The More You Live, The More You Love

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...

After the official release of the MTV unplugged shows of October 2015 on the album Unter Dampf, Ohne Strom in November 2015, Der Graf surprised his fans earlier this year with the last live album Danke! Ein letztes Mal - Live!, which was only available for a special price during the 2016 farewell concerts. Like all other artist der Graf wrote much more songs for Gipfelstürmer, then he was able to fit on the album. Somehow I had expected they would show up on the physical cd single versions of the Gipfelstürmer era singles. But they didn't. Einer von Millionen was presented during the first leg of the 2015/2016 farewell concerts (and is on the album Danke! ein letstes Mal). When Unheilig opened their second leg of farewell concerts in Mai 2016 they presented the new songs Auf ein letztes Mal and Mein Leben ist die Freiheit. And finally weeks before the final concert at Cologne the word came out that on the fourth of november a last, and ninth, studio album would see the ligh...

Tonight I was at the boerderij in Zoetermeer to see ABC. The Lexicon Of Love is still a great debut album I listen to now and then. the band had attracked a sold out venue. The support Model Depose, from Groningen, opened the evening with an half hour set featuring songs from their debut album Splitting Light. A great album featuring an 80s mix of sounds from bands like Ultravox, This Mortal Coil and a male vocalist which is a crossover of Mark Almond and Alison Moyet. I bought the album straight after the show and listened to it in car on the way back home. ABC turned out to be a trip down memorylane, Although the band played some new songs from the earlier this year released  Lexicon Of Love Part II. Somehow the new songs fitted in much better than listening to them on the new studio album. The sound was superb and so tight, and Martin Fry's vocals are still so strong and recognizable, This for sure was one of the best concerts I visited this year. Setlist: When Sm...

Six years ago as a joke I compiled a compilation filled with songs containing Winter in the title. It was just for fun, since I like the season, especially when there is snow and ice involved. When we're able to skate on the lakes and rivers. This year I visited Switzerland in February. Spent some days in Bern and visited the Kander Valley, my favourite Swiss location for the summer holidays. In Bern there was no snow but as soon as we drove towards the Kander Valley, the snow dominated the landscape. And when we came out off the tunnel, that connects Spiez with the Kander Valley, we arrived in a white world, while snow was still falling. We parked our car in the center of Kandersteg and walked for hours through the snow. Familiar places look much different when there is a white carpet spread over it. It made a great impression on me, and is a memory that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It was not only for the snow we went there. We also visited the Unhe...

This year was a very low blog year. To be precise no entries up till now. And I'll end with my top ten album list, which will be featured in the upcoming issue of iO Pages. 01. Big Big Train - Folklore 02. Multi Story - Crimson Stone 03. Unheilig - Von Mensch zu Mensch 04. Silver Key - The Screams Empire 05. Lee Abraham - The Seasons Turn 06. Steve Jansen - Tender Extinction 07. Tony Patterson- Equations Of Meaning 08. Drifting Sun - Safe Asylum 09. Cosmograf - The Unreasonable Silence 10. Jadis - No Fear Of Looking Down So hopefully 2017 will bring a more structured way of writing again.