Sep 27, 2017

RhoDeo 1739 Aetix

Hello,


Today's artists are a Belgian rock band founded in 1980 in Brussels. Centered on singer Arno Hintjens and guitarist Jean-Marie Aerts, the band played a kind of music sometimes referred to as "eurorock", containing various styles including new wave, blues, funk, hard rock, avant-garde and French chanson. The group was especially acclaimed for its live performances, with the intense singer Arno Hintjens singer.The band released four studio albums and attained a measure of commercial and popular success, and disbanded in 1986.  .........N'Joy

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The band has its origin in the duo Tjens-Couter, composed of Arno Hintjens and guitarist Paul Decoutere, which played rhythm and blues since the early 1970s, and in 1974 were augmented with Ferre Baelen (bass) and Rudy Cloet (drums), and in 1977 with Serge Feys (keyboards). Two albums were released, Who Cares (1975) and Plat du Jour (1978). In 1980, the group was renamed TC Matic (apparently for a Yugoslav surrealist poet named Matić); Decoutere was soon replaced by Jean-Marie Aerts, who cooperated with Hintjens in the majority of the band's compositions and produced the first three albums. Their debut album, TC Matic, was described as a mixture between Killing Joke and Gang of Four; they scored an early hit in Belgium with "Oh La La La" in 1981, and another with "Putain Putain" from 1983's Choco.

In 1984, the Dutch bass player Michael Peet replaced Ferre Baelen. In 1985, the band toured Europe, opening for the Simple Minds, a tour which proved that Belgian bands could attain commercial success outside the country. A final album, Ye Ye (1985), was produced by Howard Gray. The band broke up in 1986.

Their eclectic mix and experimental approach to music would have a great impact on Belgian bands such as dEUS and Zita Swoon

Arno's lyrics were a crossover of different european languages (flemish, italian, french, english, german) sometimes all of them in the same song which adds to the originality of TC Matic's sound. Let's not forget Arno's voice. It's incredible with that kind of Dylan's singsong on many tracks. Arno's scorched voice is always about to burst (self-composition "I"m Not Gonna Listen") and simple musical canvas weft by the musicians permits him to emphasise his guttural blues soaked voice. His childish voice is sometimes really funny on songs like the raw "Que Pasa" No wonder Arno was (and still is) a great and authentic performer and TC Matic was probably "the most intense live act ever to come out of Belgium, delivering excellent heavy variété"




After the breakup
Arno Hintjes started a solo career, under the name Arno. He continued to cooperate with Jean-Marie Aerts, who went on to work mainly as a producer (for Jo Lemaire and the Urban Dance Squad, among others), and with two other ex-TC Matic-members, drummer Rudy Cloet and keyboard player Serge Feys.




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Belgian rock band of the eighties that was inspired by american music (a strong bluesy influence) but wanted to create original european music. In fact, TC Matic (after the name of the singer Arno Hin tjens and Paul Couter, a friend with whom Arno made a fun and energy duet in the seventies : Tjens-Couter, Matic being an inscription written on a fridge !!!) was a band that managed to meddle different styles as blues, funk, hard rock, avantgarde, chanson française and 80ies new wave. How possible to conjugate the opposites, that remains a mystery but Arno's musical background is huge (he was 30 something at that time and a member of different belgian bands by the past). Arno's lyrics were a crossover of different european languages (flemish, italian, french, english, german) sometimes all of them in the same song. Brilliant case study of Dance-Punk



  T.C. Matic - T.C. Matic   (flac  253mb)

01 Bye Bye Till The Next Time 3:25
02 L'Union Fait La Force 2:34
03 With You 4:11
04 Stop Rock 3:50
05 The Parrot Brigade 3:53
06 I'm Not Like That 2:30
07 Give Them A Leader 5:02
08 Viva Boema 4:25
09 O La La La 3:17
10 Pitie Pour Lui 3:16
 
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TC Matic were a Belgian rock band of the eighties which was inspired by american music but wanted to create original european music. In fact, TC Matic was a band which managed to mix styles such as as blues, funk, hard rock, avantgarde, chanson française and 80's new wave to create their very own trademark sound. How did they do that remains a mistery but Arno's musical background was huge (he was 30 something at that time and a member of have been an active member of the Belgian rock scene since the early 70s).
L'Apache, released in 1982, is the band's second album, but, in my humble opinion, the band's masterpiece. Filled with great songs, it succeeds at creating a brand of rock music like never heard before. Where their self-titled debut was too heavily influenced by Joy Division's music, this 82's delivery is more melodic but paradoxically rougher ("I'm Not Gonna Listen") and always entertaining thanks to unexpected moments ("les Zazous") and a rich musical contribution by hard rock guitarist Jean-Marie Aerts and keyboardist Serge Feys. Typical 80's' sound effects sometimes give a misterious and threatening tone to TC Matic's bare and minimalist bluesy music ("Que Pasa", "Rip-Off Popoff") even if they can be seen as dated in 2010. And let's not forget Arno's incredible singing, it seems as if his scorched voice was always about to burst and the simple (yet not simplistic) musical canvas crafted by the musicians permit him to emphasise his guttural blues soaked voice to a point where one could think of Tom Waits or a more relaxed Screaming Jay Hawkins.
No wonder why Arno was (and still is) a great and authentic performer and TC Matic was probably "the most intense live act ever to come out of Belgium, delivering excellent heavy variété" A european rock reference!



T.C. Matic - L'Apache (flac 227mb)

01 Middle Class And Blue Eyes 3:16
02 Que Pasa 2:45
03 Touch Me 2:59
04 Rip-Off Poppoff 2:40
05 Mon Ami Louis 2:23
06 Just Another Joke 2:50
07 Le Java 3:30
08 I'm Not Gonna Listen 3:46
09 Les Zazous 2:53
10 Stay Scared, Stay Alive 3:04
11 La-Bas 3:31

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TC Matic with their third album Choco make a big step forward. Ha ha refers still to the first releases, but also illustrates the magic word of this record. Rock stripped to the bid, which the vicious guitar work of Jean-Marie Aerts comes to its best advantage. she steps out of the straitjacket of the New Wave. If You Wanna Dance Rhythm And Blues is much more than alternative Wave. With screaming guitars, background vocals of Julia Loko and a wonderful Hammond organ they present an almost entirely swinging. Call Me Up has a riff that reminds you of Hot StuffThe Rolling Stones , but also keep any similarity. Once again stripped of all embellishment. They Never Make You Laugh almost brooding tension. With L'Amour n'est pas Avec Moi they produce a real ballad, but then brightened with hammered lush guitar sounds Aerts. Putain Putain has become a classic, with the well-known euro hymne subtly integrated. Arrividerci Solo contains one of Aerts solo that passes through its simplicity to the marrow. Actually, there is simply no explore dissonance in Choco. This album marks the culmination of TC Matic. Ye Ye successor stores go wrong in many ways, and to stop the band decides it. Thankfully keep Serge Feys and Arno Hintjens the memory alive by TC Matic still live to interpret classics from the band.



 T.C. Matic - Choco   (flac 229mb)

01 If You Wanna Dance, Dance, If You Don't, Don't 3:14
02 Ha Ha 4:05
03 L'Amour N'Est Pas Avec Moi 2:53
04 Arrividerci Solo 3:20
05 Living On My Instinct 3:58
06 Call Me Up 3:23
07 Putain Putain 4:22
08 Being Somebody Else 3:32
09 They Never Make You Laugh 6:00

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The last record of TC-Matic, a swan song, a goodbye in beauty. With pearls like the stupid stupid loud rocking Cook Me, the beautiful ballad Elle Adore Le Noir (Pour Sortir Le Soir), and songs like Get Wet and I'm A Man.
Yé Yé suffers from heavy duty, swollen production courtesy of Howard Gray. Fortunately, the Pearl Elle Adore Le Noir does not suffer from this!.

TC-Matic participated in the tour of Simple Minds, so the chance to break through internationally was there that way.  Unfortunately, in the same period the band broke down. One of the best, possibly the very best live group ever produced in the Low Countries. Salut !



 T.C. Matic - Yé Yé  (flac  274mb)
 
01 Cook Me 3:01
02 Who's That Girl 3:41
03 Act Like A Dog 4:41
04 Chi Boem 3:24
05 Elle Adore Le Noir (Pour Sortir Le Soir) 4:20
06 Pauvre Con 2:40
07 Fed My Dreams 3:55
08 Let Me Out 3:23
09 I'm A Man 3:24
10 Get Wet 4:27

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5 comments:

  1. Excellent! How about some Arno?

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  2. I was ** just** listening to them three days ago and said, "I need to hear more." What a perfect coincidence! Thank you!

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  3. Hi there, all four TC Matic albums are very difficult to find - could you kindly re-up since all of the links are dead? Many thanks in advance!

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  4. Hi Rho, could you be so kind to re-up the Arno records some day? Thank you for all the good work! Best regards

    ReplyDelete