Het muzikale jaar 2012 begint niet slecht. OvalDNA van Oval en Six Cups Of Rebel van Lindstrøm gooien vast hoge ogen. En 120 Days is terug. De Noorse krautdiscor0ckers maakten in 2006 grote indruk op me. Ik sprak ze na een geweldig optreden in Off Corso, Rotterdam op het Motel Mozaïque-festival. Het interview verscheen in Mahl Magazine dat inmiddels ter ziele is. Omdat mijn verhaal negens meer te vinden is? Zet ik gewoon online.

120 Days: disappear here

Forget all those new and exciting British pop-bands that sound like 1979 never ended. The best pop-experience is hailing from Oslo, Norway. Okay, the musical direction of 120 Days isn’t exactly new either. But their blend of seventies krautrock, uplifting synth-pop and a wagonload of melancholy ís. An ideal soundtrack for musical alienation par excellence. ‘Norway can be really dark and depressive.’

“In a trance, I could dance this night away, Still sleepwalking my way through this age”
Sleepwalking

There is something going on in Europe. People are looking back, but in a different way then some years ago. Jonas Dahl thinks a few seconds, then tries to organise his thoughts and put them into words. ‘They are dancing in old warehouses, like in the early nineties. It’s all about the vibe.’ Silence. ‘well, it is hard to explain.’ Point taken. It’s easier to let 120 Days, the band in which Dahl plays bass-guitar, do the talking. Their blend of seventies German-rock, eighties synth-pop and nineties indie-rock is unique, although the different element are not. But it is not only their blend of styles that makes 120 Days- obviously taken from the book by De Sade, they even have a song called Justine – so special. Most important thing is the abilities of their music to tell a story we all know, without copying existing ones. On their self-titled debut-album 120 Days makes references to specific moments in popular music’s history. Take for instance Sleepwalking. Brilliant song that has the buzz that warm analogue synthesizers have, but is at the same time as scary as The Cure in their best days. Ever imagine Ian Curtis dancing with a smile on his face? Keep On Smiling is Joy Division on ecstasy, with the words ‘dance, dance, dance, listen to the radio’ constantly twisting your mind. Confusing? A little, but with the confusion comes a feeling of understanding. This is music without date, without future and past: the perfect drug to let the now disappear without getting lost.

‘We are just making music we want to make’, says Dahl. ‘It is not that we made a decision to be different and now our music is seen as something new. That was never our intention.’ Dahl grew up in Kristiansund in the west of Norway. A small town with no more than 20,000 inhabitants and only one proper club. At school he met Adne Meisfjord, Kjetil Ovesen and Arne Stöy Kvalik. They started their first band, The Beautiful People, at the age of 19. ‘We were fascinated by the hit-songs of Kraftwerk. So we used old equipment and machines from the seventies to jam.’ Living in Norway can be pretty rough. Although it is a wealthy country with one of the best social security systems in the world, nature has a big influence. Winters can be cold and very dark. Summers are extremely short. ‘A small towns like Kristiansund is like completely isolated from the rest of the world. Especially when you are making strange music that doesn’t fit in.’ Moving to Oslo was the only possibility for the band to survive musically. There things developed rapidly. The four changed their name to 120 Days and released two EP’s on the small record company Public Demand Records. ‘In Oslo we came in touch with the other material of Kraftwerk and heard bands like Can and Neu! for the first time. Very bizarre and experimental music. We bought some new instruments and started to sound noisier and noisier.’ That’s when the band met the people behind the record label Smalltown Supersound and discovered the dance-floor. They bought a drum-machine and added melody and dance-rhythms to their music. The sound of 120 Days was born. ‘That is when we started to use catchy melodies’, Dahl explains, ‘we also introduced the contrast between noise and grooves.’

Oslo has its own dynamics. It is a rather small city with its own distinctive music-scene that doesn’t follow the latest trends in England or Germany. Other important element: there are no rules. Hans-Peter Lindstrøm for example grew up with heavy metal and played guitar in a hardrock-band in his teens. Now he is one of the most exiting dance-producers around, trying to blend seventies disco, cosmic rock and modern dance-floor-stuff together. Even spinning records from Stockhausen in his dj-sets. The result is amazing. Lindstrøm is one of the driving forces behind the Smalltown Supersound record-label and involved with the Sunkissed night in dance-club Fabrikken situated near the city-centre. ‘He has been a big influence for us’, admits Dahl, ‘he still is. The way he is using old disco-elements to create something new is amazing. He remixed one of our songs. We also wrote a new one together. He invited us in his studio where we worked for weeks. It was very exciting. We working on some new material with him now.’ Although the material on their first album is quiet song-oriented – with the exception of I’ve Lost Vision, Kraut nr 1 – their new material more danceable. Earlier this year 120 Days ended their show at the Motel Mozaïque festival in Rotterdam with a nearly fifteen minute cosmic disco-jam. On stage the Norwegians looked just like Kraftwerk did in their early days: no real frontman, no drums, only four guys freaking out behind a wagonload of synthesizers, Moogs and drum-machines. To make the picture complete they looked like Andreas Baader of the Rote Armee Fraktion did in the movie about his life: half-long, sleazy hear, big sunglasses, a little arrogant and untouchable. It’s also the personification of their music: it holds a promise, the idea that things will be alright in future, although the signs are worse than ever.

That makes the music of 120 Days – much more then the uplifting but extravert, direct and simple music of indie-rockers Arctic Monkeys or French ravers Justice – the perfect soundtrack for our alienated western society. It also makes their music difficult to grasp. British magazine New Musical Express labels 120 Days as post-kraut. Webzine Filter goes even further: ‘A post-punk, post-rave, post-pre-armageddon masterpiece of sleazy chaos-worshipping rock…’ The influential webzine Pitchfork rates their debut-album as one of the best of the year. Although they got a very positive review in OOR, the press in The Netherlands is divided. That’s a good sign: 120 Days isn’t your average indie-rock outfit that is hailed by NME as the next big thing but forgotten about a year later. ‘After our album came out there really was a boost. We played in America and in Japan and got the award for best album of the year by the Norwegian music-press. That only happens ones in a while. There are people that describe our music as an ideal soundtrack for a ritual. Somehow that makes sense.’ It is the drive of the scene in Olso that makes them go looking for new directions, explains Dahl. With the famous Sunkissed at Fabrikken organised by Olanski and g-HA the scene is more vibrant than ever. ‘It is a very tight community where everybody knows each other. That’s a good thing. Most of us leave to go abroad to do shows or dj and come back to Oslo with new influences to share.’ Laughing: ‘I is like a big family over here.’ Under the influence of Lindstrøm and other dance-producers in the city 120 Days is moving towards more dance-influences in their music. But their love for seventies krautrock will stay, states Dahl. ‘Before our album came out we played in Cologne for only five people. We haven’t been there since then, but I am definitely looking forward to play there again.’

DISCOGRAPHY
Sedated Times, EP, 2004 (Public Demand Records)
The Beautiful People, EP, 2004 (Public Demand Records)
Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone, 12”, 2006 (Smalltown Supersound)
120 Days, LP/CD, 2006 (Smalltown Supersound)

Published in Mahl Mag, january 2007.

‘Het is echt niet meer te doen’, verzucht Sonia Akow. Als eigenaresse van Push Promotion heeft ze heel wat Britse breakbeatlabels en -artiesten onder haar hoede. Het invullen van het muziekgenre bij nieuwe releases valt haar steeds zwaarder. Brostep, UK funky, future garage, post dubstep, nu jungle, bassy electro, wonky house. Akow kan blijven invullen. En tja, voor onlineplatforms als Beatport en iTunes is labeling nu eenmaal belangrijk én verplicht. Bass music? Ja, dat hokje bevalt haar wel. ‘Lekker breed, de meeste nieuwe muziek is toch niet meer in één hokje te stoppen. Zeker met al die remixen die gedaan worden. Bass is nu eenmaal altijd aanwezig en het belangrijkste. dus ja, dat zie ik wel zitten.’

In de vandaag verschenen OOR van februari spreek ik met Noisia, Aquasky, Nobody Beats The Drum, Mark ‘Artful’ Hill, Sick Boy en de mannen van platenlabel Basserk over het verdwijnen van hokjes en over die ene überhokjes-fucker Skrillex. Ik mag de man en zijn muziek graag. Dat zijn Inge Janse van Eclectro en Job de Wit van DJ Broadcast met me eens.

Je kunt verder lezen bij OOR.

Mannen huilen niet. Zelden had ik het zo moeilijk als tijdens Drive. Wanneer Ryan Gosling een gewisse dood tegenmoed rijdt, houd ik het écht niet meer droog. Gelukkig zag ik de film in de bioscoop. Mijn eigen gesnik overstemde ik met beschaafd gekuch. Grootste boosdoener? De combinatie van dromerige beelden en het prachtige A Real Hero van College. En alle andere door Cliff Martinez verzamelde en gecomponeerde muziek. Zelden sloten muziek en beeld zo goed op elkaar aan. Eenzelfde gevoel bekroop me tijdens Warrior. Ook zo’n emotionele film met prachtige muziek van The National en componist Mark Isham. Als de twee broers elkaar bevechten in de ring? Kun je me wegdragen.

Lees verder bij OOR.

In de jaren vijftig en zestig van de vorige eeuw begon popmuziek z’n zegetocht. Maar échte vernieuwing ontstond niet in de garage van papa of onder het genot van verdovende middelen uit in de studio. Nee, de toekomst van pop werd gemaakt door mannen van middelbare leeftijd. In laboratoria van multinationals, in kelders van kunstacademies, in duistere jazzclubs waar de nieuwe geëmancipeerde jeugd zich nooit zou wagen. Daar werd toekomstpop geschreven.

Lees en luister verder bij Poptronique.

Een hobby zal het nooit worden, maar stiekem vind ik het maken van lijstjes best leuk. Net als de personages in High Fidelity zie ik ze overal. Tijdens het koken stel ik een top 10 samen van lekkerste zelfgekookte maaltijden. In de trein zet ik de mooiste meisjes mét hoofdtelefoon (wel zo’n grote) en guitige glimlach op een rij. Op de autoweg rangschik ik de mooiste bolides. Al is dat nogal saai. De Opel Manta A eindigt steevast bovenaan, al is de Alfa Romeo Montreal inmiddels stabiel een goede tweede.

Lees verder bij OOR.

Geniet ervan en vast een creatief en bijzonder muzikaal 2012!

JUNIOR BOYS – BANANA RIPPLE from Rollo Jackson on Vimeo.

Robots of Brixton from Kibwe Tavares on Vimeo.

Nobody Beats the Drum – Blood on my hands from Nobody Beats The Drum on Vimeo.

Hybrid – Blind Side (Music Video) from Hybrid on Vimeo.

CREEP – You (feat Nina Sky) from OFFICIAL CREEP on Vimeo.

Luomo – Good Stuff from Jenny RK on Vimeo.

Eclectro video yearmix 2011 from Renier Mouthaan on Vimeo.

Waar is bijvoorbeeld Dedication van Zomby? Heb ik blijkbaar niet in mijn lijst opgenomen. Geldt ook voor Ghost People van Martyn en Plus van Luomo. Zouden er nu misschien wel hebben ingestaan. Al verandert de samenstelling dagelijks. Ik ben eigenlijk niet zo’n lijstjesman.

Goed, dit lijstje stond dus in OOR:

1. Wolfgang Voigt – Kafkatrax
2. Portable – Into Infinity
3. Gui Boratto – III
4. Junior Boys – It’s All True
5. Aquasky – Raise The Devil
6. Legowelt – The TEAC Life
7. The Field – Looping State Of Mind
8. Hercules And Love Affair – Blue Song
9. Roman Flügel – Fatty Folders
10. Rustie – Glass Swords

Te gekke lijst. Niets meer aan veranderen. Maar wat te doen met Zomby, Luomo en Martyn? Ach, gewoon een top-13 maken. En omdat ik gek ben op veelvouden van vijf voeg ik The War On Drugs en Colin Stetson gewoon toe.

Opvallend trouwens dat verder niemand Flügel, Legowelt, Boratto, Portable en Voigt in zijn of haar lijst heeft staan. Junior Boys en Hercules And Love Affair kon ik zo snel ook niet ontdekken. Geen grote dancereleases dit jaar? Daar lijkt het wel op. Althans, er is geen overeenstemming over bij de popcritici. Enkel Zomby’s Dedication scoort hoog en staat in de uiteindelijke top-20. Het debuut van James Blake staat lager dan de heisa rond het album deed verwachten. Terecht, overigens.

Zo, nu op naar 2012.

Lees verder Bij OOR.