electronic music, which started in 1988, and kept pressing quite a lot of vinyl throughout the ‘90s and the first half of the ‘00s. The low point for us came between 2005 and 2008, but from then onwards, as we shifted some of our attention back to indie pop and rock, vinyl quickly picked up again. So vinyl was never far from our mind. The type of music released on vinyl and the fans interested in it just kept morphing.

Bart: I think what happened around 2008 is that people online started to lose focus. At one point, there were 30,000 new tracks per week on Beatport. With no filter whatsoever. Even today, I still don’t check digital listings. There is just too much.

Bart, for you as a deejay, vinyl is much more than a carrier.

It’s an instrument.

Bart: Don’t make me out to be

a purist, but it’s true: nothing drives me up the wall more than a guy saying he bought a vinyl record and now he’s going to digitize it to play it at parties. ‘Because if I take it with me, something could happen to it.’ With that mentality, vinyl will end up in a museum for sure.

Nele: At Consouling, we see it differently. A lot of our fans are collectors, people who crave to own music – physically. They may listen to it digitally and may never even play a particular vinyl record. They just like to have it, as a sort of artefact. Mind you, we never put download codes in our vinyl releases. We prefer to make a CD and insert that. Which is really how we started out in 2007 – with CDs. Back then, there was no money to press anything on vinyl.

Since we started doing it though, sales have been climbing. It’s not about sound quality, I think. It’s more about the complete experience. Taking a record out of its sleeve, putting it on a record player, enjoying the artwork.

Do you think the revival is a sustainable reality, or a passing hype?

Tim: In my opinion, it is more than a hype. Vinyl sales have rapidly been climbing for seven, eight years now. That is too consistent.

Marc: Of course there’s definitely an element of hype to it. We all know for a fact that part of the vinyl-buying audience likes the object for what it represents, but ends up listening to the music on their computers and phones.

So it’s hard to say whether this trend will continue to grow. And as much as I love vinyl, there are two reasons why I’m not obsessed with it or have any sort of vinyl fetish. First and foremost, I care more about the actual music than the formats on which it’s being circulated. With Crammed, our aim has always been to work with artists who produce innovative music, blend genres and don’t feel constricted by borders.

If you’re disregarding barriers between styles, languages and countries, you don’t want to pay

too much attention to barriers between formats. Our second objective has always been to further the career of the artists we work with and make sure their music is heard around the world, in a way their career as musicians becomes sustainable. In that respect, vinyl is an important element, but its economic weight is relative. It’s a great promotional tool, a great way to bond with fans and a nice complementary source of income, but it’s far from enough. Although the amount of vinyl releases keeps rising, the vast majority only sells small quantities. Whether we like it or not, digital is the medium which will keep growing and enable artists and labels to develop.

Nele: Most of my contacts in the record industry are still talking about potential growth though – for vinyl. Interestingly enough, we’re also seeing an increase in CD sales again. We have a shop ourselves, which is a good way to keep up with tendencies. Our vinyl customers are mostly thirty and fortysomethings. Our CD buyers are in their twenties, but maybe that also has something to do with budget? In any case, there are still lots of people out there who don’t like to store music next to an Excel file with their accounting. In the same vein bookworms still buy books, music lovers still buy vinyl and CD. Bart: We see the same thing in Music Mania: teenagers don’t have enough money to buy vinyl. Or they’re still looking for someone they can trust. Because that’s another thing about vinyl: it serves as a filter. You can’t buy everything so you’re often looking for people to give you advice: deejays, bloggers, journalists.

Nele: But Marc is obviously right: if you want to make a lot of money, vinyl is not the way to go. If you want to make beautiful objects with a cultural dimension on the other hand.

Tim: Yet major record companies are flooding the market with ten Bruce Springsteen reissues for Record Store Day. Bart: So small independent labels like us have to wait four months

Words: Johan Faes Images: Wouter Van Vaerenbergh

for a pressing.

Tim: There is definitely some money to be made.

Nele: Oh, sure. But we don’t play in the same league as Bruce Springsteen, and we’re definitely not a major. Also, with Consouling, it’s not just about the product. We value the experience just as much. Last year, we invaded a closed-down Free Record Shop at Incubate (a multidisciplinary arts festival in The Netherlands) and we made a vinyl record there in one week – from recording it to pressing.

About those long waiting lists at the pressing plants, is there a

way to bypass them?

Nele: A lot has to do with knowing the right people. There are not that many factories left – around ten in the whole of Europe – and middlemen are getting more and more important. They look for gaps in the production planning of those factories.

Bart: I have my fixed broker. He used to have his own pressing plant in Mouscron. Sadly, he sold his machines just before the revival.

Nele: It is a technically complicated process. After a lot of trial and error, I now always work with the same three pressing plants. Probably the same you work with, Tim.

PLATE OF THE UNION

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OUR 2016 PLATE OF THE UNION PANEL:

Nele Buys,

honcho of the post-rock and protoeverything label Consouling (Amenra, Madensuyu)

Tim: That would be MPO in France, Record Industry in Holland and Discomat in Herk-de-Stad. We don’t go through a broker though.

We get in touch directly.

Bart: The good thing about majors ordering vinyl again is that we see a renewed interest in investing in the technology to produce records.

There were only two persons left on the planet who could make the heads for the cutters. That’s the real bottleneck: the technology, the skills, the knowhow to press a vinyl record.

In Canada and Germany, people are developing new record presses.

Nele: Still much research is needed. The Germans, who are actually building clones of old machines, are ready to deliver. They say. Jack White has ordered a couple. The Canadians are almost there. But that’s just the machine. You still need a plant, driving power, people who know what they’re doing.

It’s quite an investment.

Bart: Though it’s not rocket science.

Tim: There’s a bit of engineering involved, some chemistry.

Why don’t you all join forces and start a pressing plant?

Marc: That’s way beyond our range of activities.

Tim: At NEWS, we probably have the volumes to do it, but it’s not our core business either. For the same reason, we don’t have a recording studio, or a booking agency. I feel we need to do what we do best. Although there is a lot of frustration about the waiting lists getting longer. When a test pressing gets rejected – and that happens quite a lot – you’re pretty much fucked. It means you need to delay for one or two months. So about six months before Record Store Day, you have to start planning. That’s okay for your average release, but sometimes you want to release something special, in small editions, rapidly. That’s nearly impossible these days.

Nele: I believe in building a stronger network. Unite forces in a way that we’re all able to exert

Bart Van Neste,

also known as deejay Red D and the unmoved mover of We Play House Recordings (San Soda, Locked Groove)

influence. We also run an agency that arranges pressings for third parties. Because it’s not an easy process, and if you’re new to the game, you might end up waiting a long time for a crappy pressing.

Out of curiosity, what’s your most recent vinyl purchase?

Marc: A reissue of a 1965 album by Brigitte Fontaine.

Nele: I only buy second-hand vinyl. Oh wait, I bought something at Ghent Jazz last year. More as a souvenir of the event, really.

Tim: Dijf Sanders’ new album.

We’re the distributor, but I bought it anyway. To support him. You know, of almost all the records I bought, I know exactly where and when I got them. It’s part of the experience.

Nele: Going through crates, making discoveries.

Bart: I buy about one record a day.

More than six records per week is already too much to process. I have a turntable in my office, and when I’m working, I listen to all the new stuff the whole day through.

So come Friday, when I put a new record in my DJ bag, I know it by heart. But it’s still crazy, and frustrating. I have all these records, and the vast majority I never listen to because I keep buying new stuff. Part of me wishes for that to stop so I can start rediscovering what’s already there.

Tim: That’s why I never hooked up my computer to my amplifier. If I do that, I’d be playing Spotify all day. Now I’m forced to go through my record shelves, take out a record and – that way – rediscover things.

With the upcoming exhibition in Ostend on vinyl artwork, are there any record sleeves on display in your houses?

Bart: Three years ago, I asked twelve producers to reinterpret New Beat. I grew up with New Beat, early trance, rave, and I sent those producers my favorite ten records from that era – for inspiration. Four vinyl records came out of that, with new music from the likes of Julio Bashmore and Optimo. At the time, we were

Tim Beuckels,

in charge of the ever-growing Unday Records (Trixie Whitley, Flying Horseman) at Belgium’s prime vinyl distributor NEWS

flooded with reissues, which is crazy – especially in electronic music. Reissuing a classic, there is no risk in that. So I was happy to contribute to the nostalgia craze in my own way, and I’m so proud of those four records that they are now hanging on my wall.

Tim: It’s not just happening in electronic music though, those reissues. Wherever you go, in every city, in every record store, you see the same reissues. People used to get excited when they found that one special Gainsbourg record from the ‘70s after having been looking for it for months or even years. Now they have them stacked everywhere – brand new

Marc Hollander,

founding father of avant-garde band Aksak Maboul and instigator of the legendary Crammed Discs (Tuxedomoon, Amatorski)

and sealed. The volumes they turn out … It’s incredible. They own the rights, it’s a cash cow.

Bart: On the one hand, it keeps stores afloat. On the other, it shoves aside all innovation.

Nele: It all depends on what sort of store you want to be, I guess.

We have people driving down from Germany to visit the Consouling shop. They don’t just go through our crates, they also want talk to us about our releases. The other day, a guy from Brazil walked in.

He bought for more than €1,000 worth of records.

Tim: At NEWS, we consider our stockroom to be our shop. At least once a day, I walk in to check out

what’s new. And every time we have a highly anticipated record coming in, you see people running from behind their desks to hold it in their hands.

When was the first time you got that excited about a vinyl record?

Marc: Do you know how old I am? (laughs) Too many records, too long ago, but I must have definitely gotten excited about the I Feel Fine / She’s A Woman 7” by The Beatles in 1964. Special mention goes to 1969, the year which really got me hooked on music, with Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, Alice Coltrane’s Huntington Ashram Monastery, The Mothers of Invention’s Uncle Meat and The Soft Machine’s Volume Two. What!

A! Year!

Nele: You’re all going to laugh but I have very fond memories of the soundtrack of Disney’ The Aristocats. My mother couldn’t put it on enough, and now I don’t have it anymore!

Bart: Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. My mom subscribed to the ECI book club and she couldn’t find a good book that month, so I got to pick a record. Thanks, mom, for my lifelong addiction!

Tim: I remember running to the bank as a teen to transfer money to the US and then, a few weeks later, receiving a big brown envelope in the mail with Beck’s album Mellow Gold and a 12” of Loser.

Happy days.

Nele: Maybe I should add that, after my The Aristocats phase, I got immersed in jazz. Especially after a trip to Chicago, when I was 21.

All the second-hand jazz albums I got there, I still have fond memories buying them, trying to fit them in my suitcase, between my clothes …

Bart: I just came back from a three-week tour in Asia and Australia, and there were definitely times I wondered why I keep dragging those records along. Then I think about that one gig on a boat in Stockholm, where I was forced to DJ with CDs because they neglected to rent a couple of record players. I mean, I run a vinyl-only

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PLATE OF THE UNION

record label, you know? Asking me to use a USB stick or play with CDs is like asking Michelin starred chef Peter Goossens to run to the chip shop down the street to get a Bicky Burger. I bring screwdrivers, needles, free floats and cartridges to a gig. Not CDs! Whenever you visit a new city, is the local record store on your to-do list?

Nele: It’s a necessity! We often plan a visit ahead, listing and mapping the best stores. Mind you, sometimes we still bump into stores.

Like in Metz the other day: La Face Cachée, tipped by a local musician we work with. Great store!

Bart: I’m always happy when I get to play in a city where I already know a good place. Trying not to pack too heavy so I can drag back as many records as possible.

Tim: When I’m on the road with my boss, all bets are off.

Do you ever buy a record just for the sleeve?

Bart: No way. Music matters.

Tim: Not that often. I did buy an aerobic record once. Not for the cover but because it was produced

by Alain Goraguer (French jazz pianist who often worked with Gainsbourg).

Bart: Nicolas (Geysens, aka San Soda, who runs We Play House Re-

Vol. IV – Nr. 1 – 2016

cordings with Bart) collects sleeves with boobs on ‘em, with or without cleavage.

Marc: I believe album sleeves do affect the relationship people have with their records though.

But I also rarely buy records just for the artwork. Although only recently, I got a couple of free jazz records from the ‘60s with strange, faux-naïve artwork by Marte Röling. If it wouldn’t have been for the artwork, I may not have even noticed them.

Tim: Artwork does make a difference.

Nele: Certainly. You have that canvas, so you might as well do something with it.

Marc: It can really add to the music. There have always been labels that pay careful attention to the artwork. Jazz labels from the ‘60s, indie labels from the ‘80s. For some, the artwork was as important as the music.

For We Play House Recordings, it’s also the recognisability of the sleeve that’s important?

Bart: Yes, it’s part of our identity.

And don’t get me wrong: yes, it is about the music but great artwork also exudes pride for your product, respect for the artist. Showing to the world that you made an effort.

Tim: Design, cutting, packaging: it’s all a reflection of your ambition. Optimizing every part of a production. Major release or DIY, it doesn’t matter. It has to hit the right spot.

Nele: And not just when it comes to vinyl, I feel. Our artists are always trying out new things, both on vinyl and on stage. They see their music as a Gesamtkunstwerk.

At Consouling, you also collaborate with world-renowned artists, like sculptress Berlinde De Bruyckere and painter Michaël Borremans.

Nele: We just ask them, and they say yes. (laughs) It’s always a warm surprise though, to see big names like that get enthusiastic about the prospect of working together. I believe it has to do with

the community you build around your label, and how people engage with it.

Bart: With We Play House Recordings, it’s definitely also not just about putting out vinyl records.

Last month, we released a new album and we organised three evenings around it.

As a stand-alone product, vinyl is history? The future is in implementing it in a broader story?

Nele: No one forces you to, but it stretches the longevity.

Bart: It’s the same with every product or creation nowadays.

You can’t just put it out and wait for it to find its way on its own.

Nele: A new generation is getting hooked on vinyl, because of all the effort people put in creating a particular experience.

Bart: But, to be taken seriously, you have to release vinyl. How much confidence do you have as an artist, as a label if you only release music as a sound file? A vinyl record is the best business card.

Tim: And tapes! But maybe we should keep that discussion for Cassette Store Day.

EXPOSED

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BELGIUM: THE VINYL FRONTIER PT. 2 Inside the Best Belgian Record Sleeves There’s no shortage of legendary albums in this country, and there’s no lack of illustrious record covers either. The exhibition (and book) Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier Pt. 2 brings them all under one roof (and on two hundred pages). From popular bands like Telex, dEUS and Soulwax to artwork maestros like Ever Meulen, Dennis Tyfus and Victor Robyn.

of Belgian musicians and labels that went through great lengths to put the ‘art’ in ‘artwork’.

For the cover of its pioneering album Ball of Eyes, Marc Moulin’s jazz outfit Placebo turned to Micheline Stainler. T.C. Matic and Arno almost always worked with acclaimed photographer Danny Willems. Rudy Trouvé wasn’t

The EXHIBITION (€7/8) will take place from June 25 until September 18, Fort Napoleon, Ostend. fortnapoleon.be The BOOK (€39,95) will be available from Borgerhoff & Lamberigts from June 23 onwards. borgerhoff-lamberigts.be

The book Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier Pt. 2 will cost €39,95 – everywhere.

Except between June 23 (or whenever the book hits stores) and July 20.

With this coupon, and between those dates, you will be able to pick up the book at your local record store for just €29,95. Yes, that’s right: only at your local record store.

From June 1 onwards, you will find a list of all participating shops on vinylfrontier.be/coupon One coupon per person, while stocks last.

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While some decades were dominated by run-of-the-mill album covers and, throughout history, some musicians couldn’t be bothered with hiring a decent graphic designer or photographer to come up with something better than ‘here’s me looking attractive; now just buy the damn record’, there have been an impressive number

the biggest-selling Belgian pop and rock stars, but to musicians, labels and designers who have contributed to the overall aesthetic of your living room, or wherever it is you keep your vinyl record collection. Even if that collection is kept in an – those things are made for vinyl – ordinary IKEA closet.

With so many great records to choose from, exhibition and book will not completely overlap. It’s much more fun creating two stand-alone experiences, which complement each other, instead of being identical twins.

Also fun: while the first and very much sold-out Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier book (about vinyl record collectors) was the size of a vinyl single (7”), the second book will be the size of an LP (12”). It will contain about 400 covers and 100 interviews (in both Dutch and French) with some of the greatest Belgian musicians and designers around.

€

COUPON

Four years ago, Fort Napoleon in Ostend played host to a massive Storm Thorgerson exhibition – the genius behind all of Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking album covers.

This summer, the 200-year-old fortress in the dunes welcomes some of the most remarkable Belgian record sleeves in history. Remarkable how? In terms of design!

just part of dEUS, he also created some of the band’s most striking artwork, before starting his own label Heavenhotel and continuing to make works of art for acts like The Love Substitutes and Kiss My Jazz. And if you don’t remember seeing any of Dr. Lektroluv’s madly cartoonish sleeves, you must have really hated the whole elektro scene. In any case, those are the album covers we’re talking about!

But it’s not just a thing of the past. Quite the contrary. Whether the vinyl revival or the success of Record Store Day have something to do with it, or not, artwork has become increasingly important (again) for young bands and labels. Not just satisfied anymore with simply slapping a great picture or design on the cover, quite a few of them have started to produce tiny works of art – screen-printed, hand-made and often also very limited. At the same time, some have started to work with world-renowned artists whose pieces normally sell for astronomical sums, but when Amenra (Berlinde de Bruyckere), STUFF. (Rinus Van de Velde) and dEUS (Michaël Borremans) are on the phone, we’re guessing their fees drop significantly. After all, if there’s one thing cooler these days than having a show at MoMA, it’s being on a vinyl sleeve.

In a nutshell, that is what Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier Pt. 2 is about – yes, both the exhibition and the book. It will be a tribute, not to

Words: Ben Van Alboom

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FLAVOR FAV

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

COVER STORIES

It’s best not to judge every record by its cover – some musicians only have an ear for great music, not an eye for great art(work). But when confronted with the almost impossible question ‘What’s your favourite Belgian album cover, like, ever?’ our expert music panel handpicks a number of gems that are both delightful to look at and listen to.

ADRIAAN DE ROOVER (OAKTREE) Sagat – Melting the Earth Onto the Body Without Organs (Vlek, 2015)

‘Definitely one of the more prominent records in my collection – artwork-wise.

It’s a really cool thing to hold in your hands, with its rough texture and cardboard relief that has some sort of abstract landscape printed over it. You can feel they had to make these by hand – piece by piece. It’s the kind of extraordinary packaging that fascinates me, especially when it fits the music like a glove. Dimitri Runkkari designed the sleeve, and I think he does most of the artwork for Brussels label Vlek. A good thing.

Unfortunately, the story behind the purchase of this record is anything but remarkable: I bought it online. Obviously I didn’t fully get to experience the artwork at that time but that just made the surprise even bigger when I got to unwrap the package. Having said that, the impressive sleeve art was a mere pleasant bonus. I bought the

record because of the music.

I have to admit though that I have bought LPs for their artwork in the past. East India Youth’s Total Strife Forever for instance, which cover was designed by Kohhei Matsuda of Japanese noise rock band Bo Ningen. It features a portrait of East India Youth singer William Doyle by UK painter Tida Bradshaw, with white rectangles painted over it. I hardly ever listened to that album, but I did end up putting it in a frame and hanging it on the wall of my bedroom.

Most other vinyl records I own, I take out when music is the only thing on my mind.

I’m not a vinyl fanatic – I don’t care much for the way music finds its way to my ears. But I’ve noticed that when I pick a vinyl record from my collection, it usually means that I really want to listen to it – with full attention.’

MAURO PAWLOWSKI Nicole & Hugo & Lou Roman Show Band – In het Witte Paard, Blankenberge (Greenway Records, 1977)

‘An album I couldn’t live without is this one

by Belgium’s uncrowned king and queen of the Flemish chanson. They recorded it live at bingo/music hall Het Witte Paard in Blankenberge in the ‘70s, accompanied by the infamous Lou Roman Show Band – your typical cheesy, pompous crooner orchestra. The artwork is painted or drawn in beautiful black and white, and the faces are all a bit off. It breathes a realm of days gone by, although its glory remains and its majestic timelessness is undeniable.

This is pure craftsmanship combined with ease – the kind you only come across in old-fashioned establishments like Het Witte Paard. It’s show business in the most folky way, and I say that in all sincerity. I’d even go so far as to call it folk art. And I also really love the music. There are some great covers on there – all played

and recorded live – and you can just hear, feel and smell the atmosphere. The crowd is singing along to these typical medleys and to Dutch versions of evergreens that are just as formidable as the originals. It was a time when you were still allowed to smoke everywhere, a time when an evening out always was a big event, something to look forward to for weeks.

This record is like stepping inside a time machine. I’ve bought it at a flea market, which is where I buy all the good stuff, really. I’m not interested in buying the vinyl version of records I can get on Spotify or iTunes. But when I found this, I just had to have it. And I bought it in mint condition, not a scratch! As if it had always been laying there, literally waiting for me.’

FLAVOR FAV

STEFANIE CALLEBAUT (SX) GOOSE – Synrise (!K7 Records, 2010)

‘I’ll admit to not listening to vinyl records all the time, but they’ve always had a whim of magic to them. I also have to admit that, when initially asked the question, I thought it would be hard to choose my favourite artwork, but then I remembered GOOSE’s Synrise – designed by Storm Thorgerson – and that was that.

There are lots of record sleeves I love but Synrise really pops out. It’s an exceptionally interesting cover, with a diversity of story lines and perspectives. It raises a bunch of questions to which the answers won’t unveil themselves right away – if at all. Yet, the image grabs you instantly.

It’s one of those records that reveals its

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BERNARD DOBBELEER (CLASSIC 21) Soulwax – Any Minute Now (PIAS, 2004)

sheer class just by looking at the artwork.

It literally and figuratively cuts some sort of concrete groove through a rural landscape. The image is such an abstract and surreal restitution of the band’s reality and a perfect translation of its music.

The digital aspect is something that is obviously very present but it also looks a bit like an airstrip for a plane to land on, which suggests that GOOSE’s music has finally ‘landed’ with this album.

Initially, I had a better connection with the boys than with their music but this album cover really helped me understand them as musicians.’

Meakusma Festival 23–25 09.16 ALTER SCHLACHTHOF EUPEN

‘My favourite Belgian album cover? That’s easy: Any Minute Now by Soulwax. Why? Because of the optical illusion with the black and white dots of course. It fascinates me because it’s hard to look at and difficult to decipher what it actually says, and yet it’s just there. I’ve always been compelled by art – album artwork in particular – but for some reason this sleeve intrigued me instantly. Maybe it’s the obvious throwback to the ‘60s. No one really does the art pop thing anymore. And then they did.

It’s a really funny way of reinventing that era. Trevor Jackson designed the cover, and he’s a musician and producer as well.

Unsurprisingly, because I feel you need to be creative on different levels to be able to

Roger Robinson & Disrupt Babyfather (Dean Blunt) Mark Ernestus & Mark Ainley Thomas Brinkmann Marcus Schmickler Yann Leguay Piero Umiliani Today Toresch (Tolouse Low Trax) Nadar Ensemble Christian Klinkenberg Orchestra plays Terry Riley “In C” Chris Corsano, Rodrigo Amado, Joe McPhee & Kent Kessler Substance (aka DJ Pete) Mike Cooper pres. White Shadows In The South Sea Leo Kupper

Georgia Tomaga MM/KM (Kassem Mosse & Mix Mup) Eartheater Yves De Mey Elektro Guzzi Tropa Macaca Don’t DJ King Fifi Monochord Roger 23 Chilling The Do Lord Tang Going Frank Dommert Volker Zander ML

Early bird tickets & more info are available at:

pull a specific style out of its context the way he did right here.

Even cooler: the album was accompanied by a couple of singles with the same type of artwork and colours, but when the album Nite Versions, the dance version of Any Minute Now, came out, they recycled the cover in pink. I think it’s imperative to own both albums on vinyl, in order to get the full perspective. It’s clear the artwork was designed to be released on vinyl.

I don’t buy LPs as frantically anymore as I used to – I own about 15,000, I’d say that’s enough – but I do still buy the really, really great new albums and the really, really good-looking ones. So in this case, it was near impossible to keep my wallet closed.’

Resom Le Cercle des Mallissimalistes Different Fountains plays Vexations In Dub Demand/Schöppner Sova Stroj Daniel[i] Aymeric De Taypol soFa Sensu Nosedrip Galleur Runkkari Wax Treatment guest showcase on the Killasan Soundsystem - ReiheM Showcase – Sleepless room by dublab Radio & more TBC www.meakusma-festival.be

10 SHOP IT LIKE IT’S HOT

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

BUY LOCAL:

The 50 Best Belgian Vinyl Releases of the Year (So Far) As always, Record Store Day 2016 has a couple nice surprises in, well, store. So we thought we’d make you a small shopping list – in no particular order, other than the one we would buy all of these records in. Don’t like our order? Hit shuffle! Oh, and in case you’re wondering: no, not everything is #RSD16. For music lovers, every day is Record Store Day.

1

COCAINE PISS SEX WEIRDOS

4

T.B.H.R. / K.T.A.O.A.B.C (12") - 9000 Records

7

(7") - Hypertension Records

TRIXIE WHITLEY PORTA BOHEMICA

12

(12") - Unday Records

SD R SE RELEA

SD R SE RELEA

Words: Ben Van Alboom

SX ALPHA (12") - Universal

SD R SE RELEA

SX delivers the perfect EP: no filler, all killer (including the knockout pop song Shimona).

13

AMATORSKI & SASKIA DE COSTER HEAR ME & WALKING WITH A PASSER-BY #1 (7") - Crammed Discs

We tried boosting Sex Weirdos, the first track from Cocaine Piss’ upcoming Steve Albini produced debut album, on Facebook and almost got our account suspended.

That was without mentioning this nuclear 7” also contains two covers from Cocaine Piss fans Mauro Pawlowski (Pussy) and Legends (Fuck This Garden). Out on 300 copies: 100 clear red vinyl, 200 black, all with artwork by Dennis Tyfus.

9000 Records sweethearts The Black Heart Rebellion and Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat join forces on this split 12” release. Trust us: you will be doomed if you don’t pick up one of 300 copies (with artwork by We Became Aware and Jef Cuypers, an unreleased T.B.H.R. track and an electronic remake of an old K.T.A.O.A.B.C song).

5 2

ECHO BEATTY NONETHELESS

BRZZVLL FIRST LET’S DANCE (12") - Vynilla Vinyl

(12") - Waste My Records

SD R SE RELEA

Tidal Motions was one of the best Belgian debut albums of the past five years, and now Echo Beatty is back with Nonetheless – another dark, melancholic and slightly psychedelic mix of blues and dream pop.

3

(12") - Smeraldina-Rima For this exquisite jazz beyond jazz record, Ghent label Smeraldina-Rima, which is known for its screen printing, asked renowned visual artist Ante Timmermans to create a screen printed work, from which three different covers could be cut. Each variety is an edition of 167.

OAKTREE DUST

Electronic whizz-kid Oaktree continues to release one ingenious EP after the other.

Dust is – once again – a thing of extra-terrestrial beauty, as is the artwork by Gaba Guzik.

First the good news: BRZZVLL’s mind blowing new album – mixing funk, jazz and spoken word, courtesy of Amir Sulaiman – is getting an extremely limited white vinyl release. Just 120 copies, no more. The bad news: the band didn’t approve the test pressing so you’ll only be able to buy the sleeve on Record Store Day. (Obviously you can pick up the record later).

6

ANDRÉ BRASSEUR LOST GEMS FROM THE 70’S (12") - Sdban

Few Belgians have ever sold as many records as André Brasseur, yet few Belgians seem to really know the guy. With this gatefold LP (featuring both his greatest hits and his grooviest funk experiments), that ought to change.

SD R SE RELEA

LINUS + ØKLAND / VAN HEERTUM FELT LIKE OLD FOLK

(12") - PIAS

(12") - No label

The Violent Husbands’ new album Hot Wood hits stores in May but, on Record Store Day, twenty smoked copies will already be sold in advance. Like literally smoked. Over a campfire. (Yes, your vinyl closet will forever smell like bacon).

8

9

THE VIOLENT HUSBANDS HOT WOOD SD R SE RELEA

Already bought Trixie Whitley’s excellent sophomore album Porta Bohemica? Buy it again! Only now on a gorgeous picture disc designed by Victor Robyn. Limited to 500 copies.

10

AMENRA ALIVE (12") - Consouling Sounds

Ever since recording the hauntingly acoustic (and acoustically haunting) EP Afterlife in 2009, Amenra has felt the urge to unplug. Which is precisely what they did during an acoustic tour in 2014, and on this subsequent live album.

11

THE SORE LOSERS SKYDOGS (12") - Excelsior Recordings

‘Raw but skilled, retro but never dusty, like a mix between The Black Keys and Jon Spencer.’ Even Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant couldn’t help but headbang to the new The Sore Losers album (with f*$@#!g fantastic artwork by Elzo Durt).

After releasing its new single Hear Me on 7” (including a remix by Julia Holter), Amatorski is releasing another 7” on Record Store Day. This time with a remix of the song by Hiele, and a fascinating collaboration between frontwoman Inne Eysermans and acclaimed novelist Saskia De Coster.

14

ALKERDEEL LEDE (12") - Consouling Sounds

The coolest thing about Alkerdeel’s new gatefold LP is not that it’s a spellbinding black metal trip (with a comic inside).

What’s even cooler is that the first 66 copies come with a super fancy (and blue) cotton sleeve by artwork gurus Le 7e Oeil.

15

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS LES TUEURS DE LA LUNE DE MIEL (12") - Crammed Discs

Le Soir recently called it ‘arguably the best Belgian rock album ever’ and back when it was released in 1982, NME enthusiastically wrote that ‘everything the band touches on this album becomes their own, matchless style – from raw to rare to burnt to ruination.’ In other words: you need this reissue.

SHOP IT LIKE IT’S HOT

16

BAZART

20

(12") - PIAS

SD R SE RELEA

OTTO LINDHOLM (12") - Icarus Records / Vynilla Vinyl

26

‘At once dangerous and stunningly beautiful.’ FACT magazine is captivated by Otto Lindholm’s debut album, and if you’re into anything drone related – musically, that is – so will you.

21

30,000 MONKIES I ATE MYSELF TO GROW TWICE AS BIG

32

11

DIJF SANDERS MOONLIT PLANETARIUM (12") - No label

(12") - Consouling Sounds

SD R SE RELEA

BALTHAZAR WAIT ANY LONGER – LIVE (10") - PIAS SD R SE RELEA

It’s hard being anymore the talk of the town than Bazart, whose feverish pop tunes caught the attention of pretty much every (Dutch-speaking) Sound of 2016 fortune teller. For Record Store Day, the band is releasing its killer debut on vinyl and adding three live tracks.

17

HYDROGEN SEA & I WILL, I SWEAR IF THE STARS GROW DIM TONIGHT (10") - Unday Records SD R SE RELEA

It’s like crashing a monster truck into a wall of Semtex on board a nuclear warship, which lies next to an oil platform. Oh, and they have a sense of humour about it. That about sums up this debut album by new Consouling Sounds signing 30,000 Monkies.

Just off its colossal European club tour (and right before hitting the festival circuit), Balthazar is releasing a live EP – recorded at Forest National, Rock en Seine and Le Bataclan.

22

HENRI POUSSEUR EARLY EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC 1954-72

27

Dreamy pop outfits Hydrogen Sea and I Will, I Swear got together to record a track for Record Store Day. Equally sweet: the vinylonly release comes with an etch by Flore Deman as B-side. Limited to 250 copies.

18

23

SOULWAX BELGICA

33

(12") - KRAAK The Word described this new EP by Brusselsbased two-piece Razen as ‘moody, ethereal, weird and wonderful’. All true.

28

INWOLVES INVOLVES (12") - Consouling Sounds

(12") - Sub Rosa Forget Kraftwerk. One of the real pioneers of electronic music was Belgian, and he deserves a statue for it. Until then, just buy this gatefold LP, will ya?

RAZEN ENDRHYMES

If you don’t trust us on this, take it from cool music blog Merchants of Air: ‘Inwolves takes the kosmische music of acts like Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Temple and Faust, and gives it a modern twist.’

29

(12") - PIAS

TOURIST LEMC ANTWERPS TESTAMENT

TINY LEGS TIM SAD SAD

SD R SE RELEA

(10") - Sing My Title

For the 5th year in a row, Tiny Legs Tim cooked up a little something special for Record Store Day: a dash of Mali Desert Blues, a whiff of ‘60s psychedelics, and 150 numbered copies with silkscreen printed artwork.

34

AKSAK MABOUL KRIKOR REMIXES (12") - ensemble

If you don’t already own Aksak Maboul’s 1977 cult album Onze danses pour combattre la migraine, you need to get it now. No, seriously: like, right now! And while you’re at it: also get this recent 12” with awe-inspiring remixes by Parisian producer Krikor.

(12") - Top Notch By popular demand, Tourist LeMC is releasing his debut album on vinyl. White vinyl, to be precise.

DAN SAN SHELTER

One of the finest Belgian electronic musicalbums in recent times, Dijf Sanders’ Moonlit Planetarium, is now also out on vinyl.

‘For people who like experimental exotica, or the unearthly soundscapes of Board of Canada and Flying Lotus’, according to De Morgen. Or for art lovers who like to own a piece of French Post-Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau, who has been dead long enough for Mr. Sanders to steal his work.

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(12") - JauneOrange

35

KAPITAN KORSAKOV WELL HUNGER + STUFF & SUCH (12") - Musicmaniarecords

METROBOX WANDERLUST

SD R SE RELEA

(12") - We Play House Recordings Three-time Red Bull Elektropedia Awards winner We Play House Recordings is getting into the album business with this triple 12” from Metrobox. Expect an overdose of Moog, 909 and SH 101, and guest performances by Locked Groove, TLP and label boss Red D. Since you probably already know all about Soulwax inventing fifteen bands for the soundtrack of the movie Belgica, we’ll just leave it at ‘now also available on vinyl’.

31

IDES MOON EP WITH STRINGS (12") - No label

24 Arguably one of the nicest surprises of the year, Dan San’s sophomore album catapults the band way beyond its neo-folk roots, into the moody indiepop stratosphere.

19

NAMID SHELTER MIWA OPOZE: SELECTED RECORDINGS 13-14 (10") - Vynilla Vinyl

DE SAS R RELE

Up-and-coming jazz quartet Namid’s debut EP is everything you want it to be: intense, swinging and ridiculously limited (to just 100 numbered copies, on green vinyl).

ERIKSSON DELCROIX HEART OUT OF ITS MIND (12") - Waste My Records

SD R SE RELEA

Less bluegrass than its predecessor, more psychedelics and rock & roll. Or: less ‘yippeekayay’, and more ‘motherfucker’.

Whichever your prefer.

25

36

ID!OTS II

HOOVERPHONIC THE MAGNIFICENT TREE IN WONDERLAND RSD (12"-7") Columbia/Sony

(12") - Waste My Records ‘Rock & roll doesn’t have to be groundbreaking’, wrote De Morgen in its review of II. ‘As long as its raw and dirty.’ Mission: accomplished.

Despite getting excellent reviews in the past, noisy outfit Kapitan Korsakov seems to have never gotten a memo from their record company: ‘Release that shit on vinyl, motherfuckers!’ So on Record Store Day, for the first time ever, both Well Hunger and Stuff & Such will be available on, respectively, green and red gold.

The new Ides Moon EP comes with strings attached. Literally. The band, basically, rearranged the songs from its debut EP for strings, and asked acclaimed artist Dominique Vangilbergen to create another one of his striking covers.

ASE RELE

Hooverphonic isn’t just re-releasing its 2000 album The Magnificent Tree on coloured vinyl for Record Store Day; it also recently put out its new album In Wonderland on 12” and … as a 7” box set! The box set is limited to 250 copies, spreading the vocalists who worked on the album out across five singles.

Continues on page 18.

12

FACTORY RECORDS

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

DISCOMAT

(don’t) stop the press Words: Pieter Colpaert Images: Debby Termonia

With vinyl sales up year after year, you would think pressing records is a booming business.

“To be honest: we didn’t really experience the so-called vinyl revival. We’re just trying to stay afloat.” Behind the scenes of the last vinyl pressing plant in Belgium.

FACTORY RECORDS

Discomat in Herk-de-Stad is one of a dying breed – the last vinyl pressing plant in the country, and one of about ten in all of Europe. Despite the drastically increased consumer demand for vinyl, the plant’s manager Tom Willems has a rather bleak vision of its future: ‘Don’t underestimate just how difficult it is to keep those machines, which have been out of production for forty years, going. Think of them as a classic car: you’ll be fine if you only use it for brief rides in summer, but if you drive it everyday, it’s going to break down. Those high waiting times you hear about: that’s because everyone’s machines are down half the time. It’s happening to our competitors, and it’s happening to us. Lots of the design plans for our machines are lost, the machine parts are not on the market anymore, it’s a real challenge to keep them going. Luckily, our staff is very knowledgeable, and we work with metallurgists who can analyse parts that are broken and can come up with a metal alloy to replace it.’

13

Buying new pressing machines isn’t an option either. The only company making them right now is German start-up Newbilt, but its machines are hardly a solution to Willems’ woes: they cost about €150,000, have to be operated by hand, use huge amounts of electricity, and only press about thirty to forty records each hour.

‘That would mean generating a revenue of just €31 each hour. There’s no way I could ever turn a profit that way. Not even if I’d put those machines in China or Bangladesh!’ Right now, one of his fully automatic machines can press over one hundred vinyl records an hour – with three machines being handled by just one person – and he’s barely keeping his head above water.

Discomat only deals directly with artists and through independent labels. Dealing with a major label would mean only being able to work for one client, and having to lower the prices.

So why even bother at all? ‘It’s a passion. We work day and night, even though I know this

business will never make me rich’, Willems explains. And it’s a family business, on top of that. His father Andre Willems – once an engineer for Rocco Granata’s Cardinal Records – started the place back in 1974.

Discomat has been pressing vinyl records non-stop ever since. ‘Even ten or twenty years ago, when a lot of record stores weren’t selling them anymore, record companies were still releasing a lot on vinyl and distributing it amongst DJs – hoping they would play it in the clubs. To be honest: we didn’t really experience the so-called vinyl revival. That’s more the consumer’s perception, as people suddenly see new vinyl records available in stores again. The only real difference to us, is that vinyl shifted from being a marketing tool for record companies to something they can actually make money from again.’ The biggest shift he has seen, Willems says, is one in music genres. Until eight years ago, about ninety per cent of the vinyl they’d press featured electronic music. Today, this has dropped to perhaps three per cent. They are making records now in pretty much any genre imaginable – from jazz and death metal to Helmut Lotti.

estly don’t know. Everyone in the business is facing enormous problems in just trying to keep the production process going.

Between machines breaking down and certain products in our raw materials being outlawed, it’s becoming more and more difficult to make a decent vinyl record.’

He explains that making a vinyl record is an artisanal process – akin to producing a wine. ‘There are lots of different factors influencing the quality of your record. The way it works is, we generate steam through heating and cooling down, trying to find the right balance to make the record. In about half a minute, solid material needs to be made fluid through the steam of the press and then it has to spread itself over a mould, with a stamper on top of it. Then the record is shaped, cooled down and cut.

All within those thirty seconds! It’s such a complicated process, and just like two different wine-makers using the same grapes will end up with a different wine, two record pressing plants using the same raw materials, might make a completely different vinyl record. Which one is best? That would totally depend on whether you like your wine dry or sweet.’

When we ask Tom how he sees the future for vinyl and his own factory, he sighs.

‘Everyone asks that question, and I hon-

Some of Debby Termonia’s pictures first appeared in the Belgian newspaper De Tijd.

14

BY DESIGN

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

WORK Belgium has no shortage of remarkable artwork creators. We talked to two of them, who coincidentally both also founded their own label.

The Father: Benoît Hennebert. The Son: Dennis Tyfus. (We’ll talk to the Holy Ghost in our next issue.)

Rodger Stella - Resin Drones - Dennis Tyfus

OF ARTWORK Words: Pieter-Jan Symons Hair Stylistics - Hustler Power Electronics Convention - Dennis Tyfus

Dennis Tyfus As an artist, Dennis Tyfus is like the Hydra: cut off one head, two will grow back. If he’s not painting, he’s filming, making noise music, protesting, hosting a radio show, designing album covers or publishing his own art books and magazines. Through his diverse body of work, he has made a name for himself in the European art scene. Yet worldwide, he’s largely renowned for his record label Ultra Eczema, on which he has released music by and – just as important – designed artwork for Wolf Eye, Kim Gordon’s Body/

Head, Fred Bervoets and performance artist Ludo Mich.

Rather than being merely a record label, Ultra Eczema comprises a linear numbering of his artistic practice. More often than not, its releases are – one way or another – part of something else: an exhibition, a performance, a concert. Ultra Eczema is the mother ship that ties together all of Tyfus’ practices, interests and influences. His work is regularly described as anti-culture – stretching from Dada to Fluxus, and from the international Situationists to the automatic gestures of early new wave – but Tyfus himself is keen to disarm the assertion of it being aggressive and raw. ‘There is a moronic lightness to my work’, he says. ‘To me, it’s more funny than it is aggressive.’

Sharing music has always been part of his life. ‘For someone’s birthday, or really just whenever, I like to make a compilation or mixtape, for which I then also design a matching cover. I started doing it as a teenager, especially for girls who were able to confuse my clear way of thinking. Apart from that, I’ve played in bands like Dry Weave, Ganzensap, Migraine and PZ3 Locomotive, and recorded some of our rehearsals on cassette, for which I then also designed a cover before handing ‘em out to my friends. My first LP artwork was for English crust punk band DOOM. They played Scheld’Apen in Antwerp in 1998 and noticed some of my work on the wall. Shortly thereafter, I did some designs for local label Subdeviant. And then, in 2003, came the first vinyl release on Ultra Ec-

zema: a 7” by American band Trumans Water. I made three hundred different hand-drawn covers for it.’

Being a musician himself (solo, alongside drummer Chris Corsano or as a member of Vom Grill) and after having released hundreds of records from artists from all over the world, Tyfus understands the inextricably intertwined relationship between music and design.

He sees his artwork as an extension of his music rather than an addition to it, or vice versa. ‘I always do my best to design something that embodies the music.

I don’t claim to succeed every single time, but that’s the challenge. While I’m working on a sleeve, which can take a while, I have the record on repeat. I’m really fascinated by the idea that

someone else’s music and my art mould together. I usually create the artwork with graphic designer Jef Cuypers. When we feel we’re ready, we send it to the musicians for approval. It’s as simple as that.’

Or not. ‘I’ve been doing Ultra Eczema for nineteen years now and, looking back at it, things have changed. For the better. Ten years ago, Ultra Eczema released a lot of LPs by people with whom I didn’t have a personal relationship. I’ve learned that that isn’t what Ultra Eczema is supposed to do.

My strength lies in working with people I know well – in order to achieve something special that both the musician and I are happy with. It keeps striking me how fitting a sleeve can be with the music that’s inside.’

BY DESIGN

15

When working on a sleeve, I have the record on repeat. I’m fascinated by the idea that someone else’s music and my art mould together.

Dennis Tyfus

Agathocles - Sissy Spacek – Dennis Tyfus

Antena - Camino Del Sol - Benoît Hennebert

Benoît Hennebert

Tuxedomoon - Ninotchka - Again - Benoît Hennebert

LTM Recordings founder James Nice, who now also runs legendary Belgian record labels Les Disques du Crépuscule and Factory Benelux, calls Benoît Hennebert ‘the forgotten genius of Belgian visual art and typography’. Which may be an understatement even still, since the art director was responsible for the artwork of some the most extraordinary records of A Certain Ratio, Anna Domino, Antena, The Names and Tuxedomoon. His motivation? ‘When you love music, you want everything related to it – closely or not – to be beautiful too.’

Les Disques du Crépuscule was born in 1980 with Benoît Hennebert as one of its parents. ‘I wanted to start a record label but I didn’t have any experience in managing anything, let alone a label. Friends of mine worked as designers for a music magazine called En Attendant, and they introduced me to Michel Duval, an economics student who mostly wrote reviews for the mag.’ Back then, Duval and Annik Honoré, Ian Curtis’ girlfriend at the time of his death and reportedly the inspiration for Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, were promoting shows at Plan K, an illustrious Brussels venue. ‘And that’s really the simple story of how the three of us got together and founded Les Disques du Crépuscule: Annik, Michel and me. Of course, being a graphic designer, it was clear to everyone that I was going to take care of the label’s artwork.’

Wim Mertens - Struggle for Pleasure - Benoît Hennebert

I practically never turn to the music for inspiration. It’s not that important to me. It has more to do with intuition.

Benoît Hennebert

Looking back at 36 years of releasing music and making art, Hennebert can’t point to one release he is exceptionally proud of. ‘I was rather happy with pretty much all of the releases of the first two years’, he says. In those years, Les Disques du Crépuscule put out highly praised records by international artists like Section 25 and Cabaret Voltaire but, in the end, it was Belgian maestro Wim

Mertens who procured the label’s international acclaim. ‘In retrospect, I really do believe that to be true. Wim was the most important artist on our roster. Looking back at all we’ve done, he is the one with the most impressive career.’

Being the label’s art director, Hennebert’s vision runs through all of the artwork and designs. He created and crafted a rather distinct style ‘but please don’t ask me what it is. I’ve heard people do it, but I’m not able to describe my own style. For one, because I’ve always tried not to restrict myself to one style. The idea was to be a little different with each release. Other than that, there was never one specific thing I set out to do, apart from creating the most beautiful sleeve possible.’

Nevertheless, he admits there are certain elements that frequently return in his work. ‘I like to use out-of-focus images. We operated in the pre-digital era, and the techniques of reproducing an image hadn’t changed since the

‘50s. It was all still chemical, but the whole process was expensive and Les Disques du Crépuscule had no budget. So I did everything myself, and sometimes I even created my own fonts too. Clearly, all of this influenced my style. Bottom line: almost every record cover was an experiment in technique and design.’

Surprisingly enough, music only ever played a small part in those experiments. ‘I’ve practically never listened to the music much to find inspiration for the sleeve.

It’s not that important to me. It has more to do with intuition, and that’s something you develop from birth. It’s inexplicable.

Also, being a small label, there was never any marketing pressure, so I was always able to do what I want. Mind you, I’m aware that people go looking for meaning, maybe even a story in my artwork, and that some also find it.

In all honesty though, when they find it, it’s more a product of their imagination than mine.’

16

DIG IT!

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

‘That gold record?

Daft Punk gave it to me’ In 2014, we visited the homes of seven Belgian vinyl collectors for the first Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier book.

And since we liked it so much, we just continued doing it – for the website.

Next stop: the vinyl sanctuary of DJ and radio legend Bernard Dobbeleer!

Words: Koen Galle Images: Thomas Sweertvaegher

An afternoon with Bernard Dobbeleer is like a good film: over before you know it. It must have something to do with his job as radio producer at RTBF: Bernard tells one good story after the other. Like that one time in London, back in 1983, when he nabbed a promo copy of Night Moves’ Transdance. The track soon became an anthem at La Chapelle, the Liège club where Dobbeleer was resident DJ for many years.

Yet only one hundred copies were pressed of the edit he fished out of those London cases. To this day, it is coveted among collectors.

Dobbeleer added it to the CD compilation 80s Underground Clubbing, released in 2004 as a musical tribute to La Chapelle. ‘But I just couldn't track down the copyright holders of the track, so I wrote them a message in the CD’s booklet. Years later, they actually reached out, and that’s how those

guys – for the first time ever – made some money of the track!’

Bernard Dobbeleer grew up in ‘70s Liège. His parents didn’t listen to music that much, save for a dash of Mozart and some French chansons. It was TV that first introduced him to concerts of musicians such as Curtis Mayfield, Captain Beefheart and Miles Davis, which soon brought him to USA Import, Liège’s

Back in the day, I had my one-stop shops in New York – like Sounds at St. Mark’s Place. Journalists unloaded all their promos there, and I bought them for next to nothing. smaller brother to the Antwerp record store of the same name (and fame). The records on display there would forever influence Bernard’s taste in music: ‘JeanClaude, who ran the place, handed me Kraftwerk’s Robots, which really touched me deeply. Or Being Boiled by The Human League. And everything by Cabaret Voltaire.

He also taught me how to spin records. At that time, DJs mixed records mostly by, well, talking them together. Jean-Claude was the first DJ who I saw mixing songs, and shutting up in the process. I definitely appreciated that.’

Another important inspiration in Bernard Dobbeleer’s life has been Marc Moulin. The internationally acclaimed musician and producer of Placebo and Telex also worked as a radio DJ, and he always had Dobbeleer clustered to his radio set. King Kong, Cap de nuit, Radio Crocodile, ... I was addicted to Marc’s shows. Even if I wasn’t

into DJing yet at all back then, I’ll never forget the excitement and experimental quality of those shows. That kind of radio is much more difficult to do these days.

Most all radio stations experience a great deal of ratings pressure.’

A third name, who often pops up in Bernard’s stories, is François Kevorkian. The Frenchman is said to be one of the most influential New York DJs of the twentieth century. When Bernard’s record store guy moved to New York in the early ‘80s, he befriended Kevorkian. Dobbeleer visited him often and was quickly enthralled with the American disco and house sound. At the same time, he was increasingly on the move as a journalist for a couple of national and international magazines, ‘so I was in New York quite regularly, but I did lots of interviews in Los Angeles and San Francisco as well. I always brought back records from those trips and,

DIG IT!

17

I once got Nile Rodgers to cry because I told him that Marvin Gaye loved Chic.

Rodgers had always thought the opposite but I was able to prove Gaye expressed his love for Chic on Belgian radio.

soon enough, I had my one-stop shops. Like Sounds at St. Mark’s Place, where Led Zeppelin took the photo for the cover of Physical Graffiti. Journalists unloaded all their promos there, and I bought them for next to nothing.’

During the early ‘90s, Bernard contracted the radio virus. First he joined a local radio station, then he was offered a gig at national public broadcaster Radio21.

Dobbeleer was the first DJ there to play electronic music – a feat that earned him a Red Bull Elektropedia Vanguard Award in 2014. He was also one of the first to discover Daft Punk. ‘Those guys just blew me away. The moment they signed with Virgin, I picked up the phone and conveyed my interest to the label. Because I was one of the first, we managed to do a lot with Guy-Manuel and Thomas (the robots’ real names) in those early years. Their first Belgian interviews and DJ sets took place in the studio of Radio21. The gold album they gave me as a thank you is still shining on a pedestal here.’

In his record-filled attic, Bernard ambles from one cabinet to another. He gleefully shows his collection, with entire sections reserved to Strictly Rhythm, F Communications, Versatile, Moodymann, Trax, Daft Punk, Dimitri from Paris, ... All trendsetting French and American house labels from the ‘90s are represented in Dobbeleer’s well-kept collection. It would count even more records, if he hadn’t sold off a big part of his collection at the advent of CD in the ‘80s. As with many of his peers, you detect a hint of regret at that decision, although Bernard is really not the nostalgic type. ‘Mind you, I just tidied up a bit and then I always stumble upon so many forgotten records. That brightens me up.

On the other hand though, all of my DJing today is digital, so I’m not that much on the lookout for old vinyl anymore. I only still buy bootlegs, and some funk, jazz or Jamaican music here and there.’

Bernard is visibly joyed at poring through his collection again, as he generously shares more (and more) stories. ‘Chic’s Nile Rodgers was once very grateful to me because I proved to him that Marvin Gaye loved Chic. Gaye had said this on Belgian radio, and that actually got Rodgers to cry because he always thought the opposite. Oh, and this record here by Logic System, a Japanese band in the vein of Kraftwerk, is actually a tribute to Georges Nagelmackers, the Belgian engineer of the famed Orient Express. (excited) Listen! On this you can hear the voice of Renaat Vandepapeliere, the founder of R&S Records. Man, I love oddities.

Like this record that explains how a man can do a proper striptease for his woman. Or this Rose Royce promo I got from an old hippie in LA. He had a million records stashed in some warehouse, and told me to always buy the promo edition. With promo copies, he said, the pressing is at its best.’

Dobbeleer is an endless source of stories and wisdom. That much is clear. Later in the afternoon, he shows us his exquisite wine collection, with every bottle kept at just the right temperature.

Bernard is without a doubt a man of the world, and whoever is granted the privilege to enter his apartment, will come out feeling like a kid on Christmas morning.

More vinyl collector stories can be found on www.vinylfrontier.be.

18 SHOP IT LIKE IT’S HOT

37

DSR LINES DELTA WAVE / BROKEN GONG

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

42

BENT VAN LOOY PYJAMA DAYS

47

(12") - Sony

(7") - Wally’s Groove World

FIFTY FOOT COMBO WILD MAN / SOY UN SALVAJE (7") - Drunkabilly Records

SD R SE RELEA

Wally’s Groove World unleashes DSR Lines’ airy electronica on 300 copies, with artwork by Bent Vande Sompele. Dig it? Then also grab a copy of Analogie van de dageraad, DSR Lines’ recent vinyl release on Ultra Eczema, which was previously released on cassette tape by Jj funhouse.

38

Those of you who sunburn easily want to wear protection while listening to Bent Van Looy’s second solo album. It was recorded in LA, and radiates UV.

43

FEW BITS BIG SPARKS

Calling Fifty Foot Combo a thing of the past is, clearly, stating the obvious. As they, once again, expertly prove on this gloriously nostalgic slice of mad rockabilly.

48

(12") - PIAS

KRANKLAND IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL

(12") - No label

(7") - Little Trouble Disks Krankland blasts upon the scene with a groovy sound and this very limited 7” release, with each copy designed and personally printed by band member Eline Adam.

39

HERBSTLAUB SEEMS LIKE TIME TO REMEMBER, SEEMS LIKE THE MOMENT TO FORGET

SAD R SE RELE

Mesmerising tenth (!) album of electronic music producer Herbstlaub, who is in fact truly the musical equivalent of a stack of autumn leaves.

49

ANSATZ DER MASCHINE TATTOOED BODY BLUES (12") - No label

NEEDLE AND THE PAIN REACTION PORCUPINE (12") - Kinky Star Records

SD R SE RELEA

Sparks actually do fly on this second Few Bits album.

Or as the website of SXSW, where the band played a few gigs this year, put it: ‘The mood is intimate, subtle, sometimes even restrained. Yet every so often the band flies off the handle with boisterous guitars, soul and drive.’

44

THE SCRAP DEALERS AFTER A THOUSAND BLOWS (12") - JauneOrange

Ansatz Der Maschine used to be about brilliant soundscapes. That was until frontman Mathijs Bertel, on his new album Tattooed Body Blues, felt the sudden urge to start writing brilliant songs.

If the opening track of this excellent collection of garage rock doesn’t impress you, there’s something wrong with your speakers or headphone.

45 40

BENEFACTORS WISH YOU KNEW BETTER (7") - Consouling Sounds SD R SE RELEA

ABSOLUTE BODY CONTROL WIND[RE]WIND (12") - Turntable Sounds / N.E.W.S.

Before he joined Klinik, industrial music pioneer Dirk Ivens was in a band called Absolute Body Control, who just put out a – in every meaning of the word – red-hot vinyl reissue of its 2007 album Wind[Re]Wind.

46

If rock & roll is dead, then Needle and the Pain Reaction is like the season six finale of The Walking Dead.

On Record Store Day, the band is splattering its new album Porcupine across, well, colour-splattered vinyl.

50

THE SPECTORS CLYDE & BONNIE / SHARKNADO (7") - PIAS

SD R SE RELEA

RAVEYARDS KYEM (12") - No label

This four-piece has already been compared to Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys – a lot, we must add. Should they become as famous, your future you will be thrilled you bought one of fifty copies of their debut single.

41

SOLDIER’S HEART NIGHT BY NIGHT (12") - Universal

Last year’s highly addictive EP was just the beginning. With Night by Night, Soldier’s Heart delivers a mystical and extremely tasty pop album.

Catchy rock band The Spectors recorded two new songs ‘in true guerrilla fashion’. Their double Aside 7” will be released on 500 copies.

Current and former members of The Subs, Steak Number Eight, Brutus and Villa get unapologetically loud on this explosive electronic mini-album.

BALTHAZAR Wait Any Longer (10inch) 4 tracks recorded live @ Le Bataclan, Forest National & Rock-en-Seine

BAZART Bazart (12inch) Debuut EP nu ook beschikbaar op 12inch vinyl incl. 3 bonus tracks Tunnels AB session Goud live @ Studio Brussel Sterrenstof live @ Studio Brussel

THE SPECTORS Clyde & Bonnie/Sharknado (7inch) 2 brand new songs by The Spectors on an exclusive 7inch

BONOBO Exclusive, deluxe physical edition of a much-loved remix of French jazz legend Henri Texier’s Les La-Bas. The b-side features Texier’s original track.

INTERPOL On clear vinyl. Interpol remixed by Panda Bear, The Field, Tim Hecker, Beyond The Wizards Sleeve, Ghost Culture, Factory Floor, Becoming Real and Man Without Country.

Visit our record store

Rue Sint Laurensstraat 36-38 1000 Brussel +32 2 558 58 11 chezpias@pias.com

open weekdays & special events: 9.00 AM - 5.30 PM

facebook.com/chezpias twitter.com/chezpiasBXL

20 OBITUARIES

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

BROKEN RECORDS Record stores are starting to pop up again all over the country, but for some legendary stores, the vinyl revival has come too late. Their legend will remain, as will the stories of the people who worked there, and who in most cases ended up making their mother happy by getting a proper job. And with Google Street View, it’s almost like those stores never went away.

MUSIC MAN DANCE STORE

USA IMPORT

STEENDAM 72, GHENT

SINT-JACOBSMARKT 75, ANTWERP

† 2009

† 2009

Now classics like Aphex Twin’s Didgeridoo stayed on the shelves for days because people thought they were too far out.

One day, the police raided the place, looking for drugs.

Nikolai Pascual

Stefaan Vandenberghe (T-Quest & Dr. Lektroluv) ‘From 1990 to 1993, you could find me here – eating and breathing records. I had always been one of the better customers, so it wasn’t that strange that I was asked one day if I wanted to help out on the weekends.

Once I finished college, I started working here fulltime. My first day on the job sucked. Instead of selling 12” records in the infamous DJ cabin, the boss told me to fill the racks and classify 7” singles. Luckily, it got better quickly, and soon enough I was in charge of imports. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, those were the days. I can still feel the excitement.

What would arrive? And when? Meanwhile, all the deejays were lining up to get their fix.

I was the first to get my hands on everything so I could reserve some little treasures for our regulars. Always fun.

Every big name who passed through Ghent, stopped by Music Man. Literally everyone from all corners of the house and techno scene: Richie Hawtin, Armando, Jeff Mills, Mad Mike, and of course all the R&S artists.

So many crazy things happened here. If they would turn it into a TV show, people would think it’s heavily exaggerated.

Every day I was spreading happiness. Customers asked for a certain record, brought a tape of something they heard. Hell, sometimes people would come directly from Boccaccio – looking for a record some DJ just played. During the week, all the professional DJs dropped by. On the weekend, it was the masses. Every day I discovered new stuff –

by going through dozens of boxes or simply talking to customers. It was a social event, and it is dearly missed.

Selling records was a sport on itself. I remember one weekend when we sold 150 copies of the double 12” with remixes of Moby’s Go. A record sales record!

What I don’t miss are the posh deejays – the guys who demanded the ‘best’ records but were completely ignorant when it came to innovative music. It was only weeks later, when those songs started popping up everywhere, that they would return to ask for a copy – only to find out we were sold-out. Now classics like The Good Men’s Give It Up, 808 State’s Cubik and Aphex Twin’s Didgeridoo stayed on the shelves for days and days because people thought they were too special, too difficult, too far out.

After all those years, I’ve come to realize that, as long as passionate people run record stores, passionate people will continue buying records. They don’t want to buy records in shops that have music on the same shelf as toasters or dried foods. Which is not to say record stores don’t have to be smart these days, mix second-hand and new, add cool clothing, books and other works of art to the equation, and serve damn good coffee.

A record store is still a place of magic to me.

Upon entering, you never know what you’re going to go home with. Wherever I am, I never leave without a visit to a local record shop.

The day I retire, I’ll open up one myself.’

‘USA Import lasted from 1973 up until 2009. I started working here on weekends in 1997. A year later, it had become a fulltime job – day and night. I grew up with this place. It was a family affair, part of my DNA. When my sister and I were teenagers, my mother constantly gave us 12” records as presents.

After school, I helped my parents put copies of their own productions in sleeves. That was when I was twelve. I held loads of records in my hands – it’s all pretty vague – but there is one that sticks out. Probably because I see it as the dawning of a new era: Armando’s The Future.

Every time a new box was delivered, you could feel the excitement in the store. In the early years, all orders were made by telephone and fax, much later on through the Internet. Every week, a new shipment from my favourite UK and US distributors arrived. A real treat!

All the big names came here often: Jeff Mills, Laurent Garnier, Dave Clarke, Derrick May, Tiësto, Richie Hawtin, Ludovic Navarre. And Walter Van Beirendonck of course, who was always looking for new music to play at his fashion shows.

One day, we also had some unwelcome guests: the police raided the place, looking for drugs. Electronic music? Clearly there must be drugs involved! For the record: nothing was found.

What I miss the most is the energy, the dynamism of the people on both sides of the counter. The joy of discoveries, both handed out to customers and received by them.

Bonds were forged, friends were made. It

was before the Internet: people read music magazines, talked about reviews, shared information in the shop.

I even miss the dirty fingers from going through all those crates. Everything had its charm, all customers brought something to the table. Except the ones that came in to listen to new stuff, took notes and then ripped the MP3 from the net. That was the beginning of the end.

The last day? More like a last month! And the very last weekend, we organised a major sales event that went on day and night. Long-time fans and die-hards came to play records for us – days that will never be forgotten.

Records will keep on existing, just like books.

The way in which they’ll be sold and bought, will keep on evolving. A record store, be it a stand-alone shop or something that involves other activities, is a special little world to step into. I still go there when and where I can. Visiting a city for the first time, there is always that question: ‘What’s the best record store?’ It also remains the perfect place to find out what’s going on in a city.

I was in London recently, and the moment I uttered the word ‘vinyl’ someone handed me a list of interesting shops. It’s that worldwide connection with other music lovers that will never fade out.

In my mind, I can see myself working in a record store again. When I’m old, surrounded by people with the same passion.

Like in the movie High Fidelity – for those who know, you know. Once a vinyl farmer, always a vinyl farmer.

MUSIC MANIA 4 RUE DE LA FOURCHE, BRUSSELS

† 2007

WWW.VINYLFRONTIER.BE

Famous clients?

The Prodigy, Puff Daddy, Björk with her husband and children.

LeFtO

‘I’ve had ten magnificent years working in Music Mania Brussels – alongside great guys like Geert, Brekbit and Borat, who still works in the shop in Ghent. How did I end up behind the counter? I already spent most of my free time there, buying records. Being such a regular, I could sneak in round the back and go through the new stuff before it was even catalogued and on offer. One day, another customer asked me if he could listen to a particular record that was on display. I took it out, put it on and told him how to skip tracks. Geert, who was managing the place at that time, saw me do it and asked me if I was looking for a job. That was my first working day in Music Mania.

Tuesdays and Fridays were the heydays for me. That’s when we got the shipments from most of my favourite distributors. I usually did the orders myself. It was also around the time I started receiving stacks of promo material, with my other musical activities taking off – you know, organizing parties and DJing.

One moment I will never forget. I stood bent over, scanning a box, talking to a colleague about this Lauryn Hill concert in Vorst where Mos Def and Talib Kweli were opening for her – I really hoped I would be able to get in. And when I came back up, I stood eye to eye with Talib Kweli! We often had famous people pass by: The Prodigy,

Puff Daddy, Björk with her husband and children.

At times, Music Mania was a social centre.

And then there was this guy in prison, who sent his mother over to the shop to buy records, every other week. He had complete faith in me to make a good selection. I do miss the discoveries, and the discussions with customers, giving them advice, seeing their faces when they heard something new, or when we finally had something in stock they had been digging for for so long. All cities should have their Mecca for music, a place to find the latest releases as well as an amazing back catalogue – both on vinyl and CD. Sure, we have the Internet now, but I still prefer it the old way.

It was hard witnessing the decline of Music Mania. From Super Saturday sales to an almost empty store. Nowadays, there’s a bit of a survival, but will it last? If you ask me, for a record shop to survive in the long run, it has to fuse with a café, or sell clothing or gadgets. Would I ever consider opening one myself? Maybe. With the right partners and enough space for people to get a cup of coffee, and a haircut.’

22 LINER NOTES

Vol. I – Nr. 1 – 2016

“Choose vinyl!”

Not in the vinyl digging business yet but you would – after having finished this newspaper in record-breaking time – like to give it a go?

We’ve asked DJ, label boss, radio producer and insatiable record collector Koen Galle, who also invades the homes of other Belgian record collectors for vinylfrontier.be, to give you a few pointers.

Words: Koen Galle Image: Stef Hertsens

Vinyl records are here to stay. No sound storage medium is as long lasting as the gramophone record.

They look good, sound amazing and are very hard to demolish – unless you work for a demolition company, in which case you need to stay far away from my house!

And yes, it’s true: vinyl sales are rising again. Vinyl plants have trouble keeping up with demand, even though quantity is much lower than twenty years ago – never again will you see two hundred thousand copies pressed of a cheesy house tune. But much more important than the current revival (with even grocery stores getting on board) is what is happening under the counter of your local record store, where a growing number of music enthusiasts are diving into the deep, deep vinyl ocean – looking for all but forgotten treasures.

So if you’re new to the game: consider the possibilities! Apart from the (re-issues of) well-known releases, which have proven their worth both back in the days and today, there is a vast amount of

COLOPHON belgiumvinylfrontier bevinyl bevinyl www.vinylfrontier.be

lesser-known records waiting to be discovered. Therefore, my first piece of advice for a freshman vinyl digger is a very simple one: try to boldly go where no hipster has gone before. Although it is quite normal to look for things you already know – this is what basically gets you through life – stepping out of that comfort zone is the most important quality you need to master if you want to become a real vinyl digger. As time consuming as this may be, if you want your peers to take you seriously, you will need to fuck with both your and their brain.

In return, vinyl diggers and record storeowners will be more than happy to share their knowledge – even though they don’t always look like it. So my second piece of advice is even simpler than the first: ask for advice. Visiting record stores, fairs, parties and concerts, you will meet fellow enthusiasts and get to learn the hotspots, the dos and the don’ts, and – most importantly – the best records. Also use the Internet, but use it wisely. Connect with fellow

enthusiasts and use databases, but don’t forget to get from behind your computer from time to time.

Imagine though you are an enthusiast vinyl collector and own about 10,000 vinyl records. Try to picture them in one straight line.

I’ve done the math: a 12-inch record is 30 centimetres long, which gives you three kilometres of vinyl records. More importantly: how much music is this? Let’s say one vinyl record contains 25 minutes of music – on average, counting both sides. Some have more, giving in on the sound quality.

Some have less, resulting in large grooves and more space for the music. But so owning 10,000 records gives you 250,000 minutes, 4,167 hours or 174 days of music.

Not even taking the time into consideration it takes to arrange your precious collection, take care of it, and to buy and trade, will there be enough time to listen to every single record again before you die?

My point being: don’t just get into collecting vinyl for the sake of it, or because it’s cool. Either it runs

The Dusty Needle is a Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier publication a subdivision of Red Bull Elektropedia.

Editor-in-chief: Ben Van Alboom Publisher: Francis Weyns Layout: Pieter De Kegel (Not Another Graphic Designer) Words: Johan Faes, Koen Galle, Pieter Colpaert, Pieter-Jan Symons, Ben Van Alboom Pictures: Thomas Sweertvaegher, Debby Termonia, Wouter Van Vaerenbergh, Stef Hertsens Web design: Brecht Omey

through your veins, or it doesn’t.

It’s a way of living and breathing, and every record in your collection should be of value to you – one way or another. For the first Belgium: The Vinyl Frontier book, I’ve met different kinds of passionate diggers – each with a unique story. Some look for cats on album covers, others hunt for exotic music made by nuns.

Whatever your fetish is, make sure you’re able to explain it to others, and to yourself. If you’re only doing it because you saw someone else do it, don’t even get started.

Just as important: size doesn’t matter. One of the most inspiring diggers I’ve met for the book only owns a few hundred vinyl records, but he cherishes every single one of them. His name is Raphael. Mind you, I also spoke to Stefaan, who owns 40,000 copies – that’s at least 696 days of music! His collection represents his life and work, his own DJ history, souvenirs of personal trips, and so on. What all the vinyl diggers I’ve met have in common is the urge to keep their collection alive:

listen to the music, talk about it, re-organize, and even sell or give away records – to help out a fellow digger or because, over time, your musical tastes have changed.

For a vinyl digger, there is nothing worse than a dusty, untouched record collection, down in the basement.

Still feel this vinyl digging is something you want to get into? Great! Let me finish with a few practical tips then, in true Trainspotting style. Choose vinyl. Choose your favourite record store. Choose your digging friends. Choose open-minded.

Choose a budget. Choose a login and password on discogs.com (and use the wantlist/collection feature as a maniac). Choose your Ikea Expedit or Kallax. Choose a turntable and then go with the more expensive one because it will last longer. Choose a fucking big sound system. Choose quality over quantity. Choose your future.

Choose vinyl.

Publishing company: Jet Import nv, Rekkemstraat 58, 8930 Lauwe Contact & Advertising: dig@vinylfrontier.be Website: www.vinylfrontier.be All articles in this newspaper may be copied, pasted, cut up, burned, shredded, framed, turned into origami and used to peel potatoes. We’d also be honoured if Luc Tuymans would turn one of the photos into a work of art.

Just don’t touch any of the album covers. Those are all sacred cows or – if you prefer – seitan steaks.

Printed at Eco Print Center, Lokeren. © Red Bull Elektropedia 2016

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