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:

hark!

I realized it has been TWO MONTHS since I last posted some music here! Not good. But I've got loads of good tunes I want to force upon you after my recent session of what we call "harken" (= Dutch for raking) on the Hype Machine. On this website you'll find all the MP3s that are posted on music blogs, it's a goldmine!! Now HARK!

I start off with this sweet indie tune coming from musicwise-the-hottest-place-on-earth: Brooklyn NY.

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing. Get it here (YSI).
I came across loads of tunes with this fuzzy shoegazy late 80's/early 90's sound. If you like it have a listen to Liechtenstein, Dum Dum Girls, The Mayfair Set, Pomegranates and of course Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Is this going to be the sound of 2010?? Hmmm...

Now a cross-over project that actually works! Blues rockers The Black Keys do it with some of the best rappers around, among which Raekwon, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Ludacris. They even brought Ol'Dirty Bastard back from the dead!

Blakroc - Coochie Coo (feat. Mos Def and Jim Jones).
Get it here (YSI).

More great hip hop from Kidz in the Hall. This a track from their new album, which will be released in March. Via Squeegie.

Kidz In The Hall - Jukebox. Get it here (YSI).



South Rakkas Crew feat. Serocee - So It Go.
There is more where this came from! The nice fellows at Mad Decent are giving away South Rakkas Crew's new album The Stimulus Package for FREE! Get it here!

My dearest Schlachthofbronx teaming up with Playdoe's Spoek... this must be good. And it is. Love that drum band sound! May be not everybody's cup of tea, but definitely mine!!

Schlachthofbronx - Ayoba (feat. Spoek and Gnucci Banana).

Get it here (YSI).

The one and only Uffie's back, now f*ck off Ke$ha!!!!
Via Rutger, thanks!

Uffie - MCs Can Kiss (Original). Get it here (YSI).

Usually dubstep is a serious matter, dark and grim. But this spoof of Caspa's remix of TC's Where's My Money? is a good laugh. Via You Can Call Me Pelski.

Parker - Where's my monkey? Get it here (YSI).

something to keep you busy

First of all HIP HIP HOORAY for Dutch Doll Geeske!!! It's her birthday, weehooo!! Congratulations my dear dollegue!

Sorry to alllllll of you readers for not posting in over a week. The Dolls have been reunited and we've got loads of very important stuff to do! Like working on a new demo and new summer dresses :-) And when we're not doing Dutch Dolls stuff I try to squeeze in as many dates with friends and family as possible.

But now I find myself with 45 minutes to spare on this Monday morning! This post should be about the great time we had at DISCO DOOF and at the CARNAVAL last weekend. But as I'm writing this on a friend's computer I haven't got any pics or videos here with me, so I'm afraid we'll write about that another time. But I've got something for you to keep you occupied in the meantime... My friend Rutger tipped me off on this and eversince I've spent way too much time on FAIL Blog. I promise you, it will not only crack you up, it will change the way you view the world. Failures everywhere!

And through FAIL Blog I stumbled upon another great blog: There, I Fixed It. It's filled with handiwork that makes Macgyver look like he's got two left hands.

Well got to run now. I'm on a TIGHT schedule! I'm guessing your day might turn out to be less productive than mine ;-) Enjoy!

how does he do it do it?

O how we love remixes! So this record should be a real treat for us. Amsterdam duo The Moi Non Plus invited befriended artists to remix the songs and artwork of their debut album. Our good friend About was one of them and he did an excellent job on What If We Do It, mashing it up with a tune by Michael Nyman. The remix clearly bears the About signature: cut up electronics but still poppy and catchy and dancy! You can download it for free, legally, from the Subbacultcha website (or at the bottom of this post)!! A whole bunch of other (visual) artists have contributed to this unique multimedia thing, like Kania Tieffer, Aux Raux, Machinefabriek, Aquil Copier and Paul Borchers, just to name a few. Paul is playing as Yobkiss TONIGHT at the launch party in Gallery W139 in Amsterdam. As well as the boys of TMNP of course.

The Moi Non Plus - What If We Do It (ABOUT's Crossmatch Re-Edit).
Get it here (YSI).