Arbeid Adelt! @ 4AD Diksmuide - January 21st 2010 **

I'm one of those live-music freaks who'll travel to the other end of the world - or the country, in my case (if I had the cash it'd be the world) - to see some obscure band perform, often in the tiniest of venues.

A few years back, I went to see Mudvayne at the Biebop in god-forlorn Vosselaar; I went to Eindhoven (Holland), Nürnberg (Germany), Lille (France) and even Luxemburg to catch shows of Sepultura, Kid Rock, The Roots and Machine Head.

Yesterday evening marked another one of those instants. Benjamin and me Beamed all our way to Diksmuide, in the deepest of West-Flanders where the poppies still grow in between World-War 1-trenches, to see Arbeid Adelt! perform at the 4AD.

The frontman of Arbeid Adelt, a new-wave band that was in it's prime around '81, '82 (as the Neue Deutsche Welle reached it's climax) but carried on through the early Nineties, is Marcel Vanthilt, a Belgian television personality.

(Pour la petite histoire: Vanthilt used to be an MTV presenter during the eighties and even managed to get a role as an extra in 'Friends' - in this clip, you see him behind the green column in Central Perk. It's the guy with the glasses.)

Their concert at the tiny 4AD was a tryout for a full-on, sold-out gig in two week's time at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. It seems like Arbeid Adelt can still count on a quite the fanbase which they built primarily on two great songs: 'De Dag Dat Het Zonlicht Niet Meer Scheen' ('The Day The Sun Stopped Shining') and 'Lekker Westers' ('Nice And Western').

Describing the Arbeid Adelt! 'sound' as purely 'new wave' would wrong the band, as their '80s style also has plenty of pop, ska and rock elements. Also, Marcel & co's on-stage theatrics make for plenty of entertainment, even though the bulk of their songs hardly match the catchiness of 'De Dag Dat Het Zonlicht Niet Meer Scheen'.

Yesterday, it seemed to me that both band and 'crowd' (if you could consider the 50-odd people attending a 'crowd') enjoyed each other's company, so I guess Arbeid Adelt! earned themselves a two-star quotation. Which means they're ready to rock the AB.

Kerrang! Legends Presents: The Story of Nu-Metal

"I did it all for the nookie!
The nookie!
So you can take that cookie!"

I remember it like it happened yesterday: the first time I listened to Korn and Limp Bizkit. I was sitting in my parents' car as we were driving towards Disneyland in Paris, when I played the cd's me ole pal Tom (aka Mister Three) had copied for me. It was October 1998 and singles off of 'Follow The Leader' and 'Significant Other' were all the rage in hit charts worldwide.

Those albums would go on to cement their place in my Personal Album Top Twenty, but at first I didn't really like their sound. I was used to Metallica's smooth metal style, as opposed to the detuned guitars and distorted vocals of Korn and Limp Bizkit.

But their music - called 'nu-metal' - grew on me, to the extent that they changed my musical spectrum forever. The step from Korn to the likes of Deftones, System Of A Down, Slipknot, Mudvayne and (hed)P.E. was a small one, and it didn't take me long either to start dressing up like the guys in those 'nu-metal' bands: baggy jeans, T-shirts, a cap and sneakers were my teenage dresscode.

I also remember the joy, somewhere around January 2000, after I heard the news that Korn were coming to town. Their gig, at the Brussels venue of Forest National, on May 24th, was my first live show ever. P.O.D. opened for them, and that marked the first time I got into a mosh pit - it was an eye-opening experience as I had never felt such energy in such a confined space.

Korn were amazing as well: singer Jon Davis headbanging like a madman and screaming his heart out, guitarists Head and Munky bending deep over their instruments; shredding away, bass player Fieldy juggling over the stage like a pimped-out gangster, and David Silveria banging on his drums like there would be no tomorrow.

(The next time I would experience such a Eureka, 'I was born to dance to this type of music' type of moment, was four years later, when Sick Of It All beat the Groezrock Festival to a bloody pulp.)

Limp Bizkit and Slipknot conquered Belgium that same year at the Pukkelpop festival, with Amen, Mudvayne, (hed)P.E., Papa Roach, Sepultura and Slipknot (again; I've seen 'em about eight times by now) rounding out the nu-metal extravaganza in 2001 at Earect in Torhout.

Those were the bands I grew up with, the bands that shaped me into the person I am today. I loved the blend they brought to the table (in equal, lesser or more measure) of stomping drums, hiphop-style grooves and vocals, bruising, detuned metal riffs and clusterbomb-style climaxes. So it was good to see that Kerrang! recently did a Legends issue on nu-metal.

To me, Kerrang! has always been the No. 1 rock and metal magazine out there. Not only because of their unparallelled access to the people in the business, which make for fascinating backstage stories; also because of their good taste in music and because of the proficient pens of their writers.

And I must say: those writers put all their wit, savvy and guts into this Legends issue. If you were a Limp Bizkit fan around '98, '99, and you loved the same bands that I did during those days, you'll devour every syllable of this publication. I can honestly say it's one of the best magazines I've read all my life.

If you're just getting into the likes of Slipknot, Deftones, System Of A Down et cetera, you'll like it as well because who knows? You might get to know some other, similar bands you might like.

Everything's in there: from the roots of nu-metal (coming from Aerosmith and Run-DMC performing 'Walk This Way'; then onto Faith No More and Rage Against The Machine), over insight interviews with the bands that propelled the genre to mainstream status, to an overview of the best songs that came out of the movement.

'Rollin''! 'One Step Closer!' 'Last Resort'! 'Smooth Criminal'! 'Freak On A Leash'! 'Break Stuff'! 'Chop Suey!' 'Stupify'! 'Wait And Bleed'! People in their fourties and fifties get a hard-on when they hear Beatles songs, or the Rolling Stones, or even Dire Straits - but to me, hearing 'Bartender' by (hed)P.E. sends me on a trip down memory lane.

(The only things that are missing, at least to me, are stories on Mudvayne - their 'LD50' album is one of my all-time favourites - and Amen - their frontman Casey Chaos was undoubtedly the most undaunted microphone abuser ever.)

I think good music journalism reignites your passion for a band, an album or an entire genre by infecting you with sheer enthousiasm. And that's exactly what the people over at Kerrang! have done for me and nu-metal with this magazine.

Hats off to them - and if you'll excuse me now; I'm off blasting some Deftones through the speakers.

The Glimmers - Whomp That Sucker ***

Hello?

Is there anybody out there?

Just nod if you can hear me?

Guess I'll just have to suck it up and keep going.

Today I'd like to let you in on a little secret: recently, I've purchased a compact disc. That's right, a "cd". Remember those? They come in square plastic boxes and if you put them into the "cd loader" of your "stereo system", music comes out.

As a teenager, I spent pretty much all of my hard-earned dough on cd's. I remember buying the first one of what turned into a 300+ collection: it was a compilation disc out of this GB department store called 'Rap All Over', back in '95. Dunno why I picked a that cd as I wasn't really into rap music - probably because it had a Shaquille O'Neal song on it ('Biological Didn't Bother') and as a burgeoning, NBA-deprived basketball fan I was instantly magnetized by anything that had to do with American b-ball stars.

(Other acts on the 'Rap All Over' disc included Easy-E, Skee-Lo, KRS-One, Onyx, Too $hort and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - back in '95, West-Coast rap was in full swing.)

If only the MP3 format had come earlier... I'd have spent my hard-earned cash on more interesting stuff that doesn't take as much space as cd's do. Now, each time I have to move, I gotta drag two giant boxes of cd's with me. (Though the cd stacks do make for nice wall decoration.)

Anyway, suffice it to say that I embraced the MP3's from the get-go.

The Glimmers I got to know as a 21-year old student, still greener behind the ears than Cee-Lo. My buddy Jailhouse Joe invited me to this media party at the Culture Club (a trendy nightclub in Ghent), a celebration of the fifth anniversary of this men's magazine called Ché.

There was an open bar, we took pictures of us with various girls who had graced the covers of the magazines and made the dancefloor our stompin' ground on beautiful beats, provided by The Glimmers. Back then, it was the best night of my life and it still holds a very steady place in my top ten of unforgettable nights out.

It's a difficult task to describe the style of The Glimmers (a duo consisting of Ghent dj's called Mo & Benoelie, both products of the legendary Eskimo Records scene which bloomed in the early nineties and which spawned such events as I Love Techno).

I'd call it 'acid disco' - it's got elements of dancepunk, electro and house, but the music has a rock song vibe, supported by a funky disco beat. I love to go nuts on the dancefloor and I used to be a junglehead, going apes**t on drum 'n' bass, but no other dancefloor genre gets me to bust moves like acid disco does.

As The Glimmers, even after 25 years of dj'ing, are still very underground, there's hardly a way of finding their stuff on the 'net. But they do still make cd's - their music's got an old-school vibe to it and it's only fitting that you have to go to a record store and buy Glimmer beats on a compact disc.

Apparently, 'Whomp That Sucker' is their third outing after a disc which they only distributed at the gigs they did, plus a 'DJ Kicks' compilation. The title and the cover concept is taken from The Sparks' eponymous '81 release.

The title track is vintage Glimmers, but the other tracks also make for grrrreat dancefloor fodder. It's one of those records you spin just before you go out clubbing. I could dance to this all night long - and sometimes I do, when the Kitsch Club in Knokke ask Mo & Benoelie over.

Last time though, sometime in October or November, the club was half empty. However, that gave me the chance to chat to the guys. And they're really nice fellas. They could make easy money spinning and making crowdpleasers, but they stick to their own style and that earned them a lot of respect in the worldwide club scene.

On the other hand: it's sad to see how little respect Belgians have for homegrown talent. We take our heroes for granted - be it in sports, art, science, music or any other field. Guys like The Glimmers play for sold-out venues when they go to Miami or Ibiza; out here they end up playing a Swedish House Mafia track to get at least a little bit of movement on the dancefloor. Meh.

So next time you happen to wander past the Music Mania record store in Ghent, or any record store in Antwerp or Brussels not called 'Free Record Shop', pop in and ask for The Glimmers. You'll be greeted with a broad smile and a pat on the shoulder.

Next thing you know, sitting down in your car or your living room, a broad smile will appear on your own face after having inserted the 'Whomp That Sucker' disc into your stereo system and having pressed 'PLAY'.

"It's time to dance, it's time to dance! Dance sucka!"

BEFORE I FORGET

As I write this, my dear friend Bakerman is on his way to Thailand. He'll roam there for a couple of months, fishing for sea needles from a canoe, spending time talking to stones, and when he's had enough of that, he'll travel on to Australia. I'd be surprised if he'll come back without plans to stay down under - if he comes back at all. Anyhoo; I made a blog for him called Bakerman's Talk, but it'd surprise me as well if he actually gets to posting anything on the damn thing. Be as it may: I wish him good health and lots of fun.