Tinseling Thursday IV

Today it's up to Belgian band "Absynthe Minded" to lighten up our Thursday

Absynthe Minded is a Belgian rock band, around frontman, vocalist and guitarist Bert Ostyn. Their tracks contain a weird mix of rock, thirties jazz, a touch of funky soul, Balkan beats and Merseyside pop. Absynthe Minded originally was a one-man band, being musician-singer-composer Bert Ostyn. He started off in 1999 with recording More Than This on 8-track in a 5 to 4 bedroom in Ghent (yes again Ghent, I'm sorry ;-), soon he found other musicians (Renaud Ghilbert, Sergej van Bouwel, Jan Duthoy and Jakob Nachtergaele) to enjoy his project. And after the succesful debut album "Acquired Taste" they developed themselves into a very productive and exploring band producing 4 more great albums. Here's the song "Envoi" inspired by poems from the famous Belgian writer Hugo Claus, this is from the samenamed album Absynthe Minded. More recent is the song Space from the latest album "As it ever was" They make very diverse music, sometimes Bert sounds like Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill, sometimes they sounds like a 30's jazz orchestra and they wrote a beautiful soundtrack for the movie "Turquoze", the movie is a beautie too by the way, here's the eastern orientated song "Little Rascal" And this is their latest single "End Of The Line" Here's the soundcloud link to a set of nice songs, enjoy

Misty Monday XIX

Today it's the Belgium band "The Rhythm Junks" bringing us back on track again to start the week. The Rhythm Junks are: Steven Debruyn (bluesharp, guitar, vocals), Jasper Hautekiet (base, vocals) and Tony Gyselinck (drums) They were formed about ten years ago and 3 days ago they released their third album called: "Beaten Borders" On this album they stripped the music to a minimal ...less is more! I love the bluesharp and the mysteriousness in their songs and I think Steven Debruyn is the second best harpplayer from Belgium (Toots Thielemans is no.1) Let's listen to the song "Checking In". Oh yeah did I say this is again a band from Ghent!

Normally they work with a 4-headed brass ensemble but now they stripped it to a minimal, Drums / Base / Bluesharp and some synths/samples. Here they play the song "Never The Same" which i love, especially the switching between minor - major scale. I think some of their songs are perfect misty monday songs, "Burnin' Burnin' Burnin'" or "Maybe slowly". Via soundcloud you can listen to the entire album "Beaten Borders", enjoy

Tinseling Thursday II

The second Tinseling Thursday is for the Belgian band Balthazar

Balthazar is Maarten Devoldere, Jinte Deprez, Patricia Vanneste, Simon Casier and Christophe Claeys from the neighbourhood of Ghent....i don't know if there's something in the tapwater over there but there's a lot going on in Ghent! Balthazar just released their second album Rats, but first i take you back to their first album Applause (2010), and the opening song from that album "Fifteen Floors" ...sorry there's no official video from this song. Strange song isn't it? I like that trumpet plunger sample and the strange lazy vocals. The album Rats was released oktober last year and it is also a little masterpiece. Here's the song "The Oldest Of Sisters" On soundcloud you can listen to the full album Applause, enjoy.

Tuesdays got Talent XV

Today it's the indie psychedelic rock band Stadt from Ghent to show us their skills.

How can a new young band sound so familiar and trusted? It's the sound i suppose, bringing back memories.. going back to the times of 12 minute songs, liquid slides and experiments...

here's "Bits of Time". Stadt are Fulco Ottervanger, Frederik Segers, Joris Cool and Simon Segers. Their upcoming debutalbum 'Some Kind of Diversion' mixes indie-rock with a small cloud of psychedelia. Hope they have this song on it it's "Little Craver" played on their first appearance ...nice debute!

Thunder on Thursday 1

Okay we've been warmed up now, lets crank it up a little more and put some thunder back in Thursday , okay we could start with AC/DC but we all know that song so next candidate> Wallace Vanborn

Sounds like a singer songwriter but its a Belgian Rocktrio from Ghent, (also Ghent..what's going on there)?!?. They derive their name from a character out of the movie Pulp Fiction (Wallace Marcellus). Wallace Vanborn, Dries Hoof (base), Sylvester Vanborm (Drums) and Ian Clement (Vocals) made their first studio album "Free Blank Shots" in 2010 and it immediately caused a buzz in the Belgian rockscene (their participation on Humo's Rock Rally gave them also airplay on Studio Brussels). After that they were asked to be the supportact for the European tour of "Blood Red Shoes" and many more gigs followed. And this gigs are crushing, full of energy and overwhelming, so they were called Pletwallace (Plet is Dutch for crush). Their new album "LIONS, LIARS GUNS & GOD"

was made together with producer and Grammy collector David Bottrill..(Muse (Origin of Symmetry), Tool (Aenima/Lateralus), Placebo (Battle for The Sun) en dEUS (The Ideal Crash/Keep You Close) Do I have to say more? It was released in April'12 and in my opinion the second track "Found in LA" and the fourth track "cougars"are killers. So for the first Thunder on Thursday ...hit it!

Tuesdays Got Talent 1

Tuesdays got talent is for the less known musicians, for bands / artists, still unsigned, still rehearsing, still working on their image or style. Bands, dropped a song on the internet to see if it will reach anyone, making their first DIY video without any budget. So contact me if you got any tips, names or interesting developments. I like to discover new music so let me know when you got something to share. The first Tuesdays got talent is for MEK with the song Utoreen. I discovered MEK a while ago when I wandered around the Belgium musicsite...VI.BE I was caught by the dreamy soundscapes and also by the cheap, but smart and intriguing videoclip. Someone with a handycam on a bike, smoothly cycling through nighttime Ghent.. thats it. But it fits perfectly with the music. It made me think of Sigur Ros - Jonsi / Yann Tiersen / MONO / Mogwai / Zoo Kid - King Krule (b.t.w. more of this kid later this week)/ Pink Floyd / Radiohead. Now who is MEK? I did some research and I found very little. Okay we got a name: Koen Meirlaen guitarist of the Ghent Band "Nova Zembla" (they have a myspace account and a dead link so if they still exist ... I don't know) but that's all the information I could find. No facebook, no bandpage no I-tunes just a clip on youtube and some talentsite-accounts. Well I love some mysterie in life so it's okay by me. MEK is still productive, he dropped a new song called "Lullaby"on his VIBE account last week.