And this deluxe reissue of their first record, Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement still has the ability to shock, annoy, and surprise.
And this deluxe reissue of their first record, Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement still has the ability to shock, annoy, and surprise.
(Plurex – reissued on Blowpipe Records)
Minny Pops are known as a “difficult band”. Their leader, Wally van Middendorp still does difficult, outrageous things, often in public. And this deluxe reissue of their first record, Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement (with a great bonus of the 2012 DMDM Amsterdam gig – yes the one with the olive oil and goat horn – and the first single, Kojak) still has the ability to shock, annoy, and surprise. Both versions of Springtime are STILL as irritating as hell; both sounding like an orchestra of road drills shrunk to micro size. With (worse), a dentist drill floating over the top. Other squidgy, edgy non-musical forays into annoyance land are Hologram, Motor City, New Muzak and Flash Goes the Eye. Boy how the ‘Pops must have hated the music scene in the Netherlands back in the day to make this scratchy gurn-fest.
It’s funny how singular the record still sounds. Wally Van Middendorp’s laconic – and thickly accented Dutch voice still cuts through the record’s sound like some strange, alien commentary. It’s as if the music and vocals are being recorded in separate spaces (and with different aims) entirely; and listening in, you can imagine Wally in the role of some Stasi observer reporting back on some godawfully “out there” beat band in 60’s Leipzig. Even the “pop” tracks (Dolphins’ Spurt, R.U. 21 – the only track with a recognisable chord structure AND a melody line – or Monica) still sound like clumsy Troglodyte attempts at pop. Or attempts to further deconstruct side 1 of Low. But, somehow the sounds and attitudes they were playing around with over 35 years ago have now become common currency; and I don’t think it’s too far fetched to say (on the evidence of this record at least if not the more accessible Sparks in A Dark Room) that their true cultural worth as dadaesque sound artists working in the same field as, say, the Residents is becoming clearer by the day.
Certainly something else.