Jan 10, 2007

Stage 13, The Netherlands S.E.

Dutch Treats in this second edition,

Clashing Egos - Rubicon ( ' 04 )
Solex - Pick Up ( ' 99)
Junkie XL - Saturday Teenage Kick ( ' 97 )
Legowelt - Classics 1998-2003 ( ' 03)
Voicst - 11-11 ( ' 04)
Kettel - Cenny Crush ( ' 02 )

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Clashing Egos - Rubicon (2004 *390 mb)

Producers Erwin van Moll and Jan Vanderlest met some four years ago in the Daltoon studio in Eindhoven (formerly known as Tango – once famous for the recordings made by avant-garde group Nasmak) and soon found out that working together was very inspiring indeed. Under the moniker max 404 Van Moll already had made a name as an electronic pioneer and producer of now-classic albums for labels such as Eevo Lute, New Electronica and Tom Middleton’s Universal Language. He’s also considered to be one of the finest DJ’s Holland has to offer. Jan Vanderlest came from a completely different background, he entered the musical arena as bassplayer in several funk- and hip-hop bands.

On 'Rubicon' they successfully blend the sound of Mo' Wax-like trip hop grooves and exotic sounds with the voices of Darryll-Ann frontman Jelle Paulusma, British singer Kirsty Hawkshaw and Ethiopian vocalist Minyeshu Kifle. Especially the latter does an impressive performance on the melancholic Afro tune 'Aminjig Nebere (I Trusted You)'. The album reveals itself as a steady grower, so don't trust your initial judgment and certainly use a headset when listening to it because it's truly a sound experrience. "We wanted to make a beautiful album’, the duo says about Rubicon. It’s much more than just that, it's electronic soulmusic for the 21st century.



Clashing Egos - Rubicon

01 - Twenty Four, Ft. Jelle Paulusma (4:37)
02 - Go Figure (3:35)
03 - Knitting Skins (5:25)
04 - Baghdad (Bag This, Ft. Jelle Paulusma) (4:48)
05 - Like The Song Says (3:54)
06 - Aminjig Nebere (I Trusted You, Ft. Minyeshu Kifle) (7:05)
07 - City Of Glass (5:29)
08 - Love Sweet Love, Ft. Jelle Paulusma(5:53)
09 - Don't Sleep Tonight, Ft.Kirsty Hawkshaw (5:12)
10 - Rubicon (8:21)
11 - Happy Herb In Dub (7:35)

Clashing Egos @ Base
Clashing Egos @ MySpace

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Solex - Pick Up ( ' 99 * 275mb)

After guitar band Sonetic Vet/Dash breaks up (97) singer with the band Liesbeth Esselink goes solo under the name Solex. The music she creates is a mixture of samples and loops with lyrics that are partly spoken and partly sung. Esselink signs a deal with the American Matador label. Both John Peel and New Musical Express are very enthusiastic about Solex. A year later Solex Vs. The Hitmeister, on which each track has the word Solex in its title, is released. The album is welcomed with great enthusiasm by the press. Solex plays at Lowlands festival and embarks on a tour of the American West Coast, Esselink is backed by a four-piece band. In 99 Solex plays at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark and goes on tour in the U.S. again, supporting Cibo Matto, her second album, Pick Up, is released. In 2001 Solex works on her new album Low Kick And Hard Bop, which is released on 11 September. In the meantime Esselink remixes material for bands like Malaria (German new wave), Remington Super 60, Shinju Gumi and Ruby, and she also sings as a guest vocalist on records of Australian band Gerling and French band Little Rabbits. In September that year Solex records her second Peel-session. In 2003 the track Look, No Fingerprints is the theme music to a worldwide advertising campaign for mobile phones provider Motorola, still her record label Matador has to let her go, and a year later she releases The Laughing Stock Of Indie Rock on her own Discmeister label. It's been licensed globally but all that work forces her to close her sec hand recordshop C & D. In 2005 she remixes Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Crunchy. This results in a friendship with the Spencers and some new songs yet to be released.

What about Pick Up , a stream of tunes that will boggle the brainstem while at the same time massaging it. Solex crafts tripped-out sound cubes that when placed on the eardrum melt into colorful beat vibrations and dissolve into your consciousness . If you are new to Solex, this is as good a place to start as any.



01 - Pick Up (3:03)
02 - Randy Costanza (3:25)
03 - Dork At 12 O'Clock (2:51)
04 - That's What You Get With People Like That On Cruises Like These... (3:01)
05 - Oh Blimey! (2:49)
06 - The Burglars Are Coming! (3:18)
07 - Superfluity (2:59)
08 - Snappy And Cocky (2:34)
09 - Five Star Shamberg (3:20)
10 - Chris The Birthday Boy (3:16)
11 - Athens - Ohio (3:11)
12 - Escargot! (3:13)
13 - Another Tune Like 'Not Fade Away' (3:40)
14 - That'll Be $22.95 (3:20)

Solex @ Base
Solex @ Amazon

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Junkie XL - Saturday Teenage Kick (1997 * 458mb )

Best known for his remix of Elvis' A Little Less Conversation which shot to number one in 24 countries, Tom Holkenburg's career spans much further. Born in The Netherlands in 1967, Tom learnt piano, drums and bass at an early age before getting switched-on to synths and joining the Dutch New Wave group, Weekend At Waikiki, as multi-instrumentalist and producer, going on to form industrial rock band Nerve with vocalist Phil Mills, yielding two LPs before splitting in 1995. Meanwhile, Tom had began fervent work as a freelance producer, earning credits for bands including Sepultura, Fear Factory and Dog Eat Dog as well as major video games, movies and TV commercials.

Tom's obsessive work ethic drove him to drink and dangerously poor health, he was diagnosed with a serious heart condition aged 27. Once recovered, Junkie XL was born and 1997 saw the release of the album, Saturday Night Teenage Kick. "I called myself Junkie XL from the point of view that once you're completely overworked you never want to go there again," he explains. "The 'XL' stands for '(E)xpanding Limits' broadening up your vision." In 1998 Holkenborg's ambient project A Forest Called Mulu received an Edison Music Award (1998).

Junkie XL's music is a mix of rock and big beats, often compared with the sound of The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. The power of this music is absolutely best expressed in a live performance. Junkie XL is one of the first bands that plays modern electronic music and a good live show with until 2001 Rudeboy (Urban Dance Squad) behind the mic.

They followed Saturday Night Teenage Kick up with Big Sounds of the Drags (1999) which contained a minor hit zerotonine, after the some extensive global touring Junkie XL version 1 folded and in 2002 Tom decided to leave Holland to live and work in the United States where he works on soundtracks for movies and computergames. Then in 2003 on the back of a NIke commercial he managed a number 1 hit in 24 countries with his remix of Elvis' A little less conversation. US radio stations (keen talkers) refused to air it , even if it did sell well there, but as the US hitlists are basicly airplay hitlists, Junkie XL didnt make it no 1 in Elvis country. Btw he hardly made any money from the megasales, as he produced it for Nike. That same year (2003) A Broadcast from the computerhell cabin (2cd) came out..without the Elvis remix, although in the slightly different 2004 US release it is included. The bonus track here, BluePill RedPill was a limited 200 copies edition (2003) done for the Matrix reloaded soundtrack, considering Tom being an expert in computerhell , hardly a surprising choice. Junkie XL's latest album Today was released spring 2006

*Junkie XL sometimes uses the sanatized name JXL because the name Junkie causes offense among the sexless warmongerers.



Junkie XL - Saturday Teenage Kick

01 - Underachievers (5:29)
02 - Billy Club (3:58)
03 - No Remorse (6:44)
04 - Metrolike (5:37)
05 - X-Panding Limits (3:15)
06 - War (2:47)
07 - Saturday Teenage Kick (4:13)
08 - Dealing With The Roster (5:27)
09 - Fight (5:37)
10 - Melange (4:04)
11 - Def Beat (4:54)
12 - Future In Computer Hell (17:51)
exclusive bonustrack from the computerhell called the MATRIX (reloaded) ' 03
13 - Blue Pill, Red Pill (8:58)

Junkie XL @ Base
Radio JXL
Junkie XL @ Amazon

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Legowelt - Classics 98-03 ( ' 03 * 378mb)

Legowelt began producing music in the early 90ies when the adolescent schoolboy came in sporadic contact with the sounds of Detroit's Underground Resistance, Model 500, Blake Baxter and Chicago heroes such as Farley Jackmaster Funk, Armando Gallop and mr.Fingers. Later on this palette of influences grew with early Mu-Ziq, Aphex Twin, Drexciya, various stuff from The Irdial Discs label and virtually every type of freaked deep music he could get his hands on.

When he first heard a band called 'Unit Moebius' (punky palette of RAW freaked out Lo-fi chicago trax and deep detroit jams). he was shocked in awe hearing that this music came out of The Hague, Holland, the very same city he lived in! Put on the right track by this fact he stumbled into the Bunker Records office and discoverd a world of contemporary autistic freaked music lovers who looked beyond all the bland house and dance music that ruled the media and clubs. Musical mentors such as IF and Melvin White (aka pametex) lectured him with even more unknown sounds such as early electro and the obscure pre-1983 Italian disco which production secrets were closely studied. In 1998 Bunker released the first vinyl of Legowelt : Pimpshifter, a 6 track mingled Italo Chicago combi which became an instant cult hit with tracks such as 'Sturmvogel' and 'Total Pussy Control'.



01 - Sturmvogel (5:30)
02 - Strange Girl (6:05)
03 - Total Pussy Control (6:05)
04 - Are You Truly Debonaire (3:57)
05 - Dirty Love (5:36)
06 - The Republic (5:00)
07 - The Nomium Syndrome (6:04)
08 - Cherri Meets The Professor (2:49)
09 - Against The World (6:07)
10 - Haunted Arp (3:02)
11 - Chokolectricity (4:45)
12 - Gotoburg Jacks (5:16)
13 - Dimension Door (5:52)

Legowelt @ Base Free MP3's !
Legowelt @ MySpace
Legowelt @ Youtube
Legowelt @ Clone Records

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Voicst - 11-11 ( ' 04 * 251mb)

Tjeerd Bomhof, Joppe Molenaar and Sven Woodside (born in Canada, but living in the Netherlands since he was 16) form Voicst when they're still in high school. When they go to university Voicst is put on the backburner for a while. July 2001, they play their first gig after a long break at the Winston in Amsterdam. This gig is the kick off to a serious musical career. With their energetic and intense shows, the trio earns itself support slots for Belgian, UK and US bands like Enon, McClusky, Millionaire and Nada Surf. In October the trio travels to the US for a showcase during New York's CMJ Music Marathon. Voicst is also asked to do some songs for a CD in the Unsigned series, a compilation album. In 2004 together with acts like Eleven, Gem and zZz Voicst joins the Unsigned Tour. During the summer they spend five weeks in New York working on their debut album from 11 to 11 with US producer Eli Janney (Girls Against Boys). The title of the album is 11-11. The band pays for the album itself, which consequently gets them into debts. Originally, the plan was to use a lot of electronics on the album, but the opposite is the result: a rock album, which closely resembles the band's live sound. The album is released on the band's own record label Duurt Lang Records ('Takes A Long Time Records'). Voicst signs a distribution deal with Play It Again Sam and in October the band returns to the US for a show at the CMJ Festival in New York. In 2005 Voicst is snatched up by Heineken for a worldwide TV commercial that is premiered in September, their album gets chosen as best Dutch album of the last 12 months. Fall 2005 and the 11-11 album gets remixed for the US by Victor van Vught, who previously produced/engineered PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Athlete and Nick Cave, its re-mastered by Fred Kevorkian, and released in the US with an awfully bad cover spring 2006.



01 - Whatever You Want From Life
02 - We Are On A Chemical Push
03 - Dazzled Kids
04 - You Look Like Coffee
05 - Detail 2003
06 - Upside
07 - Someone Wake Me
08 - Shut Up And Dance
09 - Sgt. Gonzo
10 - Porn
11 - And You Taste Like Something's Wrong
12 - How To Put It
13 - Enjoy The Kickback....

Voist @ Base

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Kettel - Cenny Crush ( ' 02 * 418mb)

Kettel is Reimer Eising (born 1982), a self-described "elixir-brewing, camping-loving and musicmaking sorcerer-to-be." He is well-known for his playful, spontaneous melodies and organic folk sounds similar to Aphex Twin and Plaid. His tools just a pc with soundcard, keyboard, MIDI-keyboard and controller, a turntable and a mic. What comes out is a combination of downtempo beats , hovering synthesizers and acoustic instruments turned into little melodies.

Kettel's releases on the Planet Mu-label ( Mike Paradinas µ-Ziq, Kid Spatula , Aphex Twin) and the Kracfive label(US) has build him some international fame. He has also collaborated on several projects of various remixes and compilations. Kettel frequently performs in the Netherlands and abroad, the Japananese seem to have taken a particular liking to his work.

If you like detuned melodies and their strong appeal to the memory zones of our brains, you're likely to fully enjoy the 11 tracks of this album. Plaid, Boards of Canada comes in mind, but the strength of Kettel and what prevents him from being a clone is his ability to instill his own feelings and emotions in his tracks. He's released several albums since Cenny Crush, Smiling Little Cow (2002), Look at this (2003), Volleyed Iron (2004), Through Friendly Waters (2005) and My Dogon (2006) in short plenty to follow up on if you like his music.



01 - An Inky Moon (4:38)
02 - I Live You (5:03)
03 - Kinny The Cow (6:12)
04 - Teared Loss (2:37)
05 - Kyn (3:42)
06 - Mollusc Media Experience (1:40)
07 - Quasi Combustion (5:04)
08 - Max On A Stroll (4:26)
09 - No Comfort At All (4:27)
10 - Lovesonging (2:47)
11 - Introït (3:27)
bonus
12 Days For Bennett
13 Rocket Ronny Rocks
14 Young Men Should Forget
15 Greet (remix by Kettel)
16 Gaps Now and Then
17 Hidden Place (remix by Kettel)
18 Untiteld 1  (remix by Kettel)

Kettel@ MySpace
Kracfive label
Planet Mu label

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Next, stage 14  i'll turn east and back in time as we cross the border into early eighties Germany..Die Neue Deutsche Welle war da da da. think D.A.F. , Nina Hagen, Kowalski, Einsturzende N and more.

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* All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

4 comments:

Rho said...

I filed this for a friend, as it doesnt really fit in the kinda muzik i usually post at Rho-Xs ...

Ayreon is Dutch composer and musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen, he writes the music and the lyrics, sings and plays instruments on all of the Ayreon albums, alongside many guest musicians.
Ayreon's musical style derives mostly from heavy metal and progressive rock, but combines them with genres like folk, classical and electronica to form what some call a completely new style of music. The majority of Ayreon's albums are dubbed "rock operas" due to the fact that the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, each represented by a unique vocalist. This one was dubbed space opera in fact it's a Noosphere opera. And alas things aren't rosy there aswell, far from it.

Ayreon - Into the electric castle (1) ( ' 98 - *85mb)

1.01 - Welcome To The New Dimension (3:05)
1.02 - Isis And Osiris (11:11)
1.03 - Amazing Flight (10:15)
1.04 - Time Beyond Time (6:05)
1.05 - The Decision Tree (We're Alive) (6:24)
1.06 - Tunnel Of Light (4:05)
1.07 - Across The Rainbow Bridge (6:20)

Ayreon - Into the electric castle (2) ( '98 - 90mb)

2.01 - The Garden Of Emotions (9:40)
2.02 - Valley Of The Queens (2:25)
2.03 - The Castle Hall (5:49)
2.04 - Tower Of Hope (4:54)
2.05 - Cosmic Fusion (7:27)
2.06 - The Mirror Maze (6:34)
2.07 - Evil Devolution (6:31)
2.08 - The Two Gates (6:28)
2.09 - "Forever" Of The Stars (2:02)
2.10 - Another Time, Another Space (5:20)

Ayreon @ Base
Ayreon @ Amazon

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floodwatch said...

Hello Rho, kindly requesting a re-up of the Kettel and Legowelt releases here, cheers