Frenchy’s Fracas

Here some youtube links of excellent Dutch performers:

C-Mon en Kypski - Bumpy Road
DuvelDuvel - Wie Is Ut
Opgezwolle - Rustug

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General Info
Festival: NuMoonFest
Location: Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam
When: 9/10 December 2006

What’s it about?
Well, read about the festival here. It’s an interesting combo of different styles of jazz, electronic music, etc. and also movie documentaries. It’s my first visit, but it’s definitely a great experience! Was there with me mates, Hieronymus Fox and DenDen.

Day 1 (09-DEC)
Hazy recollection, it’s the apfelkorn and sleep deprivation, bare with me Enjoyed a nice set by Belgian band Sweet Coffee, but was very much impressed by young Dutch talent Jeruma. The guy has a great voice!
The main attraction of the evening for me was that crazy combo of ultimate weirdness: Benny Sings with Rednose District. Awesome performance, played a lot of stuff I like of their album. These guys were a bit too mellow sometimes, chatting with each other and almost neglecting the audience, but hey, they’re Superstars (at least, here in Holland). I didn’t mind that too much coz when they connected with the audience, it was very good stuff!
This evening’s closing act: C-Mon and Kypski. Wow! These guys are funny and off-beat combining all possible styles of music and instrumentation. Much, much better than the stuff I heard on their myspace site.

Day 2 (10-DEC)
Slow start of the evening, still a bit hung over, but all for a good cause, heheh.. First surprise of the evening: Miss Sabrina Starke, damn! A very young and talented soul singer who for sure will mature into a songstress in the near future. At this moment she sounds a bit like Randy Crawford (but with more depth) and that’s quite an achievement! Dutch singer Corey was performing on another stage at the same time, but she really lost out to Starke.
Next on the menu: Monsieur Dubois, a Dutch jazz band with great musicians and a groovy modern feel. Great performance, but after ten minutes, Hieronymus Fox told me we should go listen to the best thing happening during this festival: Leslie Nielsen!! Nope, not the actor, but a small three-piece band with excellent musicians. These guys work hard, very very hard to entertain their audience and seem to have fun in doing so. They were playing at the same time as Monsieur Dubois and again the smaller stage drew the largest crowd. Lady Sherma did a coupla tracks on (guest) vocals and totally blew the roof off the place!

Final performance by Briskey was interesting: a Moloko/Portishead hybrid with incredibly motivated musicians - liked the lady doing the vocals: she dominated the stage with her presence.

Conclusion
It’s safe to say that for me, this festival was a great experience: listening to artists trying something different, something new. And listening to musicians I never heard of before offers both rewards and annoyances (Nelson & Djosa). So, yep, it was highly enjoyable!

Rating:

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General Description
Artist/Band: C-mon & Kypski
Album Title: Where The Wild Things Are
Year: 2006

Quiltmasters of Sound (in training)
 
How I Got Into This Music
Hieronymus Fox suggested we listen to this band (gotta change the setup of this post coz this part’s not making any sense..)

The Tracks:

Bumpy Road
FrEg
In-your-face intro - like it. Nice uptempo groove, mixed with Wall of Sound heaviness - like the bass.
The singing offers a strange contrast against the heavy mix of sounds. Nice bridge.
Hieronymus Fox
The single. Kinda when Junkie XL meets Fatboy Slim. The voice-overs are funny at the beginning, but start to annoy me during the song. I am missing a “flow” which makes the song a little boring, I think. Reminds me more of a TV Comedy tune.
frenchy!
Yes, I get the irony, yes, I really do, don’t worry.. Nice 70’s feel combined with scratch-n-breaks. Please notice the great guitar sample in the background! It’s mostly a patchwork track of styles and samples, refreshing and yet a bit tedious!

Chemical Mixture
FrEg
Like the intro even more than Bumpy road’s. Sounds like a cross mix of Aphex Twin break beats meet Chemical Brothers. Lots of tweaks, bells and whistles - in the end it’s too much, especially the scratching. This heavy sequencer based techno is not quite my kinda music
Hieronymus Fox
The start of this song is promising: raw old school hip hop beats meet electrosounds… When they start “freaking” in the song I start losing interest a little. It reminds me more of a DJ battle than a song. 3 minutes of Chemical Mixture is really my limit!
frenchy!
Great sample and scratch work. The track’s sooooo retro (in a great way!)

Attention
FrEg
Kinda easier to digest: more to dance to than on the previous tracks. Starts of in reggae style while ending in acid dance and the ending is too abrupt
Hieronymus Fox
Mhhhh…. “Survival” (a Grandmaster Flash classic) opening and then…. It’s when reggae meets drum’n bass. Where have I heard that before? Despite funny voice samples, this could have been that specific song from Goldie’s first album or the 1998 Freestylers’ album you mostly… skipped…
frenchy!
Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk are back, still with a 00’s cheap ripped-off feeling. That female vocal sample’s from Eric B and Rakim’s Paid In Full. Nice but not shockingly great.

Chocolate
FrEg
Techno goes India - choice of instruments is good, but I don’t get the link between title and music (should’ve listened more closely, FrEg - frenchy!)
Hieronymus Fox
Freaky synth bass, nice acoustics. But still… it doesn’t work for me.
frenchy!
I love the guitar and that funky snake charmer horn!

Conclusion
FrEg
In every song, you hear that it’s well crafted and thought through. The mix of styles is all over the place which makes it harder for me to form a strong opinion about this band. All-in-all the balance is going towards positive so give it a serious try yourself!
3/5
Hieronymus Fox
First of all, respect for the attempt of crossing music borders (again), but the search for new and surprising is annoying me. Every moment is used for “new” twists in the songs. Where’s the soul? For Fatboy Slim it worked. The chosen instruments and sounds should be sufficient for almost half of it. The songs I have listened to, made me think of a collage [...] and this starts to annoy me every time halfway the song.
Sorry guys…. I am not going to buy your album, but I am curious for your next one.
frenchy!
It’s different in the same way you describe a girl as having a great personality. Thing is, it really isn’t about the looks, it’s about the sound and that’s where the band kinda falls short. I wouldn’t mind seeing them live though, they sure as hell have a great energy!

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