After Tea "After Tea" a.k.a. "Jointhouse Blues" 1970***

I've always been meaning to get an album by Tee Set or its splinter group After Tea, as they are by far the most famous rock groups of my adopted homeland Delft. A medieval town with picturesque small houses, bridges and canals, it has been famous since the 16th century for its fine porcelaine and more recently for hosting the country's biggest Technical University. Famous Delftenaren include (besides myself)... let me think. Well, I guess I'll have to give first place to William the First Prince of Orange, even though he -like me- wasn't born here. He is considered  the father of the country, for having led the Low Countries' war of Independence and for being the progenitor of the Dutch Royal House. He was assasinated inside his residence The Prinsenhof, currently a museum. The bulletholes are still in display. Apparently he was the first famous person to be assasinated with a handgun, which makes him the founder of a popular club that includes Abraham Lincoln, Robert Kennedy, Franz Ferdinand (the Austrian Archiduke, not the band), Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and many politicians and kings. He's buried in the city's New Kerk together with most of his royal descendents. In the same crypt, close to William's son Prince Maurits, lies a man who had been imprisoned by him. The learned scholar Hugo Grotius may have laid the foundations for maritime and international law but he is more famous for escaping prison hidden in a bookchest. The other church -the one with the leaning tower- hosts less noble, yet equally famous, Delftenaars: the great painter Johannes Vermeer (you know, the one who painted Scarlet Johanson) and the scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who is considered the father of microbiology. The man had the bright idea to look at canal water under a microscope lens. Needless to say he never drank a drop of it since: beer and only beer! I hope you like history lessons as much as I do, otherwise this whole paragraph must have been pretty boring for you. If you'd rather read about Delft's record stores, I have another relevant post.

Tee Set may not have been as famous as the abovementoned Delftenaars but they were pretty successful in their time. Unfortunately their soft pop style isn't too interesting for me, and neither is the music initially made by After Tea, which formed in 1967 by former Tee Set members including English expat Ray Fenwick. They also had some success with their sunny flower pop singles, but by 1969 Fenwick had returned to the UK to replace Stevie Winwood in The Spencer Davis Group, while group leader Hans van Eijck had returned to Tee Set. That left bassist/singer Polle Eduard to head the new line-up, consisting also of German organist Ulli Grün, guitarist Ferry Lever and drummer Ilja Gort. This band incarnation was a different beast altogether: more heavy and progressive, they made this experimental LP before disbanding. It sold badly and because of that eventually became a collector's item. It opens with a John Mayall/Savoy Brown- style blues rocker "Jointhouse Blues" featuring downhome blues harp and gritty vocals. "You've Got To Move Me" is harder, the interaction of organ and heavy wah-wah guitar similar to a bluesier Uriah Heep. "I'm Here" is a more wistful acoustic piece, setting the scene for "Someday" and "Let's Come All Together". Both remind me of Free, probably because of Polle's vocals. 

so that's what you do after tea!

The former sports a great organ solo, while the latter puts Ferry Lever's guitar upfront. He is also the star of side 2, a 25-minute long jam called "Trial/Punishment/The End". It has some powerful drumming and Zeppelin-ish guitar solos. Some people can never get enough of those. They're mostly male, over 50, have beards and long hair, and wear classic rock band T-shirts. Personally, I find it a bit too long. Maybe I'll like it better after a few years. My version of the album ends here, just like the original LP did. An official reissue by the Pseudonym label adds bonus tracks from contemporary singles which are supposedly quite nice. Get that one if you can. After the -softer sounding- singles also failed to get noticed the band went their separate ways. Ilja Gort, for example, became a wine maker in France. Apparently he produces the popular Franco-Dutch La Tulipe wines, which prompted me to dig them out of their cupboard and introduce them to their maker's older creation. Prost!

**** for Jointhouse Blues 

*** for You've Got To Move Me, I'm Here, Someday, Let's Come All Together

** for Trial, Punishment, The End

Human Instinct "Burning Up Years" 1969**

Human Instinct are mostly famous for the guitar heroics of Billy Te Kahika (aka Billy TK, supposedly the Maori Hendrix) in their second album "Stoned Guitar". But the one I found on sale at the Utrecht Record Fair was their debut "Burning Up Years". The CD cost just €2 -less than a cup of coffee- so I thought I'd give it a try. As the booklet explains, in 1969 singer/drummer and band leader Maurice Greer was fresh from a UK tour with an older band line-up. He was probably impressed by the progressive hard rock sounds he heard there, so he gathered like-minded musicians to create a power trio a la Jimi Hendrix Experience. The album apparently doesn't contain any originals, but that's not evident as three tracks were hitherto unreleased compositions by fellow Kiwi rocker Jesse Harper, who soon after quit the scene to become a monk in India. The first of these "Blues News" is a great blues rocker with funky wah-wah guitar, more reminiscent of Taste than Hendrix. Billy TK is on fire on this one! "Fall Down" is more folk rock and "Ashes and Matches" is bluesier. Nice guitar on both, but nothing special really. "Maiden Voyage" is an Ashton Gardner & Dyke cover. 

Greer admits that he had only heard half of this one and of the title track in a cassette he had, so he had to improvise the rest. He did a great job, starting it off as melodic psychedelia and turning it into a guitar freakout. Lead single "I Think I'll Go Back Home" is actually Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". Quite well-known song, but Greer claims that he didn't know how the original was called or by whom it was written, so he decided to give it a random title and attribute it to himself. For this reissue it has reverted to its real name and correctly credited. Nice country-ish version, would have been even better with the lead vocals more upfront and backing vocals less prominent. The other cover "You Really Got Me" is almost unrecognizable, and not in a good way! The worst cover of this song I've ever heard, and that includes some by pretty incompetent garage bands! I mean this song has such a rousing riff, all you need to do is play it loud! And what do they do? they slow it down and relegate the riff to the bass! What's the other great feature of the song? Well, the guitar solo of course! Billy TK could have easily nailed it, but his fuzzy guitarwork and Hendrix-like solo belong to a different song altogether. What makes this track really atrocious, though, is the vocal: not sung but spoken in a silly voice, as if in parody. Finally, "Burning Up Years" is a cover of an obscure 7' B side by a band called Hard Meat. I haven't heard the original, but the composition reminded me of Edgar Broughton Band. Human Instinct turn it into a 15-minute jam that might have sounded great in concert but becomes a bit tiresome on CD. Nevertheless, this was 1969 and long freak-out jams was the flavor of the day. The album closes with an unnecessary "single version" of "You Really Got Me", almost identical to the previous one albeit louder. I'm not saying this CD is a total waste of plastic, there are some good elements here but it sounds a bit uncooked. On the bright side, the sound quality of the reissue is pretty decent, and the booklet includes rare photos and detailed liner notes by Greer.  

**** for Maiden Voyage

*** for Blues News, I Think I'll Go Back Home AKA Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Burning Up Years

** for Fall Down, Ashes and Matches, You Really Got Me, You Really Got Me (Single Version)

The Plastic People of the Universe "Co znamená vésti koně" 1983***

This is Allmusic's review on this album: "I'll be honest, I've never heard either of these records. The only reviews of them I've ever read were by longtime Plastic People supporter Robert Christgau. He gave Leading Horses an A-. That's all the info I need. If you find them before I do, please tell me where you purchased them." I'm only quoting it to illustrate how the band's fame exceeded by far the reach of their music: few have actually heard their records but those interested in avant-guard rock know two things about them: that they made uncompromising, experimental music and that they stood up to Czechoslovakia's "Communist" dictators and paid the cost of their stance. The band was born during what became known as The Prague Spring, a few months in '68 starting with a liberalization attempt by the Czechoslovakian Communist Party under the leadership of General Secretary Alexander Dubček and ending with an invasion by Soviet armed forces bent on putting their comrades back on the path of Communist orthodoxy. Resistance took many forms. In the case of PPoTU, it was a series of dadaist cultural happenings which must have puzzled the commissars to no end. Despite what you may hear, rock music was not outlawed in Communist states. In fact, despite the regime's mistrust, many rock bands thrived all over Eastern Europe, although not in The Soviet Union itself (at least not until the 80's). In general these were the genres the regime could accept: 1)Jazz and Blues was to them "the music of the oppressed American negros" and definitely kosher 2)Progressive Rock would pass muster since it could be presented as "Modern Classical music with electric instruments". Even better if it embraced folk elements, always preferably in local language 3)Rock'n'roll was considered "dance music for the youth". Frowned upon for its immaturity but considered, as Douglas Adams would put it, mostly harmless 4)Folk music was welcome, since it's by definition "the musical expression of the rural proletariat". Which is why -you may be surprised to learn- country music was popular in many Communist countries even though I doubt those commies would be equally welcome in America. If you take a stroll around Czech used record shops, you'll be amazed by the number of local country LP's on display. 5)Heavy Rock was OK as long as it stayed clear of its natural subject matter (no Satan, drugs or sexist imagery - what is there left to sing about anyway?) Punk, on the other hand, was a definite no-no. The anarchic sounds of PPoTU did not fall in any of the above categories, so they must have dumbfounded the censors enough to retract their members' licences as professional musicians. This meant they were not permitted to record and distribute albums or play public gigs, which they nevertheless kept doing illegally. The crackdown on the band was pretty severe, resulting at the confiscation of their instruments and even jail time for some of their members. Supposedly they were persecuted because of their music but many other Czech rock bands prospered during the same period, which makes me think that this backlash was not due to cultural reasons but rather political ones: even if their lyrics were not overtly political, they must have had some anti-establishment activity. For once they were close to Václav Havel, famous playwright and political dissident of the time, and later the first post-communist President of the country. Actually "Co znamená vésti koně" was illicitly recorded at Havel's house in 1981 and released for the first time in Canada in 1983 under the English title "Leading Horses". But I wrote already so much without commenting on the music. As is commonly remarked, they seem to have been influenced by avant-rock pioneers like Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Velvet Underground, as well as free jazz and musique concrète. The closest musical companion I can find in my record collection is Area, which is ironic since that Italian band were all staunch communists. Opener "Co znamená vésti koně" is dominated by a repetitive viola riff over rhythmic drums while "Slovo má buben" is a mainly slow piece with chanted vocals and a Zappa-esque freak-out middle section. "Samson" has a more epic, cinematic, character with choral vocals and military drums. "P.F." and "Delirium" are cacophonous experiments, "Májová" is another atonal piece dominated by clarinet and "Fotopneumatická pamět" is an introspective song with churchy chants. "Rozvaha neuskodí ani kuřeti" has a slow oriental beat, atmosperic melody and chanted vocals that reminded me of Dead Can Dance (albeit a few years earlier). "Mse" starts promisingly but quickly descents into chaos, while the last (and longest) track "Osip" features spoken incantations and a wailing saxophone over improvised bass lines. The whole album sounds very emotional rather than cerebral as it often happens with other experimental/prog bands. This specific reissue from 2014 has a seemingly very informative booklet with lots of details on the recording and complete lyrics - but it's all in Czech, thus of no use to me. It's very difficult to judge this album, as it seems to be the result of arduous self-exploring and self-expression rather than made with listeners in mind. I enjoyed it intermittently and found it annoying at other instances. Let's just say it's an interesting but challenging listen that may be rewarding to those who like adventurous, unconventional, music.

**** for Samson, Rozvaha neuskodí ani kuřeti

*** for Co znamená vésti koně, Slovo má buben, Májová, Fotopneumatická paměť, Osip

** for P.F., Delirium, Mse

Arcade Fire "Funeral" 2004*****

I've always thought of Arcade Fire as a cerebral, even too-smart-for-its-own-good, indie group. Something about the way they mesh different styles and decades to create their personal "here and now" sound, with all the multi-instrumentalists in the group betraying a whiff of nerdness about them. I enjoy their albums, so when a friend proposed to go and see their show at Rotterdam's Ahoy I gladly went along, but my expectations from the show were rather low. Boy was I in for a surprise! The nerds were supremely confident onstage in the midst of a production more suited to U2 than to an indie band from Montreal, Canada. Win Butler did his Bono impression while wifey Regine played the resident disco diva, a sort of accordion/ keyboards/ percussion playing Diana Ross. Of course by flashing fake ads for bogus sponsors on the giant screens and the like, they made it clear it's all tongue-in-cheek, that they're real artists only pretending to be pop stars. But they stayed in character throughout the gig, and clearly had fun dressing up, and we had fun in turn watching the show all the while appreciating the irony of it. Anyway, by this point of their career they have the catchy tunes and the showmanship to step over to the mainstream and become the new Coldplay (I remember when they were a low-key indie band). Or they could retreat to the underground like The Flaming Lips, whose concert around the time of Yoshimi made a similar impression to me. The Lips also had the hooks and stagecraft but chose a more alternative route. In any case, it's a good time to see how all this started: with a bold statement under the rather uncommercial title "Funeral".

A lot has been made of the fact that the title was inspired by the loss of family members (grandparents and aunts) during the recording of the album. Reviewers wrote about the effect of "tragedy" on the making of the album, but let's be honest: losing a grandparent in your mid-20's may be a sobering encounter with mortality, but not a life-changing tragedy. In any case, the album starts with a romantic song about young love, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)". The vocal is dramatic and music lyrical and soaring if somewhat clattered: a dozen musicians playing at once can sometimes be like that, but that's the Arcade Fire trademark: a wall of sound of guitars, strings, keyboards, percussive instruments and horns. Their sound is all of their own, but if I was looking for similarities it'd be with 80's new wave: the early albums of The Waterboys, U2, Echo & The Bunnymen etc. This is more evident on "Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" which is at once darker and more rhythmic with a great accordion melodic line, as well as on the upbeat "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", where in retrospect their future fascination with disco is barely audible under a blanket of post-punk noise. The quadrilogy ends with the introspective folk ballad "Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)". "Rebellion (Lies)" was the 4th single lifted out the album (after the first 3 "Neighborhood" songs). It is an upbeat tune with a definitively 80's new wave beat, poppy melody and catchy backing vocals. Ostensibly it's about kids refusing to go to sleep early: rebellion begins at toddlerhood, people! "Wake Up" was the 5th and last single off "Funeral". It's, if not the best, at least the biggest song of the record with a huge sing along chorus. Of the rest, "Une année sans lumière" is a beautiful ballad, and "Crown of Love" their idiosyncratic attempt at soul music. Two songs feature Régine Chassagne on lead vocals: "Haiti" is a reference to the tortured homeland of her parents and to the members or her family victimized by the dictatorship of "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Without veering too far from their regular sound, it has a certain exotic touch akin to David Byrnes' and Paul Simon's pop/world music hybrid. Her second lead vocal is "In The Backseat", an epic art-rock ballad reminiscent of Kate Bush or Tori Amos. Not surprisingly, their fresh sound and instrumentation was enthusiastically received by reviewers and ensured that "Funeral" featured prominently on end-of-the-year lists and is still considered one of the decade's best albums. More importantly the album was warmly received by the public which responded not so much to the sonic innovation but to the darkly emotive music and lyrics. They would revive the "Neighborhood" concept for their third, and arguably best, album The Suburbs, the first of three consecutive No.1 albums. Since then they've embraced an increasingly more upbeat, even funky, sound but I'd bet that this melancholic masterpiece will forever have the most dedicated fans.

***** for Neighborhood #2 (Laïka), Wake Up, Haiti, Rebellion (Lies)

**** for Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Une année sans lumière, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)

*** for Crown of Love, In the Backseat