Off-white

I've been sitting in the sun all day so now I'm finally off-white and IT MAKES ME WANNA DOUGIE!




Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie. Get it here (YSI).

Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie (Urban Mix feat. JD, B.o.B., Bow Wow & Red Cafe - Radio Edit). Get it here (YSI).

About Bart Constant

Finally the wait is over. It's been a good few years, but the artist formerly known as About is back!

After working and touring extensively with Dutch band Voicst and doing production work for loads of other artists, Berlin-based Rutger Hoedemaekers has reincarnated in the persona of Bart Constant. To give us a taste of the new album he has just released a video for one of his songs: Do Better. And it's absolutely AMAZING!!!! The song, which features Dustin O'Halloran on piano is so beautiful, and the video (well video, it's more of a mini movie) is stunning. The song and the vid just work so well together. It was directed by Mirka Duijn and produced by Nina Spiering, who collaborate under the name of Kimmo Films.

Somehow releasing an album never comes easy for Rutger. Just before his first album was supposed to come out he suffered from a collapsed lung, three (!) times. Just before he was about to master this latest record his mixer failed and he missed his flight to London and thus his appointment at Abbey Roads Studios. And then his purple Polo broke down while he was on his way from Berlin to the shoot in Rotterdam, the car he needed to sell in order to finance the video... Insane or what?! But even though he couldn't make an appearance in the video, it's here and it's great. The album has been mastered and we are now anxiously waiting its release. Until then marvel at this:

Cool. And not just by association.

DELS or Kieren Dickins as his folks named him, is really starting to make some waves here in the UK. And I must say, I love what I've heard from him so far. I guess you'd file his music under hip hop, but then outside the box of hip hop. If that makes any sense..

He has been working with some interesting people, like Micachu and Joe Goddard from Hot Chip. The latter produced his current single Trumpalump and also made a remix of it, on which another great UK rapper named Ghostpoet joins in. Who happened to appear together with DELS before on a mixtape that Michacu made with Kwes back in 2009. You can still get this Kwesacu mixtape here! ANYWAYS (sorry about all the namedropping) his debut album, set to be released in April, surely is going to be cooler than cool. And not just by association.


DELS - Shapeshift. Get it here (YSI).


DELS - Trumpalump (Joe Goddard Quiet Remix feat. Ghostpoet). Get it here (YSI).

p.s. Did you know he is not only a very gifted musician, but also a talented designer? He went to art school, he can draw (he made some pretty cute drawings for his first 7") and even knows how to use a sewing machine (proof here). His background as a graphic designer might explain the awesomeness of his video's. Like the one for Trumpalump. Watch closely, the 'color adjustments' weren't done in Aftereffects or whatever, but with paint!

For Gore Lovers

It's the happiest time of the year, and I'm watching horrormovies as if my life were depending on it. For fellow genre-lovers; here are some of the highlights of this month. For people that are not into guts, weirdo's, unneccesary nudity and wild chases with or without chainsaws; scroll baby scroll.... all the way down!

I: Haute Tension (2003)
A french horrormovie by Alexandre Aja. This one had it all; gay love, a guy that looks like a ranger, but does nasty things with chopped off heads... lots of suspence, great acting and an unexpected brilliant twist in the plot. A definite keeper, and it ended up in the top 25 scariest movies of all time!


II: Body Bags (1993)
Nice 'vintage' horror triptych of genius John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog, The Thing) and Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist). This one came to me in a package with a note enclosed: "this is the movie we talked about last week, hope you enjoy it". That was the nicest thing ever, especially because I really enjoyed it. These three short films (The Gass Station, Hair, Eye) were all very different, one was really funny and another gave me sweaty palms, but I saw things in all three of them that I saw in movies that are much younger than these. Really worthwhile if you like orang-y blood.


III: Devil (2010)
I was told that this one was superscary and I must say that the concept seemed kind of appealing to me. A bunch of people getting stuck in an elevator is nasty to begin with (I know this from personal experience) but when people start dying every time the light turns off (electricity malfunction?) it gets even nastier. I thought of Cube immediately and hoped for a nice psychological game with some nice gore added to it. Nevertheless, I should have remembered that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan. He likes religion and stories that are full circle. I'm not into that, it's not what I look for in a horrormovie. I like bad endings and even more.. the unexpected. Not a keeper, but at least there was no Haley Joel Osment to overact this movie to death.


IV: The Human Centipede (2010)
Last but REALLY NOT least: a dutch horrormovie that kept me nauseous for quite some time. Director Tom Six and his wife apparently wrote the movie and also came up with the rather sick idea of having a MAD german doctor (Dieter Laser, awesome name huh) sew together three people and give them only one digestive system. After some experiments on dogs, he does it for real. Just try to picture what this human centipede looks like and one can only imagine what happens with the second and the last person, when the first one eats. Not for weak stomachs, but really original and well made. And oooh, the mad doctor... love his looks!


Here's some of the sound that goes with all that terror:

Goblin - Sleepwalking get it here (YSI)



Goblin - Suspiria get it here (YSI)

Quick fix

Sorry guys, I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment. I just handed in an illustration and now I've got to pack my stuff and go to Rotterdam to pick up the other Dutch Doll and Blanche, and take the train to Utrecht to play at a party tonight. So no personal disclosures, no background info and no uploads this time. Luckily embedding a video is done in a flash and I've been dying to blog about these two anyway!

Some my favorite female UK MCs (Envy, Mz Bratt, BabyBlue, Ruff Diamondz) are doing it for themselves on this remix of Tinchy Stryders' Game Over. For a while I was afraid grime was sliding down a steep slick slippery slope, but this track gives me hope.




While I was slaving over this impossible deadline, with the rain (and later snow - lots of it!) gushing down outside, all I had to do is look at this video and everything was alright again. A grinding cookie monster, what more do you want?!?

Three cheers for midweek drinking

Can I hear three cheers for midweek drinking?! One of the few good things about being self-employed is that I can go out on school nights (when I plan it properly of course..). And the most exciting artists always happen to been in town during the week, probably to cater for the enormous student population here in Cardiff. So in order to see some of my favorite bands and DJs in the flesh I have to endure hours of feeling old! It almost puts me off going, but I really want to go see the following men, who are in my opinion some of the more innovating men in the genre of subtle electronic music today...

Tomorrow (that's a Wednesday) i'm going to see a duo called Mount Kimbie at the Cardiff Arts Institute. Luckily my friend was wise enough to buy us tickets, because it sold out pretty quickly. I really like their hypnotic, organic sound and I'm curious how things will come across live. Hopefully the beanbags are still around at CAI..


Mount Kimbie - Tunnelvision. Get it here (YSI).

I'm happy to see a fellow Dutchie coming to Cardiff this Thursday when Martyn plays Buffalo Bar. He's a genre bending composer and producer, and he has done remixes for some big names on the scene. He describes his music as "music for a warm but rainy day", which is a perfect description. Apparently he used to live very close to me in Rotterdam, as he named his label after the zip code: 3024. And apparently he's buddies with my former art teacher Erosie, who designed the cover for his album.


Kode 9 - You Don't Wash (Martyn's Scrub Vocal). Get it here (YSI).

Third cheer is for James Blake who will grace us Cardiffians with his presence on Thursday November 25th. I'm severly addicted to his track CMYK but his latest single Limit To Your Love (a Feist cover) is 'not bad' either. As is the video.

You're too Görli Görli

Yesterday was a very special day. Because, despite of our first Becks-and-Hefeweizen-hangover, we decided to get up 'early' and take our lovely lady Blanche for a short stroll through Görlitzer Park in Berlin. Just to see how loud she can get. We were so hung over that we forgot half the equipment (we even forgot the music!). We went back twice and we still didn't have everything... But nevertheless Blanche's first walk in the park was a delight. We made one enemy but lots of friends. The local drug dealers were a fan. They want to book us at their next "party"!


We also met a musician called Wynton Kelly Stevenson. It turns out he has a very original way of playing the harmonica. Check it out on his MySpace!! It's a nice blend of dub, blues and hip hop. "That's the shit right there!", to speak in the man's own words.


Sometimes Blanche gets stuck in the cobbled stones. As we were jerking her we ran into another awesome musician. Yarah Bravo is MC/singer/beat maker and apparently she has a weak spot for sound systems. Her voice reminds us a bit of Lisa „Left Eye“ Lopes, and she's opening up for Freeway tomorrow. Who is very scary looking, like a black version of Matisyahu, but with less hair on top. So we might go and check her out live! You can watch her in this video...



Here's our ode to yesterday. A song we didn't play because we forgot to bring it.


Sophia George - Girlie Girlie. Get it here (YSI).

let's get physical.. critical...

I've been ranting about cycling in the UK before on this blog, and today I'm going to do it again. I'm afraid I became a bit of a bike fanatic since I moved here. A classic case of 'you don't know what you've got until it's gone', I guess... Cycling is so good, in so many ways and I can't stand it that I get ridiculed for riding my bike!

So last weekend the time had come to put words into action: I joined the Critical Mass bike ride here in Cardiff. Now I might need to explain the phenomenon of the Critical Mass to our Dutch readers here, since in Holland there is no such thing.

The first Critical Mass ride took place in San Francisco in 1992 with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to cyclists. Cyclists will be wearing signs and banners and make lots of noise by ringing their bells. The rides can take on truly massive proportions, with thousands of people taking part in the London and New York rides for example. Unfortunately things can get aggressive. Car drivers get impatient. As it's important that the group stays together roads might get blocked off and traffic lights ignored. (But I always found it's fascinating what happens once people step into their motorized cookie jar on wheels. They suddenly think they're invincible (and invisible - ever noticed how many people are picking their nose while waiting for a traffic light?!).

But in Cardiff things weren't that extreme. I thought it was good fun. It was so nice to be riding together. I felt even more like being in that Smiths video! So I gathered some more music videos featuring people cycling in herds (them being decent songs was another criterion). Enjoy the ride hehe..

The Cardiff Critical Mass takes place every first Saturday of the month. They meet at 11.00 in front of the museum on Park Place. Join their Facebook group!

MC Laren

My trip to London last week was kind of a last minute decision. And as you need to book your train tickets three months in advance in this country to get an affordable fare, I was forced to take the bus.. Which sucks because by train London is just 2 hours away, by bus it takes over 3 hours. But then again I kept £45 in my pocket (which I could spend in London on 2nd hand records, books (bought at a gem of a bookstore, Bookmongers in Brixton), the most delicious sourdough pizza at Franco Manca, several pints of ale, and on seeing Mats Gustafsson. Plus I was able to put a good dent in the 600-page book I'm currently reading: Last Night a DJ Saved My Life - The History of the Disc Jockey. It's very entertaining, very informative and I can highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in dance music, whether it's soul, disco, hip hop or techno.

I'm half way through the book and so, as the bus made its way onto the M4 on Thursday morning, I continued reading the chapter Hip Hop Roots. I read about the pioneering work of DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa in the Bronx in the '70s. I read about the relationship between disco and hip hop and the links between punk and hip hop, in which Malcolm McLaren played a big role. I chuckled over this part where McLaren goes to some block party in the South Bronx in the early days of hip hop:

"In August 1981 McLaren had been introduced to Afrika Bambaataa by Michael Holman, a black video artist who had taken him up to the Bronx to witness this amazing new music scene. The Sex Pistol's ex-manager was then steering the fortunes of pop band Bow Wow Wow, and formulating an ambitious album project based on smelting together the world's folk-dance music (this would become this Duck Rock LP). Despite a harrowing night during which he was, by most accounts, completely petrified, McLaren was mesmerised. 'It was like Heart of Darkness,' laughs Holman. 'I go to the hotel and I'm about to take them up to the Bronx on a summer evening - McLaren and Rory Johnston from RCA - and they're dressed like fucking pirates, in all that Vivienne Westwood gear. I thought we were gonna get stuck up or shot at any second. We finally get there and we go from a place that's completely deserted to masses and masses of kids, nothing but teenagers running from one corner to another, watching fights break out in the crowd. It's insane. Bottles flying everywhere. Malcom's dressed like a pirate - and nobody noticed us.'"

Watch and listen to McLaren's own account of this event in the 1984 BBC documentary Beat This! A Hip Hop History. Hehe I love it...

Back at my hotel I learned Malcom McLaren had died that morning.

He might have been a bit of a tosser, but credit where credit's due, his influence on pop culture is undeniable. So here's some ancient hip hop for you, including McLaren's go at rapping (from 1983) and Afrika Bambaataa biggest hit Planet Rock (from 1982). I'm also putting up Takin’ All that Jazz by Stetsasonic from 1988 because it nicely reflects on the state of hip hop at the time and the criticism it received (that it wasn’t creative because of the sampling and that it was a fad(!)). And look where we are today. In part thanks to that fucking pirate.

Malcom McLaren - Buffalo Gals. Get it here (YSI).


Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock. Get it here (YSI).


Stetsasonic - Talkin' All That Jazz. Get it here (YSI).

Jah man!

Ras Kwame, one of my favourite Radio 1 DJ's, recommended the film Babylon on one of his shows. Now I know this man has good taste, and he was spot on about this one as well.

Set in South London during the early eighties Babylon tells us about the trials and tribulations of Blue, a 'toaster' (= an MC) for a soundsystem. After its screening in 1980 it was released on VHS, but copies were limited. Thus it was virtually unavailable, but it gained a cult following thanks to people making copies of copies of copies. Now 28 years later the movie has been completely restored, remastered and re-released on DVD! Not only the improved sound and picture quality should be a major leap forward compared to the (bootleg) VHS, also the subtitle option in the DVD menu is very welcome addition. At least, for people like me who find Jamaican Patois a little hard to follow.

I bought the DVD last week and I finally got around watching it last night. I thought it was a good. Grim and pretty depressing, but good. And it was great to catch a glimpse of the dancehall culture in London in the 80's...



It reminded me about another movie I watched a couple of months ago: This Is England. Also about troubled youth in the eighties and the way music played an important role in their lives...



The two movies kind of tell two sides of the same story, and the soundtracks have the same roots (reggae and the 2nd wave of ska). They're definitely not feel-good-movies, except maybe for the fact they make you happy the 80's are over. They also show music can be a source of consolation and hope. Thank JAH for music! SELAH!

the Berliner Skank a la Dutch Dolls

So after a little over five weeks I'm back in Cardiff. Except for the rain, it feels nice to be at HOME again. Surrounded by all my stuff, having a closet full of clothes to choose from, being called 'love' by the cashier at Tesco's, a PROPER INTERNET CONNECTION... The latter, plus the fact that we worked/partied/relaxed a lot, were the reasons for the infrequent postings the last couple of weeks. But I'll make up for it now by giving you some of Berlin's highlights according to Dutch Dolls...

Like this tiny Greek restaurant called Thalassa (Körtestrasse 8) in Kreuzberg. No live music, no tacky decor, no colums. This family run restaurant serves finger licking yummy food, prepared by a big mama. Highly, highly recommended!

Does fermented cabbage sound appealing to you?! To me it never did! But in Korea they love the stuff: kimchi. I've never been a great fan. So when I made a bet (trying not to drink alcohol for one day..) my challenge would be to eat kimchi. Of course I failed... So off we went to Kimchi Princess, a new, stylish Korean restaurant in Kreuzberg 36 (almost too stylish for its surroundings). I had a kimchi crêpe and it was de-li-cious! I'm converted :-)

One of my best nights out ever was probably at Kiki Blofeld: dancing to obscure soul & funk music in a boathouse, chilling outside by a campfire and playing foosball under the stars. Brilliant!! This picture of the (then empty) boathouse doesn't do it justice at all!


Dutch Dolls had another memorable night out at Cassiopeia in Friedrichshain. The ruins of an old factory house two concert venues, a beergarten (check out the pic), an open air cinema and skate hall. Very raw, but the atmosphere is very gemütlich. We shaked our booty to some live R'n B (!), hip hop and dancehall till dawn!


Two nice dives in the neighbourhood of the Falkensteinstrasse in Xberg are Madame Claude and Konrad Tönz. In Madame Claude you can play ping pong or play your musical instrument at one of their open mic nights. Sometimes they have bands playing in their tiny and very damp basement. Oh I just love Konrad Tönz! The bartender is superfriendly and he blends in neatly with the retro interior of the bar... The DJs spin their records (boogaloo, schlager, (ost-)beat, soul and jazz) on two mono record players. Dutch Dolls recommends buying a bottle of sekt (German sparkling wine) there. The bartender will keep it chilled for you in the fridge and he'll fluff you up every now and then.

They say "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". So when in Berlin, go to the fleamarket! The one on Arkonaplatz has a very nice selection of old junk (I should say vintage - go to Mauerpark for a massive amount of just junk). Once a month the legendary punk club SO36 has a Nachtflomarkt. The quality of the goods isn't that great, but it's cheap. So at least you still have a chance of finding a real treasure here. Another big plus is that you can 'trödel' here with a beer in your hand and excellent soul music in the background!

More legendary punk is to be found at the Ramones museum in Mitte. On display are Ramones memorabilia from some obsessive fan. Which is great! There's a framed pair of Johnny's pants, old report cards and of course lots of pictures and posters (there are actually some pretty cool photobooth photo's and contact sheets). Every punk-ish band that visits Berlin drops by at the museum and they often do an acoustic live show. For FREE!! I went there to see the Riverboat Gamblers! I enjoyed it a lot, even though they couldn't rock out as much since they didn't want to trash the museum. On YouTube I found the video that the guy in front of me made. He was clearly into it as well; the camera is bouncing to the rhythm...



Bye bye Berlin, until next year!!

fan of a thousand dances

Back in the days when I was young and started going out I didn’t have a clue what to do with myself on the dance floor. So together with some friends I ‘invented’ a dance that gave us something to do to those idiotic eurodance tunes, and that prevented us from looking like total hay sticks. Our dance moves were based on domestic chores… Do the dishes! Iron! Vacuumclean! Clean the windows! Do some painting! With a little imagination you can picture it, right?! Och, it's a great dance. I still do the domestic-chores-dance every now and when I go dancing, and I’d like to think I can pull it off.

So I dig songs that are all about a dance instructions. I started to collect them. The Twist, The Locomotion, The Boomerang, The Zonk, The Kangeroo, The Mashed Potato, The Monster Mash, The Wah Watushi, The Shing A Ling, The Roach, The Bug, The 81, The Camel Walk, The Funky Chicken, The Duck, The Bird, Walking the Dog, The Harlem Shuffle, The Clapping Song, Footstompin’, Barefootin’, The Monkey Walk, the list goes on and on… Yeah, it was a real craze in the 60’s!

And it’s a real craze right now in the dancehall/UK funky/grime scene as well!! Migraine Skank, Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes, Stanky Legg, Stupid Skank… Watch the Fresh Az Ice Dancers do all these dances to this track by Doctor. Pretty brilliant!



So I’m leaving you with one oldie and one contemporary dance-song. Now go practice in front of the mirror.

Dee Dee Sharp – Mashed Potato Time. Get it here (YSI).

Gracious “Napa Man” K – Migraine Skank. Get it here (YSI).
Instructions on how to do the Migraine Skank here ;-)

and if a double-decker bus crashes into us

You all know how Dutchies love their bikes. So when I moved to the UK my bike remained my principal mode of transportation. Of course! But riding a bicycle is something most people here don't even consider. No wonder with the facilities here (hardly any - though the council is working on it). So as a cyclist you're somewhat of a curiosity. I get frequently cheered and yelled at... Especially when riding my bonanza bike (a chopper)! Thing is with the chopper that it's like riding a kiddie bike. You have to pedal like craaaazy and even the slightest hill feels like climbing a mountain. I felt like a sitting duck with all these cars, 10 ton trucks and double-decker buses speeding beside me. So I recently bought another bike on eBay. It's a really nice 40+ years old 'Dutch style' bike. But it's not Dutch, it's a Raleigh, and it feels definitely different from a real Dutch bike. You know what it feels like? It feels like being in this video by The Smiths (which happens to be my favourite band EVER). When I'm riding the streets of Cardiff, with that little basket in front of me, I can't help thinking of riding along with Mozzer in There's A Light That Never Goes Out: