The More You Live, The More You Love

And so we come to the final installment of this compilation series. It really was fun making it and I learned a lot about the Dutch New Wave scene this year. This last installment features a fifty/fifty contribution of new names and names already featured on early volumes. Unfortuantly I still was not able, up till now, to get a complete list of all the bands. I am still searching for bands and artists, so it could be 2018 will offer a new volume. It all depends on the albums that pop up or which I hope to find during my vynil hunt. 01. Rite De Passage - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (3:53)  02. Bolland & Bolland - The Boat (4:28) 03. Shift - Childlike Eyes (3:28) 04. Chambre Jaune - Parallel Lines (5:37) 05. Les Yeux Interdits - Schicksal (3:16) 06. Rotjoch - Another Lonely Night (3:55) 07. Das Ding - Kinheitsmuster (3:23) 08. Yoichi Hara - Vivian Is Happy (7:41) 09. Agents Of Decay - Apartment (3:29) 10. Toni Valen - Mystery 2 Me (3:44) 11. Flank - Untit...

This installment came together after my post on the Dutch New Wave (1977-1988) facebook site, just a day after releasing Volume 20. The post contained the research of nine months, after my fellow admin on this facebook site published a list at the end of January. The reactions were overwhelming and included a list of nearly fifty new names. This installment is the result of the first search for those fifty names. Normally I keep the story behind a Volume global, but for this Volume I want to share some more  background information. Out Of Data was the first band I discovered myself when I decided at first to end this series with Volume 20. It all started with the search for Ben Kamphuis. His bands Brezneff and Nozmas were already known and featured in this series, but Out Of Data was new to me. You can hear the influence of Jan Hammer, who had just broken through that year with his Miami Vice Theme. The second find was the band One Two. My wife has known Tineke Schoemaker fo...

Contrary to what I reported earlier, at least two new volumes may appear. After placing a list of Dutch artists and bands from the 80's on the Dutch New Wave (1977-1988) Facebook site, I got so much response with new names that I can continue with at least two installments. And to give you an idea, those are all names of artists and bands which were not featured before.

The final installment of this series, which took me a great part of this year to create. Although new names still pop up now and then and I am still searching for groups of the list, I call it a day for now. It has been real fun to create this compilation series over the year. I wanted to go out with a real Dutch touch. The original version of this Volume was scheduled as Volume 18, and I had the idea to make it an all Dutch lyrics version, which would include the Dutch Nederpop wave of the eighties with bands like Doe Maar, Het Goede Doel, Toontje Lager, Klein Orkest, Circus Custer, the Scene, Splitsing, VOF de Kunst and Jansse Bagge Band to mention the big names. But in the end I decided not to overstock, moved the installment to the end of the series and made a fifty/fifty solution, dropping all the names mentioned before. The only known name left on this installment is Noodweer, since their first album, which featured the track "In de disco", is cataloged as New Wave...

Oblique is since 1985 the band and trade name of Tommy Bachman and Gerard Stokkink. The band starts performing together in 1983 as the background band for the Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater and for several years tours through Europe playing in playhouses. In 1984 Gerard Stokkink releases the album Music From Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater. As a result the band was signed by CBS and released their debut and only album in 1985. It was highly acclaimed and used as an example for many compilations since. It features a wide spectrum of great musicians and was listed as 'one of the best Dutch albums ever' (MusicMaker).   The album contains a cross section of music used for the theater productions of the Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater productions, including tracks from the album of Gerard Stokkink. The track Blue Mountain (b/w Yellow Turtles) is released as a single, but receives little attention. The band keeps working for theater and dance production and in th...

Tracklist: 01. Wallagh - Watched (3:09) 02. Van Lukas - The Waltz (2:50) 03. Bell's Of Home - You Into Ice (3:56) 04. De ronde stip - Stranger (3:17) 05. Autopilot - R.E.M. #5 (why do I feel so good) (4:00) 06. Poison Ivy - Decadence (2:46) 07. Cancel - Music For Another Dimension (3:26) 08. Passionate Hartless - Laughing (3:11) 09. Sylph - Simple Song (2:58) 10. Mick Ness - Open Rooms (3:28) 11. Cilinders - Don't Send Us Away (2:57) 12. Idiotsavant - Bolero (5:26) 13. The Toilets - Boxjunction (5:50) 14. Lebeau & Goblet - At 25 Degrees (5:18) 15. Three Clouds In The Sky - A Pretty Picture (3:48) 16. Human Device - Some Day (4:26) 17. Blackout - The Young For (5:26) 18. Narrow Escape - Moonlight (4:22) 19. Red Leisure - Sick Mind #1 (5:09) 20. Het Chateau D'If - Terry & June (3:16) The link

Just before rounding up October I present you the 18th installment of this series. To be honest I never thought I would come this far. But somehow new groups and artists come overhead each time I scum my resources on the internet. Also a visit of a second hand vynil store in The Hague last week provided me with some nice contributions and new additions in my ever growing music collection. In the eigthies the VPRO had a program on the Sunday called Spleen, which run for a couple of years. This program turned out to be a hugh inspiration source over the past months, and through this program I discovered f.e. Raoul Röring, which is presented on this volume. Also the Diggin' Demos YouTube page profided some nice contributions again. The tracklist for Volume 18: 01. Hi-I - Mind Your Head (4:42) 02. Lucid Dreams - Chemicals (3:45) 03. Bunker - Robots (3:25) 04. Raoul Röring - Learning To Love (4:32) 05. Drem - The Green Of Kindergarten (4:01) 06. The Scene - Two Things (3:...

Life's what you make it. I know and the past few weeks have been busy. When the summer holidays started at the end of June and I was full of ambition to start my learning route for the Office 365 exam, I didn't know what to expect in the upcoming weeks. Normally these weeks are not that busy, which leaves an IT Officer the time to do the administration. Check the licenses, check the accounts and read some stuff including preparing for an exam. Then my colleague left for a six weeks holiday for Morocco, and soon after we had a break in and over thirty laptops were stolen. It was done with the peace, with the administration and learning period. At once we had to work hard to make sure we didn't fall behind. Within two weeks we enrolled 30 new laptops, did the administration and ordered and implemented new security tools. No time for the learning curve, since the working days took their toll. Instead of finding time to learn, I demanded rest and relaxation. So what do you...

After a break of six weeks I present you a new volume. It contains a mix of old names and new names of which I hope you like. Track 20 is a bit of a joke. I only found out a couple of weeks ago, that Taco is a Dutch singer with roots in Indonesia. To be honest I always assumed he was a German singer. The Tracks: 01. Van Lukas - The Riot (3:00) 02. Michiel Peters - Silence On The Block (4:05) 03. Titz - Th Bells (5:31) 04. Zsa Zsa - Plastic Doll (4:57) 05. The Spot - Balance Of Power (3:51) 06. Eton Crop - Get Something For Doing Nothing (3:42) 07. Turf - Crime Of Passion (3:53) 08. Perfect Vue - They're Watching You (5:17) 09. Boys In Parx - Break The Ice (6:43) 10. Splunge - Colourblind (4:18) 11. The Visitors - Spiral Of Spiderlimbs (3:47) 12. Tent - The Fear (3:20) 13. The Ex - The Rise Of The Dutch Republic (3:53) 14. The Phones - The Lizard's Show (3:09) 15. Hi Jinx - Verona (2:42) 16. The Gentry - Into Fears (2:58) 17. 2000 Plus - The Very First (3...

I was there last year on the tenth of September at the Abschiedskonzert (Farewell Concert) of Unheilig at the RheinEnergieStadion in Coulogne. To be honest, for sure, this was not the best concert of Der Graf I witnessed in the past years since our discovery of the band in March 2012, but it was very emotional. With the release of Von Mensch zu Mensch some highlights appeared on the accompanied bonus dvd of the limited Fanedition. Since then fans kept asking the band to release the concert as a proper dvd/blu-ray. At the end for the Unheilig team this turned out to be a starting point for a new release of the band. And so on the 6th of October a new compilation album will see the light of day. The album The Best Of Vol. 2:  Pures Gold will be released in three different formats as one cd, double cd and a Limited Fanedition, containing the double cd plus a double dvd and a blu-ray of the Abschiedskonzert. The first cd, Pures Gold, contains mainly the well known tracks, sing...

Just annouced on the 4th of July, comes the compilation album Pures Gold  / Rares Gold of Unheilig in three formats. The album will be released on the 6th of October, so not on the 29th of September, asthe Unheilig team mentioned at first. There are two audio cd versions. One with a single cd, called Pures Gold. and one with a double cd, called Rares Gold. The Limited Deluxe Fanedition, called Rares Gold as well, is the most interesting one and contains five discs with the following tracklists: CD 1 – PURES GOLD 01. Zeit zu gehen 02. Große Freiheit 03. Lichter der Stadt 04. Geboren um zu leben 05. Mein Leben ist die Freiheit 06. Zeitreise ft. The Dark Tenor 07. Mein Stern (MTV Unplugged) 08. Lass uns tanzen (new) 09. Einer von Millionen 10. Von Mensch zu Mensch 11. Für immer 12. Wie in guten alten Zeiten 13. Unter deiner Flagge 14. Glück auf das Leben 15. Eisenmann 16. Mein Berg 17. Für mich solls rote Rosen regnen (MTV Unplugged) 18. Der Himmel über ...

On the fourth of July, the Unheilig team came with the following news: When Christmas and Easter fall on the same day... like today! But read yourself: Dear Unheilig fans, In the last few weeks, things have turned upon us. Your feedback about a release of the farewell concert in Cologne, has overwhelmed us so much that we have once again put our heads together to make something special for you. After the count had announced his departure in 2014, he became aware that he wanted to leave a musical legacy. He also produced new songs as well as on the previo us tours during the "Zeit zu gehen" tour. These tracks with the Unheilig manuscript are so far unpublished and determined for their fans and for another artist. But this is not settled yet... We would like to fulfill the wish of the count to publish a selection of these particular songs under Unheilig. What is closer to that than a Best Of Vol. 2 CD? We picked up the most popular Unheilig tracks, unreleased an...

For the time being this will be the last Volume in this series. I have some other things coming up that need my attention. This includes some Office 365 exams. The songs: 01. Nexda - Fivesixtyeight (3:36) 02. à Suivre - Mindless Orator (2:40) 03. Ronald Heiloo - In Times Of Panic (2:55) 04. O.R.D.U.C. - Chrome Wave (6:25) 05. Die Krü Blød - Untitled 5 (5:20) 06. Plastic Cocon - Where Did The Story Come From (4:10) 07. Y Create - Blue 7 (3:12) 08. Herzog - IKNK (3:06) 09. Aldomar Zimmerman - The City (3:33) 10. Corneil Nies - Bosonen (4:39) 11. Nozmas - Nozmas (3:50) 12. Hessel Veldman & Nick Nicole - 12 (4:23) 13. Baader Pop Gruppe - V2 (3:23) 14. Bart & Jan - Messerschmidt Parade (5:43) 15. Das Wesen - Nocturne (7:00) 16. Jacinthebox - Follow Rules (2:28) 17. Harold Schellinx - Ranks (1:50) 18. King Ende Shneafliet - Mimosa à la Méditerranée (3:03) 19. Lab 80 - Kill Me (5:24) 20. Einstein - St. Bernard (3:12) The link The picture: This is windm...

And so we come to Volume 14. Never thought, when I started this journey that I would get that far and still be able to offer new names with each new Volume that I presented over the months. Again I draw from the marvelous archives of Diggin' Demos and add some new discoveries to the tracklist. Besides that some nice sites have been a great inspiration as well.  So just before the holidays, to Switzerland and Italy, I present you this volume in the ongoing series. I assumed 15 volumes would be enough, since I thought this would tell the story. However, I still discover new names every day with new music, which would be a shame if they were not mentioned in the introduction. I have ten days to think about this. In principle, number 15 is as good as finished and this Volume musically will return to the Volume 10 experience. But there is a need to tell more. Bands who sang in my mother tongue hardly have been discussed, but I've found enough examples of them. So I am in ...

After a busy week at the office, we moved on the first of June to a new building, finally the vacation ogles. So the best way to start this vacation is presenting a new Volume. This weeks Volume is based around, again, some vynil rips from resent obtained albums and from a fine source discovered on Facebook and YouTube. Diggin' Demos tries to find the stories behind (mainly) Dutch demo tapes. He uploads a demo on YouTube, complete with tracklist and all available information from the tape, and, when present, a link to discogs.com. On his Facebook site he then tries to come up with the story behind the tape, the band and the songs. Not directly from the band, but from people who bought the demo, saw the band or in some way were in contact with the band. The front picture of this Volume is the mill The Mastiff (De Dog) in the village Uitgeest. The tracks: 01. Triple X - Fighting (3:57) 02. André de Saint-Obin - The Human Machine (live) (4:14) 03. Brezneff - No Nukes (4:0...

Just a quick follow up to Volume 11 of Monday. The picture of this Volume is of Enkhuizen, which shows the Drommedaris. It was the south gate to the city, formerly known as Zuiderpoort (south gate) or Ketenpoort (chain gate). The backbone of this Volume are the vynil rips of albums I bought recently. I already knew that ripping hard to get vynil is fun. But with my new audio corner I created some weeks ago and the software of Audacity this is more fun than ever. For now I make one to one rips, which I don't edit. Let me say I still like the vynil sound of the songs, so a little crack here or there I admire. The Tracks: 01. Duplex Johnson - Cosmetics (4:28) 02. R.T.C. - Oh Little Boy (4:30) 03. Judy Nylon - Old Man (2:20) 04. Bert Barten - Tried To Speak (5:28) 05. Claw Boys Claw - Not Coming Home (4:13) 06. Pee Dee - Drive My Car (4:06) 07. Ego Produkties - Samba (2:26) 08. Bleistift - Eyes Of Children (3:56) 09. The Berlin Wall - Bami (2:33) 10. Dier - Fenz (2:23...

This time a view days later than the normal Friday. It all has to do with a long weekend spent on Vlieland, one of the Wadden isles. The funny thing is the cover was already choosen before we went on holiday. Funny, yes, since the cover is the harbour service checkpoint of Harlingen, the harbour from which you leave with the ferry to Vlieland. Vlieland is a beautiful island, with only 1200 inhabitants. the island became famous when the tv series Doctor Deen, the female general practitioner on the island. Three seasons were shot sofar and the recordings for the fourth and last season are planned for 2017. The island only has one village, with de Dorpsstraat as the center of the village. Okay the tracklist for Volume 11 is: 01. LUL - New Band (1:43) 02. The Two - Reflection In Time (3:38) 03. Cancel - Swamp Children (4:38) 04. Plane Of Section - Hold (5:08) 05. Rite Of Passage - Tumb (4:28) 06. La Danza Moderna - Moments In Time (8:25) 07. La Valse - Winter (3:53) 08....

And so we come to Volume 10. A volume filled with outsiders. Bands that never faced the success of a top 40 listing, but still became known for their music. What binds them is the will to create music that is not mainstream. Fighting against the stream, and still get known by the public. The tracklist for Volume 10: 01. Genetic Factor - Action Spot (4:15) 02. Cargo Cultus - A Summer Idyl (4:39) 03. Mekanik Kommando - Passing Clouds (4:48) 04. Ende Schneafliet - Synthimental Love Song (live) (3:07) 05. Vienna Moralis - Wiener Krem (4:21) 06. Coïtus Int. - My Ideal Man (3:32) 07. Meer Staal - Material Brain (3:52) 08. Tox Modell - Paris St. Lazare (2:09) 09. Van Kaye & Ignit - Picassos On The Wall (3:25) 10. Electric Party - Strings In Time (3:51) 11. Berlitz Drama - Frühling (3:15) 12. Another - Paris Tribe (4:28) 13. Exploiting The Prophets - 4x Horizontal (4:32) 14. Bazooka - Das Fest (3:22) 15. Das Wesen - In Your Face (3:33) 16. Cybe - Fun (2:33) 17. Hesse...

Another week past. A very hectic and enerving week. Last Saturday, the 6th of Mai, I visited The Hague. A friend of mine wrote his own book, which he presented that day. We walked the center of the city combining a good glass of beer and a good bite with visits to local record stores. In the last one I was able to score some Dutch New Wave vynil of artists which will be featured on later issues. Since I had hoped to find some vynil of bands, that I didn't find sofar, I decided to order the most wanted albums through discogs on my way back home in the train. They all arrived in the past days and I hope to set up a recording spot later this Saturday in the attic to digitize the vynil in the upcoming days and weeks. I will follow a new procedure which for sure takes some time to get experienced with. Sunday I went to the Ziggo Dome to see Depeche Mode. A great evening, a great band and a great setlist. To be honest the new album has not settled in yet, although I like a s...

Meanwhile Volume 8 has seen the light of day. Volume 08: 01. Alcatraz - Obsessional (5:46) 02. Bunker - Zombies (3:00) 03. Burma - Chinese Lessons (3:35) 04. Catastrophe Bizarre - Lobotomy (6:05) 05. Desert Corbusier - Teach Yourself (3:02) 06. Dojoji - Additiv (8:19) 07. Incredible Coöp - Flowers (4:35) 08. Kewi A Gogo Party - My Girl Sings On Sticks & Strings (2:06) 09. Marge And The Marvellous - A Distant Dance (3:31) 10. Nine Circles - Twinklig Stars (4:10) 11. Pee Dee - Tiuri (4:00) 12. Pure Ace - Disposed (2:31) 13. Spivs - Boys Of Desillusion (2:47) 14. Suspect - Suspect (4:01) 15. Ten Sharp - Last Words (4:16) 16. Terras Bangkok - Erotic (live) (3:38) 17. Urban Heroes - Habadabariwikiwi (3:02) 18. Vice - The Beast (2:32) 19. W.A.T. - Famous (4:46) 20. Weekend At Waikiki - The Valley (3:50) This time a picture from a statue of Adriaan Anthonisz (also known as Adriaen Anthonisz of Alcmaer) (1527-1607). He was a Dutch mat...

Just back from a great week on Texel. Enjoying a nice atmosphere, the family and the friendly locals. Done a lot, seen a lot and drank a lot. Even within this week of relaxing an family time, I was able to find some new names and finally some albums I was searching for since the start of this project. Unfortunately you, the listener, will have to wait another week, since those bands will be featured on Volume 8 scheduled for next week. The tracklist for this weeks Volume: 01. Das Ding - Reassurance Ritual (3:42) 02. Bell's Of Home - Fall Down (2:49) 03. Tempo Di Marcia - Russian Dream (live) (1:56) 04. The Rooftop - That's How It's Done (3:02) 05. Nadieh - Windforce 11 (3:15) 06. Störung - Empire SX (5:17) 07. The Tapes - Bits And Pieces (4:12) 08. Toylets - Marble Arch House (4:58) 09. Judy Nylon - Broken Glass (3:39) 10. Mecano - Robespierre Re-Marx (2:22) 11. Kewi University Of Swing - Someone (3:20) 12. Naftha's Preview - Bonfire (4:42) 13. The...

Just a quick one. Will be off within a couple of hours. So here is Volume 06. Again a diverse set of tracks and groups which again I enjoyed to create. The tracklist for this Volume is: 01. 12" From Heaven - Fall Out (live) (4:50) 02. Casual Affair - Sand In My Eyes (3:26) 03. Ce Soir - Lost In Dreamin' (3:57) 04. Coka - Modern Girl (2:49) 05. Factory Toys - Vapouring Pictures (3:50) 06. Fay Lovsky - Maggie (3:05) 07. How To Get Rich In Rotterdam - Dapper Dan (4:20) 08. Kid Montana - Today (3:17) 09. Menko - Debra (3:35) 10. Mondo Cane - A Long Way From Home (4:47) 11. Naftha's Preview - The Guest (4:11) 12. Niew Hip Stilen - No Crisis Nozeclock (3:10) 13. Ovens Van Ondank - Paradijs (6:28) 14. Prima Volta - Show The World (7" version) (4:01) 15. S.M. Nurse - Cannibal (4:15) 16. Slauerhoff - Clicks (5:18) 17. Sleepless Nights - Radio Airplay (2:56) 18. The Essence - The Cat (3:44) 19. The Phones - * (2:47) 20. Tranquil Eyes - Finding Out F...

This week I reach half the number I have in mind. I think 10 volumes gives a nice idea of what the Dutch music scene was capable of when it comes to New Wave. Volume 5 contains a nice mixture of bands which were not on any volume before and about five which already had their contribution. Concerning the pictures, since I did not give any information when releasing Volume 4. The one of Volume 5 was taken during a January sunset near Uitgeest. This picture of Volume 4 was taken just a couple of weeks ago, when returning back to the Central Station after enjoying the concert of Haevn. It is the weight house on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam. Getting ready for a nice evening of Steve Hackett. Looking forward to hear a mixed set of solo- and Genesis songs. A good start of this Easter weekend. Tracklist: 01. Da Klute - Empty Room (4:39) 02. Duplex Johnson - Double Date (4:00) 03. I Spy - Channels (2:24) 04. Kewi University Of Swing - Girls On Vacation (2:16) 05. Media - Maga...

Just another week past. Besides the normal 40 hours working week, it was a rollorcoaster week concerning the Music. On 28 March I was, with friends, at the last concert of the ARW tour at the Vredenburg theater in Utrecht. A great sold out show of veterans Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman accompanied by Lee Pomeroy and Louis Molino III. On Sunday my wife and I saw Haevn, a band known for their music in BMW commercials at the beautiful Koninklijk Theater Carré. A sold out show again with most music never heard before. And than on Wednesday followed the music of Clock Opera, the band of Guy Connelly, in the small lounge of Paradiso. If this wasn't enough, finally I received my first review promo's with only a near three weeks to go until the deadline. Albums of JPL (Le Livre Blanc), Magenta (We Are Legend) and Citizen Cain's Stewart Bell (The Antichamber Of Being (part 2) Stories From the Antichamber). At last finished an interview with Alan ...

And so with the last and beautiful day of March we come to Volume 3. Never thought the creation process would continue to be so flourishing. The hunt for tracks and bands has brought a variety of New Wave from this low country, which unfortunately not always fits to my ears. I can live with Joy Division alike bands, have no problems with the kind of Siouxsie And The Banshees or likewise with Sisters Of Mercy or The Mission. But soundscapes or simple noise is not my kind of stuff. I think to be honest the best music of the eighties I adore is the kind made by the New Romantics. Well with that in mind, I was certain only one volume has to be dedicated it to the makers of noise, soundscapes and unidentified mumble jumble. The best accessible of these will be featured on the last Volume in this series and bands featured on that volume will only be available with one track. On the upcoming Volumes I will be presenting more of the kind already featured on the first two and this Volum...

I was quite surprised by the amount of visitors to the blog in ages. Probably since I also came with a treat. A treat to be honest I was not complete satisfied with after listening to it completely. Some of the songs are not so loud in the mix compared with the others, which unfortuantly is something that I can't repair for the moment. Two of the songs came from original sources, of which unfortuantly even the latest re-release did not get a remaster. For both I am searching for a better repelacement, which might be a live recording of the song. The first Volume offered a nice retrospect on bands that I came familiar with during the late seventies and the eighties. This second volume offers a lot of bands which were introduced to me in the last 15 years. I became interested in the music of my youth again after a drive back from a holiday in Switserland. It was the song The Great Commandment by the German band Camouflage which made me decide to search for New Wave and Synt...

It has been awhile since my last post, but in the background I have been working on a new project. After the remastering of The Unknown Beauty Of The 80s compilations at the end of 2015, I have been hunting on releases of Dutch New Wave bands from the period 1977-1988. The New Wave marks my teenage years. In 1978 I went to high school. You could say nearly at the start of the New Wave. The first concerts I visited were at a local festival called Beeckestijn Pop. A yearly free festival which featured after the first years of local bands (f.e. The Bintangs and Carlsberg), a range of bands on their point of break through: Powerplay (1981), Urban Heroes, Neon, Diesel (1982), Coïtus Int., Het Goede Doel, Margriet Eshuijs Band (1983), Binberg (collaboration of The Bintangs and Carlsberg), Gruppo Sportivo (1984), Time Bandits, Gigantjes, Secret Sounds (1985), Fatal Flowers, I've Got The Bullets, De Dijk, Claw Boys Claw (1986), Belgium vocalist Raymond van het Groenewoud (1987). I have t...