Door Mekaar - Voor mekaar

This is probably my dearest record. A housemate of mine had it, I believe he found it in a big building container on the streets (sic). We where young but aware of something called Gramschap, a collaboration of controversial artists through the Netherlands and heavily inspired by them, for us a sign from a long gone past. (we're talking end of the 90s here) The obsession grew when we found out the singer/bass player of this band was the actual owner of the IJ brouwerij, a small microbrewery in Amsterdam where we liked to hang out and drink. The story is that, where this record was never successful, some songs where used by the more famous dutch band Drukwerk, who made a hit with the song "terug van Troje", by therm renamed to the more popular suitable "je loog tegen mij" and partly with the money singer Kaspar Peterson ,a home brewer already, got from this, an old bathhouse was bought where he started his brewery.

Back then I would have spend a fortune I didn't have to get my own copy of that record. Good it wasn't an easy one to find..
Because! On a good day I was browsing recordshops and having no luck finding anything, until I wanted to end my tour at Concerto, then still an independent music shop with a very reasonable 2nd hand record collection. Not hoping to find anything anymore that day I found this record for just 3 guilders Horribly excited I was! I grabbed the empty sleeve, collected the vinyl at the counter and raced home on my bike.
At home, still out of breath i took the record at putted it on my turntable. I almost started crying, that was not THE record that was, I don't know anymore, Tom Jones or so!! I biked back to the shop, praying they made a mistake and that it wasn't wrongly bought in, with Mr. Jones in that sleeve.
I was lucky, half an hour later I could race home one more time and there it was; Songs as "rijke jonge heeren","veilig" and "de dokter is je beste vriend" finally there for me for whenever I wanted.


My respect for Gramschap never decreased. Never before or after I've seen such a perfect blend between traditional dutch music, political controversy and simple beautiful lyrics again. Later I managed to get a hold of many of the 7" and magazines this collaboration has produced. Many of those 7" are now available on a Double CD. I found lots of DIY recorded sessions from songwriter Nico van Apeldoorn, and I managed to interview him once. Also guitarist Wouter Planteijdt(Groep 1850) made lots of music before and after this record. Well, there is still lots of interesting material to publish here, but for me, it's not as good as this 1st record of Door Mekaar.

You can find it HERE
Again, when the download doesn't work anymore, please contact me.

Kamagurka - De Pijn van het Zijn

Kamagurka is mainly known for his absurd comics. As a child a used to buy the magazine HUMO every week, mainly for his comic of Cowboy Henk. Only later I found out he was a musician too, when i found a 7" with the hilarious "this song is in English" (to be presented to you somewhere in the future), with on the B-side the dutch translation of that song. The most exciting part was that the band he recorded this single with was the Ex a, in my eyes, legendary Dutch band who once started as a punkband in the 70s, now developed to a pig-headed unutterably band playing with Sonic Youth, Han Bennink and many others. Not quite what I expected from this absurd comic writer.

On this record De Pijn van het Zijn you also find some musicians that make you think. Like Peter Vermeersch who produced the first album of dEUS.

As far as I could find, this album is not available anymore, but should not be forgotten. Not that I know why I write this in English, since it's about the lyrics here, o yes it is, and those are in Dutch, or Flemish, to be more precise.
And for who wonders what the earcancer song "I remember Will" is all about, check this out.

Find Kamagurka's Pijn van het Zijn here. And please let me know when the download is not working anymore. Enjoy!

Introduction

When half a year ago I had to move out of my old house, and did not have another one to go to yet I had to say goodbye to my records for a while, half a year to be more precise. When I wanted to listen music all I had was my little notebook with mp3's.
Now the Internet if full with great music but my most favourite albums I could not find.
Not that strange, during the years i collected a rather rare (Obscure sounds a bit snobbish, and obscure to one is common to others, but anyway) selection of records. Most of those I had from friends who where done with them, shadows from a past, besides not having a turntable anymore and records taking space, lot's of space sometimes.
I was always happy to browse through their collection before they dumped them on the streets.
Now I hope I can make others happy with a selection of those records, I could never come across on the Internet... yet, digitalised without taking out the scratches and the burning fire.
(you better) Enjoy!