Truus de Groot (NL/US) plays PLUS INSTRUMENTS + BAZIP ZEEHOK (GW Sok, GJ Prins & Lukas Simonis) + CARMEN JACI (CA)

PLUS INSTRUMENTS
Minimal Beat Electronic experimental since 1979
http://www.plusinstruments.com/

Truus de Groot:: Plus Instruments founder. Early pioneer of Experimental Electronica, dynamic vocalist

A Vinyl album of Plus Instruments material of 1979 / 1980 on Dead Mind Records. This was once on a much sought after cassette release called “Truss Plus Instruments”, scarcely distributed by the zine “Alien Brains”. Truus de Groot will present this album along with a solo live performance the last weekend of September at various spots in The Netherlands.

While she was still a member of Nasmak, one of the leading bands of the Dutch ultra-movement, Truus de Groot started Plus Instruments in 1979 with herself as the sole member. When the project evolved, she found a wide range of rotating collaborators like Michel Waisvisz, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and James Sclavunos. Plus Instruments was about freedom and the live performances were largely improvised. The sound minimal but captivating. The music always came from within, but De Groot was also triggered by bands like Red Crayola, Suicide, DAF, Wire, Pere Ubu, Devo and the No Wave scene in NY. She was always experimenting with primitive multi-track recording and whatever crappy gadgets she could find. Always looking for a gritty, dirty sound and bizarre overtones.
At a young age she travelled to New York and began to immerse herself in the nightlife of the city that never sleeps. Here she found true creativity, passion and expression. The club scene was alive but highly competitive, so this fearless Dutch girl would just knock on promoter’s doors to get gigs booked at places like CBGB’s, Peppermint Lounge, Underground and the Pyramid. De Groot eventually settled in the United States and never stopped experimenting with sound. In recent years she reinvented Plus Instruments and led the group into new territory.
The recordings for this LP were made by De Groot at home and the music is experimental, minimal, industrial but also playful, sounding nothing like most of the later material. 14 tracks in total of which 7 are taken from the elusive and impossible to find self-released debut cassette as ‘Truss Plus Instruments’ which was sparingly distributed by Nigel Jacklin and his legendary Alien Brains fanzine in 1980. The remaining 7 tracks are from the same period (1979-1980) and were carefully selected from the vast archive of De Groot. We are glad to present this anthology that serves as a long overdue testimony to the formative phase of a unique female pioneer of electronic music.
200 copies on black vinyl with insert. 75 copies on purple vinyl with a signed and numbered print, an envelope with 4 small prints and a cassette with 2 archival live performances from the same period. A Truus de Groot solo performance at Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (1980) and a performance with Michel Waisvisz at the Notre Dame Hall, London (1979).

BAZIP ZEEHOK

BAZIP ZEEHOK is G.W. Sok, Lukas Simonis, Gert-Jan Prins.
That is to say, all in all: voice, guitar, percussion.
A new trio, born in the second half of 2022, simply because.
Instant compositions, with corresponding (Dutch) lyrics. Poetic too.

Bazip Zeehok Supertrio?
That may be taking it a tad too far, but the fact remains that each member of this trio brings with him more than 40 years of musical experience.

Bazip Zeehok Superstar then?
For god’s sake, hello! Any comparison with the Father Son And Holy Spirit trio, formed around a simple carpenter’s son (also such a hero/antihero from a very old book), misses the eh . (point)

Bazip Zeehok Superstark therefore?
Not really that either, no. We aren’t Pippie Longstocking, are we. Muscle metal is the very last thing you would think of when you listen to In De Sloop Der Tijd, the first album, due in September 2023.

Bazip Zeehok Supernormal perhaps?
Well no, and no diesel either. Just Bazip Zeehok, please.
Without please, in short.

And so, in short:

Sok (The Ex, Zoikle, Oiseaux-Tempête, L&S, King Champion Sounds, Action Beat);
Simonis (Dull Schicksal, Zoikle, Stepmother, Trespassers W, Coolhaven, Mothers of Exit); and
Prins (Gorgonzola Legs, Mothers of Exit, Synchronator, VoltageSpa, M.i.m.e.o.).
– – –
Bazip Zeehok, in total simply more than the sum of its parts.

CARMEN JACI

Carmen Jaci is a French-Canadian experimental music producer currently based in the Netherlands. Using hybrid sounds that merge acoustic instruments with synthesizers and vocal recordings, she constructs a sound world where electronic and classical music overlap. Over the years, she has crafted a personal and unique language which largely revolves around the ideas of discontinuity and formal deconstruction. Her writing rapidly alternates between contrasting spaces and sonic elements, drawing influence from popular and classical artists such as Foodman, Igor Stravinsky and Grimes. As described by Musicworks magazine: “Although the music moves through countless changes from one ultrashort fragment to the next in a state of near weightlessness, it doesn’t sound disjointed. On the contrary, there is a clear line that holds the composition together.” Likewise, her work retains a subtly humorous tone as well as a highly polished sound production that almost reminds us of pop music.

Happy Child is a record about exploration, play, and rekindling with a sense of childlike wonder. The artist’s introspective approach reels us into a surprising, surreal and sometimes theatrical universe where the intimate meets the eccentric. Sounds of mallet percussion and children’s toys abound as well as references to pop music, video games and symphonic works. These sounds appear within loop-based tracks that alternate with organic and abstract compositional forms. There is a perceptible tension between lightheartedness and uneasiness as the music makes use of wildly contrasting spaces, often structured as a kind of spatial counterpoint built on top of the already present polyphony and rich sound design. Carmen Jaci’s ornate and highly refined sound production conveys an aura of order and elegance to this collection of eclectic pieces.