The fourth album from Dutch rock masters Astrosoniq, Quadrant, hit me like a face-bound roundhouse. The Wizards of Oss treat common notions of genre like water treats a screen, passing through and back on different sides of different lines, showing individual personality in their music like few active bands the world over in either the heavy rock underground or any other style. They are — and I don’t use this word lightly — unique.

As it was my first experience with the band, listening to Quadrant inspired me to traipse my way through the Astrosoniq back catalog for a still-in-progress series of Buried Treasure posts (here and here). So far what I’ve learned in so doing is that the willingness to toy with stylistic conventionalism Astrosoniq display on their latest album is hardly new to the band; they’ve been doing it since their Son of A.P. Lady debut in 2000.

All the more reason, then, to want to talk to drummer and founding member Marcel Van de Vondervoort, who not only contributes electronics (and drums, obviously) to Quadrant, but also produced and mixed the album in his own Torture Garden Studio. In the email interview that follows, he sheds light on Astrosoniq‘s processes, his own in writing and in the studio, the neurological condition that’s forced him to relearn how to drum using just his hands, and just how he managed to get something coherent out of the track “Zero,” on which Astrosoniq is joined by the entire band Zeus, one act in the left channel, one in the right.

You’ll find the complete Q&A after the jump. Please enjoy.

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My buying power took a hit over the holidays (that’ll happen), but I did manage to put in an order for recommended Dutch rockers Astrosoniq‘s first full-length before the New Year hit. I’ve decided to make it a Buried Treasure series as I work my way through their releases — you can find their newest album, Quadrant, reviewed here and a post about 2002’s Soundgrenade here — since the one record that actually got recommended to me was 2006’s Speeder People and I haven’t gotten there yet. Kind of taking the scenic route.

I found Son of A.P. Lady — released on Freebird Records in 2000 — after an exhausting search. The usual haunts were a no-dice; All That is Heavy, eBay and Amazon, Gemm, Alone Records, Kozmik Artifactz and a few others all coming up empty. I finally found it on the Amazon UK site for about $20 from a user named USAcid King. It was about $20 with shipping and the exchange rate, but made all the more worth it by the foil gatefold digipak the CD comes in. Not to mention no one else in the world seemed to have it, so my options were limited.

Son of A.P. Lady confirms what I found out listening to Soundgrenade, namely that the genre-defying quirkiness of Quadrant wasn’t just a fluke or sudden shift in sound. That adventurous spirit was nascent in the band on Soundgrenade, and this being an even earlier record, it definitely is here too, but with the outright funk of “Earthquake,” the reveling doom of “Afterlife Rulers” and the buzzsaw stoner groove of “Doomrider,” there’s no question it’s been in Astrosoniq from the start. More than ever, I feel like I’m late to the party.

They’ve made Son of A.P. Lady available for free download on their website, so I guess on some level my buying it was pointless, but screw it, the artwork is awesome and the album rules. Hooked in the gruff vocals and nod-worthy riff of “You Loose,” I can’t say I wasted my money, and with 2004’s Made in Oss and Speeder People still to go, I feel like I’ve got a better understanding of how Astrosoniq grew into their asskickery.

Okay, so I kind of screwed this one up. Last month, when I went on (at length, as I will) about the genre-defying amazingness of Dutch rockers Astrosoniq‘s fourth album, Quadrant, reader Mathieu left a comment recommending I pick up 2006’s Speeder People, which he thought was better.

The thing is, I do most of my online CD shopping these days while intoxicated. As such, when I placed my most recent order at the All That is Heavy webstore, I selected 2002’s Soundgrenade instead. Whoops. Hey, at least I tried, and it’s not like the album I came out of it with is terrible. But when I listened through it for the first time, I said to myself, “Wow, these guys really made a jump from their third album to their fourth,” not realizing that in fact there were seven years, another album and an EP between Soundgrenade and Quadrant.

You can hear some of the stylistic bravery that shows up on Astrosoniq‘s latest, though. They bring in a little of that playful country sound on “Evil Rules in Showbizzland,”  and the disco rock of “So be It” could certainly be a precursor to the techno excursion that crops up on the latter half of “As Soon as They Got Airborne,” but one album is hardly an answer to the other. Rather, Soundgrenade shows Astrosoniq at an earlier stage in their development. The vocals remind more of John Garcia, and the album as a whole is a lot closer to stoner rock than Quadrant really got. I guess they grew up at some point between the two.

What point that might have been, however, I don’t yet know. This calls for further investigation! Nonetheless, even though I was too much of a dope to get it right when it came down to actually ordering the disc, thanks to Mathieu for the recommendation. Maybe when I finally get Speeder People I’ll post a “Recommended Buried Treasure Pt. 6-2” and go all Final Fantasy X on your asses. I’ll allow a moment for that reference to sink in…

I vaguely recall hearing about it when Dutch stoner progressives Astrosoniq released their fourth full-length, Quadrant, in Europe last year on Spacejam Records, but it’s not until now that German imprint Exile on Mainstream (the difference being American distribution) is putting it out that I’m actually getting to experience the album. And what an experience it is. One of the year’s biggest surprises, as far as I’m concerned. As someone all but completely unfamiliar with Astrosoniq’s past work, hearing the five-piece’s ability to blend genres and transcend any given sound on Quadrant is like stumbling on an Egyptian tomb. You know, if Egyptian tombs held killer riffs and adventurous songwriting instead of jewels and mummies and the like. Okay. Maybe that’s not the best comparison.

Nonetheless, the “Wizards of Oss,” as they are cleverly known, stun right from the opener of Quadrant, “Faustian Bargain,” which blends Hawkwind synth and psych swirling courtesy of keymaster Teun van de Velden and drummer Marcel VdVdV (actually van de Vondervoort) with the natural acoustic guitars of Ron van Herpen and the gorgeous, subtly-layered vocals of Fred van Bergen… at least until the song kicks into heavy rock hyperdrive, putting bassist/backing vocalist RJ Gruijthuijzen to excellent use thickening the song and contrasting Quadrant’s softer beginning. The tone is immediately set: anything goes so long as it’s original, and what’s genuinely most impressive about Astrosoniq is that the experimentation, the delving into different sounds (there’s a section toward the end of “Faustian Bargain” that sounds like it could have come off an Ayreon record), is all completely under the control of the band. At no point on Quadrant, even when they bring in numerous guest performers, do they lose sight of structure or songwriting as a focus. The result is that Quadrant is a spellbinding listen.

Admittedly, some of the experiments don’t work as well as the others. The Ministry-style dissonant guitars on second track “Cloud of Decay” are brilliant and an excellent complement to the industrial stomp call-and-response chorus with an Al Jourgenson-style voice answering van Bergen. That track also makes the best use of rhythmic chains I’ve heard since Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down),” but it has to be noted that the vocal layer behind van Bergen in the call of the call-and-response sounds like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. Maybe that’s what Astrosoniq was going for; it wouldn’t really be surprising considering everything else they throw into the mix on that song and elsewhere, such as the immediately following “As Soon as They Got Airborne,” which launches back into space rock sampling, synths and acoustics and similar vocals to the beginning portion of the opener. Van Herpen shows off on more than one solo throughout the 14-minute track (longer by eight minutes than its next closest companion), hypnotizing listeners as he leads the jam in and out again of heavy territory until the song goes electronica before devolving into an old sci-fi sample for its closing two minutes or so. Amazing that in this mix Astrosoniq manages to squeeze not only the memorable timeline, repeated with regularity, but a catchy chorus as well. Three tracks and you’re 24 minutes into the 57-minute album, but there’s still plenty of journey in the remaining seven songs.

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