Pierre Besson, Brussels

Thirty years ago, French artist Pierre Besson was a sculptor. These days he busies himself as an overlord of illusion. His artificially constructed and meticulously fabricated images are based on installations built from everyday objects, particularly bits of computers. In one instance, Besson uses the carcass of a computer to help him create the image of a futuristic building, blending aspects of architecture, sculpture and photography. In this artificial and deserted world, he exposes today’s technologic excess and questions our future whilst skillfully mucking around with perspectives, a technique that reminds us at times of Renaissance paintings, Braque or Picasso. Heavy stuff.

Until 3rd March

Joye Gallery, Chaussée de Vleurgat 125 Vleurgatsesteenweg – 1050 Brussels

www.joyegallery.be

Catclub, Brussels

A new era is nigh: Catclub kicks off the year in a brand new venue, a big-ass loft in Brussels Forest that can host an even bigger crowd than before – a move that had to come sooner or later, judging by the sets-appeal of upwardly mobile South African whippersnapper Culoe De Song on the decks. His Deep House-inspired Afro-Beat, characterised by tribal vocals and hypnotic thumps are set to keep you up all night. Support by Brussels-based DJs Soumaya Dancemachine and Ben Marzys. A late one, guaranteed.

4th February

Catclub, Studio 2, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 14 – 1190 Brussels

www.catclub.be

ProPulse Festival, Brussels

Belgium’s knee-deep in talent, and ProPulse Festival, a “do” organized by the Performing Arts Federation of Wallonia-Brussels, is the new place to parade it. Replacing the well-known Boutik Rock and EntreVues, this is the latest hot date for up-and-coming bands and theatre and dance artists, hooking them up with agents, managers and others from the professional art community for six days on the trot. This weekend’s events are all about music, with Friday night dedicated to pop (from Kupid Kids to Applause), while Saturday occupies itself with Belgium’s most promising electronic acts, including Squeaky Lobster, Ssaliva and Glÿph, to name but a few. In ten years you can tell your mates “I was there when (insert band name here) were just a weirdo garage band nobody had heard of.” That could be nice.

3rd and 4th February

Botanique

www.botanique.be

Atelier Solarshop, Antwerp

This is a good one. Antwerp’s Atelier Solarshop, a creative nerve centre for young artists and designers, is hosting a four day pop-up shop, selling vintage furniture and design bits and bobs. In its 7th edition, the shop offers a sumptuous selection of pieces rooted in Scandinavian industrial design, together with some hand-picked contemporary objects and army treasures. To spice up the shopping experience, they’re bringing out the booze on Friday, with a special cocktail night starting at 19h00. Featured designers include ANVE and Stephanie Schneider to HUI-HUI, Jan-Jan Van Essche and more.

From 2nd to 5th February

Atelier Solarshop, Dambruggestraat 48 – 2060 Antwerp

www.ateliersolarshop.be

Dubieus Design, Antwerp

Only 60 meters away from Atelier Solarshop there’s an even bigger vintage shopping mecca: For the fourth year in a row Designcenter Winkelhaak is hosting the winter edition of their annual design fair. The centre will be flogging curiosities, collector’s items and design classics dating from the fifties and onwards – a feast for vintage fetishists. Buying chairs as an investment may sound a bit strange, but we think it guarantees a bit more excitement than keeping a close eye on the boring old stock market. And what’s more: this year’s fair includes a special vinyl sale on Friday. Step this way, music nerds and nerdettes.

Designcenter Winkelhaak, Lange Winkelhaakstraat 26 – 2060 Antwerp

From 3rd to 4th February

www.winkelhaak.be

Heartbreaktunes presents LA DISPUTE vs. FORMER THIEVES vs. DEAFHEAVEN vs. HIEROPHANT, Antwerp

Three Americans and an Italian walk into a bar… or, three US bands and an Italian one walk into a youth centre in Antwerp, and pursue a dodgily loud evening of punk, exploring the range from hardcore and shoegazing to post-rock and black metal. Whilst American five-piece La Dispute wax delightful with a peculiar mixture of emotional introspectiveness and dynamic punk attitude, Californians Deafheaven make you think of My Bloody Valentine, shifting constantly between ugliness and beauty. Italians Hierophant are here on their mission to prove, once and for all, that punk is defo not dead. A dark, loud affair, and not for the tender-eared.

3rd February

Kavka, Oudaan 14 – 2000 Antwerp

www.heartbreaktunes.com

ITAL, Dynooo vs. Cupp Cave, Ghent

Introduced to Ghent by independent music platform Subbacultcha!, Daniel Martin-McCormick is set to fill the weekend stage with solo project ITAL. Conserving some of the musical mannerisms he acquired as a Sex Worker or as one half of Mi Ami, the New York producer wallows in classic house and techno. Challenging his audience with dissonant sound and unconventional structure, Martin-McCormick specialises in long, stretched-out synth sweeps and walls of feedback. Like many of his colleagues on 100% SILK records, ITAL takes pride in blurring the boundaries between artistic creation and dance music. As a special treat just for you, bustling Belgian producers Cupp Cave and Dynooo will join in for a riveting live set, merging slow tempo techno, atmocore and broken house.

5th February

DOK kantine, Koopvaardijlaan – 9000 Ghent

www.dokgent.be

Art Truc Troc, Brussels

Courtesy of Truc Troc

If you’ve always dreamed of having an original art piece to prettify your apartment, but couldn’t foot the bill, now is the chance to get your hands on one. And lo, it won’t cost you any cash. Art Truc Troc is an art fair for the less-than-mega-rich art lovers amongst us, where works by 200 multidisciplined artists are displayed throughout the BOZAR, from sculptures to paintings to photos. Transactions here are not governed by cash: creativity, for three nights only, is capital. Visitors are requested to jot down their ‘payment’ proposals on post-it-notes and attach them next to their piece of choice, offering in exchange a service, a thing, or whatever can be dredged from the deepest pools of the imagination that just might be worth something to someone. It’s all terribly bohemian and accessible art-ish.

From 27th to 29th January

Bozar Centre of Fine Arts, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 – 1000 Brussels

www.tructroc.be

Daan van Golden, Brussels

Courtesy of Wiels

Pop art, minimalism, postmodernism, geometric abstraction – Dutch artist Daan van Golden has been pinned to many art history ism’s, and yet continues to stand somewhere on his own, a unique claim in contemporary painting. The ‘Apperception’ exhibition is the first retrospective of van Golden’s work that Belgium has hosted, showcasing all aspects of his art, from major pieces to the newer additions. Using a special painting technique – a slowed-down, meditative exercise inspired by Zen philosophy – he creates art that manages to plaster the extraordinary all over the ordinary.

Opens 27th January, 18h30-21h30

Exhibition runs until 29th April

Wiels, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354 – 1190 Brussels

www.wiels.org

Don Brown

Courtesy of Almine Rech Gallery

English sculptor Don Brown’s head-to-toe women illustrate his knack for combining two altogether contrasting worlds: whilst his large-scale sculptures show off his craftsmanship for Italian neo-classicism and the Greco-Roman era, references to the twenty-first century abound. High heels, sunglasses, modern hairstyles and, especially, far-from-voluptuous bodies, make it clear that the spectator is dealing with the woman of today. As an added bonus, Brown photographs his creations, using the images to highlight certain elements or perspectives. This exhibition juxtaposes, for the first time, Brown’s acrylic, bronze and silver statues with his large-sized photo prints. A fascinating translation of classical sculpture into our own time.

Opens 27th January

Almine Reche Gallery, Rue de l’Abbaye 20 Abdijstraat – 1050 Brussels

www.alminerech.com

Gym Class Heroes, Brussels

With elements of rap, rock, funk and R&B, Gym Class Heroes are difficult to typecast. Even though their sound has a strong hip hop feel, this Geneva, NY four-piece regularly star alongside rock, punk and metal artists. Plus, these guys from don’t use samples in their music, something rather unorthodox in hip hop. Having just released their fifth LP ‘The Papercut Chronicles II’ last year (a reference to their 2003 album that landed them their record deal), they’re rocking up to Brussels to show off some new stuff. Expect serious fun.

29th January

VK, Rue de l’Ecole 76 Schoolstraat – 1080 Brussels

www.vkconcerts.be

Yamamoto Masao and ARPAÏS du bois, Antwerp

Courtesy of Gallery 51

The exhibition ‘Where they met’ is as a dialogue between Japanese photographer Yamamoto and Belgian artist ARPAÏS du bois, two maestros from two different worlds. The exhibition juxtaposes Yamamoto’s subtle and powerful prints that focus on the relationship between man and nature, and ARPAÏS du bois’s drawings, his personal responses to the chaos of everyday life and the overload of image that constantly bombards us. A captivating approach to reopening the dialogue between photography and the graphic arts.

Opens tonight, 18h00

Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Zirkstraat 20 - 2000 Antwerp

www.gallery51.com

Last days to see: Wouter Feyaerts, Ghent

Young hot-to-trot Belgian artist Wouter Feyaerts’ ‘thing’ is posters, and the S.M.A.K museum is currently showcasing 452 pieces of his work in a dense, blocky grid in their Ghent gallery. We read an email exchange between the artist and art critic Wim Van Mulder, included in the exhibition book. Feyaert says: “Placards have an exciting ambiguity. They have been used both by those in power and the underground, the resistance. They are a tool of the establishment but also of the anti-establishment. For this series to function optimally as a whole, it had to be displayed ‘in a place of power’.” Intriguing exploration, worthy subject.

Until 29th January

S.M.A.K., Citadelpark – 9000 Ghent

www.smak.be

Les Transardentes, Liège

This weekend brings Belgium’s first major musical event of the year, Les Transardentes, the baby sister of summer outdoor festival Transardentes. The past four years have seen this shindig establish itself as one of the most important dates in electronic music. With this years headliners Boys Noize, Birdy Nam Nam and Cassius plus an eclectic laundry list line-up besides, it maintains the reputation. A must for electric lovers. Big red X on your weekend calendar.

28th January

Halles des Foires, Avenue Maurice Denis 4 – 4000 Liège

www.lestransardentes.be

You’re known for using very original instruments, what have you got for us tonight?

We use Casios of course, a shaker made out of an artificial donkey jaw that we found in Mexico City, and lots of other stuff. Unfortunately people started to steal all the special and strange things from the stage, so now we are forced to be as boring as possible. Three quarters of our stuff are cowbells I think, no one has more than us!

When you started, why did you decide to sing in Norwegian? Wouldn’t it have been more logical to sing in English in order to be successful outside of Norway?

When we started we really didn’t think about that. We never thought we would become big. We just wanted to sing in the most natural way for us, to make it as personal as possible. In the end it also makes us unique and original. Even if people don’t understand the language, they will understand the honesty behind it. We just toured in Japan and even there we met someone who spoke Norwegian – in the end we found out it was the guy who translates the books of Haruki Murakami!

How did it come about, your getting signed with Moshi Moshi?

They saw some of our gigs and then came to see us in Oslo at a festival. First we released some singles and then they signed us. It’s a great label because it’s small and they know how to work with a band that is not made for the masses. We are very lucky, also with Polyvinyl and all the others.

Your new record ‘Aabenbaringen over Aaskammen’ seems much more mature.

Definitely. It was a natural progression. It’s been a long learning process, becoming more mature. We had a lot of time to explore different possibilities.

Where did you record the album?

We moved into a new studio located in a big old slaughter house in Bergen that hosts a lot of artists. They have some good acts there, Röyksopp are our neighbours, for example.

What is the album about? I heard there’s a certain Dr. Tarzan Monsoon involved?

Dr. Tarzan is an adventurer. He discovers a new world, a rainforest. We used his story as a backdrop, but it’s not a concept album, just a loose theme. You have to imagine a mystical rainforest with strange animals. We use the moods that come with it as a tool to make the music.

What are the main differences between this and the previous record?

Before, we basically did a collection of singles. We toured a lot and we would spend a week in the studio, here and there. After, we gathered everything and made an album out of it. For this record, we spent four months in a row in the studio which enabled us to dig deeper and develop a better flow. It’s a much more prepared album. But it’s still very diverse, because of all our different musical backgrounds.

What’s the writing process like, with so many people involved?

It’s quite rare that we are all together. We write in different constellations, sometimes just two of us make a piece together.

I really like the song Dresine, it’s more rock-y than your usual sound. Can you tell us more about it?

Yes, it’s much more guitar-based. That’s actually the oldest song on the record. We wrote it in 2008 and it was used for the computer game Pro Evolution Soccer. I think they sold 150 million copies of it.

How do you choose the first single?

We do use input from others because you become blind after a while. We hear the songs so many times that we cannot tell anymore.

You have a very unique sound, it’s hard to put a label on it – how would you describe it yourselves?

It’s pop music, music that wants to make you dance and party, but with a special and unique element to it that’s very difficult to pigeonhole. When we were in Tower Records in Japan we found our CDs in the guitar pop section. In the end we just do what feels right. World music, indie, dance pop – and the secret are the 1% of classic rock (laughter).

How did Kevin Barnes end up making a guest appearance on the record?

Of Montreal had some days off in Bergen and came to hang out in the studio with us. We were just in the process of finishing and their violinist played with us a bit and Kevin added guitars on some of our songs. It was a lot of fun.

You’ve been touring quite a bit with Of Montreal. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from them?

His creative output is unbelievable. Kevin is so productive and his songwriting is intense. I remember we were travelling on a ferry together, everyone was relaxing and doing nothing, but he was constantly writing and soaking up everything around him. He is really inspiring.

What’s been your craziest experience so far on tour?

Once we went from Norway to Russia and then Mexico in one single weekend. In Australia we played at New Year’s Eve and did the countdown on stage. And once we were flown with a helicopter to a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean to play a gig there. Oh, and in Berlin the police shut down one of our concerts because it was too loud. Now imagine our songs played a capella – that was weird!

You’ve really toured a lot, more than many other bands. Why is that?

It’s a very good thing for a band, especially when you want an international career. There more you play live, the better you become as a band. In the end it’s all about playing live. It’s important to build a solid foundation, and very advisable.

You recently received a  125.000 € grant from Norwegian pop veterans a-ha – what did you do with all that money?

We invested it in three things: touring, being able to have time off to work on the new album and building the new studio. It was really a great help.

What’s next?

More touring!

Aabenbaringen over Aaskammen was released on Moshi Moshi on 16th January 2012

Available from iTunes here

Christopher Coppers, Brussels

Brussels-based cut-up artist Christopher Coppers has a thing about ripping up magazines. Whether carving out a new cover for them, stripping out their souls to give them a new life or shredding their pages to use as coating for other objects, Coppers reworks and revisits magazines with his signature, destructive touch. Although his latest work has taken somewhat of a political stance – he recently set about recreating the G8 countries’ flags using nothing but shredded magazine pages – Coppers retains his uncanny ability to infuse his work with a light-hearted irony that, really, is the single reason we like his work so much. Maybe that’s why we once asked him to recreate our very own flag.

Opening tonight at 17h00

Exhibition runs until 25th February

Bodson Emelinckx, Rue de Henninstraat 70 – 1050 Brussels

www.bodson-emelinckx.com

The Criime and Asura, Brussels

The Criime, a Brussels-based tribal-infused, tech-house two-piece from Luxembourg founded by Andrea Mancini and Fabio Picariello in 2009, have stirred quite some attention of late with the release of their debut EP ‘Fidji’ (released on Finnish label Top Billin). Confirming its place amongst the city’s nightlife circuit, newcomer Mr Wong puts on a night which pairs the fresh-faced duo with Parisian DJ project Asura (think sombre and melancholic beats). Their fourth album, ‘360’ came out in 2010 on Ultimae Records. Get your dancing shoes on because this one promises to be long.

Tonight, at 22h00

Mr Wong, Rue de la Vierge Noire 10 Zwarte Lievevrouwstraat – 1000 Brussels

www.mrwong.be

Tomas Alonso, Brussels

“I would like my objects to be used, lived with and enjoyed,” says designer Tomas Alonso about his work. Accordingly, his pared-down designs combine functionality and practicality with a quirky elegance. By working with different materials in an original way, the Spanish-born, London-based designer explores structure and form whilst eliminating all unnecessary elements. This exhibition puts forward some of Alonso’s most recent works, such as his Mr. Light series of lamps, and makes good his reputation for down-to-earth, pragmatic  furniture-making. It is no surprise, then, that his works have gained a place in London’s Design Museum‘s permanent collection. Not to be missed.

Until 5th February

Victor Hunt Gallery, Rue Lambert Crickxstraat 16 – 1070 Brussels

www.victor-hunt.com

Zero Gravity Revolt, Brussels

‘Zero Gravity Revolt’ is more than just your ordinary exhibition. The works of Moscow-based artist Nikolay Oleynikov, part of the Russian collective Chto Delat, are based on bringing people together from different backgrounds and disciplines and building temporary communities that actively participate in the creation of the artwork. The end result is a mural juxtaposed with sketches, scripts and research material stemming from countless group meetings. The subject: early Soviet science fiction from the 1920s. Subversive and thought-provoking, Oleynikov’s didactic murals are always influenced by surrealism, punk culture, comics and the Soviet monumental school.

Until 11th February

Zero Gravity Revolt, Avenue Van Volxemlaan 295 – 1190 Brussels

www.kmplt.be

Chilly Gonzales, Brussels

Grammy-nominee, world-record holder (longest ever piano play), prodigy producer, versatile vocalist. It’s fair to say Canadian-born, Paris-based Gonzales (whom we interviewed back in May 2011, read the interview here) has more than a talent up his sleeve. And, following his cancelled show on 22nd December, he’s (finally) back in Brussels touring his latest album: ‘The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales’. Expect lots of laughter, wit and a good dose of playful arrogance.

22nd January

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat – 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

Ben Murphy, Antwerp

The building of the United Nations‘ headquarters near New York City’s East River is without doubt an urban icon and an obligatory stop for all visitors to the Big Apple. Only a handful have been able to venture inside the building though, which adds to its sense of mystery and general aura. Over a period of 15 months, British photographer Ben Murphy had the opportunity to capture its hidden spaces on film, creating 100 images that in a way reveal a sublime and melancholic beauty on the backdrop of power-broking corridors.

Until 26th February

Stieglitz 19, Klapdorp 2 – 2000 Antwerp

www.stieglitz.be

From Back Home, Ghent

Anders Petersen and JH Engström are two of Sweden’s leading and most important photographers. The exhibition ’From Back Home’ is the result of a seven-year long collaboration between the two. From 2001 up until 2008, the pair photographed the Värmland region, a barely-populated region in Sweden from which they both originate. Their resulting captivating, melancholic and slightly dark pictures pay tribute to the people, places and landscapes of their childhood. A fascinating and very personal journey down memory lane.

Until 29th January

ZebraStraat, Zebrastraat 32 – 9000 Ghent

www.zebrastraat.be

American artist Shirley Jaffe’s works are all about colour. Colours are what determine her compositions and generate form, stimulating the viewer’s gaze and pleading for experiencing art just by looking at it. Her geometrical, flat paintings are clearly inspired by abstract expressionism and the innovative movements in American painting since the mid-forties. Jaffe was part of a group of young American and Canadian artsits that moved to Paris after World War II and became referred to as the Second Generation Abstract Expressionists, including artists as Ellsworth Kelly or James Bishop.

Until 14th January

Galerie Greta Meert, Rue Du Canal 13 Vaartstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.galeriegretameert.com

Design Brasil, Brussels

Even though for a long time design was not considered as a separate discipline but rather integrated in other related fields as art, industry or architecture, Brazil’s design history goes back to the 19th century. With the creation of the country’s first design agency in 1958 and the foundation of an Industrial Design School in Rio de Janeiro a few years later, design became more established. This exhibition especially puts forward products from the famous Brazilian designers Fernando & Humberto Campana who, inspired by their country’s street life and carnival culture, created objects made of found pieces as wood waste in combination with advanced technologies. At the same time Design Brasil gives a comprehensive overview of a large number of Brazilian designers whose works are characterised by vibrant colours and a certain playfulness.

Until 5th February

Design Vlaanderen, Rue de la Chancellerie 19 Kanselarijstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.designvlaanderen.be

Ferdinand Schirren, Brussels

Even though always a bit in the shadow of the most prominent Belgian Fauvist, Rik Wouters, Ferdinand Schirren was a pioneer of his time who in the beginning of the 20th century greatly contributed to the emergence of what we now refer to as “Brabant Fauvism”. With this exhibition the Royal Museum of Fine Arts continues to put forward some of Belgium’s lesser-known artists who clearly deserve more spotlight. Schirren’s paintings, that mostly display rather simple subjects taken from everyday life or landscapes, are defined by glowing, vibrant colours and a precise composition whilst rejecting symbolism. Reminiscing French Fauvists such as Matisse, Schirren’s focus on colours became the overriding theme in his oeuvre.

Until March 2012

Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Rue Royal 3 Regentschapsstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.fine-arts-museum.be

Baxter Dury, Brussels

Six years after his last album, English singer-songwriter Baxter Dury is back with his latest record ‘Happy Soup’, an intimate collection of laid-back, warm and intriguing songs. At times melancholic and dreamy, at others optimistic and uplifting, Baxter Dury has become quite good at something he originally never wanted to do: Be a musician and follow into the footsteps of his famous father (Blockheads punk-era hero Ian Dury). With the ten tracks on ‘Happy Soup’ that Baxter cryptically describes as ‘seaside psychedelia’, the artist proves once again that he does not have to be afraid of his father’s long shadow.

Listen to the single ‘Claire’:

14th January

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat, 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

Best Vinyl Art 2011, Brussels

Over the years album artwork has become much more than just a marketing or promotion tool: Designing record covers is considered as an art by many nowadays. It is within this context that Brussels’ Jonas Gallery exhibits a selection of the 50 best album sleeves of 2011 with Das Pop being the only Belgian flag-waver. Also on display are the newest LP covers of The Horrors, Metronomy or Bon Iver, for example. Considering the rise of digital downloads and the decline of buying, it remains to be seen how important the CD format will be in the future.

Until 28th January

Jonas Gallery, Rue de Flandre 35 Vlaamsesteenweg, 1000 Brussels

www.jonasgallery.com

Peter Lindbergh, Antwerp

With his melancholic photographs of international supermodels Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss or even Tatjana Patitz marked by their effortless character and emotional depth, German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh brought the new faces to worldwide attention. A master of black and white photography, he contributed more than any in shaping the fashion scene of the last 25 years. Combining a selection of Lindbergh’s world famous images with his more recent work as well as a series he shot for Vogue in Berlin in 2009, this comprehensive exhibition is a must for photography and fashion fans alike.

Until 29th January

FotoMuseum, Waalsekaai 47, 2000 Antwerp

www.fotomuseum.be

Johan Grimonprez, Ghent

Mixing reality and fiction, Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, a child of the first TV generation, explores and documents the ever-growing influence television, cinema, advertising and the news have on our perception of the world and the imminent risk of manipulation. His video works, which play with delusion and deception whilst expos- ing the importance of the moving image in our lives, are based on recycled images taken from news broadcasts, documentary material, Hollywood movies, animated films and commercials as well as from archival items. In his award-winning video collage Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y for instance, Grimonprez explores the worldwide history of high-jackings. And it is exactly this kind of uncanny relevance that draws you in. Think of him as a Michael Moore but with an even bigger grin.

Until 29th January

S.M.A.K., Citadelpark, 9000 Ghent

www.smak.be

All photography Pauline Miko

Knitted cardigan from Henrik Vibskov and scarf by SPRB

As its name suggest, Danish designer Henrik Vibskov‘s Nordic Kimono – a heavy-knit oversized cardigan with tie belt – astutely blends Japanese cuts with Nordic patterns, bringing the best of both worlds together. A unique piece that scores house points both for its originality but also for the quality of its craftsmanship, the cardigan is made out of Merino wool and is cut to perfection (fitted but with enough room for manoeuvre should the Christmas dinner get out of hand). Topped by this exquisite hand-knitted scarf-come-hoodie made by Dutch imprint SPRB, and we’ve concocted the perfect solution for winter snuggles.

Thursday 23rd December’s proposal: Maison Fabre gloves and Il Bussetto coin purse

Taking colour-coded style to new heights, we’ve selected two items today guaranteed to bring smiles around the Christmas tree. First up, a family of leather-clad colourtastic gloves for women from venerable French glove-makerMaison Fabre. With a palette that tilts towards the bold and beautiful and a cut that aims for the timeless, the decade-old family business once again confirms its reputation for excellency. Next up is Italian imprint Il Bussetto‘s elegant coin purses, handcrafted using an ancient Italian manufacturing technique. Available in three different sizes and with a range of different colours to choose from, they’ll sit perfectly with the gloves.

Wednesday 21st December’s proposal: Good One sweater and Calourette necklace

As stylish as it is eco-conscious, this effortless, slightly-on-the-quirky-side sweater from London-based sustainable fashion imprint Good One stands out through its colour-patterned design, the label’s trademark look. Combining modern and contemporary features with an innovative production method (known as ‘up-cycling’, a trend that blends sustainable fabrics with reclaimed textiles), this unstructured pullover will appeal to the fashion-fiends keen to add a little lightheartedness to their wardrobes. Add to that the restrained sparkle of this necklace (made of real walnut and real silver) from Calourette – a French jewellery label with a knack for playful and original creations – and you have yourself another sure-fire duo of Christmas pleasers.

Tuesday 20th December’s proposal: Faguo & Johnstons of Elgin high tops and Alexander Wang hoodie

We’re suckers for collaborations here at Word HQ, especially when they bring seemingly opposing forces together. In steps French upstart sneaker label Faguo (The brand that pioneered the ‘buy-plant-support’ business model) and Johnstons of Elgin, a Scottish imprint that is over 200 years old (its tweed and cashmere are favourites of the British Royal Family). The unlikely pair have teamed up  on this Scottish-themed high top that combines Faguo’s modern and elegant design with Johnstons’ exceptional fabrics (the shoe is made of authentic Scottish tweed), bringing a little bit of Highland authenticity to the street. And, since we’re on the topic of street-savyness, we’ve picked out this Alexander Wang wool and cashmere hoodie as the best one to rock with the high tops – hands down.

Monday 19th December’s proposal: Asus N55S and Coffee Spot

In barista world, coffee enjoys the same kind of precision rating as wine. Indeed, the (somewhat belated) emergence of coffee joints in our cities has been accompanied by issues of bean quality, provenance and processing. What’s more, the image of the barista has evolved from one of spotty teenagers trying to make some pocket money to well-travelled, knowledgable coffee captains whose passion for the bean is second to none. Well, they now have a trusted little companion in the shape of this handy little coffee spot book. Designed by DeInvasie.be founder Yves Drieghe and printed in Belgium on an original Heidelberg press, think of the book as your very own little ratings agency on paper, a 100-page strong archive of all your coffee experiences. And, just in case the paper runs out or your pencil gives in, we suggest you take this sleek and sexy new notebook from Asus along. Called the N-Series, its built-in HD camera and Bang & Olufsen powered sound system (complete with subwoofer) makes it ripe for coffee lounge media consumption.

Friday 16th December’s proposal: Contacts DVD and 032c

Contacts is a comprehensive and exhaustive three-DVD boxset collection of movies (English, French and German audio) which profiles the world’s greatest photographers in a fresh and unashamedly personal way. Everyone from Sarah Moon, Jeff Wall or even Henri Cartier-Bresson takes to the camera, revealing secrets behind their iconic images and providing insights into their singular artistic approaches. A captivating behind-the-scenes look, the documentaries often make for exhilarating accounts and manage to picture these legendary photographers in their natural habitat: in the darkroom, on location or in the studio. And, to complete your Sunday afternoon culture fix, a yearly subscription to culture bible 032c (the self-proclaimed Manual for Freedom, Research and Creativity) will ensure you remain on top of your game as far as everything fashion, art and culture is concerned.

Thursday 15th December’s proposal: Santal Massoia perfume by Hermès and l’Eau de Villée limited edition bottle by Manor Grunwald

Since 2004 Jean-Claude Ellena, the mastermind behind all Hermès perfumes, creates elegant scents for the Hermessence line aimed at men as well as women. Santal Massoia is his tenth and most recent composition for the unisex collection, combining a rather unusual mix of two milky woods: the more common sandalwood and the rare massoia, a protected tree species found in New Guinea and Indonesia. Exotic yet discreet, the scent hits all the right notes this winter and is guaranteed to warrant an approving nod from the connoisseurs. And, keeping within today’s fire power tone, we’ve dug out a Manor Grunwald-designed limited edition Eau de Villée bottle that will without a doubt keep spirits high around the Christmas tree.

Wednesday 14th December’s proposal: Swatch Touch and Maison Martin Margiela gloves

Riding the current wave of everything ‘touch’, the Swiss watchmaker-to-the-masses reveals its Swatch Touch, a watch that, you’ve guessed it, comes with a touch screen. Trading in the customary twists and turns for swipes and taps, the Blade Runner-worthy timepiece comes in a timeless black (pictured), although the less serious souls will certainly go for Swatch‘s signature pallet of uplifting colours – everything form pink to turquoise. And, to guarantee you keep both your hands and your new watch nice and warm, these Maison Martin Margiela gloves will undoubtedly do the trick whilst staying true to your ‘presentation is half the battle won’ mantra.

Tuesday 13th December’s proposal: Sony Alpha 77 (with 18-55mm lens) and Louis Vuitton City Guides 2012

With its elegant disposition, this freshly-updated and tightly-packed collection of travel tomes consists of nine separate city guides that take in everything from a town’s museums and tearooms to it’s best shopping addresses and drinking dens. With the addition of a cutesy section entitled ‘Good Things’, the Louis Vuitton City Guides’ focus is clearly on the good life, dishing out innumerable insider tips as to what a city has to offer – from the 22 year old wine cellar in Zagreb to the 150 year old pastry shop in Warsaw. Choosing to give a shine to Europe’s lesser known capitals and satellite cities (Vienna and Salzburg; Naples and Bari; Odessa and St Petersburg), it is the depth of local insights and the simple way in which the intelligence is presented that really makes these city guides the perfect companion for your 2012 city-hopping plans. And, whilst you’re at it, take Sony‘s excellent Alpha 77 D-SLR with 18-55mm lens along in your weekend holdall to guarantee the tip’s many memories are captured to perfection, be it in photo or video mode.

Monday 12th December’s proposal: Marshall Headphones ’The Major’ and Slove ‘Le Danse’

With its synth-driven melodies, catchy guitar riffs and addictive bass lines, Slove’s debut LP ‘Le Danse’ is undoubtedly one of our favourite albums of the year, clocking up impressive amounts of airplay on Word radio. In fact, the band’s sexy-cool blend of uptempo and uplifting dance-pop so captured our hearts and minds that we invited the Parisian duo for a live showcase at our blue album release party (Watch the video here). Easily our number one music pick if we were to draw up our own wish list this Christmas. (And we’d probably throw in these sparkling white headphones by Marshall – ideal for bass-heavy listening.)

Cinema

Be Film Festival, Brussels

The 7th edition of the Be Film Festival, an four-day long showcase of the best of Belgium cinema, not only offers five days of film screenings but also gives cinephiles the chance to meet with directors. Besides several premieres, the festival provides a selection of the best films released in the past year, with certain screenings even accompanied by live music performances – Belgian band The Bony King of Nowhere, for example.

From 19th until 23rd December

Bozar, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 – 1000 Brussels

Cinematek, Rue Baron Hortastraat 9 – 1000 Brussels

www.befilmfestival.be

Exhibitions

Vincent Fournier, Brussels

Courtesy Joye Gallery

You could say photographer Vincent Fournier has it in for robots and rockets. Having travelled the world on a quest to document the secret and unknown world of space exploration (his passion project has taken the Frenchman everywhere from Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia and the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah to the Atacama Desert Observatories in Chile, Fournier’s photographs capture with mystifying exactitude the intriguing world of space research, doing so with all the innocence, exuberance and excitement of a child. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’ work in Brussels, and is sure to delight fans of Solaris and 2001, A Space Odissey alike.

Until 18th January 2012

Joye Gallery, Chaussée de Vleurgat 125 Vleurgatsesteenweg – 1050 Brussels

www.joyegallery.be

Riffs, Brussels

Courtesy of Wiels

Riffs is an exhibition of the wide-ranging works of Yto Barrada. Showcasing everything from the artist’s old and new sculptures, her films as well as her photographs, the exhibition is evidence of Barrada’s engaging narrative – more statement than mere observation (Her pictures display rare plants, children absorbed in a game or a road under construction). Having studied political science, the artist also leads the Cinématheque in Tangier, which makes the current social and political upheaval currently gripping North Africa especially relevant. Indeed, Barrada’s work seeks to show the complexity of  Moroccan reality and everything that continues to resist homogenisation plans.

Until 31st December

Wiels, Av. Van Volxemlaan 354 – 1190 Brussels

www.wiels.org

Music

Chilly Gonzales, Brussels

Grammy-nominatee, world-record holder (longest ever piano play), prodigy producer, versatile vocalist. It’s fair to say Canadian-born, Paris-based Gonzales has more than a talent up his sleeve. He’s back in Brussels tonight touring his latest album: ‘The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales’. Expect lots of laughter, wit and a good dose of playful arrogance.

22nd December

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat, 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

James Taylor Quartet, Ghent

The James Taylor Quartet, described as one of today’s most important British jazz-pop crossover outfits, comes to Ghent to celebrate its 25th anniversary after having played about 1000 shows and released countless of albums. The band’s latest, titled ‘The Template’, makes good on the quartet’s reputation for blending funk, mod and acid jazz in its very own, distinctive way and continues in its tradition for unabashed, unashamed and unrestricted goodness.

23rd December

Vooruit, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23, 9000 Ghent

www.vooruit.be

Café Central Christmas Party, Brussels

If you’re of the type to run for the bar the minute the Christmas tree goes up, chances are you’ll end up at Cafe Central this Saturday. Trading in Stille Nacht for experimental, psychedelic rock, the downtown drinking den invites Brussels-based Shazzula (of acid punk group Aqua Nebula Oscillator) for a night of electric eclecticism. Everything from kraut rock, noise and progressive rock is on the menu.

24th December

Café Central, Rue Borgvalstraat 14 – 1000 Brussels

www.lecafecentral.com

Fuse & Wildfamily Xmas Madness, Brussels

Wildfamily, a collective led by Belgian DJ Igor Vicente and known for its truly wild nights, is set to put the house on fire at Fuse this Saturday, giving yet another perfect excuse for Christmas grumps to escape the dreaded festive proceedings. Igor, known for his dark and deep sound, is also part of Ultrasone, a collaboration with DJ Vernon Bara. Both have played all over Europe (Spain, France, Ukraine, …) and the duo recently started putting out their debut tracks on the reputed Visionquest label. Christmas’ going to be a party this year.

24th December

Fuse, Rue Blaesstraat 208 – 1000 Brussels

www.fuse.be

(Scroll down to the bottom of the interview for a free mix.)

Interview Nicholas Lewis

Photography Thomas Sweertvaegher

Nosedrip. Quite the name. How did you pick it?

Dynooo found it. I thought it was funny and kept it. The name I had before was even worse…

When and where were you born?

Ostend, November 1988. A few hours later I ended up in Leuven to get my face fixed.

Where do you live?

In Ghent.

Which current musical tribe/scene do you feel the closest to at the moment?

Just the people I see on a regular basis. I don’t feel connected to people who like the same music as I do actually.

How would you describe your style and sound?

All drama

Describe your listener to us. Who do you think your music speaks to?

People who can get along with themselves when they are alone I hope…

Tell us a little about your childhood. How did it shape your musical direction?

I grew up in Mariakerke, Ostend, with a lot of guys and almost no girls. We were outside all the time skating and doing stupid white kids shit. We didn’t listen to music much and when we did then to Punk, Dancehall or Drum and Bass, which I had almost no affinity with. I listened to Hip hop, but the real interest came when I was around 19.

Growing up, did you have any posters on your wall? If so, which ones?

First I had a Ferrari Testarossa and a Disney Book Club For Kids one with a picture of myself on it. The skate posters came later.

Who would you say is the most important figure in your life musically?

Timothy, Shaerin, Dynooo, Lorin, Tommy and Gummy.

Which five albums would make your 2011 top list?

I don’t really have a top five, but I listened the most to My Friend Wallis – On Hawaiian Time, Julia Holter – Tragedy. James Pants – James Pants, Drake – Take Care and Seekae – +Dome.

What’s the best party you played at in 2011?

The Nachtlawaai parties at AAP Ghent were very enjoyable for me. 10DaysOff was a blessing too.

What three songs would you play to a girl on a first date?

I would say DJ Jazzy Jeff – Roc Wit U, Laurel Canyon – I Gotta Woman (Abel Edit), Pac Div – Show You. Most probably something dark and sad.

What’s missing in your life today, if anything?

Cash, girls and adventures. But I’m fine.

What’s coming for you in 2012?

Good times I hope…

What websites do you religiously have to check every day?

The usual: Facebook, Gmail, some newspapers, porn and VBS.TV. I also used to check a lot of dog shelter websites.

Which radio show/podcasts do you recommend?

Definitely mine… and Duyster‘s, every finders keepers mix and Ahu’s Avant-Garde.

Are you on Twitter? Who do you recommend we follow?

Yes, I am. The tweets of @Demhunger & @Kimhollandxx already made my day today.

Listen to Nosedrip’s Word-exclusive mix below. To put it in his own words: “It’s a 33-track mix to cry on at night…”

Listen: the_word_white.mp3

Track list

Amen Dunes – Baba Yaga
Memory Tapes – Humming
Apparat – Ash Black Veil
F.S. Blumm / Lucrecia Dalt – Old Amigos
Milagres – To Be Imagined
Seekae – You’ll
Cymbals Eat Guitars – The Current
Connan Mockasin – Fakking Jazz Together
Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica
My Friend Wallis – Sky Horse
Chad Vangaalen – Rabid Bits Of Time
Welder – I Still
Atlas Sound – Doldrums
Rangers – Jane’s Well
Dynooo – Onion Funck
King Krule – 36N63
Yes Please – Mazu Heart Sutra (Naminé Remix)
Andy Stott – Intermittent
Daughter – Home
James Pants – Screams Of Passion
Quilt – The Silver Stairs Of Ketchikan
U.S. Girls – Island Song
Washed Out – Far Away
Pressed And – Parties
Wonder Bear – Hunziker’s Bowl
DRC Music – Departure (Ft. Bokatola System)
Zomby – Basquiat
Babes – Noel
Maria Minerva – I Luv Ctrl
The Flaming Lips – Squishy Glass
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Mockingbird Comes Calling For You
Julia Holter – Office Of The Dead

All photography Yassin Serghini

(First published in the white album)

Wim Catrysse, Brussels

Courtesy of VidalCuglietta

Belgian artist Wim Catrysse’s new triple-screen video installations centre around Kawah Ijen, a volcano in Eastern Java. In September 2010 Catrysse spent 12 days in Indonesia to film the impressive natural spectacle, capturing a rather apocalyptic aura of the sulfur that emerges from the active crater. The chemical element has been associated with Satan’s realm as a symbol of hell, adding a rather sinister notion to the experience. Besides documenting nature in its full-blown wonderment, the artist also draws attention to the mining of sulfur, exposing the everyday business of exploiting the earth. Inspiring references to romanticists as Caspar David Friedrich, Cartrysse’s fascinating, awe-inspiring and somehow otherworldly works of nature motifs focus on the extreme and the outward-bound.

Until 23rd December

Galerie VidalCuglietta, Boulevard Barthélémy 5 Barthélémylaan, 1000 Brussels

www.vidalcuglietta.com

Fiction, Narrative & History, Brussels

Courtesy of D+T Project

Exploring themes of capitalism, corporate cultures and political speech, Fiction, Narrative & History touches upon some highly controversial issues of our times through the works of several different artists. With his video analysis of the Marxist and Communist legacies in today’s world, American artist Zachary Formwalt unravels its close-knit relationships to contemporary symbols and media imagery. Swedish artist duo Goldin&Senneby host a conference surrounding the movie Headless at Regus which delves into the artists’ research into offshore financing and the activities of an imaginary company called Headless. And finally, Dutch video and performance artist Nicoline van Harskamp uses footage of conversations, speeches or autobiographies to reveal the power of the spoken word. High-minded and high- browed stuff not for the faint-hearted.

Until 23rd December

D+T Project, Rue Bosquetstraat 4, 1060 Brussels

www.dt-project.com

Wunderkammer, Brussels

The history of the curiosity cabinet (Wunderkammer in German) dates back as far as the 16th century, when pharmacists and high-society people started collecting rare or curious objects without wanting to be encyclopaedic but trying to reveal the innermost secrets of reality and nature itself. Paradoxically, the pieces on display in the Botanique’s show focus essentially on pure creations made by contemporary Belgian or Belgium-based artists, including Jan Fabre, Michel Mouffe, Charley Case or Jean-Luc Moerman. Tattooed skulls, stuffed and stretched animals – step into a bizarre world of wonders.

From 8th December to 29th January 2012

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat, 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

Is Tropical DJ Set, Brussels

After  having just recently set the Botanique on fire with their catchy electro rock, the London three-piece now comes back to Brussels to show their skills as DJs at the Wood’s monthly Indie Club. The newest Kitsuné output stirred quite some attention this year, not only with its radio hit ‘The Greeks’ that won them a prize at the UK music video awards, but also for covering their faces with scarfs and masks at all times (we interviewed the up-and-comers just a few weeks ago). Besides a mix of Is Tropical’s favourite tunes, Wood’s residents will keep you on your feet with the freshest indie music and timeless rock anthems (think The Clash, Blur or The Drums). Get ready for a hot sweaty night and some real rock’n'roll.

Watch the award-winning video ‘The Greeks’:

16th December

Wood, Chemin de la Meute 1 Jachtkoppelweg, 1000 Brussels

www.istropical.com

Black Lips, Brussels

Fireworks, vomiting, nudity, urinating, enflamed instruments, a chicken: The stage antics of the Atlanta four-piece can be quite a hardcore experience – nothing for the faint-hearted. The band with a penchant for provocation, evident in their latest video, just brought out their 6th studio album on Vice records this year: ‘Arabia Mountain’. Despite having Mark Ronson as a producer, Black Lips manage to keep their bad boy attitude intact. Guaranteed to be a memorable night.

Watch the newest single ‘Family Tree’:

17th December

VK, Rue de l’Ecole 76 Schoolstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.vkconcerts.be

Beyond Style, Antwerp

Courtesy Gallery 51

With its panoramic view on ‘style’, the exhibition at Gallery 51 does justice to the elusiveness and subjective nature of the term that means much more than just fashion. Focusing on the charismatic presence of the photographed subject ‘Beyond Style’ finds a common denominator in images that at first glance can seem rather opposed to the viewer. Anonymous African photos are presented next to international icons such as Brigitte Bardot or Paul Newman. The displayed works range from influential fashion images by William Klein or Frank Horvat and portraits by Irving Penn or Jaques-Henri Lartigue to Diane Arbus’ gripping photographs of eccentrics.

Opening 8th December, 18h00

Gallery 51, Zirkstraat 20, 2000 Antwerp

www.gallery51.com

Manor Grunewald, Ghent

Courtesy of Fortlaan 17

Manor Grunewald, the young Belgian painter that made it on the cover of our white album, is currently exhibiting at the Fortlaan 17 Gallery in Ghent. With the exhibition ‘I always wanted to be David Copperfield, but I turned out to be a painter’, the self-taught painter attempts to find a link between the magical and the arts, constantly bending reality and generating illusions. Nevertheless Grunewald’s works are always more defined by his paths towards the canvas rather than artistic techniques, always starting out from the observation of people and cultures and how reality is commonly perceived.

Until 28th January 2012

Galerie Fortlaan 17, Fortlaan 17, 9000 Ghent

www.fortlaan17.com

Charles Burns, Leuven

Courtesy of M Museum Leuven

Leuven’s M Museum presents more than 200 works from the past thirty years by American graphic novelist and illustrator Charles Burns, best known for his comic books referencing pop art and culture whose atmosphere ranges from kitschy nostalgia and cheap sensation to haunting horror and dark worlds. His stories touch themes as adolescence and sexual awakening and are combined with recurring images of mutation, plague, alienation and violence. What many people don’t know: Burns also designed album covers for Iggy Pop, illustrated advertising campaigns for Altoids or Ok Soda and even did covers for Time, The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine.

From 8th December to 11th March 2012

M Museum Leuven, Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28, 3000 Leuven

www.mleuven.be

Last minute christmas sales to catch:

Brussels: Dress is more pop up sale

From 16th to 18th December

Centre Bruxellois de la Mode et du Design, Nouveau Marché aux Grains 10 Nieuwe Graanmarkt, 1000 Brussels

www.dressismore.com

Antwerp: I/OBJECT christmas pop up store

Until 18th December

Closet, Volkstraat 9, 2000 Antwerp

www.iobjectstore.com

Ghent: I/OBJECT christmas pop up store

Until 18th December

A&Gallery, Schepenhuisstraat 17, 9000 Gent

www.iobjectstore.com

Illustration Raya Rayax

Writer Lady Jane.

For the white album I thought I’d tell you a bit more about DJ culture. DJ culture before the mp3 was invented and, more specifically, when white labels were the cachet of recognition record store clerks bestowed upon you. When I started buying records, around 1990, my favourite record stores were USA Import in Antwerp, Music Man in Gent and for second hand stuff I always went to Wally’s Groove World – Koenie’s shop that was squeezed in the basement of USA Import. Later on, Dr Vinyl opened shop in Brussels so I didn’t need to drive to Antwerp anymore, even though it was always good to visit other stores because each shop had its own selection.

The only way to get some good music at the time was by religiously visiting record stores every week.

The only way to get some good music at the time was by religiously visiting those stores every week. On Thursdays was when most new records came in and you had to be quick to get them because there often weren’t many copies. So, best trick was to be nice with the person selling the records: Smos at USA, Geert at Dr Vinyl, Benoulie & Biens at Music Man and Koenie at Wally’s Groove World. And, since I was one of the only girls mixing at the time, they always kept some nice copies for me. The retailers had a lot of power in those days. They listened to all the records that came in and it was obvious to them which ones would go on to become hits. Everything was ordered in small quantities and they kept the good records for themselves or their close friends. The idea being that people who bought the records could play them for a while before they hit the dance floors and radio waves.

If you were lucky enough to have purchased a good white label record, it was highly probable that you’d be the only one playing it for months before it got released.

When you were really lucky though, you’d stumble upon a white label. White labels are completely white records. They are promotional copies (not for sale!) although we were quite happy to buy them. They were records that the record companies sent to stores to promote a song that hadn’t yet been released, to sound the market out a little. So, if you were lucky enough to have purchased a good white label record, it was highly probable that you’d be the only one playing it for months before it got released. And, as a DJ, what better way to stand out from the pack than to be spinning some tunes that nobody else could play? Every DJ had his own style and his own hits, songs that everybody could sing along to but that nobody knew the exact name of the producer or the label. That’s also the reason why a lot of DJs used special (white) stickers to cover the etiquette. Some of the notorious white labels that were released six months or even a year before their official release were Felix’s Don’t you want me, T99’s Anasthasia, Cameo’s Money and Nightcrawlers’ Push the feeling on. All of them went on to become very big hits.

Thanks to Geert from Dr Vinyl (Brussels).

Listen to T99′s Ansthasia:

(This article was first published in the white album)

Charif Benhelima, Brussels

Courtesy of the artist and Crown Gallery Brussels

Memory, oblivion, identity and truth through images are the main themes that can be found in Belgian-Moroccan photographer Charif Benhelima’s works, an exploration of perception, time, space and invisibility. For ten years now, Benhelima has been experimenting with the Polaroid 600, his preferred working companion, whose limitations enable him to play with the (in)visible, creating fading and washed out images which serve to challenge photography as such as well as the viewer’s perspective.

Until 21st January 2012

Crown Gallery, Nouveau Marché aux Grains 13 Nieuwe Graanmarkt, 1000 Brussels

www.crowngallery.be

Russian Turbulence, Brussels

Sergei Borisov, Dialogue, 1983, courtesy of Galerie Volker Diehl

Looking back on 20th century Russian art spanning over 100 years, this exhibition showcases the works of 42 different Russian artists, touching upon the constructivist, avant-garde, non-conformist and contemporary periods to expose the country’s changing political and artistic ideologies. Celebrating the variety and powerful energy of the country’s artistic legacy‚ Russian Turbulence concentrates on the art of counter culture and underground resistance against the backdrop of Russia’s chaotic history – violence, revolutions and re-births. Whilst the older works offer an interesting glimpse as to the artistic expression that took shape behind the iron curtain, the newer ones address the challenges of the post-Soviet world.

Opening 8th December, 18h00-21h00

Exhibition from 9th December to 3rd March 2012

Charles Riva Collection, Rue de la Concorde 21 Eendrachtstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.charlesrivacollection.com

Thierry de Cordier, Brussels

Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens Gallery

Last days to see: By announcing that he had absolutely nothing to do with the 20th century, Belgian contemporary visual artist Thierry de Cordier deliberately distanced himself from the world, choosing self-reflection and personal exploration in its place. With his paintings, sculptures and drawings dominated by dark colors and grey tints, he creates a gloomy mental landscape full of fragility and inner suffering, exclusion and isolation. The search for protection, a central theme throughout his oeuvre, is best symbolised by his sculptures of semi-human figures and primitive buildings giving shelter.

Until 10th December

Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Rue Saint-Georges 6-8 Sint-Jorisstraat, 1050 Brussels

www.xavierhufkens.com

Black Out Party, Brussels

Catclub’s wild little sister is back with another memorable night blending old school house with italo-disco and new wave. Jessica 6 (NYC), Baris K (Istanbul) and Lady Jane (Brussels) behind the decks to make sure you’re kept on your feet until dawn. This is the last Catclub-infused party of the year, so make sure to get your dancing shoes on for one final boogie.

10th December

Mr Wong, Rue de la Vierge Noire 10 Zwarte Lievevrouwstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.catclub.be

Karel Fonteyne, Antwerp

Courtesy of Ingrid Deuss Gallery

Belgian photographer Karel Fonteyne, whose career stretches over almost 40 years, aims to recreate the feeling he experiences when pressing the button of his camera whilst at the same time challenging the spectators’ imagination by photographing his subjects so close that the result is rather vague. The exhibition ranges from Fonteyne’s photographs of recordings of a cinema performance in Budapest to his pictures of mysterious naked women whose faces he hides behind books or whose eyebrows he covers with numbers. Another highlight: his ‘horses’ series that reveals the importance of the darkroom for Fonteyne, who uses double exposure and craftsman-like techniques.

Opening 9th December

Exhibition from 10th December to 7th January 2012

Ingrid Deuss Gallery, Provinciestraat 11, 2018 Antwerp

www.ingriddeuss.be

Angela Bulloch, Antwerp

Courtesy of Micheline Szwajcer Gallery

Angela Bulloch, Turner prize nominee in 1997 and part of the Young British Artists’, descends upon Antwerp to show her famous pixel boxes which serve as a kind of signature surface for many of her works. Symbolising the smallest unit of technical images and touching the border between the virtual and the real world, these usually invisible digital measurements are brought to life by Bulloch who transforms them into autonomous individual objects used for the creation of her distinctive sculptures.

From 8th December to 21st January 2012

Micheline Szwajcer Gallery, Verlaatstraat 14, 2000 Antwerp

www.gms.be

Daniel Sinsel, Antwerp

Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London and Office Baroque, Antwerp

Daniel Sinsel, London-based German artist who has already counts shows in New York, Berlin, Zurich or Athens, explores classical themes of space, volume and illusion with his paintings and sculptures whilst always focusing on the qualities and characteristics of the used materials. Including references to art history as well as his personal interpretation of it, Sinsel stays dedicated to traditional oil painting of multiple layers and ancient craft techniques as ceramics and metalworking. As a result his works avoid modernist inclinations and are full of a very human sensuality.

Until 14th January

Office Baroque Gallery, Lange Kievitstraat 48, 2018 Antwerp

www.officebaroque.com

Adam Leech, Ghent

Adam Leech "If your eyes are good...", 2011, courtesy Hoet Bekaert Gallery

Born in the US and trained at the Chicago Art Institute as well as at the Royal Academy in Amsterdam, painter and video artist Adam Leech, who now lives and works in Brussels, combines and creates interactions between these two artforms. For the exhibition ‘If your eyes are good…’ in Ghent’s Hoet Bekaert Gallery, Leech created a rather unique concept: In order to force the viewer to express an opinion on the displayed paintings and make a public judgement, each visitor will be given plates with  fake dog poo and rose-leafs that have to be placed underneath the paintings, leaving no room for greyness, allowing only a ‘very good’ or ‘very bad’ mention.

Until 15th January 2012

Hoet Bekaert Gallery, Rodelijvekensstraat 28, 9000 Ghent

www.iets.be

Interview Nicholas Lewis

Hi there, where are you right now?

I am in Kingston, London, meeting up with Lee Mangan, who’s our video director, and we’re trying to sort out the cover for the album, which is basically going to be stills from our videos.

Have you guys started doing a lot of promos and performing live shows for the new album?

Yeah we basically started doing gigs about May last year for it, mainly around Hoxton in London and in 93 Feet East. Its been really great actually because its given me an opportunity to play some places that I’ve always wanted to play, you know, and it’s nice having something which you feel will make some statement of some kind, make more of an impact than just some kind of apathetic band that can’t even be bothered to make an effort. There are quite a
few of them around.

When and where was the album recorded?

We recorded it from about 2008 to 2010 in Ben’s studio, in his house in London.

What was the vibe during the recording sessions?

It was cool. The way it started was with one song really, Charmless State. I’d been playing music for a while and knew of Ben because I’d met him through friends. I recorded an acoustic demo of the song and Ben heard it and, you know, liked it and so I came in to his studio and I just put down my acoustic version just using guitar, then I sung over it, and then he just built it up. He had a very strong vision which was that he wanted it to be dark and industrial. For me it involved a lot of trust in a way because I was always quite suspicious of things that were too programmed but he played it back to me and I was blown away and it kind of went from there basically.

When did you actually start calling yourself White Russia?

Well at that point we never actually said ‘OK we’re in a band, this is what it is’, it was more of an intrigue about this song, and then it was quite a natural process. There was one point when we probably had three songs and we were like ‘OK, what it this?’ Then we sat down early 2009 and called it White Russia and decided to do a whole album.

Why White Russia?

I was looking at a really old, beautiful map and was scanning the east European section and saw ’White Russia’ written on the map and I was so surprised that I’d never seen it before. It just seemed to go with the music really, that was it.

I don’t want it to be coming across as a patronising preacher going around saying ‘oh you all got it wrong,’ but for me, music is the most powerful platform

A lot of your songs and lyrics, and even your track names, are quite powerful. They could sometimes be seen as a call to arms to a generation of jilted people.

Yeah, I know what you mean. And I don’t want it to be coming across as a patronising preacher going around saying ‘oh you all got it wrong,’ but for me, music is the most powerful platform in the sense that it is the only form of art that is completely intangible, it’s not physical, people receive it in the air, yet it has such a physical force on you that for me that’s a responsibility. People need to be shaken out of the normality that is being forced upon us, that actually to me is very unnatural. I think we do live in quite dark times, there’s a kind of menacing element to society, the fabrication of society that we need to challenge, and question, and at least look into.

Menace. That’s the word I was looking for. There’s a sense of intense menace in your music. One of the things I couldn’t help think of was that your music would be perfect as a backdrop to the recent London riots…

The riots were quite invigorating. Everyone was scared shitless. It was hitting places nobody thought possible. Ealing is the leafiest, wealthiest suburb and buses were on fire there, you know? People’s houses were getting broken into too. It was a sudden shock to the system…And to be honest, I think that can be a healthy thing in the sense that it makes people debate, question and wonder what this was about. I think the truth of those riots is that it shows you that the society we’ve structured doesn’t really fulfil human happiness at all.

One of the words that was used to describe your sound was hazy. You don’t sound hazy to me…

That’s probably more of Ben’s influence. He probably wants to raise more questions that answers. Ben likes the idea of something really quick and extreme that then disappears. Something that sounds like the beginning of something epic but then it doesn’t come. He likes to create this sense of ambiguity that makes you feel quite unsure because you don’t know what to expect. It kind of puts you on edge which in a way makes you more alive.

In terms of style, and maybe this is more a question for Ben, the music kind of touches upon everything. There’s hip hop, there’s dub step, a little bit of electronica, there’s folk, chill wave. How would you describe your music if you had to pigeonhole it?

Yeah, it can be quite hard actually. I suppose alternative electronic is what we’ve been calling it. But obviously there are other elements in it and I know that Ben’s definitely coming from quite a few different strands. He’s got this really amazing way of drawing all these things together in a way that makes sense.

In weird ways Ben and I are complete opposites, we have completely different backgrounds.

What music scenes or tribes did you belong to growing up?

Oh very strong tribes. In weird ways Ben and I are complete opposites, we have completely different backgrounds. For me, my baptism as far as music began with one close best friend when I was 13-14. We started listening to Led Zepelin, The Doors, Guns N’ Roses and we were obsessed with them, we wanted to be them. I wanted to be Axl Rose, like a man you know. We disowned our femininity and we started playing music together and it was brilliant because it gave us an identity. It gave us the confidence to fucking rebel I guess. People used to take a piss out of us, saying, ‘Oh you listen to grandpa music’ but for me it was amazing because it was the beginning of me playing music. Then slowly but surely I opened my mind to newer things. The 60s, the 70s, the 80s. The Cure, The Smiths, obviously amazing. The 90s, Nirvana, Faith No More. It was mainly alternative and rock for me. Then I went into Depeche Mode, weirder stuff. Bonnie Prince Billy and just more mind-wrapping stuff, that was less literal, less of an image-based thing and more about ideas. And then Ben’s obviously introduced me to things like Yazoo, a lot of more electronic stuff.

Do you guys have any side projects or is White Russia your main thing?

Actually I’m working on something new with one of my friends whose playing bass and I’m playing guitar. It’s called The Russian Orthodox Wedding. That’s the working title so far. We recorded our song on a reel-to-reel analogue recorder all in one day. I can’t play guitar very well, she had just learned the bass, so there’s a complete naivety to it. It reeks of all the mistakes. It’s the bare bones but I’m quite excited about it. And Ben’s always working on different stuff. He produces stuff for a band called Steranko who are a punk band in London who Lee Mangan, the video director, is the lead singer of. They’re a fucking amazing band, truly amazing live. Very very rare band.

This is maybe a classic one, but what are you listening to at the moment?

You know the band Girls?

Yeah we’re interviewing them for this same edition…

Oh cool. Their second album is fucking amazing. It’s so fucking profound. It’s like old school music again. You know an organ, and the song is allowed to develop. I love it.

White Russia’s debut album O Jerusalem is out on L’Agenda Records on 28th November.

myspace.com/whiterussiamusic

Interview Nicholas Lewis

Your love and use of analogue equipment is well-documented…

When I first discovered electronic music and started to play with it, I was using computers for the first five years and then I started to buy real analogue hardware instruments, real synths, real drum machines and so on. It’s moved from the computer to outside the computer. I still use computers to record and to do all the editing. My music is still very much written on a computer but the sound doesn’t come from a computer at all.

You sent me some of your most recent releases. Can you explain what the difference might be between you recording as White Car, you recording as Aguirre, and you recording as Streetwalker, your project with Beau Wanzer?

Aguirre is kind of an earlier project, that I started in 2005 with a buddy of mine I went to high school with. We really got interested in a lot of electronic music together, listening to a lot of Warp and Planet Mu records, stuff like that. Post-rave, UK stuff. White Car is a solo recording project that is based around taking these genres of electronic dance music that are very specific to the context of where they came from, and then morphing it into my songwriting and bringing these movements of electronic dance music closer to singer-song-writer territory. It’s not club music, but it very much uses all the ideas from past eras of club music to kind of start its foundation. And then my solo recordings is experimental electronic music, much more abstract and working with ideas of texture and sound. White Car is more of a cultural party fun project whereas my solo stuff is made with modular synthesisers so far so it’s much more about picking up sounds and then trying to make them happen.

In a very broad sense, your music tilts towards the dark side, which might seem odd for someone who comes from California…

There’s a lot of darkness in California. There’s no short answer really. It’s not a personal extension of ’my’ darkness. I think that the darkness you hear in the music is the story that it tells, more than who I am.

White Car is [...] based around taking these genres of electronic dance music that are very specific to the context of where they came from [...] bringing these movements of electronic dance music closer to singer-songwriter territory.

What story does it tell then?

It’s the story of humanity, human beings. Ignorance, oppression. America is kind of in a state right now where people are worried. It’s not a full-on depression, but there’s definitely a sense of darkness in the country right now with being at war for 10 years and the economy going under. Some people live in darkness and some people in light. I think that the stories I’m drawn to in terms of those I want to tell as a songwriter tend to be stories about darkness because it’s hard to learn from happiness. A lot of people say you learn more from your mistakes, and this is kind of the same thing. You profit more from being with darkness. I’m not depressed, but I’m intro- verted and I do have a pessimistic look. I don’t really look at people and have faith in them, and I think that comes out in my music. But I wouldn’t say dark, it’s such an overused word. It’s more paranoid, multi-faceted in its darkness. In the same way a Cronenberg or a Lynch movie is dark – you’re more intrigued by its darkness than turned off by it. There’s humour to it. And I think darkness is funny. My sense of humour is very black and very dark and I think that bands that take themselves very seriously in how depressed and how dark they are? That to me is fun.

Coming back to White Car, when did you start recording as a unit? The first songs, the first EPs….

The first release was the White Car EP that came out in February 2010 on Rainbow Body Records, a Chicago label run by a guy called Chris Sloan and I had met the guys from the band Gatekeeper, and we had really connected. I started hanging out with them more, playing with their gear, they were playing me a lot of music I hadn’t heard before. I got really inspired by a lot of it. And that was how White Car came about. We played our first show in June 2009, together with Gatekeeper.

You write most of the band’s songs right?

I do yes. Orion (the other half of White Car) helps with the visual side of things, he plays electronic percussions. He is an editor, which is more helpful than anything else at this point in time with where we’re at with music-making. I’d say that in the last 10 years the most innovative instrument has been laptops and computers and being able to make better recordings in your house. Everyone’s a solo artist now, no one’s in a band anymore. That’s why there’s so much music now. But everyone’s recording them- selves and half these people don’t have anyone in there helping them make their music. That’s what Orion does, he’s an editor. He comes in and listens to it and says “I like this part, I don’t like this part, this makes me think of this, this makes me think of that. We kind of understand each other’s language so well that I kind of understand where he’s coming from with all these ideas.

You’re working on your new LP at the moment. It was supposed to be out in August right?

It was supposed to be out in September. It’s gone through a few different versions, it’s a work-in-progress. Working on the music by myself mostly, there’s a sense of isolation to it. It’s hard to gage when its done. But right now, the release is set for late February 2012.

How important do you think Chicago’s past underground scene was in shaping your current sound?

I don’t think that this music is only discoverable in Chicago, but being there, being in proximity to it and being in proximity to people who hold it really close to them made me revere it more. There are a lot of people there who are really interested in the history of Chicago and Chicago music and are interested in making sure that people hear a lot of the older records. So, just in terms of a physical thing, you can go and find good Chicago house records in almost any record stores, which may not be the case somewhere like California or Ohio.

The image of a white car always fascinated me, there’s some mystery to it.

Can you describe your recording space? Is it mad scientist type lab or clean-cut minimalist studio?

Oh I’m pretty organised. But, you know, there are a few cables flying around. I’m at a stage where I’ve been using a lot of the same stuff for three years now, and I’m trying to switch it out. But I’m in the process of also being broke, so I’m trying to figure out how to build a better studio for nothing. But it’s pretty clean: three or four keyboards, synthesisers, a couple of drum machines, some processors, a computer and some racks. It’s like, you know, a small room’s worth.

What’s behind the name White Car?

It’s literally a reference from a Cabaret Voltaire song. There’s a song on the last record Code called White Car. The song is about wealth and extravagance and the darkness of having money, which has always been interesting to me. I guess I resonated with that song. And the image of a white car always fascinated me, there was some mystery to it, some pre-conceived notions about it. The image of a white car is very creepy to most people, it’s always associated to kidnapping, or human trafficking. Plus you have to have money to keep it clean.

If you were guest editing our white album’s music special which icon would you want to interview?

There’s a good Chinese band called White. I would look into them because it’s very interesting to think of China’s underground scene. I think they’re from Beijing or Hong Kong.

Last one: what’s your plan tomorrow?

I have to paint a house. White….

White Car’s forthcoming album ’Everyday Grace’ is out on Hippos in Tanks in February 2012.

(This interview was first published in the white album)

Interview Nicholas Lewis, with additional research by Pauline Miko

I just saw the video for your single Honey Bunny. I think you guys posted it on your Facebook page two days ago. It got quite a good response. Are you happy with it?

Yeah, I think so, yeah I like it. Well you know, it’s not a big deal for me. It’s more for the fans.

This interview we’re doing is going to run in our November edition and it’s going to be themed “the white album”. Hum now, I read in an interview of yours that you have some sort of fetish for white sneakers…

Ha ha!

…and I noticed that the car, the Corvette, in the video was white as well. I mean, is there a link to be made or is it just me tripping out?

(laughs) No, you’re, no… You’re reading into it too much! The Corvette is silver.

Well I watched it on my shitty laptop.

Yeah. I wear the shoes not because of the fact that they’re white, but just because of the fact that they’re the classic Air Force One’s. You know, because of the fact that they’re not trendy. That’s why I like them.

I don’t want to indoctrinate anybody with any kind of theories, but I do want to communicate my feelings.

Compared to the first one, this new album sounds a lot richer, more accomplished. I mean, it definitely sounds like you have come of age as a songwriter. Other than relentless touring, what would you attribute this maturity gain to?

Yeah, you know, I don’t think there’s any difference. One third of the songs on the new album were written at the same time than the songs from the first album. It’s just that the recordings are better, we’re working in a studio, with a group of musicians that are very good. But in the first album I was playing every instruments and JR was running all the equipment and now on this album we had engineers, producers and musicians and a studio and everything was done right. But there’s no change.

On the album’s first song Honey Bunny, which is also the video you just released, you sing ‘they don’t like my bony body, they don’t like my dirty hair’ and then you go on to sing about a girl who loves you for who you are. This theme of acceptance – are you referring to anyone in particular or is it more of a general statement?

It’s a general statement. The song was written at the time when the person in the song doesn’t know for sure if they’re ever going to find somebody, the right person. It’s about saying: I’m not going to give up, I’m going to keep trying because it might be right around the corner. It’s about optimism.

You’ve been quoted as saying that you think that music is a spiritual way to communicate transcendent things…

Yeah, it’s more about just communicating my feelings. I think it’s important for me because I’m trying to figure these things out myself. It’s just talking about it in the songs in the same way that somebody might go to therapy or write a journal. That’s really the motive. I don’t want to indoctrinate anybody with any kind of theories, but I do want to communicate my feelings. For me it’s really selfish.

If Pitchfork had given us a bad support on this album it wouldn’t have made a difference. The tour was already booked before this. We don’t go and say like: ‘ Hey, look at the score, will you give us a show? ’

How important is the validation of web- sites such as Pitchfork to you? What do you think of this moral authority that one website commands on the indie scene?

I don’t really know. I don’t follow it, I don’t check it, I don’t read it. But I know when they give us a good score, I hear about it. It’s just like anything, when you get an award or you get praise… It’s really not the time where you feel successful. You feel successful the first time you listen to the album after it’s finished. It’s the same for live shows – when you’ve had a good show and when the audience was really great. And after that it’s like when people close to you are telling you they have real respect for what you’re doing or something. And finally after that, of course you want to get some respect from the people in the industry. But it’s really not the first thing. Our booking agents, our record label, our fans, … They were there before our first album, before we got a review. I think it helps, of course, but I know for example if Pitchfork had given us a bad support on this album it wouldn’t have made a difference. The tour was already booked before this. We don’t go and say like: “hey, look at the score, will you give us a show?”

Doing my research, I couldn’t help but feel that you’re definitely moving closer to the mainstream and it’s not a move that you seem to be doing yourself. Rather, it’s the mainstream that seems to be embracing you, I mean you have interviews in GQ, Vogue Italia, showcases on Conan. How do you feel about that? You’re clearly becoming the darling of the airwaves.

It’s just because those people are just slower than the public. You know, it’s the same in politics for example. Finally yesterday, there’s no discrimination about homosexuality in the army anymore. It’s just the government always needs an extra 10 years just to catch up. It’s the same with people like GQ. They would never say “Oh, I saw a band last night in a bar, let’s do a story!” They wait until you’re becoming rel- evant. The only reason that the mainstream is catching on is because they’re the slowest ones. Probably the final person to catch on would be like hum… Obama or something!

That’d be nice…

Yeah, that’s the goal! They’ll give me a call and say: “I’ve listened to your album and it’s really good!”

You recently stated in an interview that “The album should go down in history as an important album. I hope people realise that. Whether they do or not, they should at least not write it off as music that is trying to sound a certain way.”

Yeah, you know, I believe that this is a great album, I believe that the music is great and that we did a good job making it. We took huge steps up from the first album to the EP to this record. It would have been really easy for us to spend three or four thousand dollars and make another one of those and just put it out and stick to what we know, but we invested much more money into this new record. That’s the whole thing, even right now, on our tour, everybody got engaged to go on the road and they get paid a lot of money. And you know, the easy thing to do would have been: keep the same plan up from the beginning, keep the money just low, keep going on cheap tours, and rack up some money for ourselves. You know, when you look at it, it looks like a small business or something: every time we get extra money we put it straight back into our business and we make a better thing for the people involved. I have a lot of pride about what we’re doing because for me it’s the first time in my life where I’m doing something and I’m basically a part of a company. I’m making decisions. I’d like for people to understand that this is a very serious effort and that there is a lot of work going on. People like to label you as a certain thing and to me it’s frustrating because here I am 32 years old trying to run a company, make a career out of this and make the best albums possible.

You’ve spent some time in Belgium. Can you tell me how you ended up here, where you lived, any memories you kept, things you remember about the place?

Yeah I spent like six months there! I was living in France at the time and my mom had a new boyfriend and I wasn’t getting along with him and that was becoming… you know young teen (I was like 13 years old, or maybe 12) and I was being rebellious. So there was this place where they wanted to send me away so I could maybe be mature or something and to be totally honest with you I don’t really know what city it was, I don’t remember anything about where I was. I remember that it was a very nice place and I liked it a lot. We had goats roaming around freely.

Do you remember if you were in the French speaking part or in the Flemish speaking part?

I was speaking French, for sure.

So you went with your mom to Belgium?

No, I was by myself. I do know one detail, which is that they used to take all the children together and there were a lot of children and we’d go sing in the docks of Antwerp – where there are all the big ferry boats from every- where around the world – and we’d go on the boat and sing “Stille naaacht, tralala naaacht”.

Really?

I’m serious!

To the sailors?!

Yeah! And then we would sell some cassette tapes of us singing. And that’s how we would make some money. But it was like a program for kids who were kind of having a hard time growing up. You’d go there and learn how to sing Christmas carols and take care of goats and play outside. I don’t know if that helped me or not. But I remember I liked Belgium a lot.

You’ll be playing in Brussels in November. Do you still know some people here?

Oh, I don’t know anybody there. Even one year later I never spoke to any of those people again. That’s the story of my whole life, you know. Be somewhere, experience it, leave and forget about it.

What about the time you spent in Texas?

Well you know there is a huge amount of time there. When I moved to Texas I was 16 years old, in 1996. And a lot of things happened. I spent about nine years there.

So nine years after you moved to San Francisco?

Yeah. When I moved to SF I was 25.

I feel like in my youth I had religious music, and then in my teenage years I had punk music and it was only when I became an adult that I wrote my own music.

But you were always into music, like back in Texas, you were already playing in bands?

No, when I first moved there all I did was just buy albums. It was the first time for me to buy albums. I spent about four years just buying as many albums as I could. I was just a fan, a very honest fan of bands that were on MTV. That’s all I knew. And then I got into punk and that’s a very different thing. A part of the thing that came with my punk lifestyle is that I moved into a house where a lot of us played music together. There’s something about getting into punk very seriously where you do start playing music, and I did, but it wasn’t like this. I never wrote any songs, I didn’t care about music. It was just like in the same way that religious people sing in a church, and they have a huge musical history, well it’s the same for punks I think. Every punk will tell you “Oh yes, I’ve been in a band.” I feel like in my youth I had religious music, and then in my teenage years I had punk music and it was only when I became an adult that I wrote my own music.

What do you qualify your music of now? How would you describe it?

I really don’t know. I think it’s just pop music or you know, rock and roll music. Like I’ve seen our CD on iTunes and it’s says “alternative music”. You know I think that’s really nice but I think that’s also very big. Like “alternative to what?”

A lot has been said regarding your upbringing and how important religion was, so I don’t want to go into detail about it. But, your album’s name evidently conjures feelings of some sort of religious reference. Now I’ve also read that it was not your attempt at all. But I guess what I’m trying to get to here is that seen from our eyes, the current political climate in the US is really highly charged on religion. So I just wanted to know: where do you stand on that?

I don’t really agree actually. I think that’s a mess. It’s kind of like the idea that America is free or something like that. These are lies. I think that the “in God we trust” and the American Republican sort of Christian thing is a lie that is presented to the rest of the world so you guys think we’re very religious. It’s propagated by the American government and by the culture here. I spent a lot of time in my life travelling around the world, living in countries for years and years. I still travel now and I follow the world news and I’ll go so far as to say that a lot of European countries are more strongly Catholic and traditionally religious than America! For example if you go to Belgium, it’s the same kind of feeling in America: some people are religious, some people aren’t. Nobody really cares. You know, Bachmann, Rick Perry those people are not religious people. They’re hypocrites. They do that to receive votes. The population here is just stupid. You know I guarantee you that those people all have really disgusting demons in their closets.

Do you have religion overload? Given your upbringing, is there a point where you’re like “Gosh these guys are making so much out of this!”

Hum I don’t know, I kind of understand the whole reason why people are saying that. I think it’s because of the 60s American “hippie cult”, you know, it’s something that happened here, and half of the country (maybe 75 percent) subscribe to this. They all said: “Yes we should drop out, we should take drugs, we should have free sex…” I mean there was a time when the Children of God were very normal – I mean not specifically our cult but – these were the very normal feelings that America was turning to. And then everybody knows that these things came and failed. I mean people killed them- selves, the Government went in and killed the branch deviant. Everybody knows that free sex lead to AIDS. America has literally shifted. So there are two elements. One, it’s interesting to see the child of this very specific American culture come and say ‘this is my take on what actually happened’. But then for other people this cult is just so bizarre. This crazy sexual cult. All these things they don’t know about. You know: yes there is a religious aspect but I don’t think it’s so much religion, I think there is a political and historical element to it taken by the adults. You know, I feel like I got fucked over by the older generation, by the hippies. I realise that. But then for the people of my age it’s like ‘he was born in a cult’. This is very dark. I think nobody has ever asked me any questions about religion, it’s always like ‘So then, what happened?’ They want to hear juicy things ‘Oh your brother died’, ‘Oh your mom did this, your mom did that.’ I never had anybody ask me about the religious beliefs of the John Booka.

Do you still, to a certain extent, live the way you where brought up? Do you still believe in certain of the things of The Children of God?

No I can’t you know, it’s not possible. In order for me to do that, I’d have to separate myself from the world again and live in a community with hundreds of people, I’d have to stop earning money, I’d have to… We used to live in a very complicated way and I think I would never live like that again. I would have to go back to them. I’m 100 percent free right now. I had no freedom before.

Is it a part of your childhood that you look back at negatively?

No. Because I don’t want to do that. I did that for a long time but it’s very unhealthy. You know I would not just be upset; I’d get so angry. It’s not even an option for me to be upset about that. If you research anything about this group, you’d know what I’m talking about. You’d know that the children try to kill the parents that brought them up and kill themselves. This is not a fucking joke! I’ve been out of the Children of God since 1996. It’s a long time ago. And I’ve learned how to appreciate what happened to me and like myself. If I don’t do that, it’s all over. I’d be finished, other people would be finished. You know, there is just no option. The only option that I have is to say “everything is fine”.

One of the things in your childhood is that you couldn’t discover music directly. Apart from going to record stores, how would you discover new music now?

On YouTube. (laughs)

Personally, SF is a city I love. I’ll always remember the record store “Amoeba Records”? Does that still exist? Does it hold a lot of meaning to the city’s musicians? Did it help in anyway for you? Did you play there?

Yeah we played there for our first album release. I go there all the time, I live in that neighbourhood, so that’s where I buy my albums.

Like I said, this interview is going to run in our white album, which will evoke themes of purity, transparency and honesty. Which are themes that could really describe a big chunk of your latest album. There is a fresh naivety, it’s simple, self-spoken. You talk about ‘starting anew, that’s why I’m sticking with you, nobody makes me feel better and magic.’ It’s very honest and transparent. Is that kind of who you are? Do you  say things the way…

Yeah yeah. This is how I am. I’m very open. Of course it’s great for the song writing and it’s great for interviews and it’s great for any kind of public personality. When I see people, I can talk with them and it’s just much easier to be just very honest but then at the same time I have a lot of stress…distressfulness. I feel stupid or I feel like people know too much about me. You know I read interviews and I feel like they made mis- takes at the wrong things. I have to talk to my family all the time because they think I have a drug problem…The reality is that I’m OK, you know. The reality is just that I’m running a big business here. People work for me, and there’s been a recession in the United States for the past five years while I had to develop a brand new company! And I’m doing well, so.

I can’t help but notice that any artist refering to his band or his art as a business is pretty rare! I’ve never met an artist who takes it so seriously and really talks about it like you’re the General Manager for the company “and I have employees and all”. You know, this shit is serious!

Ha ha! I don’t know. Maybe it’s the wrong thing to say.

Just to give me an idea, I don’t need a specific figure here but you know this second album, it’s getting so much praise. Is this it for you? Are you guys kind of like comfortable for the next five years of your life and can you now buy yourself a studio and invest in gear and buy yourself a house, or…?

No! I mean, nobody makes money selling records anymore.

But you’re touring.

Yeah but this is our first tour for the new album. And sure, if we tour for the next two years, a lot, we can earn enough money. Anyway, without getting into money details, reality is yes, we have a opportunity right now: we could stop recording, play tons of festivals and outdoor…because the licenses are admitted…Coca-Cola…Just today I turned down a option from Tommy Hilfiger!

Why?

Because that’s what we do. We would not accept Tommy Hilfiger’s option for a commercial and we would not play festivals for two years on one album and keep the money apart: we’re going to the studio by next year.

I feel really similar to Biggie or 2 Pac’s personalities; they both were raised by a single mother who was very dynamic with a lot of personality

If I had to choose a musical genre that was the furthest away from what you guys are doing now, I’d say rap is definitely it. Do you listen to any hip-hop, who’s is your favourite gangsta rapper?

Oh I love hip-hop. My favourite rapper right now is Tylor the Creator. I’ve always liked rap. I feel really similar to Biggie or 2Pac’s personalities; they both were raised by a single mother who was very dynamic with a lot of personality. 2Pac’s mother was a political activist, Biggie’s mother was a single mother and they both didn’t finish college and they, at some point, started to write songs and they became very open and honest and tried to write everything and they did it until they died. And Biggie’s real name is actually Christopher Wallace. But, realistically I feel exactly the same as those two guys. I used to be a very big Wu-Tang fan but I think that’s kind of over now.

We asked a couple of our readers to send us questions on Twitter and one reader had a particularly funny one. He’s like ‘What does it feel like to be idolised by Pitchfork media but not to be able to be found on Google?’

(laughs)

I read somewhere that you’re working on a reggae album. Is that a project that’s still going on?

Yeah, I mean not really. When I talked about working on it, that was the time when I was writing the songs but I had to put them away. That’s really how all of our work is done: I write them, put them away and the next day of work is just in the studio, there’s nothing in between so yeah, the first job has been done for the reggae album (the songs are written) but really I don’t know when we’ll work on it, I don’t know if this is going to happen.

It will be a Girls project, then?

I’d like it to be. I’ve received a lot of oppositions from the others involved, specifically on this one! It’d have to be done differently. I think that people have done co-records like that. It’d have to be done in a studio with a Jamaican pro- ducer, vocal musicians and all that.

All right. Last question: if I’m not mistaken, you like Oasis, the band?

Oh yeah!

What do you prefer, Beady Eye or High Flying Birds (Liam and Noel’s new projects)?

Oh God, I wish I knew, ah. I’d really love to tell you an answer but I haven’t listened to either of them. My intuition is to stick with Noel on this one.

Watch the video Honey Bunny:

Girls’ latest album Father, Son, Holy Ghost is out now on True Panthers.

(This interview was first published in the white album)

Normann Copenhagen Pop up Store, Brussels

With the end-of-year, Christmas shopping spree about to begin, Brussels-based design hotstop La Fabrika dedicates an entire space to the playful, innovative and often surprising world of Danish design imprint Normann Copenhagen. Open until the end of the month, the pop up shop features the Scandinavian designers’s entire collection, unique for its ability to challenge conventional design rules and use traditional materials whilst retaining a certain unpretentiousness.

From 1st to 31st December

La Fabrika, Rue A. Dansaertstraat 182, 1000 Brussels

www.lafabrika.be

Robert Devriendt, Brussels

Robert Devriendt’s miniature oil paintings tell intimate stories by showing fragments of people, animals, landscapes or spaces which greatly resemble film stills. With his special attention to detail and precise, realistic painting technique harking back to the Flemish Primitives, he creates an intriguing world full of sensuality. A fetishist, a young girl, a blood stained dog, a taxidermist – these and other figures make regular appearances in his at times obscure and gloomy series of work, set in a natural decor with Devriendt slipping into the role of a hermit living an insular life in the woods. Fittingly, the exhibition The woods of love and horror, which bears resemblance to an unfinished film, is inspired by murder mysteries and crime thrillers.

Until 23rd December

Galerie Baronian Francey, Rue Isidore Verheydenstraat 2, 1050 Brussels 

www.baronianfrancey.com

Depth of Field, Antwerp

Playing around and mastering the depth of field is probably rule number one of the dummy’s guide to photography. Indeed, the distance between the nearest and farthest subject or object in your composition – that magical effect that is achieved through adjustments to your optical lens – often is the best way for a photographer to balance the relevant with the superfluous, then and there deciding what, to him, should be in focus, and what deserves to be relegated to the background. Drawing upon the creme of the crop of current Belgian photographic talent (everyone from Bert Danckaert, Lara Gasparotto, Francois Goffin, Jimmy Kets, Charlotte Lybeer and Arno Roncada), the exhibition showcases the myriad of possibilities when experimenting with depth of field emphasising the dialectical connection between the sharp and the blurry whilst reviving the notion of the photographer as a painter-photographer.

Until 24th December

Stieglitz 19, Klapdorp 2, 2000 Antwerp

www.stieglitz19.be

Serge Strosberg, Antwerp

Antwerp-born, New York-based artist Serge Strosberg’s works draws upon the city’s energy and very much evolves around the fashion world – a world he is no stranger to following previous collaborations with art directors for Elle and Vogue. Combining German expressionism with American realism, the self-proclaimed Expressionist of fashion captures models by revealing the less glamourous side of the beauty business. His vivid depictions – portraits that owe as much to photography as they do to painting – touch upon themes of materialism, narcissism, voyeurism and uniformity, making Strosberg’s unique vision particularly relevant in today’s fashion-frenzied society.

From 2nd to 23rd December

Galerie Ludwig Trossaert, Museumstraat 29, Antwerp

www.strosbergserge.com

Pop/Zuid Pop up Store, Antwerp

From books, accessories and cosmetics to clothes and shoes, this temporary designer outlet offers everything the avid shopper can wish for. An eclectic selection of all the right brands offers a varied choice guaranteed to lay any fashion fiend’s end of year frustrations to rest.  With collections by Jil Sander’s and more playful pieces from Paul & Joe sister or Chloe’s See line, the pop up outlet store remains open until the end of January and remains your best shot yet at making an impression on a shoestring.

Until 31st January

Pop/Zuid, Scheldestraat 72, 2000 Antwerp

Thursday to Saturday and Monday, 11h00 – 18h00

Andy Butler and Jeremy Glenn, Ghent

Having done more than anyone in bringing some disco cool back to the dance floor with his Hercules & Love Affair crew (check out their newest album ‘Blue Songs’ released on Moshi Moshi earlier this year), New York DJ Andy Butler has since become the unofficial spokesman for a generation of nostalgic club music lovers. Playing a DJ set and supported by Toronto-based Jeremy Glenn (We Play House), expect a night of suggestive danse moves and sexy-hot dance grooves.

2nd December

Vooruit, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23, 9000 Ghent

www.vooruit.be

Lineart Art Fair, Ghent

Often living in Art Brussels’ shadow, Lineart has nonetheless carved out a niche for itself as the art fair for the studious. Concentrating on contemporary art, modern and ethnic paintings can be found next to design items and sculptures. Celebrating its 30th birthday, this year’s edition comes with a special focus on Japan, as well as a newly established photography section, Photo Art Zone. Also not to miss: Belgium Calling, a section showcasing Belgian artists as well as The Border which gives young and upcoming artists the chance to shine.

From 2nd to 6th December

Flanders Expo, Adolphe Pégoudlaan, 9051 Ghent

www.lineart.be

Jasper Johns, Oudenbourg

Located in the Belgian countryside, far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city-slicking art scene, the De 11 Lijnen is a special place that puts on special exhibitions, a fact confirmed with its latest exhibition which shows works from world-famous contemporary artist Jasper Johns. World-renowned for his famous painting of the US American flag, Johns paved the way for pop artists such as Andy Warhol through his technique of capturing everyday, ordinary objects onto the canvas. One aspect of Johns’ career that often went unnoticed was his use of hand prints as artistic medium, first accidentally in studies for a sculpture, later as a focal point in many important pieces of his oeuvre. This exhibition now presents Johns’ works from a different angle, focusing on these hand prints that sometimes remind the viewer of prehistoric cave paintings and undoubtedly add to the mystery around his pieces.

Until 11th February 2012

Foundation De 1 Lijnen, Oudenbourg

www.de11lijnen.com

Where are you right now?

Mario: We’re one foot in Lithuania and the other worldwide.

Vidis: Haha…That’s a more generic point of view. But it’s right. We’re in the studio right now to be more specific, putting down some answers for you. We’ve been working on a new track with Ernesto today. It’s called ‘Care’, and we really really like it. We’re really feeling it because it turned out like no other track we’ve ever made. Ernesto recorded two tracks with us for our album. Now we’re giving something back to him – producing some stuff for his new album as well.

What have you been up to this month?

M: We’ve just finished a remix for Australian indie-pop band Architecture In Helsinki which turned out to be very different in a good way – none of our remixes sounded anything like that before. Yes! Again. We’ve been doing some hybrid tracks recently. We don’t even know what the style is really. It just happens when we work together in the studio…

V: Also we’ve been working on a Bon Iver cover for ‘Re: Stacks’ featuring vocal treatment of James Mathé. We’re very much into this at the moment. We want to finish it as soon as possible and we’ve been traveling quite a lot recently too. Playing Russia, Ukraine, then again Russia, and ready to do a few dates in Germany, Italy, and Turkey very soon.

We tried to make it a real journey, not just a collection of our tracks new and old.

Tell us about the album. How long has it been in the making? Where was it recorded?

M: We were working on the album for three years. It was recorded in my studio apart from one session when we were recording live drums which were recorded in another studio. Also with Plastic People, which was co-written by Vytautas Sondeckis a good old friend of mine, he recorded these plastic fantastic keyboards in his basement studio and the vocals too! Believe it or not but only the songs with Giedre were recorded here in this studio. All other vocal parts were traveling back and forward in between Vilnius, London, Brighton and Gothenburg.

V: This is where we have a slightly different approach. The album showcases our work from the last three years. But it was recorded mainly in five months from May to September 2011 and most of the work was done in the middle of the summer – in July 2011. So I’d say we recorded it during a very productive summer of 2011. Even though the album showcases our work from the last three years.

How would you describe the mood of the album?

M: Deep and mysterious.

V: I’d say it’s got a consistent mood. Different tempos and styles aside we’ve put a lot of time and effort editing tracks, mostly the beginnings and the endings, to make it a smooth listen. And pardon for the cliche expression, but we tried to make it a real journey, not just a collection of our tracks new and old.

Electronic music is very much an art of context.

The two disks possess drastically different moods, tempos and directions. How would you distinguish one from the other?

M: The first one is vocal and the second one is fully instrumental. The first one is more suitable for listening, the second one is more suitable for dancing. The first CD is more Mario and the second one is more Vidis.

V: Those two discs showcase our different personalities and even different sides of us. One day we feel kinda blue and want to put down one more melancholic song. And another day we feel like banging it out with a dance floor destroyer. I wouldn’t say the moods are drastically different though – we fit most of this diverse material quite easily into the sets we play. You just have to know how to do transitions. Then you can move quite easily and convincingly from electronic ballads to dance floor bangers. Electronic music is very much an art of context.

Talk us to about some of the vocalists you had on the album. How did the collabs come about? I’m especially interested to hear/learn more about Giedre.

M: Vidis could you please take on this one…

V: Jazzu is a good old friend of ours, Kathy Diamond became our friend during her gig here in Vilnius at one of my events, and we got in touch with Ernesto with the help of the internet when we wanted to do our first track featuring a male vocalist. Giedre is a local legend. She’s a lead vocalist of a band called Empti. They were the ground breaking Lithuanian act at the end of the 90s, fusing electronica, indie and pop in their own way. We felt like inviting her for a variety of the vocals on the CD and for the respect we have for her, she felt like joining us. Now everyone’s happy with results.

What’s the thing that surprised you the most recording the album?

M: Hm. Maybe realizing how much time and energy it really takes, especially the technical work, the final mixing and mastering.

V: Me too. On the one hand I was surprised but of course proud at the same time that we managed to come up with a double album – we had enough of material! On the other hand yeah, we didn’t think it will be consuming so much of the time, we were saying this is our first and last double album haha…

What’s the one most important thing you learned whilst recording the album?

M: We learned new things about each other, we learned new things about music styles, we learned to sit down and review our tracks to make sure they would fit onto the album, and would last longer than a usual dance floor material or DJ tool. We learned to express ourselves and present our sound. We’ve learned about working with tube compressors and limiters because that was a new hardware which arrived around the time of the album recording. We learned a lot.

V: We learned to accept changes. That’s the idea behind the album and it’s title. We re-arranged, re-edited, and re-adopted absolutely all the tracks. Even the ones which were produced 3 years ago. It’s all about re-thinking your ideas, attitudes and values all the time. It’s a never ending process. ‘Changed’ was changed one more time even after it’s release. We released the CD for the Lithuanian territory at the very end of 2010. During 2011 some of the tracks were signed by a few international dance labels and released as singles or EPs with a bunch of remixes added to them. Then we changed the artwork slightly, changed our artist name – shortened it a little bit, and are releasing it for worldwide audience.

We learned to accept changes. That’s the idea behind the album and its title. We re-arranged, re-edited, and re-adopted absolutely all the tracks.

What would you say your top three LPs of the year were so far?

M: MCDE DJ Kicks compilation, John Tejada‘s album, Jamie Woon‘s Mirrorwriting.

V: Oh. I hate this kind of questions. Three is never enough. How can you put the whole year into three albums? Let’s talk about last three months maybe? Then it would be Joakim ‘Nothing Gold’, Little Dragon ‘Ritual Union’, Bon Iver ‘Bon Iver’.

Can you talk to us a little about your hometown? What’s your neighborhood like? what’s the nightlife like? which clubs/parties do you go to? Any shops you recommend?

M: I don’t go out that much so it’s a question for Vidis.

V: For good parties you should check Opium, Soul Box, Gorky, for live concerts Loftas. You’ll always find good stuff at Zoe’s, Briusly, La Boheme, and Kitchen. For up to date art the definite place is Contemporary Art Centre. For all kinds of designer items you should go to Daiktu viesbutis. And just for a nice walk around you should go to Uzupis, check out theriver side, and the old town of course. Come visit us!

Who would you book for your last ever party?

M: Nuyorican Soul.

V: Freddie Mercury would be nice. But he’s unavailable for gigs right now. Beastie Boys then. Sa-sa-satisfaction guaranteed. Maybe Grace Jones too.

What three websites do you religiously check everyday?

M: Facebook, Xhamster, Swedbank – my bank account.

V: Facebook, Google Calendar, racas.lt – a blog of one local wise guy.

What is next for you, as a band but as individual musicians?

M: Two original releases – ‘We Are Child Of Love’ and ‘Jeremy Glenn’ which doesn’t have a name yet. And remixes for Jay West ‘Smile’, Crazy P ‘Changes’, Bradka ‘Fine Fine’, Metronomy ‘Corrine’, The Mecanism ‘Can’t Believe’.

V: I’m planning my first international mix album for the new year to show everyone where I’m coming from. I also wanna give some exposure to local talent – we’ve got a small but really vibrant scene these days.

Are you guys on Facebook?

V: Yes we are – follow us on Facebook here.

Changed was released on Future Classic in May 2011

Photographers Gregoire Pleynet and Pauline Miko.

I was about to ask you what I needed to do to make you take off those scarves of yours but you’re not even wearing them…

Haha, you wouldn’t have wanted to hear the answer anyway.

What’s with them anyway? Is this just a marketing ploy? It’s not even that original, Daft Punk already did it before you…

Wearing scarfs is no different than wearing shoes. Actually the marketing people told us not to do it as they thought it wasn’t charming enough. But we see it more like a theatrical performance that adds a visual element to the band. We get more attention on stage and sometimes people shout “Take them off!” By the way, Daft Punk worked 16 months on their helmets – it was an important artistic element. And in the end every band has a certain outfit.

If you work every day to earn money you don’t have any time left for creativity.

The music website Pitchfork accused you of focusing too much on fashion at the expense of your music – how do you respond to that?

Aaah, Pitchfork – they bashed us, right? This fashion stuff is ridiculous. I mean, look at us! When we went touring in the US, we had one carry-on bag for all three of us. We spent 10 hours in the tour bus every day and played every night in the same stinky dirty clothes.

You’ve all lived in squat houses, how did you end up there? What was that like?

We couldn’t afford to move to London, the rents there are crazily expensive. And if you work every day to earn money you don’t have any time left for creativity. That’s why we chose to live in a squat. We turned the building into a gallery and slept with seven people in one room. People from all over the world were coming there. Many of the people living there with us are respected artists now, they have successful galleries in London, one girl is writing a book and Dominic Jones is making jewellery – for example for Beyoncé.

Do you still live in squat houses when you go back to England now?

Unfortunately we had to stop. We’d come back from our tours and in the meantime all our stuff would have been kicked out. For a while we also lived in another place, a warehouse that was used as a showroom for toilets. We threw huge parties there with bands such as Mystery Jets coming to play for instance. Sometimes more than 5000 people would show up.

Didn’t you get problems with the police?

Funnily the police couldn’t do anything because it was not allowed to shut down an illegal event with more than 1000 people due to the risk of a riot. Unfortunately they changed that law.

We are involved in every aspect of being a band. For us it’s not only music but the whole package: the sound, the look, the feel.

Gary and Simon, you both went to art school, how does that influence what you do as a band?

We make all the artwork ourselves and are involved in every aspect of being a band. For us it’s not only music but the whole package: the sound, the look, the feel.

It’s quite a big step from living in a squat to being signed with a label like Kitsuné – how did that happen?

First we only played in our squat house at the gallery events. Then many people liked it and encouraged us, so we continued. When we played a show as a support act for The Big Pink the people from Kitsuné saw us. Kitsuné was perfect. We didn’t want an English label because then you are pretty much stuck in the UK. With Kitsuné our music is released everywhere in the world and we get to travel. If we only played in England we would be very unhappy people.

England is too oversaturated when it comes to music. There is no love left.

You don’t like your home country?

England sucks. Everywhere else you get treated nicely and there they treat you like shit. It’s too oversaturated when it comes to music – there’s no love left. In other countries people take care of us, we get nice food and everyone is friendly. In England they give you six warm beers for three people, if you are lucky. But we do like to play in London because our friends live there.

Did signing with a label change you as a band?

Before we basically just worked with our laptops and now we have a studio. We became much more professional. It takes a lot of time and hard work. We can’t get hammered every night anymore, people pay money too see us now and we don’t want to let them down.

You’ve been touring a lot, what was your best experience?

We really grew to like performing with electro acts and DJs. It’s cool when people sing your songs and dance to them. When we wrote the songs we didn’t realise the stroby late night music potential they had. It’s funny how they develop their own lives somehow.

You’ve been criticised a lot for your video ‘The Greeks’ that was done by French trio Megaforce – many found it too violent.

Tom & Jerry is much more violent and disgusting. In our video you can see that it’s always the same kids and it’s obvious that nothing happens to them. We were very honoured when all these Christian websites in the US said it was evil!

Your music doesn’t seem to be very lyrics-driven, is that true? What do you write about, what inspires you?

The voices are an instrument in the mix, equally important to all the other elements. The lyrics are actually quite essential and we really don’t get enough credit for them. We do tell stories, we don’t write cheesy crap. The main motif in our lyrics is escapism: We are not trying to tell how shitty life is, we want to talk about something fun.

The main motif in our music is escapism. We don’t want to tell you how shitty life is.

You wrote a song about Berlin, what’s that about?

The song is about drugs and Berlin does loads of drugs. It’s a cool city, we played there three times. We went to this amazing club, Berghain. A crazy place with darkrooms and stuff. There was this girl who just grabbed Dom and pulled him into a cubicle, best kiss ever. Can you put that on the website? He needs to find this girl again!

Do you have a favourite song on the album?

They are all wicked of course! No, seriously, right now we really like What??? and Oranges. And what’s cool is that when people approach us they all have a different favourite song – which means that we made a strong album.

What do you associate with Belgium?

We played at Les Ardentes, that was cool. Of course Belgian chocolate and fries – delicious. And Belgium has better radio stations than many other countries.

What’s next in store for you?

We continue our European tour, then we play in Brazil and in early December we go back home to England for a Christmas break. We are also constantly writing new stuff, ideas just keep coming.

Watch the award-winning video ‘The Greeks’:

Native To was released on Kitsuné in June 2011

Available on iTunes here

Exhibitions

Last days to catch: Harry Gruyaert

Photography Harry Gruyaert/Magnum Photos

In what essentially is a mini-retrospective, Brussels photography outpost Box Gallery showcases about 50 prints from Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert, a member of the legendary photo agency Magnum since 1981. Combining standard-setting classics with smaller and unexpected surprises, all photographs were handpicked by the artist himself, with the exhibition including pieces from his acclaimed series of distorted TV screens. With a special focus on the subtleties of lights and the power of colour, Gruyaert’s work has for the last 30 years stayed clear of any cliches, constructing a unique body of work that sits somewhere in between Stephen Shore‘s realism and Eggleston‘s experimentations.

Until 26th November

Box Galerie, Rue du Mail 88 Maliestraat, 1050 Brussels

www.boxgalerie.be

Boris Tellegen

Photography courtesy of A.L.I.C.E Gallery

A visual artist since 1983, Dutch-born Boris Tellegen (also known as Delta by his street-savy peers) first began as a graffiti artist in and around Amsterdam, going on to build up quite the name for himself across European shores through his use of 3D techniques. Having now graduated to the world of studios and galleries, his current work still exudes the energy and spark of his graffiti years (the geometrical and three-dimensional nature of most of his works remains) although it has gained in maturity as far as the execution, and, most importantly, the narrative are concerned. His works tell a story now, come to life and battle for attention: it’s not always easy to look at Tellegen’s work, although that only adds to its sheer power and immediacy.

From 24th November to 23rd December

Alice Gallery, Rue du pays de Liège 4 Land van Luikstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.alicebxl.be

Valerie Snobeck

Photography Isabelle Arthuis

A study in the extent to which transparency can be stretched to its limits, New York-based artist Valerie Snobeck’s ‘Block Optic with Rope’ show at Galerie Catherine Bastide tests the meaning of seeing an object as well as seeing through it. Playing on perspectives, contrasts and illusions, Snobeck pits front against back and positive against negative in an ongoing battle of solid vs static, the end result often leaving the viewer asking for more. Indeed, the artist blends and mends opposing forces into works of art made all the more confusing by her ‘print-laminate-peel-transfer’ technique that transposes ghost-like outlines to bewildering effect.

From 25th November to 21st January

Galerie Catherine Bastide, Rue Vandenbrandenstraat 1, 1000 Brussels

www.catherinebastide.com

Concerts & Parties

Our white album release party

Our last edition of the year, the white album, comes out on Friday 25th November. It features artists talking about their fear of the blank canvas, professions that still wear white aprons at work and the oldest tennis club in Belgium (members are required to wear white). It also features a snow globe collector, a tribute to white socks and an interview with White Russia (the band whose song, Charmless State, was used for the teaser). Come on down, get your copy, have a Volga (Brussels’ latest beer) and a little boogie (Nosedrip‘s on decks). It’ll be fun.

Join the Facebook event page here.

25th November, from 19h00.

Galerie Catherine Bastide, Rue Vandenbrandenstraat 1, 1000 Brussels

www.thewordmagazine.be

Autumn Falls Festival

Reading like a rollcall of indie rock’s current cream of the crop (everyone from Suuns and Metronomy to Matthew Herbert and Fool’s Gold), Autumn Falls‘ second edition comes back with an ever bigger line up, overtaking the city’s live venues for a five day rampage. Our favorite this weekend are Suuns, probably the darkest (and loudest) thing to come out of Canada lately. The four-piece known for its intense live shows offers a hypnotic, pitch-black sound characterised by pulsating beats, howling sirens, shouting guitars and lead singer Ben Shemie‘s whispering vocals. Gloomy but nonetheless dancefloor-worthy, this will delight the fans of Can and Talking Heads alike. We have five tickets to give-away for the afterparty on Saturday 26th at Mr Wong with DJs Deer Pony and MOT. The first five readers to send an email to wewrite@thewordmagazine.be with Autmn Falls After party in the subject line will each be added to the guest list.

From 21st to 27th November

24th November

Suuns @ VK, Rue de l’Ecole 76 Schoolstraat, 1080 Brussels

26th November

Roll Dice and Autumn Falls Afterparty @ Mr Wong, Rue de la Vierge Noire 10 Zwarte Lievevrouwstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.autumnfalls.be

Bozar Night

Following its Bozar Electronic Weekend end of October, electronic music comes back to haunt the Bozar‘s halls for a night at the museum guaranteed to be high trebbles and bass. Top of the bill are live performances from London-based jazz rap band The Herbaliser and Legowelt.

25th November

Bozar Centre of Fine Arts, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23,  1000 Brussels

www.bozar.be

Catclub

You could say a page is about to be turned on Saturday with what is the Catclub’s last edition in its traditional hunting ground of iMal. Putting on one heck of a show to ensure it goes out at the top of its game, the night’s line-up is headed by legendary German tastemaker DJ Ata, founder of the Playhouse, Klang and Ongaku labels, owner of the famous Robert Johnson club in Frankfurt and on the DJ trail since the 80s. Add to that Brussels-based duo The Criime as dance-floor warm ups and New York-based artist Tara Sinn for visual works and smiles, smiles and more smiles are guaranteed all around.

26th November

iMAL, Quai des Charbonnages 30 Koolmijnenkaai, 1080 Brussels

www.catclub.be

Shopping

Maison Martin Margiela@Bozar shop

Mixing high and low has always been one of Maison Martin Margiela’s signature contributions to the fashion world. Their Ligne 13 – dedicated to objects and publications – has a poetic and timeless feel to it, one which escapes seasonal constraints to focus instead on surrealistic items which are given the MMM cachet. It references the past, yes, but without taking itself too seriously. Like its ostrich feather pen. It’s slightly on the outlandish side and elicits the odd incredulous look or two at first. Then it suddenly reminds you you haven’t received a handwritten letter in yonks, and then and there an ostrich-feathered pen might just be the thing you need to get you to put pen to paper again. Under the theme “White Christmas” the Bozar Shop now has a selection of mainly white MMM objects in offer – from the feather pen to snowballs, a cotton calendar or Matryoshka dolls.

Monday to Sunday, 10h00 until 19h00

Bozar Shop, rue Ravensteinstraat 15, 1000 Brussels

www.bozarshop.be

Art & culture

John Isaacs: The closest I ever came to you

Photography courtesy of Aeroplastics

The UK-born artist is somewhat of a modern-day moralist: His works, mainly installations, expose the discrepancy of the way the world is and the way we would like it to be. Playing with extremities and taboos John Isaacs uses his pieces as guilty messengers that show the decline of today’s Western society and deal with our role as individuals within society. Despite his gloomy vision of the world, his work carries a spark of hope trying to create a new consensus by challenging the spectators to rethink their perspectives. Heavy stuff.

From 18th November to 21st January 2012

AEROPLASTICS contemporary, Rue Blanchestraat 32 , 1060 Brussels

www.aeroplastics.net

Donald Judd

Photography courtesy of Galerie Greta Meert

From his earlier works to his later creations, the exhibition at Greta Meert gallery gives a comprehensive overview of one of the most renowned exponents of Minimal Art – a label that the American artist himself always fiercely rejected. With his radical and innovative approach to furniture design focusing on functionality combined with a pure and simple but elegant look, Donald Judd’s creations were at the time of making of ground-breaking character. Today his pieces have lost nothing of their appeal – built with sober but solid materials, technical precision and an elegant simplicity, Judd’s furniture is timeless and here to stay.

From 19th November to 10th March 2012

Galerie Greta Meert, Rue Du Canal 13 Vaartstraat, 1000 Brussels

www.galeriegretameert.com

Shoot for Good

Photography Sébastien Calvez

With a dual purpose to its existence (to give emerging artists some shine as well as raise funds to support the accessibility of art for low income communities), Shoot for Good‘s Contrasts exhibition displays limited-edition works by photographers from across the world. Sitting alongside the works of 13 amateur photographers are the donated prints of over 17 seasoned professionals who’ve handed their image rights over to the organisation. All profits from the event are reinvested into projects that promote social reintegration through the arts, providing you with the perfect opportunity to indulge in your photographic fetish whilst also doing a little bit of good by, hopefully, reaching out for your wallet.

From 17th to 20th November

Tour & Taxis, Avenue du Port 86c Havenlaan, 1000 Brussels

www.shootforgood.be

Shopping

Indoor DesignMarkt

With its vast selection including affordable interior pieces as well as items exclusively aimed at collectors, this enormous vintage market offers everything a vintage fan could wish for. What’s more, the Ghent DesignMarkt is more than just a sale, extending into the realms of fair-territory. Indeed, visitors will be able to get their picture taken together with their purchased wares by top photographer Andy De Decker, consult young interior designers for free or watch four Belgian architects build a vintage living room right before their eyes.

From 19th to 20th November

ICC Ghent, Citadel Parc 1, 9000 Ghent

www.designmarkt.be

Modo Sales

Organised by Modo Brussels, this gigantic two-day stocksale offers an excellent chance to get your hands on Belgian designer pieces at a reasonable price. More than thirty creators open up their wardrobes for the weekend, with everything from Carine Gilson’s exquisite lingerie to the elegant clothing of award-winning label Sandrina Fasoli vying for your attention. The yearly rendez-vous of the local fashion scene and the best way to add a little Belgian flavour to your clothes rack.

From 18th to 19th November

Center of Fashion & Design, Nouveau Marché-aux-grains 10 Nieuwe Graanmarkt, 1000 Brussels

www.modobrussels.be

Music

Indie: Foster The People

Having conquered the radio waves this summer with its catchy hit ‘Pumped Up Kicks’, the dance-infused indie pop three-piece from Los Angeles now comes to Brussels on the back of their acclaimed debut album ‘Torches’ (think MGMT’s ‘Oracular Spectacular’). The Californians are another perfect example for internet-initiated music stardom: The viral success of ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ got them an online ad campaign, a record label and, finally, appearances at big festivals as Coachella and SXSW where they cemented their reputation for energetic live performances.

19th November

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat, 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

House/disco: Maceo Plex

After having travelled the world and played in some of the best clubs around the globe Maceo Plex, better known under his former artist name Maetrik, now comes to Brussels to present his new tracks (the album ‘Life Index’ was released this year on Crosstown) at the Libertine Supersport night hosted in K-nal. With his versatile mixture of dark and deep house and Nu Disco, Maceo Plex‘s smooth and sexy sound is guaranteed to keep you on your toes ’til the early hours of the morning.

19th November

K-nal, Avenue du Port 1 Havelaan, 1000 Brussels

www.libertinesupersport.be

Hip hop: IconAclass

IconAclass is the most recent solo project from MC and producer Will Brooks, best known for his alternative hip hop releases as MC Dälek. With his new album ‘For the ones’, he digs deep in his soul and offers a stripped down, boom bap old school hip hop album with the lyrics at the forefront and touching on topics from religion to race relations and criticism of capitalism. A must for backpacking hip hop heads with a penchant for dark productions.

20th November

Trix, Noordersingel 28-30, 2140 Antwerp

www.trixonline.be

Funk/Soul: Tropical #17

Every third Saturday of the month Madame Moustache invites you to its so-called Tropical parties dedicated to latin, afro and caribbean rhythms from the 60s to today. This weekend resident DJ Funky Bompa is joined by DJ Quilombo, active in the Brussels Up collective and something of a tropical bass supremo.

19th November

Madame Moustache, Quai au Bois à Brûler 5-7 Brandhoutkaai, 1000 Brussels

www.madamemoustache.be

It features artists talking about their fear of the blank canvas, professions that still wear white aprons at work and the oldest tennis club in Belgium (members are required to wear white). It also features a snowball collector, a tribute to white socks and an interview with White Russia (the band’s whose song, Charmless State, was used for the teaser).

Come on down, get your copy, have a Volga (Brussels’ latest beer) and a little boogie (Nosedrip‘s on decks).

Address for the night: Rue Vandenbrandenstraat 2 - 1000 Brussels (Next door to Galerie Catherine Bastide and behind Café Modèle). Find it on Google maps

JOIN THE EVENT ON FACEBOOK

Instameet

When lens manufacturer Schneider begins manufacturing lenses for iPhones and the widely popular photo app Instagram hits the ten million users mark, you know the game has forever been changed. No surprise then that A&Gallery and Instameet, an initiative bringing together the global phoneography community, felt it timely to put on what is, essentially, Belgium first major phoneography exhibition, showcasing 100 selected photographs snapped up with mobile phones. Get used to these, they’re the future.

From 10th to 12th November

A&Gallery, Schepenhuisstraat 17 – 9000 Ghent

www.instameet.be

Olivier Cornil: La quadrature du vide

Photography Olivier Cornil

To celebrate the 60 year anniversary of Brussels’ North-South connection – the city’s so-called Jonction – the neighbourhood’s artistic institutions Recyclart and Congrès join forces to present artists exploring the present and the future of this urban renewal scheme. Top of our list: Photographer Olivier Cornil who’s just completed his first month of residency at Recyclart, Peter Downsbrough showcasing a site-specific installation of his at Congres as well as a historical exhibition tracing the North-South’s axis evolution. The perfect opportunity to spruce up your historical knowledge of Brussels in a very visual manner.

Recyclart, Rue des Ursulines 25 Ursulinenstraat – 1000 Brussels

www.jonction.be

Michel Mazzoni: Straight in the light

Abandoned spaces, lost places and the powerful and immaterial beauty of light – these are the themes French-born photographer Michel Mazzoni explores in his works for the exhibition “Straight in the light” studying the mystical vastness of North American landscapes. Think Stephen Shore and Alec Soth.

From 11th November to 11th December

Centre Culturel Jaques Franck, Chaussee de Waterloo 94 Waterloosesteenweg – 1060 Brussels

www.lejacquesfranck.be

Pink screens

Five different artists from New York to Paris explore gender and sexual diversity in different ways. Machado De Souza Jaqueline for instance focuses on motel rooms as a microcosmos of sexuality, whilst visual artist Carter presents a film installation in which Hollywood star James Franco (127 Hours, Howl) acts out excerpts from different films in an attempt to question identities. The show is part of the Pink Screens film festival’s 10th edition hosted by Cinema Arenberg, Cinema Nova and Genres d’à Coté.

From 10th to 19th November

Cinema Nova, Rue d’Arenberg 3 Arenbergstraat – 1000 Brussels

www.pinkscreens.org

The fashion show to catch: Customisez-moi

In its fifth edition this year, talent contest Customisez-moi created by vintage guru Bernard Gavilan and open to all fashion obsessives – from autodidacts through to fashion students – hosts its final catwalk show this Friday, putting forward the customised creations of the selected finalists. The winner will be given some space to shine through Modo Brussels as well as the RA store in Antwerp.

11th November, 20h00

Studio Indigo, Avenue Van Volxem 388 Van Volxemlaan – 1190 Brussels

www.customisezmoi.com

Paul Smith

Photography courtesy of Paul Smith

Last days to see: This Friday is the final opportunity to see Paul Smith’s stamped object collection – an exhibition of sometimes funny, sometimes weird pieces that designer Paul Smith has been receiving frequently by mail from an unknown fan. Usually situated in Smith’s home, the selection of quirky objects is now shown in Europe for the first time since its debut in Hong Kong.

11th November

Paul Smith, Kelderstraat 2 & 3  – 2000 Antwerp

www.paulsmith.co.uk

The night out: DIG.IT.ALL

German DJ and multi-instrumentalist Christian Prommer takes to the decks at Wood this Friday for a night of live electronic music. Expect a more eclectic vibe, one which places experimentation right at the centre of its game.

11th November

Wood, Chemin de la Meute 1 Jachtkoppelweg – 1000 Brussels

www.thewood.be

The festival to go to: I love Techno

Paul Kalkbrenner, Boys Noize, Birdy Nam Nam, Cassius…once again the Belgian indoor festival I love Techno brings the crème de la crème of electronic music to town. Top of our wish list: Totally Extinct Enormous Dinosaur, Drop the Lime and playboy DJ Brodinski.

Flanders Expo, Maaltekouter 1, 9051 Ghent

www.ilovetechno.be

The concert to catch: Atmosphere

Having probably done more than Prince himself to put Minneapolis on the map, indie rap imprint Atmosphere has over the years built up a considerable fan base with its blend of hardcore emo-rap. Led by eloquent wordsmith Slug, the band have just released their latest album, The Family Sign for which they are currently touring Europe. With other label mates getting on the bus with them (Brother Ali, Dilated Peoples‘ Evidence and Ohio producer Blueprint), this is one sure to bring the backpackers out in force.

11th November

L’Ancienne Belgique, Boulevard Anspachlaan 110, 1000 Brussels

www.abconcerts.be

The shop to drop by: La Fabrika

La Fabrika, a design store offering 230 m² of carefully-curated contemporary furniture, lighting and accessories, opened its doors a year ago and now celebrates its first birthday with a special treat for its customers: a 10% reduction on the whole collection, including pieces by established designers as well as rising talents.

12th November, 11h00 – 18h30

La Fabrika, Rue A. Dansaertstraat 182 – 1000 Brussels

www.lafabrika.be

Interview and photographs Yana Foqué

Photography Yana Foqué

You are a travelling man. Tell us the best thing about being on the road.

The random encounters, and landscapes.

Do you feel as though being in between places is a necessity for your music?

No, it’s circumstantial. I’ll play with the cards I’m dealt.

What can make you extremely happy?

Eating good food, of course.

Your music can be very subtle, at times almost hypnotic. Listening to your record feels a bit like a drift. On top of that you named the album ‘Badlands’, which gives it an extra cinematic ring to it. How did you decide on the name?

It was definitely in tribute to the American landscapes I’ve driven through.

Photography Yana Foqué

How far can you go to get a song just right?

Ideas are not forever. If the moment is lost, I abandon the idea.

The song ‘ Coast to Coast’ echoes the voices of the past. The introverted yearning shimmers true. When did you write this song?

Between 2007-2008. The idea came from driving in the night, also as a passenger. Drifting in and out of sleep.

Your music overflows with images. Do you sometimes feel as a character to your own film?

Yes, because I think of that person as a reflection, like staring into the infinity mirror.

Nicest compliment you got on the record?

My mom said “ You are my pride” when she saw a picture of me in the newspaper.

‘Badlands’ is available on iTunes here

The exhibition to go to: Walter van Beirendonck

Photography courtesy of Walter Van Beirendonck

Antwerp’s Six most exuberant and larger than life figure has relentlessly been challenging the fashion world for the past three decades. Known for his colourful designs, his maverick fashion shows in Paris in the 90s, and the critical messages on society he proclaims with his designs, Walter van Beirendonck will see the highlights of his career and creations celebrated in this comprehensive retrospective at Antwerp’s fashion museum. In addition to silhouettes from his collections, the exhibition will provide an overview of the world he lives in, taking a deeper look into the narrative character of his oeuvre, his fascination for etnography, rituals, science fiction and technology.

Until 19th February

MoMu, Nationalestraat 28 – 2000 Antwerp

momu.be

The concerts to catch: Gablé and Is Tropical

Gablé

Pigeonholing this joyful and whacky French quartet is simply impossible. Gablé criss-crosses genres and styles, overthrowing any expectations of what a normal “band” could possibly be, bringing to the game an unexpected freshness. Their bubbly and unpredictable live shows have cemented their reputation as a band that really exists for the  stage, incorporating hoovers amongst other many other off-beat instruments.

5th November

Beursschouwburg, Rue Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28 – 1000 Brussels

www.beursschouwburg.be

Is Tropical

Having just released their debut album ‘Native to’ on Kitsuné earlier this year, the mysterious London three-piece (the band members hide their faces behind scarfs and masks at all times) now brings their beat-driven, pop-influenced lo-fi dance sound to Brussels.

4th November

Botanique, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat – 1210 Brussels

www.botanique.be

The night out: Plastic

Photography courtesy of Plastic

Contemporary plastic and visual arts, photography exhibition, live shows and DJ sets – Plastic is back this year in its traditional location, Brussels’ White Hotel. Spread out across 10 floors of exhibition and party space, each room is given to a different artist or musician, who essentially owns the premises for the night. With a special focus this year on music, Plastic’s 8th edition promises everything from hip hop, jazz, electronica and disco-punk. Top of the bill: Belgian up and coming electro-rock band Great Mountain Fire. See here for the full programme.

4th November

White Hotel Avenue Louise 212 Louizalaan – 1050 Brussels

www.plasticfestival.com

The movie to catch: Central Do Brasil

‘Central Do Brasil’ is a movie about the friendship between a little boy and a middle-aged woman that won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1998 and earned its award-winning brazilian director Walter Salles international acclaim. The director will be at hand on the night itself, revealing footage from his highly anticipated adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s cult novel ‘On the Road’, an enthralling portray of the Beat Generation.

6th November, 19h30

Flagey, Place Sainte Croix Heilig Kruisplein – 1050 Ixelles

www.flagey.be

Bringing the weekend to a close: Jazz at Potemkine

Photography courtesy of Potemkine

Almost every Sunday the Potemkine Bar marked by its wooden interior and a huge whale skeleton installation on the ceiling invites you to a cozy live jazz evening  – this time with the Fred Becker Trio performing. The perfect comfy and relaxed hungover Sunday hangout spot to let the weekend come to a close with some great jazz tunes and a cup of tea. And for the hard-boiled that simply never know when to stop, there’s Potemkine’s special Volga beer (offered with a shot of vodka).

6th November, 19h00

Potemkine, Avenue de la porte de Hal 2 Hallepoortlaan – 1060 Brussels

Courtesy of JauneOrange

Two of your new songs are named after food…

The song ‘Best Burger’ is a critique not just of the US but rather of consumer society as a whole. But when you walk through New York these signs are everywhere – everyone wants to sell you the allegedly best burger. It’s about how superficial things are. And regarding the sushi: Jon Spencer showed us a different restaurant in New York every day and as it happened we just ate loads of sushi. Actually we have quite some Japanese influences, from underground cinema to bands as for example Polysics.

You performed in the United States for the first time – how did the American audience receive you?

Our first gig in the US we played in Austin, Texas, and it was great. Actually the audiences in Europe and the States are very similar – music is universal. There was even this Texan Grandma coming up to us saying how much she liked the music.

Why is it so difficult for Belgian bands to make it across the Atlantic?

It’s very difficult to penetrate the territory, so to speak. The legal and administrative work is probably the biggest obstacle. You need an American label, visa,… All that makes it very complicated. Of course it’s also essential to have some credibility, and English lyrics help too.

You’ve been to some places with a strong blues history; did you get the chance to check out some real old blues venues?

Yes, we’ve been to some places in Memphis, but they were all very touristy and not that interesting. But in New York we got to listen to some incredible soul music. You go to a bar in Brooklyn and all of a sudden there’s Naomi Shelton singing or this guy who used to play with Amy Winehouse. It was a crazy experience; too bad we only had 15 days there.

Photography Olivier Donnet

It’s the first time you recorded an album in the States, more specifically New York – how did that influence the record?

It created this special energy for the recording. When you get up and take the subway in fucking New York City every morning with all these crazy people, then this creates a very special atmosphere and extra-ordinary motivation. Really, it was magical. The artistic force of this city is unbelievable. The guys playing in the New York subway are better than some bands you see in Belgian venues.

How did you manage to record with a legend like Jon Spencer?

We supported his band Heavy Trash twice. When he was at Les Ardentes we just went up to him and asked. He said he remembered us but wanted to listen to our demo first and shortly after that he said yes and proposed to record the album in his own studio in New York – something you don’t reject of course!

What was it like to work with him?

In the beginning we were quite impressed and needed some warming up time but then we hit it off. The whole way of working was very spontaneous and not technical or complicated. Jon follows the philosophy that mistakes are good – a perspective that disturbed us at first. Sometimes we made a mistake and he would say: ‘That was genius!’ And he’s just such a real American – a hard worker too, very demanding but very nice and human.

What impact did Jon Spencer have on your album?

He probably didn’t even realise the amount of magic he brought to this record. Jon Spencer clearly is our spiritual father and you can hear that on the disc. For ‘Do It To Me’ he even picked up the guitar himself and now we have a Spencer solo on our album!

Photography Olivier Donnet

How is this album different from your past ones?

It’s definitely characterised by its honesty, an honesty that we’ve always wanted to achieve but never managed. This we owe to Jon Spencer – we would have never dared to record an album like this before. This record is truly us.

Did that maybe have something to do with your switch from digital to analogue recording?

It’s the first time we recorded an album this way. It’s actually also possible to reach this kind of honesty with digital recording, but it definitely helped to bring some colour and warmth to the sound.

You’ve been around for about 10 years now – how did you guys actually start out?

We are friends since childhood and high school. Everything began as a joke, but then more and more people liked what we did. The first time we played, none of us had ever even touched a drum kit. We started to play together in 2001 but you could say that we only took it seriously from 2006 onwards.

You have a reputation for playing quite memorable live shows – what’s the craziest thing that’s happened on stage?

At the Dour festival Jacques de Pierpont (a famous Belgian music journalist) showed his cock on stage. But you know, that’s Dour!

Your music has been labelled psycho boogie blues for example. How would you describe your sound yourselves?

It’s just real rock’n’roll – now more than ever before. No need for complicated explications. We make real rock.

Photography Olivier Donnet

‘Liquid Love’ is out on JauneOrange on 14th November.

The exhibitions to go to: Dirk Braeckman and Florian Maier-Aichen

Dirk Braeckman

Photography by Dirk Braeckman, courtesy of Zeno X Gallery Antwerp

With a comprehensive retrospective of internationally renowned Belgian photographer Dirk Braeckman the exhibition at M provides an overview of his body of work ranging from the self-portraits of the early beginnings to the newer landscape images. The mysterious and anonymous quality of his photos prevail throughout Braeckman’s whole oeuvre, avoiding to emphasize the link with the subject and opting instead for unfocused presentations in dark shades of grey.

Until 8th January

M – Museum Leuven, L. Vanderkelenstraat 28 – 3000 Leuven

www.mleuven.be

Florian Maier-Aichen

Photography by Forian Maier Aichen

By combining traditional analogue photography and digital editing, Florian Maier-Aichen has managed to create a language of his own and redefine the concept of landscape imagery. Abstract, unsettling and at times surreal, his pictures contain a poetic nature. The images can originate from sources as varied as documentary or textbook photos to escapist landscape paintings. From there, the artist’s visual vocabulary and broad technical repertoire take over, fully aware that it is in the commingling of genres that an original view emerges.

Until 19th October

Galerie Baronian Francey, Rue Isidore Verheydenstraat 2 – 1050 Brussels

www.baronianfrancey.com

The night out: Catclub

Following its annual summer hiatus, Brussels’ Catclub gets the party season started again with, this Saturday, a live set by American-born and Berlin-based prodigy John Roberts, psychedelic visual arts by Panaframe from London and the night’s usual tribe of shiny, happy people. Without a doubt the only place to be this Saturday for all you party people out there.

Watch the teaser:

8th October, 23h00

iMAL, Quai des Charbonnages 30 Koolmijnenkaai – 1080 Brussels

www.catclub.be

The shop to stop by: Tea time with Paul Smith

Photography courtesy of Paul Smith

Drop by Antwerp’s Paul Smith shop on Friday afternoon to discover the quintessential British brand’s new collection in a very, erm, British way: tea, scones and maybe even those little triangular cucumber sandwiches.

7th October, 17h00 – 19h00

Paul Smith Shop, Kelderstraat 2-3 – 2000 Antwerp

www.paulsmith.co.uk

The concert to catch: Crystal Antlers

The California quintet from Long Beach started making a name for itself in 2008 with its highly acclaimed self-released debut EP. Known for their energetic live shows, Crystal Antlers now come to Brussels to present their new album ‘Two-Way Mirror’ with their typical mixture of psychedelic and progressive rock.

Watch the video of the new single Summer Solstice:

7th October, 20h00

Ancienne Belgique,  Avenue Anspach 10 Anspachlaan – 1000 Brussels

www.abconcerts.be

Photography by Pauline Miko

Given their age (Jan Paternoster is 22 and Dries Van Dijck only 20), Black Box Revelation – a pair of youngsters from the small Flemish town of  Dilbeek – have quite an impressive output to their name: Three albums in three years. With their new record ‘My Perception’, to be released on 3rd October, the band proves once again that it has a knack for composing dirty and powerful guitar-indie-rock that reeks of cigarette smoke, sweat and whiskey. Clearly having its roots in the garage rock of the 60s and 70s, their sound stays surprisingly unpretentious and direct, eschewing the current craze for all things remotely electronic in rock music, preferring instead to keep it real.  “We want to keep it pure. It doesn’t matter if we make mistakes as long as the vibe and atmosphere is great”, Jan explains. From the heavy-duty guitar riffs to the howling vocals and punchy drum sequences: the album does justice to the ‘less is more’ maxim. Ranging from the album’s catchy first single “Rattle My Heart” to the almost psychedelic seven minute-long opus “Sealed With Thorns”, Black Box Revelation remain true to their style, ensuring loyal followers won’t be disappointed – nor surprised. With their raw and heady sound – which often draws comparisons with the Rolling Stones or The Stooges - the Belgian garage rockers certainly do not reinvent the wheel, nor do they pretend to. But, and this is important, what they do, they do well.  With ‘My Perception’ the duo finally wants to take the European success of their 2009 debut ‘Set Your Head On Fire’ and the equally accomplished follow-up ‘Silver Threats’ across the Atlantic ocean. Pulling out all the necessary stops, their intention is more than obvious: The album was recorded in Los Angeles, they teamed up with producer Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures) and an American tour is in the works too. Whether Black Box Revelation’s first official US release will really be able to conquer the States remains to be seen – but they can rest assured in the belief that they’ve definitely conquered their home shores.

Watch the video to the first single “Rattle My Heart”

Black Box Revelation in Belgium:

Eden, Charleroi, 28th October

Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, 3rd and 4th November

Ferme Du Biereau, Louvain-La-Neuve, 5th November

Belvedere, Namur, 3rd December

Photography by Charlie De Keersmaecker

My Perception is out on PIAS on 3rd October.

Available from iTunes here.

The exhibitions to go to:

Rinus van de Velde: The art of storytelling

Hailed as one of the most promising young artists in Belgium, Rinus Van de Velde’s charcoal drawings accompanied by witty texts relating to separate moments in his semi-fictional biography have caught the eye of the international art intelligentsia around the globe. His most recent exhibition will see him present a new series of drawings that circle around the theme of the artist studio. These drawings will tell stories that are to a certain extent autonomous and can be read individually from each other, leaving it up to the viewer to be directly challenged to imagine the larger story Van de Velde is aiming to share.

Until 22nd October

TIM VAN LAERE GALLERY, Verlatstraat 23-25 – 2000 Antwerp

www.timvanlaeregallery.com

Die Essenz der Dinge: design and the art of reduction

The question of sustainability has never been as relevant, be it in fashion, food or design, as it is today. The Design Museum’s current show examines the kind of design that illustrates the “art of reduction” – cutting back on materials and going for products with a longer life expectancy. The exhibition aims to provide the explanation behind the rational design logic in aspects such as the production process, spatial limitations or aesthetic trends, setting design icons ranging from le Corbusier to Eero Saarinen against similar figures from the worlds of fashion, food design and art.

Until 16th October

DESIGN MUSEUM GHENT, Jan Breydelstraat 5 – 9000 Ghent

www.designmuseumgent.be

The festival to catch: TodaysArt.BE 2011

Photography courtesy of TodaysArt

After having established itself over the last six years as one of the most exciting festivals in the Netherlands, TodaysArt set its sights on the capital. Its unique mixture of contemporary visual and performing arts including a wealth of concerts, exhibitions, workshops or installations in public spaces can be discovered throughout the city from 29th September to 1st October. See here for a detailed programme and here for a map with all festival locations.

TodaysArt Festival Brussels

From 29th September to 1st October

www.todaysart.org/be/

The night out: Nuit Blanche

Photography by Benjamin Brolet

An initiative of TodaysArt.BE Festival 2011, the Nuit Blanche is an all-nighter which blends national and international music acts together with audiovisual art. One ticket will get you entry to seven parties in seven different locations, ranging in genres from Minimal Techno and Drum&Bass to Folk and Swing. Check here for an overview.

Nuit Blanche Parties

1st October, 23h00 – 06h00

www.2011.nuitblanchebrussels.be

The movies to watch: Elles tournent

Photography courtesy of Elles tournent

Offering a platform to female directors, the film festival ‘Elles tournent’ will put 39 movies on the big screen, including 19 motion pictures and 20 short films. With a special focus on the Netherlands and Taiwan, the 4-day-programme takes into account established directors as well as rising talents from all around the globe. See here for the full schedule.

From 29th September to 2nd October

BOTANIQUE, Rue Royale 236 Koningsstraat – 1210 Brussels

www.ellestournent-damesdraaien.org

Photography courtesy of smart-urban-stage.com

Are you a ‘green’ person? Is being ecological important for you in your daily life?

I’ve always been interested in alternative solutions but at the same time have always considered technology as something positive. 25 years ago my band colleague Morten and I actually paid the import of the first electric car ever to Norway out of our own pockets – a Fiat. Afterwards we gave it to the environmental organisation Bellona, which collected parking fines with it to draw attention to the car. In the end this led to a new law in Norway allowing electric cars to drive in taxi lanes. We also collected money for anti-deforestation projects in the Amazon and supported the Green belt movement in Africa.

How did you link up with smart?

With the art collective Apparatjik that I am part of we did a project in Berlin. We organised symposiums about the role of creative people when it comes to eco-awareness and change. For this we chose smart as a sponsor because of their electric drive initiative.

It is impossible to interview you without mentioning a-ha – does it bother you that this is in a way haunting you?

I just find it rather unimaginative if people only refer to me as an a-ha member. Yes, I remember the 80s briefly (laughs) but that’s like 25 years ago. I’ve been working as a visual artist for 15 years now. If people want to reduce me to an entertainer, fine, I made my peace with it. It used to make me a bit angry, especially because I felt that my work as an artist was suffering from it, but nowadays it just bores me. I am not in this jury because I was a member of a-ha.

There is nothing more enjoyable than stepping on a sandcastle you’ve spent building all day.

Certain bands, such as Radiohead for example, recently started paying attention to the environment when organising their world tours, minimising their carbon emissions as much as possible. Is that something you ever thought about during your time with a-ha?

If we were a young new band today this would be a natural commitment for us. But in the end no one is perfect and we are all sinners, this wine that we’re drinking right now is probably imported from South America or elsewhere. It is important though to have a curiosity and interest in making the world a greener place. For example we are thinking about how to embed doing good for the environment into the process of buying a product. Something like ‘Buy music, plant a tree’. I’m very impressed by all the projects here tonight and hope they will live on and succeed.

You belong to the artist collective Apparatjik, can you tell us a bit about that?

The collective is an experimental forum that combines the artworld and entertainment and at the same time serves as a discussion forum. It’s a very flexible and open platform and deals with everything I’m interested in, resisting definition. We reject the mechanisms that ‘work’.

Is that maybe a rebellious reaction to the restrictions of the music business?

It is rather a need for freedom and inspiration. There is nothing more enjoyable than stepping on a sandcastle you’ve spent building all day.

www.magnef.org

Last week we already reported about The Peoples Supermarket, the final winner of the smart future minds award.  If you don’t agree with the final decision, you can vote for your favourite contestants and contribute to choosing the winner for the smart urban stage community award by clicking on the image below.

Slove is playful. It’s sexy and suggestive. It teases you. Even leads you on sometimes. It’s highly addictive too. Like that girlfriend of yours you spent all night with, and still want more. Slove. Slow + Love as we find out when we speak with Léo Hellden and Julien Barthe, the two men behind what is arguably one of the strongest efforts to come out of Paris this year.

A lot has been made about the recent revival the French music scene is going through, especially so in the indie/electro/house scene. Where do you feel you fit into this, given that, although very French is some ways, your overall sound seem to lean more towards the other side of the Atlantic…

Julien: I think our melody and sounds come from the UK’s & beats and sequence scene, but also from  ”savor faire” old school house and a very french touch for sampling …

One of the things I like the most about Le Danse is the drums. They’re rhythmic, come in at the right moment and always provide just the right amount of tempo to a song’s backbone. I particularly think they hit the right spot on Carte Postale. Who does the drumming?

Julien:  I mostly take care of the drums, mixing real drum samples with techno drums.

Who does what in the band? How do you go about composing a track?

Julien:  Positions aren’t fixed. Sometimes Léo suggest a melody and I’ll respond or vice versa.

Carte Postale is probably the most fun-loving yet sexy track I’ve heard in some time. Somehow, I imagine 30-something bored housewives wearing headbands all working out a sweat to the song. The vocals couldn’t be any simpler, yet they seem laced with ‘insider’ references. Who is singing? What’s with the number counting? And, most importantly, what’s with the “Si tu as un plan cheval, let me know”? I assume it is telling that the counting stops at 69…

Léo: The singer is Anne-Laure from Appaloosa. We contacted her after hearing “the day“. For us it’s a perfect pop song. I’m not sure about what she meant with the lyrics. I’m just happy that I was around when she recorded it. When she’s recording she puts herself in a state, an out of body experience, and I don’t think that neither me nor Julien expected that style but were both amazed. It was intended as a demo but we basically didn’t touch the song after her recording to not fuck up the presence of the performance.

Anne-Laure Keib: This song, I was back from a trip to Camargue, South of France. I took this trip after someone dear to me, died. He was someone very destructive. I arrived in the most lovely place, near Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, owned by a British woman, and it was 8 hours of horse backriding, everyday, for three weeks, and it was amazing. One of the happiest moments of my life actually. When I came back, Leo and Julien asked me to write a song and sing for them. They were into the stuff I have been doing for my band, Appaloosa. I was in front of the mic and started to count. I guess this counting is about when you go through borderline or painful experiences, and find a stability and peace of mind, with doing something you really love doing, something very positive for your well being. The “si tu as un plan cheval, let me know”, I guess, is a bit ironic, not sexual, but more like “let’s make shit happen.”

Can you talk to us about the various different people involved in the making of the album?

Julien: An the beginning, Léo & me started pop songs which tilted towards dance music and we suggested them to singers we knew…

You have several projects you’re working on at the same time. Can you tell us a little more about them?

Léo: Tristesse Contemporaine is a project with Mike (also on Slove) and Narumi, a Japanease keyboardist and vintage clothes shop owner. We just completed our first album, produced by Pilooski. As for Aswefall, which I do together with Clement, our second album came out last year. We’re working on new songs now and hoping it doesn’t take five years until the next one.

Julien: I’m always running Plaisir de France, remixing many French pop personal hits.

What is both you guys’ background? Have you always worked in the music industry? What were you doing before Slove?

Julien: I studied graphic design and used to play bass and guitars in an indie pop band until 1993, then discovered DJing in 1995. I started to produce singles as Plaisir de France on Pro Zak Tax record in 2000.

Léo: I started in 1997 as a guitarist with Swedish singer Jay Jay Johanson and worked with him for about five years. Since then, I’ve worked on different projects and moved gradually into composition and production. I worked for some time antiquarian booksellers first in Stockholm and later in Paris. Right now I’m not doing it anymore but wouldn’t mind doing so again at some point.

I’m just happy that I was around when she recorded it. When she’s recording she puts herself in a state, an out of body experience, and I don’t think that neither me nor Julien expected that style but were both amazed.

Can you tell us a little about the atmosphere in the studio whilst recording? Where was the LP recorded? How long did it take? Did you develop any routines/habits (good or bad) whilst recording?

L. We share a studio in Paris and spend much time there talking and making music. The Slove album took about two years and an intense six months of finalizing.

Who are you listening to at the moment? What’s the last album you bought? Were you listening to anything in particular whilst recording the album?

Julien: At the moment I’m listening to indie pop, lots of edits and electronic dance music. The last album I bought is the soundtrack for “My Little Princess” by Bertrand Burgalat and Mogwai. During the album’s recording sessions, I was listening to a lot of house revival from Mark E , Eddie C, Noze, as well as edits and remixes from Joakim, Pilooski, Superpitcher, Inflagranti, Cosmo vitelli, Get a room and Datassette.

When and how did you guys meet?

Léo: First time we know of is at Sonar in 2005. We were playing in the same party, Julien with Sweetlight and me with Aswefall. Some years later we met again in Julien’s studio. I was renting the studio next door on a short term basis to finish the second Aswefall album. We ended up sharing Julien’s studio and started making music together.

What’s in store for you until the end of the year?

Julien: Good remixes of fFash and a release of two Plaisir de France remixes of a French 80′s band Mikado.

Slove’s debut album is out now on Pschent.

plaisirdefrance.net/artistes/slove

pschent.com

The concert to go to: Boots Electric

There’s no point denying the soft spot we have for Eagles Of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes. The self-proclaimed hillbilly and endearing sleazebag extraordinaire has taken some time off from the cock-rock band he shares with bestie Josh Homme to embark on a solo journey as Boots Electric. Cannot wait.

Watch the album trailer:

17th September

TRIX, Noordersingel 28-30 - 2140 Antwerp

Get tickets here

The show you can’t miss: Raw Edges, from flat to full

Design dealer Victor Hunt brings Israeli-born, London-based designers raw edges to town for an extensive overview of their most recent work, the lot to be exhibited in the city’s favourite style boutique Hunting and Collecting.

8th to 25th September

HUNTING AND COLLECTING, Rue des Chartreux 17 Kartuiserstraat- 1000 Brussels

The night out: Indie Club

You don’t have to wait for a weekend trip to London or Berlin anymore to dance to indie tunes: Brussels finally has caught up and hosts its own indie rock/pop party every month in the The Wood. Expect an eclectic mix ranging from Blur and Arctic Monkeys to The Doors or Metronomy. The season’s opening party is this Friday and we wouldn’t miss it for a thing.

16th September

THE WOOD, Avenue de Flore 3 Floralaan – 1000 Brussels

The walk to take: Design September’s Open Doors

You’ve always wondered how and where designers work? Now you have the chance to find out, thanks to Design September, the Belgian capital’s biggest design festival stretching out over four weeks. This weekend the two-day Open Doors event invites everyone interested to come visit Brussels-based artists’ workspaces and have a look behind the scenes. The perfect occasion to stroll through the city and discover its hidden creative laboratories.

For an overview of all participating studios have a look here.

Anthony Gonzalez, the creative mind behind the project, thinks big with this self-proclaimed concept album: “It’s a retrospective of my life, from childhood to being a teenager and then an adult.“ Setting the bar quite high he cites The Beatles’ white album, Ummagumma by Pink Floyd or Smashing Pumpkin’s’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as inspirational influences – concept albums which had heavily impressed the young Gonzalez. M83, this time produced by Justin Meldal-Johnson (NIN, Beck, The Mars Volta) clearly do not reinvent themselves but rather take their typical sound one step further, going for a more symphonic and epic sound. ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’, in part due to its sheer length, acts as a vast playing field for the band, allowing it to experiment and let their creativity run wild. And, although this gives the album an added layer of cosmic complexity, it does at times go on unnecessarily, and runs the risk of loosing your attention. That being said, the double album offers a truly multifaceted listening experience skillfully uniting the coldness of 80s inspired synthesisers with romantic pathos. “It’s a journey, not unlike a rollercoaster ride“, Gonzalez explains. And ‘Midnight City’, the LPs’ first single, is the perfect incarnation of the dreamlike and at the same time dancy tunes that we grew to love Anthony Gonzalez for.

Watch the album teaser

Watch new single Midnight City

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is out on Naïve on October 17th

Available from iTunes here

The exhibition to go to: Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972

Coinciding with the Polish EU presidency Wiels hosts one of the first large-scale exhibitions of this pioneering and provocative artist outside of Poland. Focusing on her experimental period, the show gathers more than a hundred of her works, among which the tinted polyester casts of her lips and breasts transformed into everyday objects like lamps or ashtrays.

10th September to 8th January

Wednesdays to Sundays 11h00 – 18h00

WIELS, Av. Van Volxem 354 Volxemlaan – 1190 Brussels

www.wiels.org

(first published in the blue album)

The store to drop by: Atelier Solarshop

A mix of playful yet modern aesthetic objects and items fill up the space of Atelier Solarshop in Antwerp for the third edition of their Pop-Up project. The selection of exclusive, limited and numbered works by international young talents is only available until 8th October – so make sure not to miss out.

ATELIER SOLARSHOP, Dambruggestraat 48 – 2060 Antwerp

Wednesdays to Saturdays until 8th October, 11h00-18h30

www.ateliersolarshop.be

(first published in the blue album)

The night out

Los Ninos is throwing another one of their memorable nights. This time they have Hot Chip‘s Alexis Taylor with his new super band About Group lined-up. Concert, visuals, and some of Belgium’s finest DJs will make sure you’ll dance till dawn and enjoy a proper Sunday hangover.

The movies to see: Ecran Total

Ecran Total, a film festival organised by Cinema Arenberg, is going into its last week. The concept: Give movie enthusiasts the opportunity to see motion pictures on the big screen that usually are rather hard to catch – including  classic and out-of-the-ordinary pieces or even recent films you might have missed first time round. This weekend the selection includes Frederick Wiseman’s celebrated documentary ‘Boxing Gym’.

CINEMA ARENBERG , Galerie de la Reine 26 Koninginnegallerij – 1000 Brussels

www.arenberg.be

The walk to take: Bookshop Days

A group of young booksellers from Brussels organises for the first time the Bookshop Days – an event that intends to showcase the bookshops of the Belgian capital including exhibitions, encounters and (re)discoveries. Grab the chance to take a walk around the city and rummage through piles of publications. Not just for bookworms!

Take a look here to see a list of the participating stores

With thanks to Damien Aresta

(first published in the blue album)

Following a three months hiatus, we’re back with a bang. Our blue album. It hits the street Friday, 2nd September and we’d love for you to join us for a drink or two and a little boogie. It’s all happening at the À St Médard Centre for Arts, located on Rue Haute 298C – 300 Hoogstraat, in 1000 Brussels (it’s a 2min walk from the flea market). Proceedings begin at 19h00, with a small showcase of the Prouvé RAW collection, a collaborative exercise in design re-edition that sees denim brand G-Star RAW partner up with design manufacturer Vitra to re-edit a collection of Jean Prouvé design pieces. Expect historical artefacts, blow-up print outs and a lesson or two in denim excellence. We’ll also be handing our some Word-branded cotton goodie bags (filled by the likes of G-Star RAW, Hugo Boss and ourselves) to the 250 first readers to arrive so make sure to come early. Join the Facebook event page here.

Musically, we’ve concocted a line up sure to get you up on your feet:

1. Sixsixsixties(Antwerp, DJ set)
2. Slove(Paris, Live)
3. Ménage à Deux (Brussels, DJ set)

Interview and photographs Yana Foque

The Word: What are These New Puritans at the moment?

Jack Barnett: In transition.

TW: For ‘hidden’ you learned how to write music. Do you feel as though this changed your perspective on music in general? Is it much harder now not to see everything in scores?

JB: To an extent. I crave a bit more complexity, but an intuitive feel is just as important /interesting… For me the mysteries keep multiplying. Anyway I don’t know that much. I’ve got a few more.

TW: How do you keep track of your ideas?

JB: With notebooks & files on my laptop. And a couple of dicta-phones. But I try not to let the records of the ideas overtake my grasp of the ideas themselves .

TW: You often claim that lyrics in the song are less important then the structure that embraces it. Would you agree that music speaks louder then words?

JB: My music speaks louder than my words.

TW: Somehow Hidden reminds me of the civilisation of orphans in Italy after WWII. : A group of children who created their own rules and even language. They where fearless and loving at the same time. Could you relate to this perspective and  how is it for you to hear all these different ideas about your music?

JB: I’m not always sure what they mean, but I’m grateful that they’ve been thought about.

TW: What do you want for your future selves?

JB: Prosperity + an electronic piano…

Hidden is out now on Angular and available from iTunes here

The Word: What gets you up in the morning?

Dynooo: My cellphone, usually. Only I get up around noon.

TW: What puts you to sleep?
D: Coffee. In the morning.

TW: The freshest thing you’ve heard lately? an expression, a verse, a joke, an insult, a word, anything
D: My buddy telling me about these little house cleaning robots he’s building. He made one out of a bristle, a 9v battery and the vibrating motor from a PS2 controller. He named it The Bristlebot and apparently it has 2000 something views on Youtube.

TW: A few words on your label mate Cupp Cave….
D: One of my best friends. He takes me through the woods and gives me tranquillizers. We have granola together.

TW: The alter-ego/alias you feel most at ease with?
D: Bob.

TW: Your fantasy?
D: A nice little girlfriend would be cool. Turned into such a loner.

TW: Your naughtiest moment?
D: A couple months ago at the supermarket I snatched a cherry.

TW: Your vice?
D: My solid 7 daily cups of joe.

TW: What gets you in the studio?
D: I’m most inspired by movies. Last week I saw every Vincent Gallo film I could get my hands on. I fucking loved Buffalo ’66 and The Brown Bunny (get over the fellatio scene, people). Really into Chloe Sevigny these days.

TW: One word to describe your music (and it can’t be dope)?

D: Dome.

TW: The one album you’d kill for?
D: Can’t think of one. Sorry.

TW: The year you were born in?
D: 1983. Flashdance and Mario Bros.

TW: The year you should have been born in?
D: Naww I’m good.

TW: The TV series you’re watching at the moment?
D: Twin Peaks season 2 again. Best series ever made. Me and François can talk about that stuff for hours, he recently found 3 gigabytes worth of special features. So exciting and timeless.

TW: A good joke you’ve heard lately?
D: A bit ashamed of that one. In London this hoolie-looking Scotsman told me a joke involving a knife and a baby. It was so absurdly disgusting which made it superfunny. People need to lighten up.

TW: Your top 5 albums of 2011 up to now?
Hype Williams – One Nation
Lone – Emereald Fantasy Tracks
Ssaliva – Thought Has Wings
Peaking Lights – 936
James Pants – James Pants

TW: Your favourite fictional character?
D: Benny Dalmau

TW: What’s your next move?
D: Carpe diem, brother. Carpe diem.

Follow Damien on Twitter for wordplays and jokes.

Watch the video here

Where are you right now? What time is it?

Logo’s Merit is out now on Kitsune (2011). Buy it from iTunes here

The first instalment in our series comes courtesy of Soumaya Dancemachine, a DJ and party promoter who constantly criss-crosses the Belgo-German border in her ever-lasting quest to put on some the best parties around. She’s best known as the founder of High Needs Low, the next edition of which takes place on 9th July at K-Nal.

Listen to Soumaya’s Soundcloud here.

Photography Tine Claerhout

Photography Tine Claerhout

Photography Tine Claerhout

Photography Tine Claerhout

Photography Tine Claerhout

Catclub special birthday edition

This Saturday, 25th June

iMal, Quai des Charbonnages 30 Koolmijnenkaai - 1080 Brussels

© Yana Foqué

Names: Michael Vidal, Dane Chadwick, Juan Velasquez, David Reichardt.

What’s your favourite city to play in?

DR: Los Angeles. There’s always so many great friends at our LA area shows, for me, that makes it a lot more fun then playing for a bunch of strangers.

Last time you played in Antwerp you where the opening act for No Age. How do you look back on that first contact with the city?

JV: I remember people where very quiet; it was hard to tell if people enjoyed it. BUT I realised that they where just being SUPER-POLITE. I hope people are rude at this show!!!

Your third album Crush was released in 2010 on Bella Union… Could you draw what the album means to you? Where it came from? Inspirations?

MV: (see extra picture)

Where do you recommend people to listen to the album?

DC: In your bed.

Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie are known for their extreme generosity and artistic freedom towards the bands they work with – was this one of the reasons to sign to this label? How do we find traces of that in Crush?

MV: They have never said “NO” to us. I like the label; they showed the most interest and offered the most support, from the very beginning. They took a risk and financed the album, which goes to show how generous they are.

In between Skeleton and Crush there’s a gap of almost two years. During this period, did you experience any musical growing pains?

JV: I think Dane joining the band made us rethink how we wanted to make music. His influence is much more then just the drums, he gave us the confidence to experiment and use electronics and other genres of music.

The song Throwing Shade starts of with a serious beat, after which keyboards and other noise join the party… All in all it sounds very different from your other work… The song – with a lot of tropical 80s vibes to it – is almost a breakpoint in the album. Is this the direction Abe Vigoda is heading towards on the next album?

JV: Definitely! We have written one new song and I think it has the simplicity of throwing shades. We are very interested in writing more impactful simple songs that have a bit more “pop” sound/feel. But, who knows? We havent written it yet.

Where do you see yourselves in:

a minute: DC: finishing dinner

a day: DC: Paris!

a week: DC: sleeping.

a month: DC: working on music/life.

a year: DC: working at a grocery store.

a decade: DC: manager!

© Yana Foqué

Can you explain why the album is called ”Skying“?

Well for us the name Skying came about because it was an old tape technique that was used in recording studios in the 60s.

Like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop?

Well I guess they probably did do it. Yeah in fact they definitely would have done it in the Radiophonic Workshop. But what it basically is it’s before the introduction of phasers, which give this – you know – the phase, drums and that whooshing sound. But when they originally did that, it was essentially like having two of the same parts of the tape out of sync and being manipulated so you hear it going out of sync and it’s a natural flanging. Before they had actually the use of phasing and units in studio – in England in the 60s – this technique was known as “skying”. Very much a psychedelic thing, which we’ve always been aware of. There’s also a record by a guy called Caleb called “Baby, your phrasing is bad” which is…

…Brilliant!

Exactly – but it’s kind of suggesting: “baby, your phasing is bad” because they had their first ever phaser in the studio the day they recorded. And the name of the phaser was the Grand Skyer Mark II so it kind of originally came from there. But for us it very much suited the record because it was kind of astro and elevating.

Yeah, the new album is indeed very soothing, especially when you compare it to your previous records Strange House and Primary Colours…

To be honest I thought that Primary Colours was already pretty soothing. That’s the kind of music that has that effect on me. Sometimes I find that the most intense music is the most relaxing.

Well, it is relaxing, but Primary Colours had a darker, sexier tone to it than this one which has a softer and more unwearable ring to it. Opening up and maturing even?

Yeah I guess, maybe. Again, it’s like a perfect reflection of the music.

The title basically speaks for itself like, when I looked up skying in the dictionary as it isn’t listed in my day-to-day vocabulary…

… I don’t think it is in a dictionary…

… Well, it actually is – but what it refers to there is what happens when you throw something up in the air not knowing where it’s going to land.

So that’s what we’re doing with this record.

You don’t really think there is a difference between the records, more of a continuity?

Yeah for us, definitely!

A list of adjectives to describe Skying is a list of contradictions: it’s penetrating, it’s ironic, it’s intimate, elusive, distant but most of all it’s vulnerable and warm. So the biggest inspiration for this album came from this technique, then?

Well, it wasn’t the biggest inspiration for the record. Basically all the things you’re saying are just as important as the actual place where it came from. In fact it could just be – it was supposed to just be – something that you as a listener take in your own way. And the title just seemed to describe all of that, everything that we’ve been doing.

That of course is the title, but above all you have the music on the record: how it’s grown and the first steps you took after the success of Primary Colours. I wonder how that goes… Suddenly you’re all back together, after touring for a very long time, and you start to discover minor differences in your own way of playing. You feel that you’ve grown in a way. Suddenly you discover that you’ve ended up with these tracks enchanting each other – talking to each other…

Yeah! I think you’d better answer the questions.

Well, that’s because I’m good with words.

I know but usually people get it completely wrong so it’s nice to hear someone who’s coming from the right direction. But you know we learned a lot from working on Primary Colours: how we worked as a band, what our rows where within the band, what are strengths where, how we each individually attacked our instruments or the way we like to play,… I think Skying is definitely us focussing those ideas and our strength and also making them work in a different way. If Primary Colours was more disorientating and almost distracting, then this album is definitely…

More open? Less about those deep (dark) personal feeling inner deep, more of a universal feel?

There’s definitely a lot of freedom in this record and a lot of space. And I think there’s a lot of space in the music but I think space is an inspiration to it as well.

A final frontier.

I don’t know if that’s actually right, it’s too easy!

So aside from the music, I was blown away by the album cover. Who came up with the cover for the album – this amazing picture of a sea with a Solaris-aura?

I don’t know if I know that book. So far in our all of the artwork has sort of presented itself to us. And that’s kind of what happened this time as well. We always have very strong ideas as a band of what we want, but we can we never find it and we have so many discussions of “what should be the right thing”. And every time so far we’ve just been presented with this image and again this time. We worked with an American photographer called Neil Krug for Primary Colours and he came over to make some shots of us for the cover. And we did a whole lot of stuff that was going to be used for the artwork and the press. Like a whole series of portraits we did using double exposures of our faces and mixing it up with flowers, and plants and other natural elements. I’ve got a dandelion somewhere in my face… But we didn’t want to be on the cover, we didn’t feel the need to be on it. We wanted something that was more timeless and represented – again – the record. Again with us everything seems to come together without having to think about it too much. Like the title, theme or the artwork itself. And that was the photo that Neil had taken that just seemed to be the perfect image to go with the record.

You’re going to be on the road a lot with this album – festival season is coming and it’s just going to be touring galore! Which number are you looking forward to playing live each and every night? What song on the album, do you reckon, will never bore you?

Well – last time it would come to a point where I really REALLY came to enjoy playing that! But at the moment everything is still very fresh and it all sounds great. We start the set with Changing The Rain and that’s pretty exciting. I don’t even play bass until halfway trough it, I’m just playing tambourine, which is really cool as well as we haven’t had to much percussion in the live sound before. But I guess if I had to pick one Still Life is a very powerful tune to play – pretty exiting to play – so I’m enjoying that very much at the moment.

Do you think that it’s not only the song itself but also the reaction from the audience that contributes to whether or not you enjoy playing it every night?

Yeah it’s weird, isn’t it? Because, Sea Within A Sea is really exciting to play – it’s just fun and it sounds cool! But yeah, you’re right, Still Life is the one that’s most recently been put out there and people have been responding well to that. In short: it’s always amazing to play for a crowd when they are going crazy. That’s always cool… but I can’t really talk about it in terms of this album as we haven’t really played it yet. So I don’t know what song is going to make me feel like that. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

What for you is a perfect concert though?

For me playing? Or for me watching a show?

Both! I can imagine that the answer would be similar?

Mmmh… Yeah, I guess I would probably say the same thing. I don’t really have a favourite venue or anything – for me it’s more about the moment, about being involved in the music, being moved by it or made to feel something – wanting to dance, or to go crazy, being involved in something that’s happening whether its you as a performer or as a listener…

A very unique moment.

I definitely prefer very intimate live shows in a real venue (as opposed to festivals) an being able to present the music and take over a space for the evening. I went to see Roedelius playing recently, do you know him?

I do, yeah!

It was like an afternoon show with him. Playing live piano and just talking to the audience and asking questions, playing old recordings from the seventies and talking… So I was just asking him questions about some of my favourite tracks. And it was so calm and quite. That was a really great live experience for me.

In a previous interview, you mentioned that guitarist Joshua was obsessed with My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. Primary Colours was a clear homage to My Bloody Valentine and shoegaze, where do your musical roots take you in this album?

We’re all massively inspired and enthusiastic about music from the birth of rock’n roll, blues, soul, jazz, everything is inspiring to us. And of course as individuals we all listen to different kinds of music. For me, I’m massively into weird psychedelic music in all its forms and from all over the world. I’m literally constantly buying strange recordings by old psychedelic groups. But even electro and Detroit techno – which is inspired by groups like Kraftwerk, etc.

Not to forget by disco…

Yeah, I guess in a certain extend but I’m not really into disco.

No, I know. What I meant was that Detroit techno originally came from old disco records. Same beats, but more brutal…

Absolutely – There’s a track called Sharevari by A Number Of Names, which is actually a good example of that. It’s a basically a disco record.

Do you see yourself as a person that looks at life trough glasses of the past or the present?

No, No the future! The most important thing is to make new music! I think the there is nothing worse then relying on the past, but at the same time it’s a lot of those things that make the difference. For me it’s about important movements in music. But that’s only because I’m not massively inspired about what’s happening in music now. But as far as I’m concerned it’s about making music. Not about yesterday – and this is the most terrible part where I’m gonna say (laughs) – it’s about tomorrow. It’s about new music to listen to… Reaching out to people that have never even heard of the bands that inspire us. It’s about reaching those ears as much as anyone else’s. Not about recreating a sound of the past – that’s something that just isn’t important to us. Taking ideas forward is exiting to us. And I think we often succeed in doing just that.

I think Skying definitely proves that. Your side project Spider And The Flies doesn’t only have a brilliant post sci-fi name…

Yeah?

Congrats for that!

(laughs)

… but it also is influenced by the magnificent BBC Radiophonics Workshop electronica we talked about earlier. A workshop in which a lot of new instruments found there way to the surface. Are you yourself interested in creating instruments, cutting up tapes…?

Well we haven’t gotten into the tape-thing yet, although it has been something we’ve always been quite interested in. But another great thing about looking back is to be able to take the best bits from it and doing it in your own way. A lot of our equipment is in fact vintage but that’s just because for us it makes the best sound! (Pause) We’ve been playing Spider and the flies-hows recently and Joe has been playing drums. We’ve just been playing – quite different tunes from the stuff we’ve been recording – half an hour sets of just one song. We have a loose idea of that which we’ve rehearsing, but then every time we play it it’s improvised and spontaneous.

I would love to come and see a show.

Yeah it’s great. We’ve just recently played a show at a Japanese fund-raiser and one at the Cave Club in London. Funny enough – we played the same song, but each time it sounded so different. We should have recorded it.

Last but not least, something out of the blue: what’s your favourite colour?

Purple!

Skying will be released 11th July on XL Rrecordings. Pre-order the record here.

The Horrors will play Pukkelpop on 20th August.

Where are you right now? What time is it?

Mark: It is 16:58.I am in Hamburg right now…We are shooting a video for one of the songs from the album…

Eduardo: Berlin – sitting at home. Its 7PM

What is the first thing you see from wherever you are?

Mark: The first thing I see while I read your question is your question… if a question is a thing…I also see a playground outside the window. Kids are playing…

Eduardo: A black desktop computer. I also hear thunder.

Can you describe the recording sessions for Adios Berlin? How was the vibe in the studio? Who was there? How long did it take to record? What kind of place is it?

Eduardo: We just played and recorded at the same time. We felt quite free… No headphones, no clicks, no complications. The vibe was very nice. Three people: Thomas Stern (engineer) Mark and myself. Having no guests also means a better concentration so the record is more one whole thing. We recorded at Thomas’  place for seven days straight, in his messy guest room. But with the possibility to play loud…

Mark: Yes, the record was recorded mainly in one week. But we worked in three studios…At Studio Babuschka in Munich (Hitze and Funkgeraet), at Daniel Nentwig’s (Whitest Boy Alive) Butterama Recording Center in Berlin (Kopfhoerer and Angst vorm tanzen) and at the end with Thomas for the rest and most of the record. All studios had a good vibe. All of them are classic studios except Thomas’… Eduardo was playing bass on the guest bed. The only visitor we had was Michaela Kühn because she is making a movie about me and my work.

Eduardo Delgado Lopez (left) and mark Boombastik (right)

Can you tell us a bit about the album’s name? What does it refer to?

Eduardo: Bye Berlin or the Berlin sell out. The change of the City from a place with plenty of freedom to a usual clean and expensive capital.

Mark: Adiós Berlin means the dying underground art, the raising rents…. I really saw this years ago in Hamburg – a lot of people who lived their whole life in Berlin can’t pay the rent anymore.. old pubs are closing… you can see how bad capitalism is in Berlin right now with an arty farty make up… I’ve lived for more or less eight years now in Berlin… a place or a city is always as good as you make it. I hope people get the title right. It is the start of a form of radicalism if you want… more in the sense: if people dont fight for free spaces they’ll soon be able to say “adiós” to Berlin’s spirit: Dont move in my area where it’s been loud at night for the past 30 years if you call the cops and kill the freedom people fought for for more than half of their life! It’s called Adiós Berlin because we live there and we see it, but you could call it Adiós New York, Adiós Paris, Adiós Germany. This record is about my or our life in Berlin. We chose a title which makes clear that it is a subjective and angry record. Oh, and it is Spanish/German like Eduardo and myself.

Your record label, Shitkatapult, seems like the perfect home for you…can you talk to us about your relationship with them?

Mark: I know some secrets on Shitkatapult’s owners… they have no chance. No but more seriously, Shitkatapult is a nice playground for us. They let us do what we can and this is making good music which is coming out of our heart and momentary situations. We chose Shitkatapult for the different music they release. It is allways a sign of taste if a label is bringing out different stuff with a good quality. Aparat, Soap and Skin, etc are not making the same music…when a label works like this it is a sign that they really like what they release. Shitkatapult is a good example that it is possible to do things a little different from others.

Eduardo: Until now the work is very effective and good. We like each other, we all are broke. We have a good relationship, especially since Marco (T.Raumschmiere) did the mixing, which we are very satisfied with.

Shitkatapult’s website describes it as “like a speech, between accapella and beatbox, punk and rough cut – techno and experiments for a special audience.” How do you get to such an eclectic and some might say ill-suited blend of influences?

Eduardo: That’s life.

Mark: I just make music… every mood has its sound. My influences are everywhere in life… my lyrics often find a beginning in pubs…I hear music without a music player. Everyday I find something interesting and good amongst all this crap we have to listen too…it can be a song or even a cat screaming at night. It is the nature of us you hear on Adiós Berlin. We are sons of our surroundings. Life is a big mix of different impressions – music is my ventile to scream it out.

The album definitely has an overriding sense of Angst and Stress that pervades it. Are you generally a rather tenuous and stressed out person?

Mark: angst and stress are part of my life such as love and hate. My life was quite colorfull until now, and fast… from having the dreamflat to being homeless for a while. From heartjumping until heartbroken. From being completely broke to nearly rich. From having to much to do to fit in one day to having no job at all. I have a calm soul and a stressfull life. And angst (fear) is a big part in life. See me as a streetcat: every second i can i lay down… but i have to keep my eyes allways open…

The minimalism of the formula you found with Edouardo is really refreshing. A beat, a bass line and a barely noticeable melody. The complete opposite of the current craze for layers-upon-layers of synth, chants and other kinds of electronic noises. Why do you think you opted for a less-is-more approach to music whilst most of the industry seems to be going for ‘big is better’?

Eduardo: Keep it minimalistic and simple. We don´t have to prove how good we can play or arrange or what one can do with the newest electronics. I hate music for musicians…

Mark: Also, there is good music and bad music. It doesn’t have something to do with how many layers or how minimalistic it is. Our music has nothing to do with the industry – fuck them! Mc Donald’s is not selling you food – the music industry is not selling you music.

What do you make of the current hype surrounding Tyler, The Creator and his odd Future cohorts? Hype or substance?

Mark: he is very talented and young. That is an explosive and often poisoned mix. It is possible that he will be a superstar for lifetime and it is possible that he will fall faster then he can say “bastard”. For my part, I am addicted to his song “Yonkers”. What a video and what a fresh new sound! Hype or substance… let’s see what he will sing about when he is older as well. Definitely a zeitgeist document of now.

Eduardo:  Who? I dont know. Never heard this name.

The album’s third track, Putzen, packs a punch. You could just as well head nod to it as you could mush pit to it. Can you describe the vibe in the studio when you were recording it?

Mark: the word Putzen meens cleaning. Lyrics-wise it starts with the usual things everybody knows: wash your hands, clean the floor, wash the hair etc…and then it goes further: money laundring, brain washing, polish the bullets, clean the government. You can use it as a party song or as a political song or as something making fun of the German obsession with beeing clean and sober. The history of Putzen is that I wanted to explain to a friend how beatboxing worked… I explained: ” if you say the word Putzen in a loop – “putzenputzenputzenputzenputzen….” without using your voice, it is a techno beat.. my friend said to me I should make a song with this but I thought it’d be a bit of a gag… later on I had to give an encore after I played all my songs so I had to improvise… I played Putzen for the first time directly on stage. Everything was improvised and it worked. Putzen was my last EP on Khan’s label i´m single. It became a club hit, especially the remix of Nerk & Dirk Leyers. Now we made an album version of it which is more aggressive then the original… it feels allways strange, funny and a tiny bit scary when i sing it.

Where are you based at the moment? Can you describe the city you live in and, more particularly, ‘your’ city? Where do you hang out and meet friends for drink? What is your favourite spot to find/buy music? Where do you like to perform the most?

Mark: I am based in Berlin and since a few months also in Hamburg again. Berlin is my music base – Hamburg is my teatre base. Berlin is big whilst at the same time also being small because people treat their areas as litlle cities. Berlin eats you and spit you out sometimes. It is a place where the people let you do whatever you do… but no one really cares when you fall. Hamburg plays big but it’s fucking small for people like me. Give a stranger like me two weeks and he nearly knows everyone. I was born in Hamburg and know every single point here. I like it here and i hate too… like youngsters and their parents.

Drinks in Berlin: i like to go to Trödler; it is a pub I like a lot. Peter the owner is an oldschool Kreuzberg guy and a friend of mine. He is a person like my music: a golden heart but not easy to take. I also go to different places, often to cheap pubs where the people let you be as you want as long you take a drink there. I’m in a lot of different places…and often just straying like a cat in berlin.

Drinks in Hamburg: I am a pub-child, i’ve known pubs since I was five or six years old – maybe even younger – because when I used to visit my father he took us to soccer games of Sankt Pauli and after we’d go to the pubs. Pubs know me and I know them. In Hamburg you can find me often in the Yoko Mono bar because the owner Gesine is a friend of mine. There is another cool bar in Hamburg called Egal bar, but it will close down soon to make another crap office building or a shop nobody needs.

Can you recommend any local acts we should check out?

Mark: Yes, many… On +brr from Hamburg are a good example of non profit musicians… they do it because they love it. Mueran Humanos – I produced their last LP… Namosh – he is such a good one… Angie Reed – you know her right? Driver & driver (Patric Catani and Chris Imler)… Taprikk Sweezee – Nikolai Oppel von Sallwitz, someone important for the Hamburg underground… Gina Dório from Cobra Killer – she also wrote the lyrics for one song on the record.

What is the last album you bought/listened to?

Mark: an LP of “Alexandra“, which is one of my german idols in music on the fleemarket .

Eduardo: I found the first Wire album, Pink Flag, yesterday in a second hand shop. That was the second time I bought it.

If you had to chose, which musical tribe would you say you belonged to?

Mark: This is allways the question when I have to make the clicks on myspace and the other sites…We are punks in a way… but to call it punk is not enough because our influences are in a lot of different genres. We are breaking the rules of making genre music accidentally because we are not conceptual musicians. In Adiós Berlin I can hear 80s punk roots, a bit of  hip hop, electronic roots, dub, noise, experimental, march and a bit neue deutsche welle…Ok, if I had to choose, I belong to jazz in the sense of no rules.

Eduardo: ?????

What is your summer looking like? Lots of touring for the album? Any festivals? Plans to come to Belgium anytime soon?

Mark: The summer looks hot. Our record is out now. I will make a music-theatre piece with our production team “KRRK-KRRK Produkt”, that’s me and Jessica Broscheit. And I will also make another theatre-piece as a musician on stage performing with “Norton Commander Production” from Dresden this year. We will play concerts as much we can. Belgium – yes book us! We just startet with the booking now. We’re chaos like 9 out of 10 artist are. The next concerts are our release-parties (09.06. in Hamburg, 18.06. in Berlin) and after this the next big gig is a festival called “dockville” in Hamburg.

Eduardo: I play with Caspar Brötzmann Massaker in Oostende on the 5th August. But that’s another story…

If Adios Berlin was a movie, which would it be?

Mark: E.T. because the lyrics are subjective from my eyes… not about a totalitary truth… but an E.T. which can’t go home and is a prisoner in a world he didn’t choose.

If Adios Berlin was a lady, what kind of lady would it be?

Mark: a sweet, self-destructive smoking prostitute. A young angry woman fighting for her rights and loosing herself regularly. It would definitely be a woman I can’t take my eyes of…

Watch the video to Plastik/Lieb

Watch Anders, a track made for the compilation ‘snuff trax for japan’

Adiós Berlin is out now on Shitkatapult

Available from iTunes here

Thomas, Bert and Dries © Yana Foqué

Dries Dauwe (drums) and Bert Huyghe (vocals, bass) formed the band in 2008, recruiting the latter’s then 16-year-old brother Thomas to take on guitar duty. With a radically DIY approach and a colourful aesthetic, their debut – 11 furiously erratic and spontaneous no-wave tinted tracks – was taped on second hand cassettes and sold in a bag with a lollipop and a balloon. Not loud enough to fit in with the local metal scene yet too deconstructed to achieve national airplay, the band ended up in the strange sonic no-man’s land of lo-fi. Although the boys rapidly gained a loyal following in Ghent, even securing an opening slot for Wavves at Brussels’ L’Ancienne Belgique, they’re still relatively unpopular back in their hometown. “It’s really hard to explain how redneck and conservative our area is,” says Bert. “Most of our songs sound like the place they’re made in – a very grey and sad zone,” adds Dries, whose parents’ shed in Lembeke serves as a rehearsal and recording studio. At first listen, their tunes carry a bright, summery and overwhelming feel. Hope shines through, yet reality always seems to catch up with the music, pervading it with melancholic undertones. And that pretty much sums up their core. “After every ambitious sentence we utter, we always just say ‘then we can go shovel shit under a train’. We want to make it, but also know we might end up becoming postmen in our villages,” Bert cynically jokes. An LP on indie label Smoke & Dust is planned for September, but “it will still be recorded on a four-track,” assures Thomas. “We’re not leaving the shed just yet.”

Below are some pictures the boys took of their homes and Lembeke shed on one of our disposable cameras.

Photographer Yassin Serghini

From left to right: Natural Habitats (Steidl), Dirty Blonde (Faber & Faber), Landscapes (Hatje Cantz), Straight in The Light (ARP2 Editions), The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Picador) and What Would John Do? (BIS Publishers)

Straight in the Light (2009-2010) by Michel Mazzoni – ARP2 editions

Straight in the Light, Brussels-based Michel Mazzoni’s second book, captures his American road trip, taking as starting point the faded and fazed-out. A photographer who sees landscapes as a meeting of spaces, his sparse, eerie and intentionally over-exposed images document the departed, disappeared and decayed. Looking through the book, one cannot help but feel a mix of contrasting emotions: beauty vs sorrow, escape vs reality, soft vs heavy-hitting. Using Californian, Arizonian and New Mexican natural light to fabulous effect, this is an intimate and insightful account of the maturity Mazzoni’s work has gained over the last few years.

Available from ArpEditions.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) by Tom Woolfe – Picador

The Merry Pranksters were a colourful group of post-beatniks lead by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author Ken Kesey. Embarking on a summer-long road trip through America in a bus whose destination simply read “Further”, they went on to make history championing psychedelic drugs and band-of-the-moment Grateful Dead. Those epic days might have disappeared in a fog of hazy memories and acid flashbacks hadn’t journalist Tom Wolfe been on the bus, notebook in hand, religiously chronicling it all. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test narrates their story, describing its kooky protagonists, their wild adventures, even including tips to guarantee a fruitful, freak-out free LSD experience… The vivid descriptions and stream-of-consciousness styles collide, making this cult classic the closest you could possibly get to actually being there. That’s until its cinematographic adaptation, directed by Gus Van Sant, hits screens later this year.

Available from Amazon.

What Would John Do? Flour Power – Baking your Way to happiness (2010) by William Georgi – BIS Publishers

A hilarious pastiche of self-help manual meets cookbook, What Would John Do? reveals the mysteries of how a humble cookie contains all the ingredients for a happier life. The author recounts the teaches of John Altman – an unemployed Dude-like neo-hippie who gives away free cookies on San Francisco’s Baker Beach draped in nothing but an apron – developing his “spread the love” mantra in seven chapters meant to resemble the seven steps to bake the perfect cookie. John’s seemingly simplistic leitmotivs – referred to as “Johnisms” (“Go natural”, “whatever man”, or our personal favourite: “no one is bigger than the cookie”) – are pure pearls of wisdom and whether or not he actually exists, or if his recipe is that good, matters little. What Would John Do? is about the bigger picture. A wonderful lesson in how to step back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

Available from Amazon.

Landscapes (2011) by Gerhard Richter – Hatje Cantz

Landscapes have a longstanding presence throughout Gerhard Richter’s vast body of work. As a matter of fact, their simple beauty have fascinated the German painter for the past 35 years, taking more of his time than any other theme. Despite the breadth of these explorations, only two exhibitions have been devoted to this subject matter so far and critics rarely made time to explore the values and meanings of these paintings, dismissed as purely “aesthetic”. This is the first book to examine these gorgeous and dream- like romanticised visions. Featuring over 80 plates that combine his photorealistic paintings, signature blur as well as a few rough sketches reminiscent of his abstract works, Landscapes is a must-have for the true Richter fan.

Available from Amazon.

Natural Habitats (2010) by Massimo Vitali – Steidl

Page after page, Massimo Vitali’s bright and monumental prints of holiday resorts packed with herds of people are both soothing and mind-boggling. Capturing these popular spots in Turkey, Italy, Croatia or the French Riviera from dizzying heights affording the best views, the humans depicted are reduced to tiny flesh- coloured pinheads swarming in a strange mass that seems to socially gravitate around each other. Some of Vitali’s tribes of beachgoers and bathers can be seen under temporary shelters (umbrellas, tents, canopies), whilst others simply attempt to make peace with their surroundings. In both cases, the depicted packs breathe tranquillity and peace, whilst evolving in these heavenly “natural habitats.”

Available from Steidl.

Dirty Blonde – The Diaries of Courtney Love (2007) – Faber & Faber

Few women in show business history have been as controversial as Courtney Love. Often bashed by tabloids and peers, Kurt Cobain’s widow and de facto queen of grunge never went down without a fight and has come to be known for her loud, spontaneous and unabashedly wild nature. Dirty Blonde features an intimate collection of notes, photographs and documents belonging to the peroxided anti-hero, turning out to be her most intimate release to date. Poignant excerpts of her childhood diaries, song lyrics written in juvenile hall, report cards from school, old flyers, promo pictures, intimate photographs of Kurt and their baby daughter make up this fascinating scrapbook containing everything you’d ever need to know about the MTV Generation’s most iconic and scandalous blonde.

Available from Amazon.

Photographer Adam Goldberg

The Goldberg Sisters’ self-titled debut album is out now on [PIAS].

Is the Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales really the first ever all-orchestral rap album?

I have no idea. Abd al Malik probably sung with an orchestra, there’s been a lot of orchestrated hip-hop but there’s always those crashing beats in there. I’m sure there have been special projects but as far as a whole album? I’ll stand by that for now…

It’s definitely your most intimate to date. Every song’s lyrics read like a page torn from a diary. Having stressed the difference between “the artist as a masturbator” and “the entertainer as a love maker” in the past, do you feel you’re tilting more towards masturbation on this one?

I hope not. I just try to avoid putting anything on stage or on an album that I feel would not be entertaining. I think the only difference with this one was that I was really thinking about the people who know me, who follow me on Twitter (@chillygonzales), who are regularly at my shows. It could seem like masturbation to someone who’s not interested, but I do consider it to be a fundamentally communicative album because getting really personal is something I haven’t done yet.

You seem to feel very strongly about the notion of an entertainer as a servant – does the audience dictate a lot of what you do?

Yes, based on what I can provide. There are a lot of things I know audiences like but which I can’t do, such as dancing or singing in the way that some people get shivers at the back of their neck, like Leslie Feist or something. But the things I can do – my piano skills, talking skills, ability to have fun in a deep way with the audience – I put that in service. I don’t think I’m a rap genius or a cinematic genius. I’m a musical genius – it has to do with the scientific knowledge of music. That gives me the confidence to try other things.

Having studied music in such a deep and thorough way, do you ever feel the intellectualization of every note and chord might come in the way of instinct and spontaneity?

During my teenage years I was conscious that I had no taste. I’d listen to a lot of musician-y music like classical and jazz, and analyse the structures, just like a toy. And I wasn’t afraid to break the toy and go on to another one. Only later did I develop a taste, and it’s still hard to know what I like. Either it touches me or it doesn’t. It has to do with the image of the person, how they chose their name… Just like anyone else I wanna feel cool when I listen to music. And it goes both ways. I recently saw this Metallica documentary, Some Kind Of Monster, and suddenly became a Metallica fan, even though it’s not my cup of tea. I generally like to nod my head to music, not bang my head. But they had this really weird group therapist who’s like a sports psychologist trying to get them to get along. You saw them in these sessions and they become humanised and all of a sudden invested in the Metallica story.

You’ve been strongly influenced by rap – which names would you recommend to someone who has no real background in that genre?

My mini-mission especially with people who aren’t into this stuff is to get them into the rap of today. Everyone loves Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Wu-Tang and A Tribe Called Quest, but a lot of them have lost track. If they like crazy rap, I’ll get them to listen to Lil Wayne. If they like really good funky rap, then Rick Ross cause he’s kind of the Biggie of today, with a big huge voice. There are a lot of guys, but these ones are up there, in the NBA of rap. It’s the only meritocracy left. The most successful rappers are considered the best, which isn’t the case in other genres like French chanson.

It also has a lot to do with the Anglo-Saxon vs. French way. You have these dinosaurs that get to the top and are never brought down.

Yes, they get that “tenure” as we say. In the US you have to fight for your place until you die. I come from that capitalist continent so of course I always think competition’s great. I love pressure and I love risks. I like failing too. Soft Power was a big failure but I learned so much… It put me on the right path so I’m grateful.

You mentioned your education played a big part in your over-achieving nature and drive. Has it mellowed down over time?

It’s like people who grew up catholic – you may get out, but it’s always there and there comes a point when you have to accept it. “You’re nothing if you’re not successful” is the kind of sentence that’s hanging over my head all the time. The Ivory Tower movie was a bit about the moment where I was fighting it in a way. I think being a pure sell-out is not good and being a pure artist neither. My whole life will be reacting to this brainwashing I had.

“Unspeakable” sounds very intriguing and mysterious – yet it seems unspeakable because it’s just plain honest. Subjects like money and ambition have become very taboo. Is that why you chose this word?

Yes, those are the things you can’t normally say in conversations. But mostly it just has this supervillainous feel. When I heard the epic quality of the music my brother was making it just came right away. The supervillain imagery is something I’d always had floating around. I never dressed up with a cape and a mask, it’s more about the idea of being someone who’s very gifted but uses the gift more for himself. But of course a supervillain just wants to be loved so I’ve always seen myself in that character.

For how long were you part of Puppetmastaz?

Very briefly, like 10 years ago. I only performed a couple of times in its prototypical phase, back when there were only a few puppets. To be honest, I’m not a great puppeteer and I love to be able to see an audience and react to them so it was a little bit like torture performing with no idea of what the audience was like.

In Never Stop, one of the tracks from Ivory Tower, you refer to music as being a joke on two occasions. Is it better to laugh or cry about it?

Both I guess. Jewish humour is a bit about the “no difference” between laughter and crying. I think the first reference was about signing autographs… That’s the part that makes me laugh. The second reference was about a groupie situation, which is maybe more sad.

There’s a strange dimension of humour in what you do. You nail it pretty well in Crying: “I know it’s tempting to call me a sad clown, cause my mouth tells jokes, but my fingers make sad sounds”. But what puts a smile on your face? Are you a happy man?

Yeah, very much. I really like my job, I get to make a living doing pretty much what I was put on earth to do. A good gig, a good interview, a good listening session, a good meeting, a really well written email to Drake – so that I know that I can work with him again – all those things will make me a happy man.

Anything not work related?

Of course, like my friends. But in that case, I guess the friendship and the work is very blurry, because I’m part of this musical family with really wonderful people that happen to be great musicians too like Peaches, Feist, Mocky, Jamie Lidell, Tiga… That’s part of what makes me happy, everybody is doing so well, we manage to collaborate, still be friends and there haven’t been a lot of clashes that we couldn’t handle over 10 years. And you know, everything else that a normal person could enjoy, like relaxing.

Do you get to do that a lot? You definitely come across as being very productive, hyperactive and workaholic.

A lot of it usually comes at the end of a period of really heavy work. When all you want to do is just do nothing. And I can be quite good at that when I want to. I can watch an entire season of Mad Men in three days. You’ll know the kind of stuff I like cause it’s all in the songs.

Like South Park? By the way, what is the truth in Eric Cartman?

He lives in all of us. That little petulant, completely manipulative creature of pure ego and insecurity. I see myself and everybody else I’ve ever met in Eric Cartman.

Any good joke you heard recently?

I follow this guy called The Fat Jew on Twitter (@FATJEW), he’s really irreverent and funny. (Gets his laptop and reads a few jokes):

“This joke will never be not funny: What’s brown and rhymes with Snoop? DR. DRE”

“Hate is a strong word. Unless you’re comparing it to murderfuck. Murderfuck is a strong word.”

“Owen Wilson’s nose looks like a dick that was run over by a tank.”

“If hot people don’t stop pretending they’re funny, I’m going to start pretending I’m hot.”

“Ladies, sex with me is about as thrilling, magical and breathtaking as watching ‘Avatar’ on an iPod.”

“If everyone walked around with their orgasm face, nobody would ever get laid.”

This guy is actually LOL. I actually laugh out loud.

You’ve got strong views on wannabe artists/ poseurs. Who seems sincere to you these days?

I don’t know about sincere, but who seems like the real deal? Someone who is larger than life but manages to find something very poetic in it. Anyone from Daft Punk, with their robot costumes, to a million rappers whom I love, or someone like Philippe Katerine in France.

You moved from Canada to Berlin ten years ago and have spent the past eight years in Paris. What prompted your exile?

Total career frustration. When I signed a record deal in Canada, I thought my problems were over but that was just the beginning of my hell ride through the music business. I was grossly underprepared for being on stage, being in interviews, knowing how to act in meetings, so I made a bunch of mistakes and it was a disaster. I felt like a zero, I was going nowhere. So I just moved to Europe, as it was better for what I wanted to do. I signed to Kitty-Yo, this tiny Berlin label, and they released mine and Peaches’ album within a month of each other and it just blew up. We sold about 5,000 records but for them, we were like platinum artists!

Could you describe home?

Canada is a wonderful place in terms of quality of life and I am proud to come from a place that seems to have a little bit of the best of Europe and the best of America. Unfortunately the set of priorities there doesn’t really match mine. Musically, it’s more this indie rock that thrives, with bands like Broken Social Scene or Arcade Fire, who were the apex of it. I really respect those guys for building this whole Canadian scene but musically, it’s not something I can nod my head to. Humour and musical accomplishments are not a big part of it so I’m kind of fucked.

What made you kill Jason Beck “the purist artist” to give birth to Chilly Gonzales “the pragmatic capitalist entertainer”?

It happened right around the time I came to Berlin after the whole Canadian experience. One of the biggest problems was that I felt I had to suppress a lot of real character traits, like my egomania, the part of me that could seem arrogant but is really just a precise confidence in one certain thing I can do. My wanting to use humour didn’t really work out so I ended up acting like all the other indie rockers, for lack of a better plan, and I hated myself for doing so. Saying whatever everyone else says like “you know, I do what I do for myself and if everyone likes it, it’s a bonus,” which is stuff I don’t believe now and didn’t believe back then. So I just picked a name that was a bit far away from me. A Hungarian Jew with a Cuban name is impossible in a way but I like the impossibility of it. There are a lot of musical geniuses called Gonzales too, so it seemed like a good pedigree. Another thing was that people warned me about being too all over the place musically and that it could work against me. I was really not intent on repeating the same thing over and over so I decided to make the personality so intense that it could link it all together and people would understand how I can rap and play the piano.

It’s very hard to pigeonhole you as an act. You’ve been described as “Berlin underground prankster rapper”, “workaholic Grammy-nominated producer”, “melancholic piano virtuoso”, “Guinness World Record holder”…

I’ve had such a great life. Doesn’t that sound like a cool guy? See, my teenage self is now going like “yeah, cool!”

Those definitely are all very cool and accurate titles to have, but what would your epitaph read?

Oh jeez, you’re making me envision my death? I have no idea. I often think about what the title of my autobiography would be but I don’t have enough distance yet. I’d love to become the official piano guy that all rappers go to when they need piano parts. That would be a real achievement. I got a bit closer now with Drake, with whom I performed at the Juno Awards, which are like the Canadian Grammy’s.

Are you still in touch with Pharrell?

He came to me after I played at a Louis Vuitton show and he just gave me his number. I ended up calling him thinking it would be some answering machine but he did answer, so I just dropped off my Solo Piano album at his Georges V suite. Then every once in a while he’d just randomly text me “man are you in New York?!!!” But that’s when I realised that a lot of shit happens in North America and it’s just about being at the right place at the right time.

So that would be the next step – being accepted and solicited in what you call the “NBA of rap”?

Yes, because all the other solicitations, which are very nice for the resume, only fill me up to a certain amount. I didn’t even really grow up with rap, I discovered it more towards my 20s. Rap really came after the Canadian problem and I thought “who I think acts cool in interviews? Who says cool shit?” and then I realised it was rappers. The way they act like themselves but very exaggerated, the way they’re very honest about ambition, at the same time they’re also very artistically ambitious too, but they don’t really have to say it. In fact it looks a bit stupid when a rapper tries to be too artistic. Look at Kanye West: he’s overreaching a bit. He’s not Matthew Barney… He’s not Alejandro Jodorowsky…

You broke the world record for the longest solo-artist performance. Playing piano for 27 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds, how did you manage practicalities?

You know Guinness lets you have breaks, right? You get five minutes every hour, which you can cumulate. I did 15 minutes every three hours, but it’s still very short. I had a bit of everything; some muscle cramps three hours in, but Guinness has doctors on site. To get the Guinness stamp you have to be very formal. You have a notary, a witness, they don’t really fuck around and it’s also a bit expensive because you have to pay for the guy from Guinness to come down on a first class Eurostar.

So you actually paid to get your own record?

Well with selling tickets I think I lost a bit of money but yeah, a totally worthwhile investment (gestures towards the framed certificate hanging in his living room). That was some of the most poetic branding I could do. After the Soft Power feeling of dilution, it was about re-establishing the two most important aspects of me: musical genius and crazy competitive guy.

Could you describe what was going on in your head during the 27th hour?

There were some hallucinations as of hour 24, forgetting where I was, the piano,… this was during a three-year period where I had stopped smoking weed by the way, because if I had, I surely couldn’t have done it. I wanted to go one hour further than what I had announced. Because I thought that would be cool – that when I got to 27 and everyone was going crazy, I could still continue… I couldn’t though. I did four minutes more and then my hands stopped playing by themselves. Most importantly I saw the reaction the day I woke up. It had become the number two topic on Twitter that week. I didn’t even have a Twitter account! I called my manager straight away and said I had to go to the States to work asap. I would not be sinking further into the crust of this quiche in France. It’s a really funny period because I also gained a lot of weight so now when I see photos it feels like “my weird fat French exile.” Now I’m back to how I looked before, Ivory Tower was a huge success for us, I’m my own boss, I can put out a new album eight months after the previous one and do crazy shit like that – it’s wonderful.

What instruments do you play?

A bit of everything, but mainly keyboards. Drums were my first instrument and then I switched to piano a little bit later.

Is it true that you played drums for Iggy Pop?

Well yeah but I wasn’t in the studio with him. Motor Inn was an instrumental track I had done with Peaches and another friend in Berlin, and Iggy ended up hearing it and just sang on it – almost like he got a rap beat and did a song on it. I also played on their Kick It duo, which is on Peaches album. So yeah, you can hear my drumming behind Iggy Pop on two songs.

Is there an instrument you’re absolutely not familiar with but would like to have a go at?

It would be nice if I could just pull out brass and string instruments and play. But I like to delegate a lot. Boys Noize basically produced the whole Ivory Tower album, my brother took care of this whole album. I didn’t direct my movie, even though it looks like I controlled everything but I gave the most important job to someone else. I’m through trying to do everything…

Which is funny because you tend to project this image of a control freak…

Well, newsflash: I’m growing up and improving on my character defaults, very slowly.

You crowned yourself “President of the Berlin Underground” at one point. Do you still feel underground?

I’m a bit of a Where’s Waldo? I just pop up in weird places. As Chilly Gonzales, the albums I put out are still absolutely underground but a lot more people know about what I do, and who don’t necessarily know my music. I try to do most things like press and shows because I’m basically still hustling. On the other hand I’m mentioned so often in the same breath as Feist, Peaches, Tiga, do weird things like the Juno Awards broadcast, or the iPad commercial... Can I really say I’m underground when millions have heard my music?

You’re performing a Piano Talk show in Brussels, what can we expect?

That’s the way to see me. It’s the best thing for sure. When I have a group, it’s good, but is also always a bit of a compromise for me. When I’m alone on stage I can just really take it anywhere, like do something crazy in the middle of a song.

At what point did it become clear you’d only perform in a bathrobe and pyjamas?

Mainly since early 2009. I did it a bit on Soft Power circa 2007, but before that I had the rap costume, the pink suit, the safari suit,..

Could you explain the statement?

Like a lot of things I enjoy, it’s a really convincing illusion of intimacy. Seeing a guy in a bathrobe playing an upright piano is different than seeing Richard Clayderman in a smoking jacket playing on a white grand piano with a dove. I know it’s weird for French people, because a bathrobe and slippers are something you wear when you’re sick at home.

Which might explain this mental image we could have of you as a grumpy old man…

Hey I’m aware of the cranky uncle Gonz’ persona that I emanate but it’s more acute in France. In England, people would say: “he comes on in a dressing gown,” which has a very different connotation.

Are you looking to build up this new pop culture icon, like there’s The Hef’, The Dude, and now The Gonzo?

The Dude is definitely another big signpost cause he was a great character, but I don’t know to be honest. For this album, because it seemed so close to Ivory Tower, I didn’t feel like changing the look and suddenly become the parody of a rapper. And I think that given everything, it’s probably best to stay consistent for a while.

How many bathrobes do you currently own?

Only three. There’s a tartan one I sometimes wear around my house and two from Old England. A Swiss designer approached me because he wants to create a custom-made bathrobe with a monogram CG print all over it. That’s definitely how I see the future. With matching slippers.

The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales comes out on 6th June on Gentle Threat.

Dont miss his Piano Talk show on 31st May at Theatre 140
Avenue Eugène Plaskylaan 140
1030 Brussels

Interview and photography Yana Foqué

1. What’s on your mind?

Fights and smells. I want to control them more at our shows.

2. Favourite albums of the month are…

I haven’t listened to many albums, more just songs.

3. Arabia Mountain is going to be released next month. What inspired you to make this album?

South-American folk music.

Hip-Hop – S&W (instrument).

4. In the two years it took to write, create and record the album – What has changed?

The flavours of the months.

5. How was working with Mark Ronson on this album? Why did you want the album to be produced by him?

I think the Grammy Awards speak for themselves. He is in the upper echelons of pop production.

He was sweet.

Name: Cole Alexander

6. What has been the best psychedelic experience of your life, so far? And has it got anything to do with the cover of your newest album Arabia Mountain?

No, but my greatest psych experience is when I imagined I had lost all of my organs and bones. I melted and I was like mush for a moment

7. Black Lips has a habit of colouring outside the lines: If it hasn’t got anything to do with the gig, then it mostly has to do with the gig’s location… As a band, you’re not afraid to play venues and countries that typically don’t see many rock bands perform…. Which country is high on your list?

Iraq, Cuba, Syria, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda, Antarctica (we have leads).

8. What’s a borderline bad idea to you?

Smoking.

9.The sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll lifestyle – think you’ll ever grow tired of it?

I only know so much about it. I know the cliché well. But in actuality, I know so much.

And not one, but two parties. One in Brussels on Friday 20th May. And one in Ghent on Saturday 21st May.

In Brussels on Friday, 20th May from 19h00 onwards.

Address – L’Epicerie Fine de la Senne, Rue de Bon Secours 4-6 Bijstandstraat 1000 Brussels (a 2min walk from Prive Joke). Find it on Google Maps here

With music by William (Uphigh Collective) and JustNathan

In Ghent on Saturday, 21st May from 19h00 onwards.

Address – N°13, Sint Pietersnieuwstraat 9000 Ghent (a 1min walk from the Vooruit). Find it on Google Maps here

With music by Judo Club, Ping Pong Tactics (live set), Dynooo (Surf Kill), Tino and Fred Nasen

Join the Facebook event here

Sponsored by Schweppes and Dolce Gusto

The exhibition When The Circus Leaves Town, curated by Belgian artist Steve Schepens, will take place in the various corridors and the foyers of the Vooruit, showcasing the multidisciplinary nature of the Berlin art scene with works by Belgian artists Johan Tahon, Michaël Borremans, Steve Schepens, as well as Germans Olaf Heine and David Freidrich, and the American Matt Mullican.

Sound-wise, you’ll be treated to the Sound of Berlin’s crème de la crème two nights in a row with performances by Modeselektor, Tiefschwarz, Bodi Bill, Onur Özer, Tobi Neumann, amongst others, and the legendary Bar 25 will invest the venue’s ballroom with its trademark bohemian style, allowing visitors to have the illusion of being in the cult Berlin bar.

German duo Modeselektor

Brothers Alexander and Sebastian Schwarz, aka Tiefschwarz

A regular night at Berlin hotspot Bar 25

The daytime projection of documentaries and films, as well as forums bringing together specialists and major players of the contemporary art scene, discussion will take place in the Brugzaal on the subject ‘art-oriented similarities and contradictions between Ghent and Berlin’.

Inspired by German composer Paul Lincke’s 1904 hymn Das ist die Berliner Luft (This is the Berlin air), the festival will pay tribute to the unique lifestyle and culture of the city.

Berlinaire festival this Friday 8th and Saturday 9th April
At Vooruit
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23
9000 Ghent
+32 (0) 9 267 28 28
Full line up and program here

Photographer Merel ‘t Hart

The venue employs a staff of 45. This is in addition to cleaners, security agents, bar and restaurant staff.

Located in a 10.000 sqm complex that is said to go back to the 11th century, L’Ancienne Belgique – or AB as it is also known – was a popular concert hall in the early 20th century. Often threatened with closure due to noise complaints from the neighbourhood, it underwent several renovations and even filed for bankruptcy in 1971. Saved by funding from the Flemish government in the late 70s, the main hall was completely soundproofed and reconditioned in 1982, resulting in the AB as we currently know it. Entirely tinted in a deep cardinal red – commonly used in most theatres as it absorbs the stage lights – the venue retains a unique warmth and intimacy, even when at full capacity (2.000). Upgrading the entire equipment with state of the art technology and a perfect acoustic system, it has become the venue of choice to capture the CD and DVD live performances of artists such as Iggy Pop, Oasis, Kings of Leon, Goldfrapp, Queens of the Stone Age, The Hives and Yeasayer to name a few. Mike Patton has been quoted saying “AB is the best venue in Europe. No, in the world!” and Lou Reed was in awe when he discovered the main hall before performing at last year’s Domino Festival. Praises coming from such demanding musicians who have toured throughout the world are no mean feat, and the 300.000 concertgoers who flocked in last year can’t be wrong either. The 233.450 tickets sold in 2010 have earned the AB the third spot in Pollstar’s annual list of Top 100 Worldwide Club Venues, making it the only European venue in the top 50.

The backstage zone in front of the production room.

For the Morcheeba or Iron & Wine fans, 730 balcony seats are available. Free seating is on a “first come, first served” basis.

The catering canteen. “Proper food” is a luxury touring artists don’t take for granted, something that the AB understands only too well. Former house cook Lut De Clercq was even renowned abroad for her dishes and wrote several books on the subject.

The AB Sessions room, which also doubles as an extra dressing room on busy nights. Two microphones and a camera are on hand to record sessions of acoustic sets broadcasted on the venue’s website.

“If you get lost, just follow the red line” is a sentence often overheard in the backstage zone that stretches from the main hall to the recording studio and catering canteen.

A couch from the Stella bar.

Lights, fixtures and fittings.

A dressing room.

State of the art technology has been customised to suit all the needs of the wide breath of artists that come through AB’s door.

The AB Sessions room.

The AB Sessions room.

A dressing room.

The Stella bar, right next to the main hall.

A couch from the Stella bar, often used for photo sessions and interviews.

Iggy Pop – Lust For Life (1999)

Massive Attack – Karma Coma (1998)

LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (2010)

Ghinzu – Blow (2008)

Photography and captions Vermin Twins

Jean-Pierre Jarre, the unknown twin of Jean Michel

Too many stickers but no talent!

Fire in the hole!

5 Point Finger Fire Split Technique Skill (5PFFSTS)

He used to be our friend but now he lives in Diest!

Food motivation: 0.1

Back Scratch Fever

Some call him J or Djanaan.

Get out of my dreams, get into my car.

Blurry Fluf Rubber

Our Highness!

Some hooligan we picked up...

With thanks to Ulrike Biets

Photography Yana Foqué

David and Robert Perlick-Molinari of French Horn Rebellion, getting their feet wet after their concert at the Botanique

The boys are currently without a label, and although they finished their debut album The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion a year ago, it was only released last month. “What we’re doing is truly independent and very entrepreneurial. It’s fun to see how it grows as a business when you put so much time and effort – and you’re like the owner of it,” admits David. “It’s really beneficial on multiple levels and not just for the musical reward you get. Right now it’s all fun but we’re building for something bigger, because there’s just no money in being all small potatoes like us.” Not having any tour support, it’s often a struggle getting their act on the road, and whilst most bands complain about crap food, sleep depravation or the flat screen of their tourbus being bust – David and Robert are faced with far more trivial, and annoying, details. “We have very limited means and fly most places because that’s the cheapest for us,” explains David. “With the equipment we’ve got, we have to work out exactly how much it weighs because we’re always so close to the edge. We made the mistake of bringing a guitar once and had to pay an extra €130, which was more than the actual ticket. There are just so many things you have to research and calculate. The challenges of organisation end up eating up the creative time. We talk about business a lot, but that’s because it just takes over our lives.”

The strains of managing a DIY operation is hard enough as it is, one could imagine that when faced with difficulties, touring with a sibling maximises the chances of getting on each other’s nerves. “Well yes, but it helps having a third person”, says Robert of Sam, their lighting engineer. “We realize it’s essential having a third wheel. Once you have a third person it just becomes more like friends hanging out.” Given their obvious complicity, we’ll take their word for it. Then there’s the highly entertaining constant back-and-forth banter, even when addressing odd topics such as onstage spins…

Robert: I’ve learned that my keyboard solos are better when I don’t drink at all and also so I can do more spins.

David: Who does that besides Michael Jackson?

Robert: Francis and the Lights.

David: But that’s like a Motown trick.

Robert: Man, I gotta go to Motown school.

David: Frankie Valli?

Robert: Frankie Valli’s not Motown, David.

David: I know, but…

Robert: I don’t think Frankie Valli did spins.

David: He didn’t?

Robert: I think he was more just like, a singer.

David: Well James Brown did spins.

Robert: Yeah, true entertainers – they do spins!

“Brothers communicate differently and have a different threshold of patience, I guess. But you can never quit brotherhood though,” David adds. Reminding them about how the Gallagher siblings seem to have managed to pull off that one, they ponder for a second and even consider injecting some added drama to their act. “Maybe we wouldn’t have a broke ass tour,” jokes Robert. Not having the luxury of their own booking agent, they patch up tours by working with different people in several countries, based on a network built-up over the years. But the boys don’t despair. To David, “it has to do with every new relationship you bring into your team. It’s all about the positive energies you put into something. It will somehow end up manifesting itself somewhere, just like some sort of cosmic principle – like karma.”

And although their tracks have been met great enthusiasm worldwide, they’ve learned the hard way that you simply can’t gather unanimous approval when working in the creative field. Speaking about the 5 Days Off Festival in Amsterdam, where they played the night before, Robert confesses he couldn’t help but feel a tad hurt by a less than flattering tweet. “It was good, we were really happy with the show. Then I went on Twitter and this guy was like: ‘What a mess, I’m so glad the DJ started playing again, it was so much better.’ He turned out to be a music journalist blogger, and I looked at what he blogged about and, of course, he loves Warpaint.” When asked if they’re not fans of the LA-based female band, they simply shrug. “No, we do, but it just seems that everybody that doesn’t like us like Warpaint.”

If they recount these tales of rejection with a smile, Robert admits he’s no stranger to the dark side every once in a while. “I was planning everything and doing all of the business stuff when we first started off. But sometimes it just gets to a point where you need help and can’t do it. I had put a whole US tour with our friends from Database back in 2009. They’re from Brazil so we had to sort out their work visas, pay for them, and make the whole thing look really professional. The missing link though was that this van that I bought was an absolute piece of shit. We were late to every gig because it kept breaking down and wouldn’t go faster than 55 miles/hour. Getting to Phoenix, the car had broken down several times, popped a few wheels in the middle of the night and totally finished in Tucson. We missed the soundcheck and the soundguy was really mean. We played but sounded absolutely terrible. There were loads of drunken college kids that kept on booing us, and I just totally lost it. I started bawling and crying, then told the promoter ‘don’t pay us man, we’re not worth it.’”

David: “I had to put a sweatshirt over his head and take him down to the hotel room to cool him down with ice and everything.”

Robert: “Something I find funny is that even though we do something quite positive, people actually get mad at us for doing it. We’re just making fun music that’s also interesting and satisfies our nerdy desires as classical musicians. We make it come from such a positive, innocent place, really – and then these people get truly angry about it!”

David: “That’s probably our biggest mission statement: to get people to lighten up.”

French Horn Rebellion’s debut album is available here.

Photography Bo Ningen

Efterklang's Rasmus Stolberg and Casper Clausen

What’s your current state of mind?

Cloudy.

What was the last film that made you smile?

Short Cuts. Mad Men (TV).

This tour doesn’t only evolve around your latest album Magic Chairs but as well around the first full-length film you’ve made together with Vincent Moon. How does this affect the vibe of the tour itself?

It somehow prepares the audience to our concert.

How did you meet Vincent Moon? (And did his name remind you of the leading character from the Mighty Boosh?)

We met him in Austin, Texas, in 2009. (It didn’t strike me!)

What was the most important feeling you wanted this film to reflect? Why now?

Reflection!

How important is the place where the music is recorded/conceived for a band?

It depends very much on the project. Sometimes it’s where everything starts, and sometimes it just happened. Somewhere. I believe that I’m getting inputs/directions from my surroundings but I wouldn’t be able to point it out.

You’ve noted that for this album the band “wanted to display every sound source (…) so that the listener could hear every ingredient of the music.” Where did this urge come from?

Mainly because of our Performing Parades project that we did just before Magic Chairs. We wanted to do something completely different.

You are quite known for your live shows – I myself have had the pleasure of attending one a couple of years ago in a nearby park. You were set up in a small wooden arbour and dressed up as horsemen. As the sun set, the Indian summer vibe pervaded your music… How do you recall that evening? What was it like from your end?

It was a beautiful evening!

Where do you recommend listeners to play your music? Where do you imagine them doing it?

Anywhere with friends.

What do your parents have to say?

Thank you for liking our son’s name.

He should practice on his handwriting!!!

If you’ve missed out on the gig – don’t worry! With a pretty please and some hosting talent you can settle for the next best thing: a home screening of their film An Island.

Photography by Yana Foqué

Can you describe where you are right now? What do you see through your window? What’s the vibe like today, the weather? What time is it, your time?

At the moment I’m living in a quiet central area of  Tokyo (Japan). From my room on the 7th floor, you can see  the Tokyo Dome, well known as a baseball stadium, and also a bunch of buildings. During daytime, you can see cars and people everywhere from my balcony. Come night, it’s quiet and gives you a feeling of loneliness. Well maybe it’s just because I am writing this at 2am. Spring still feels far away, although it’s getting warmer these days. I don’t really deal with the cold that well, so it has been tough for me. But everything is getting better and better, almost like a calm feeling.

There isn’t a lot of info about you online, so could you introduce yourself to us? How old are you? What’s your real name? Where did you grow up? What kind of kid were you at school?

My real name is Takafumi Sakurai, I’m 24 years old. I’m going to university. My stage name is EMUFUCKA, it’s my name upside down. I born in MIYAGI prefecture, also home to Gagle and Mitsu The Beats. I sometimes go to theirs events whenever I visit them. I personally think that Sendai has a diverse culture, especially in terms of music. During the summer time, an amazing jazz festival is held, you can also visit marvelous record shops. Not far from the city, there is also the Jazzy Sport in Morioka. Sendai was influenced by this shop a lot. When I was a kid, I was a shy and unactive boy. However I was lucky enough to have a lot of good friends. Well, I was quite pessimistic and shy and that has not really changed. Both of my parents were working and whenever I was home, I played games, watched cartoons… I thought that I was a kid who couldn’t do anything good. But when I turned 20, I moved to Tokyo and have lived here ever since.

Your album’s really refreshing, experimental and cerebral yet coherent. Certain influences really come through, both old and new, which is nice. What did you grow up listening to? To what ‘music tribe’ would you say you belonged to? Where do you lean musically nowadays? What scene would you say you are part of in your hometown?

Thanks, glad to hear that. Originally, my mother used to teach music at school and she let me play piano and violin. That really influenced me so much and I ended up listening to classical music on CDs and vinyl. Well not only classical music but also old Japanese pop music from animation and games. Then I fell in love with Hip Hop music after junior high school. I started to produce music when I moved to Tokyo, so it is quite recent. Before producing, I was MCing. I did not listen to Jazz, Soul all sorts of African music until I started to make beats. What triggered me to look into these styles was my quest for samples. I think my music could be described as “BEATS” music and I have some intention to make my music as BEATS. But to be honest I have no interest in genres. This genre-thought really limits producers’ ability. So it’s really up to the people to decide what genre Emufucka’s music belongs to. I personally want my music to be fresh all the time, you know. But I believe all of my roots go back to Hip Hop and I really would like to keep my music this way, but also bringing what I think is beautiful. Before I was in love with the sounds from J Dilla or Madlib, trying to make beats like them. These are the people who deeply influenced my sound. And I still love them. I basically love all sorts of music, but nowadays Beats, Electronica, Psychedelic, Experimental, Dubstep, Glitch, Techno, House, Post Dubstep, Drum ‘n’ Bass, Game Music, Soundtrack, Alternative…etc… And I can’t name a lots of my favorite artists but recently Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawk, Rustie, Clark, Dorian Concept, and James Blake are the people I really feel influenced by.

Regarding the music scene in Japan, we unfortunately do not have a great beat music scene, in comparison to LA or the UK. Only a few people are doing this stuff here and I do believe our music is out of date by maybe two or three years? You could even say the same for my music.

Having Count Bass D on your album has to be every rapper/producer’s secret fantasy. How did that work out?

Before this album, I didn’t know him personally. He is one of my favorite artists. When I started making an EP and choosing tracks, (this is the track called August), I was thinking it would be cool to have Count Bass D‘s voice in it. I sent him a track through SNS without any expectations. And he really liked it… Known as an obscure artist in the music scene, I really appreciated his approval and interest. The process of making music with him was quite simple. He recorded his vocal part at his studio and I edited it. Tableek from Maspyke is also taking part in my new EP.

Listen to August -_ft_Count_Bass_D

Listen: August_ft_Count_Bass_D.mp3

What is your next secret fantasy? Who’d you like to work with/have on one of your next releases?

My next release will be two remixes on a label in LA that will hopefully be out this year. I cannot describe it’s sound but I am sure people will be freaked out. And I keep making music for next EP. I already have done some Demo Beats. Hopefully, the release will come out this year or early next year.

Can you tell us a little about how you came to release this EP on Citywurl? How did that connection come about?

I originally collaborated with Slye Records, which is run by a company called aright Entertainment. But there was no chance for a release to happen because they weren’t really feeling it. I sent my demo beats to Citywurl and things worked out like this, that was around last April… Citywurl is a brilliant label I think. I’m grateful that Jonas, the A&R from Citywurl, gave me this opportunity. Releasing music outside of Japan shows that people appreciate the music itself, you know. I am not sure about the situation in other countries, but Japan is all about connections and networks.  So I probably can say that not all the music being released in Japan is because the music itself is cool. I happened to witness some people going through that shit so I really did not want to go through it myself. I just keep making music. Some people use music as a tool for success but I do not see it like this. I just wanna make good music and listen to pure music.

Can you talk to us about the album itself? How would you define it? Take us through the track listing. How do you pick title names for the tracks?

I think this EP is my perfect first album. I was able to put all the old and new stuff in there. I picked the selection from hundreds of tracks I made. And I also took good care of the balance of the album as well. The track list is Brain Machine, Inherit The Stars, The Heater, Lovin’ You, Galactic Soul, August. I picked the titles from my favorite films, English and American literature, science fiction novels, animation and cartoons. Whenever I make beats, I try to imagine them visually in my head. Smell, colour, warmth, space, texture,…

Where do you actually record? Do you have your own studio? Can you describe it for us?

All of the tracks were created in my room. A tiny, nine tatami size-studio with the minimal equipement. It was hard to get it with my budget. One PC, DAW-software, speakers and Audio Interface, MIDI controller that looks almost like a toy, a cheap analog recorder, a second hand synthesizer. I know that expensive gear could create a better sound but that doesn’t mean it can create inspiring sounds or tunes. Well, so far I don’t feel really eager to use that.

Can you tell us about the album, the moment or the person that made you get into making music? Are you self taught or did you go to music school? What instruments would you like to be able to play?

No one made me start making music. It came naturally. But I was certainly influenced by my mother who is a music teacher. I have always been in a musical environment. So I can say that I got a sense of music in my blood but I’ve never played any instruments properly. If the occasion presents itself, then I would love to start piano or violin again.

Whats on your current playlist? What are you listening to right now?

These are the tracks which I recently listened to…Young Montana? Ver / Astro Nautico, Connecting The Dogs / Rushkeys, Sometimes I Get Down(Mike Slott Remix) / Kotch, deadcatclearll (Baths Remix) / Themselves, Fancy Forty / Luice, Hold On (Sub Focus Remix) /Rusko feat. Amber Coffman, Night And Day / Oriol, Youth Blood (12th Planet & Flinch Remix) / Little Jinder, Good Boy / My Dry Wet Mess, Tsubomi & Erika’s Rubber Boots / Quarta330, Voices (Dorian Consept Remix) / Nosaj Thing, No Security feat. Kelis (Rustie Remix), Untitled_rsn / Joker, Snowy Lava / Ametsub, Stop What Your Doing (James Blake Remix) / Untold & James Blake, Pitter Patter / Redinho, Trapperkeeper / Low Limit, Carbonated / Mount Kimbie, Everything is Alright (Daisuke Tanabe Remix) / Yellowtail, Sing What You Want (Rusko’s Skwee Remix), Beast Nite / Rustie, Peaky Caps / Gold Panda, Domino Part A / Mr Flash, A Camphoraceous Elixir / Busy, Bits N .Dots.2 / RLP, Ill Yuykb / Coco Bryce, Yo! (Slugabed Remix) / Melkeveien Vs Nino..etc

What local bands are you into? What are the good parties to go to in your neighbourhood/city? The record stores you go to? The magazines/blogs you read?

Regarding events, I often go to Cosmopolyphonic radio show and also Breakthrough by Jazzy Sport. I only go to events where I can listen to good music. For record I often go to Janis, Jazzy Sport and Disk Union. I tend to get music on digital supports but at the same time try to get physical ones as much as possible. For magazines… Sound Recordings which features new instruments, DAW, “how to use” guides, etc… My favorite blogs and sites are 92bpm, Moovmnt, FACT Magazine, Ghostly, Just Like Music, XLR8R, Red Bull Music Academy, In to the Woods, You’ll Soon Know, Pitchfork, Rinse FM, Sonic Router, URB, nutriot, Music Forest and Tokyo Breath Sauce. Tidal who writes Tokyo Breath Sauce is a good friend of mine, an amazing person who tells me a lot about music.

Hudson Mohake, Neon Indian and the whole brainfeeder-low end theory sound and scene come to mind if Iwere to draw comparisons for the purpose of context/reference. Would you agree that, even from a distance, you all belong to this new tribe of electronic artists for whom hip hop probably played a big part in their musical upbringing…?

Well it is a really difficult question. well I personally categorize them as BEATS rather than Electronica Hiphop. I am sure there are a lot of opinions or perceptions about it, so I cannot really say what is right or wrong. All artists have different opinions but as I said before, my music could be categorized in non-genre music like ‘BEATS’ and that is what I am aiming for. For instance in my case, I got so much energy from J Dilla or Madlib… like Hiphop sounds and then now Electronica, Psychedelic, Experimental, Dubstep, Techno, House, Glitch, Post Dubstep, Drum ‘n’ Bass, Game Music, Soundtrack, Alternative… all kinds of different music. I embrace everything from them to create my sound. There should be a lot of controversy going on but what I can say is we should not create boundaries between them but just feel the music and enjoy it instead. If the music has a vibe, why do we have to focus on the genres?

There’s this ability to beautifully mix the old with the new which I found appealing in your EP, a strong sense for the past but with an eye firmly to the future kind of thing…

Thank you, sir. I am just glad to hear those positive comments. There are so many things that I really wanna do. So please keep your ears open for the next releases as well.

Except making music, what is your other bad habit?

I’m able to read people. And I am a cautious person, I tend to worry about almost everything.

If you were asked to curate a festival, who would you have headlining?

There are too many in world wide base so I will pick up Japanese artists…Aqua Dub, a.z, Alpachikabuto, Curicopo, Clearfixx, Daisuke Tanabe, DJ Keita, DJ Kicks, DJ Mitsu The Beats, Danny Masao Winston, Dai Kurihara, Eccy, Fujimoto Teturo, Fitz Ambrose, Gagle, Grooveman Spot, Himuro Yoshiteru, Hiroaki Oba, Hinako, KK, Kan Sano, Kawakami Kohei, Kenji Sakajiri, Legro, Monkey Sequence.19, Madmaid, Masaya Fantasista, Mizube, MMMMMM, Mimosa Pudika, mfp, Nadsroic, Neo Hetare, Ovall, Okada Yasumasa, Ogiyy, Pepin, Pigeondust, Quarta330, Ramza, rigly chang, Ryo Matsui, RLP, Super Smoky Soul, Sauce81, Sayuri Takimoto, Shiiiiii, Tidal, The Astronotes, Taro Yoda, Toi73, Yukari Takanose…and so on. I know most of the people personally but they are just amazing people. Theirs performance, activity DJ…everything is just cool.