RUDY'S
GREAT UNIVERSE
who else is out there? A - D
E - N
O - Z
| 2000 MONKEYS |
| The long awaited solo-adventure of Tom Pintens. He performed first at De Nachten 2000, followed by a handful of other small performances around the country. An album is expected for some time now, but seems to get postponed every time. Tom is live assisted by Roel Poriau on the drums. They are influenced by seventies psychedelic tunes and have an eclectic approach to their music. It sounds interesting to me. |
|
www.2000_monkeys |
| A BEATBAND |
| separate page here |
| ADMIRAL FREEBEE |
| Rising stars in the Antwerp music scene. They ended up second in 2000's edition of the HUMO-rock rally, and got away as the favourites of the audience. Tom Van Laere (guitarist and lead vocalist) played together with Tom Barman in Dranouter, and were support act a couple of times for Dead Man Ray in 2000. I'm not dreadfully fond of their brown roots music, but everyone else seems to be, so expect to hear more of them soon. |
|
www.admiral_freebee |
| A GROUP |
| seperate page here |
| ANGELICO |
| Recently founded poprock collective from Antwerp. They are often referred to as 'the Belgian Garbage', which is more or less accurate I'd say. |
|
www.angelico |
| ARNO [HINTJES] |
| If there's one monument in the current Belgian 'alternative' scene, Arno is it. With his band TC Matic, he was extremely important and popular in Belgium in the late seventies and eighties. Later on a solo-career followed and although he's in his fifties now, he's still very much alive and kicking. |
|
www.arno |
| BAR8 |
| Interesting band from Antwerp which combines atmospheric, soundtrack-style instrumental music with Tom Waits-inspired, bluesy songs. They've existed for years, and finally released an album at the end of 2000. |
|
www.bar8 |
| BARLOW, LOU |
| separate page here |
| BARMAN, TOM |
| He's
the leader of the band that started it all, dEUS. I'm sure you've
heard of them. In the mid-nineties, he was also involved in a project
called General Electrique, which grew out to be Cinérex. Together with
Kelvin Smith, he sampled tons of old jazz records and transformed them
into new material, with an electronical approach.
Personally, I've seen Barman a couple of times at Gore slut gigs, and he has once said Gore Slut played the best gig he saw in 1998. Back in the old days with dEUS, he referred to Rudy as 'a skinhead full of shit'. There's also an interesting questionnaire with Tom in the booklet of a Volume compilation cd, with the following fragment in it:
-Whose language do you speak? |
|
www.tom_barman |
| BASTIEN, PIERRE |
| One of the most creative musicians you'll come across in Europe. He builds his own custom instruments, exhibits them, and actually plays with them as well. He's for the better part influenced by old jazz and John Cage. His main goal with for instruments, is being able to play duets with them. Since the late seventies he's been doing his thing, and in 1999 he collaborated with Rudy Trouvé in the 110m² project. |
|
www.pierre_bastien |
| BEIRENS, CARMEN |
| Carmen Beirens was an early member of Lionell Horowitz and his combo, playing mostly keyboards and doing vocals. If I'm not mistaken, she has left the band for some time now. Recently, she was part of a trio playing jazz themes. |
|
www.carmen_beirens |
| BELMANS, DIRK |
| Dirk -or Bassie as he is also being called, is the drummer/percussionist of Lionell Horrowitz and Gore Slut, as well as Screaming Headache. He used to live with Rudy in the early nineties in the Heavenhotel. He’s also a graphical artist and has exposed his work along with Rudy and Albert Trouvé. He’s also responsible for the layout of the covers and artwork of the earlier dEUS releases, and the first DAAU-album. |
|
www.dirk_belmans |
| BERTHET, PIERRE |
| Pierre Berthet is another extremely creative musician from Liège this time. There are lots of similarities between him and his French colleague, Pierre Bastien: they both build their own instruments and played together (with Rudy) in the 110m² project. Whereas Pierre Bastien experiments mostly with mecanno toys and trumpets, Pierre Berthet is mostly know for his experiments with water in instruments. |
|
www.pierre_berthet |
| BETTIE SERVEERT |
| Bettie Serveert is one of the longest-serving bands from the Netherlands. They released their first record in the early nineties, and have grown to be extremely popular in their home country with their poppy rock ballads. In Belgium and even the United States, they've build up an impressive reputation as well. They have worked together with DAAU on the most recent Bettie Serveert album, and for some of their past tours they have taken dEUS and Gore Slut with them as support act. |
|
www.bettie_serveert |
| BILLET, JACKI |
| Jacki's
the long haired guy in Gore Slut and Kiss My Jazz, sitting on his butt
and lurking a glass of red wine. He plays the bass, and is one of the people who lived at the Heavenhotel with Rudy, and went to the same school in Ghent at the same time Rudy went there. In their post-puberty, he and Rudy were together in an obscure, unknown -and according to Rudy crap band, before Kiss My Jazz saw the daylight. Jacki's also the author of a painting of which Kiss My Jazz took their name from. More (ex-) projects of his are Sell Fish, Lingerie Lilianne and the rabbits, Guy Kennis, The Tarmack boys, and many, many more. |
|
www.jacki_billet |
| BLACKIE |
| One of Danny Mommens' numerous side projects, founded somewhere late 2000. Blackie is a band which plays nothing but covers of eighties-sensation Blondie. They have released no records so far (and, considering the possible copyright issues, they never will release anything). Also in the live band are 'Zorro' (vocals), Jeroen Swinnen (Vive La Fête-keyboards), Armand Bourgoignie (ex-Mad Dog Loose - bass), Steven Janssens (Mauro, Whodads, Revelaires - guitar) and Frederik van den Berghe (Whodads, 44Rave, ex-Mambo Chillum - drums). |
|
www.blackie |
| BLIJWEERT, ELKO |
| Rudy's
partner in crime in a lot of projects, Elko has been seen in a vast
number of bands. He plays (or played) the guitar in Kiss My Jazz (for
the first time at the age of 15), de Tramjeanetten, Dead Man Ray,
Screaming Headache, Heaven's basement, Rudy Trouvé & friends, guest
appearances with dEUS, and God-knows what else. Rudy and Elko also
performed once together alone in the summer of 2000. More Elko-occupations include Bad Influence, Star Club West, Franco Saint de Bakker, and even Front 242. Who knows, someone might get the idea to build some sort of a Elko's great ideas website. Pure technically speaking, Elko has enjoyed a classical education at the jazz-academy (or something), and is a far superior guitar player than Rudy. |
|
www.elko_blijweert |
| BOENOX |
| Modern classical combo from antwerp n°2. They sound a lot more 'classical' than DAAU though. One demo and one album so far. |
|
www.boenox |
| BROECKAERT, MATHIAS |
| Mathias joined Kiss My Jazz by the arrival of the second album, playing the trumpet and sax. He used to have his own (and extremely obscure band) with Dirk DeHooghe and Rudy Trouvé, called Miles Ahead. |
|
www.mathias_broeckaert |
| BUSCEMI |
| Dirk Swartenbroeckx' band. They make original and enjoyable easy-listening electronical 'dance' music. |
|
www.buscemi |
| CARLENS, STEF KAMIL |
| Stef
is the man behind the pop/blues/disco band Zita Swoon, aside with
Soulwax and dEUS, the best reputed Belgian band across the boarders. He plays several instruments in Zita Swoon (piano/guitar/melodica/vocals), and used to play bass with dEUS until he quit the band in august 1996. In Kiss My Jazz, Stef Kamil was a member from the first generation as well. In an interview from ’98, Stef says Rudy didn’t like the Zita Swoon album I Paint Pictures on a wedding dress. On Kiss My Jazz album ‘In the Lost Souls Convention’, there’s a track called Jesus, which was written by Rudy and SKC during a depression in a dEUS tour. Besides his music, SKC also designs clothes and likes to draw and paint. |
|
www.stef_kamil_carlens |
| CINÉREX |
| Cinérex
was born in 1994 as General Electrique, a project in which Kelvin
Smith and Tom Barman did some experiments with ancient jazz samples and
beats. When dEUS started taking too much of Barman's time, Sebastian
Kalonji more or less took Barman's place, and formed Cinérex with
Kelvin. They have one album out on which some remaining recordings from
General Electrique still can be heard. For Lionell Horrowitz' first album, on the track William, a sample is used of a dictaphone on which Kelvin Smiths, Sebastian Kalonji and Alissa Kueker from Cinérex can be heard. |
|
www.cinérex |
| DAGGELINCKX, DIMITRI |
| Dimitri's the bass player and vocalist in Lionell Horowitz and his combo. You can often spot him after Dead Man Ray/Gore Slut/Kiss My Jazz gigs, selling lots of Heavenhotel releases. |
|
www.dimitri_daggelinckx |
| DAS POP |
| 'pop is a concept, a way of life' did Bent Van Looy say once, and his band Das Pop does anything humanly possible to fit within that way of life. Ultra-poppy tunes inspired by the likes of Air, Blur and David Bowie, combined with a fresh and anarchistic Belgian spirit make Das Pop a truly unique band. They won the humo rock rally in 1998, and have what it takes to become one of the next big things in Belgium. Love 'm or hate 'm, Das Pop is here to stay, and won't leave unless they've made themselves heard. |
|
www.das_pop |
| DE BACKER, KAREL |
| Karel de Backer replaced Herman Houbrechts as drummer of Dead Man Ray in march 2000. He was introduced to the band by Elko Blijweert, and together they have a jazz-project together called Franco Saint de Bakker. He has also done the mixing and recording of a few Zita Swoon releases, including the Plage Tattoo/Circumstances album. Besides Dead Man Ray, Karel has also been drumming in the live band of Joost Zwegers' Novastar, and the semi-hip hop project De Barabassen. His brother Raf drums for in the band Star Club West. |
|
www.karel_de_bakker |
| DE HOOGHE, DIRK |
| An old classmate of Rudy when they were studying in Ghent, he’s the saxophonist/percussionist of Lionell Horrowitz and Kiss My Jazz, and used to be in 'Miles Ahead' as well. He was also the co-director of ‘Dave’s Great Idea’ He mostly does percussion and sax in the bands he's in. |
|
www.dirk_de_hooghe |
| DEWEERDT, TOM - DJ LOW |
| The man who runs the Belgian Lowlands label (Dubtales, George Smits, Fukkeduk, Think of One, Flat Earth Society...), was also involved in the '99 project ‘110m²’. |
|
www.tom_deweerdt |
| DIE ANARCHISTISCHE ABENDUNTERHALTUNG |
| separate page here |
| DUNCAN, STEPHEN |
| Stephen
Duncan is from (if I'm not mistaken) either Australia or New Zealand.
His (current) hometown however, is Antwerp, where you can often spot him
playing as street musician. His solo project is called Steven
Duncan's recipe hour, and he's also involved with Tom Pintens in one
of his projects. And, I've seen him once doing 'support act’ for Gore Slut once in Cartoons café, Antwerp. |
|
www.stephen_duncan |
| E - N | O - Z |