Astrosoniq have always been willing to be just that little bit extra oddball, and in terms of their studio output, this is a thing to be celebrated. They haven’t done much since the aughts owing to health concerns and the other whathaveyou of life, but as record labels have started plunging into turn of the century heavy rock and roll for reissues from the pre-social-media-mobilization era, the ‘Wizards of Oss,’ the Netherlands, are for sure worth another look.

Begun as a project of guitarist Ron van Herpen and drummer/synthesist/producer Marcel van de Vondervoort, the latter of Torture Garden Studio, the band made their debut in 2000 with Son of A.P. Lady (discussed here; also here) through Freebird Records. At that point, Fred van Bergen and Erik de Vocht were listed as guest performers, but by the time Astrosoniq offered the follow-up, Soundgrenade, in 2002, de Vocht was in the now-four-piece on bass/vocals and van Bergen was the frontman. As if it could be otherwise.

Soundgrenade turns 20 this year, and in some ways it’s very much the successor from Son of A.P. Lady. It was tracked with Sylvia Vermeulen, who also worked on the first record, with van de Vondervoort helming the mix and additional recording, overdubs, etc., but true to the solidified lineup behind it, it’s also a correspondingly more cohesive approach they take. They align themselves to alternative culture immediately, telling you to get out your decoder ring that, one assumes, you ordered out the back of a grainy comic book, and their push into “Secret Passage/Soundgrenade” emphasizes their readiness to twist the tropes of what was then stoner rock to their progressive, semi-experimental will. Van Bergen‘s echoing voice before the last verse, or the way the drums hold back at the start; the willful wankery of the guitar — it’s all over the top in a way that is very much Astrosoniq‘s own. They know they’re being a bit ridiculous, and that’s why it’s fun.

Every song on Soundgrenade offers something to distinguish it from the others. “Astronomicon” has a dense thrust of low-end fuzz and rolls out like Kyuss from space but weirds out the guitar late and has layered vocal harmonies. At nearly 10 minutes long, “Aphrodite’s Child” may or may not be paying homage to the ’70s prog band of the same name, but it unfolds with added synth wash behind the repeated drums and is more languid as it moves through its galloping, percussion-laced freakout, an improv-sounding jam that would utterly derail many records but that makes a weird kind of sense in the context of the eight-song/50-minute offering from Astrosoniq, drawn together as it is by the band’s performances and tonal range, as well as seamless transitions like that which brings back the song’s chorus after that freakout.

“Evil Rules in Showbizzland” starts with a sample and a lazier rollout, almost lounge with the vocals over it, but a play on goth that prescient of acts like Årabrot heavying up earlier Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds while still bringing more melodic complexity than it at first seems, and the subsequent “Hit and Run” has a sample as well but it’s hardly done before the all-go 3:24 shortest cut on the album begins its careening. The guitar and bass drop out for verse lines but pick up again in the chorus, catchy and quick enough to sound like a KISS LP played at 45RPM. Some of the burl of “Astronomicon” returns in the quadruply-exclamatory “Sod Off!!!!,” and if you ever wanted an argument for Ron Van Herpen as one of the most underrated guitarists of this era, the classy solo that unfolds in the second half there should do nicely.

Must be time to get really out there, and sure enough they do, with the record scratches, and throaty scat that send up nü-metal at the outset of the penultimate “So Be It,” with Eugène “U-Gene” Latumeten of Urban Dance Squad and an entire host of others stepping in on vocals and keys over a markedly funky movement, rolled out across almost five and a half minutes of soul and groove before its fadeout, which gives 11-minute closer “Daemonology” its own ground to begin from. The theme from the Addams Family tv show and a sample overtop begin, but they’re dug into a choice riff soon after, building tension over the next couple minutes with the riff and call and response vocals until after four minutes in, a stop brings transition to the nod that consumes the track until it’s time for takeoff.

And I mean that — it sounds like a rocket taking off, all howling noise and multifaceted chicanery. For sure, Astrosoniq would explore space-minded works further on future outings, but “Daemonology” answers the scope of “You Lose” from Son of A.P. Lady and the far-gone vibe of “Aphrodite’s Child” while being sonically distinguished from both. Further, rather than summarizing the songs across the record before it, “Daemonology” emphasizes one of the great strengths of Astrosoniq both on Soundgrenade and the rest of their studio work: They’re a band willing to take risks that other bands wouldn’t take. Whether that means playing loud or quiet in a given part, flirting with other genres, taking a song to place that’s unexpected or topping it all off with sometimes disturbing cover art, Astrosoniq are built for individualism and they always have been.

Their 2004 Made in Oss EP (discussed here) preceded 2006’s Speeder People (discussed here), and one might consider 2009’s expansive and still-plenty-experimental Quadrant (review here) as the final LP from this era of the band. It seemed like it might be their last until 2018’s Big Ideas Dare Imagination (review here) arrived in tribute to friend, collaborator and close associate Bidi van Drongelen, who passed away the year before. That last one was bittersweet, laced with guest appearances around a restored core duo of van Herpen and van de Vondervoort, but a reminder nonetheless of Astrosoniq‘s creativity and their readiness to find new ground for adventuring through and new ways to be thoroughly rock and roll while sounding like roughly none of its other many practitioners.

Maybe though, if there’s ever gonna be a reissue, a different cover? For some reason I find that face-shoulder thing really, like, viscerally discomforting. One assumes that’s the point, but still.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

We pushed The Pecan’s bedtime back by about 45 minutes this week, in hopes that he might sleep a corresponding 45 minutes later. After a crazy busy Tuesday, he slept until 6:10AM on Wednesday and it’s the latest he’s slept in more than a month. The latest in recent memory. By this morning? He came downstairs the first time at around 4:25AM — I had barely started writing this post; my coffee was still too hot to drink — and went to the bathroom, then I sent him back upstairs and that bought me another half-hour.

Half-hour isn’t nothing, but here’s a comparison. On Wednesday, I was able to write the entire My Sleeping Karma review all in one shot. There was no interruption to that process, nothing to pull me out of the groove, and — most importantly — it was fucking done when it was done and I didn’t have to think about it again. Les Nadie, by contrast, was the product of him getting up at 5AM yesterday, and I had to stop after about 400 words before picking up again hours later. This seems like a bullshit complaint but I can’t emphasize enough how much that undone-thing weighs on my mind, never mind not actually knowing when it’s going to be finished and having to improv my way through doing news posts and shit on my phone. That’s no way to go through life. Plus I’m pissed all morning at myself for not finishing and resentful of him for wanting to come down and watch the video for Red Fang’s “Wires” when it’s ‘my time’ to get work done.

Not that the “Wires” clip isn’t great, mind you. It is. It holds up over 500 viewings.

Anyways, finding time. Always a challenge. Never enough. He’s with the not-babysitter now as we approach 10AM, so yes, this sat for a few hours while I took him out for a long walk to one of the local playgrounds. He needs to move as much as possible throughout the day, or by the afternoon he’s just intolerable. Last winter was hard. This one will be too, I think. The next few until I can basically open the door, say, “Go!,” and feel reasonably confident he won’t immediately sprint in the direction of oncoming traffic. Much to be done in terms of building impulse control before we get there. “A Toyota!” Points. Runs. Splat.

He also runs away in parking lots, which even for a kid under five I have a hard time not being like, “What’re you, stupid?” which is exactly what my mother would have said to me. As Bluey teaches us, though, the ’80s are over. More in some ways than others, mind you. No, I have never called him stupid. Nor would I. The day will come, however, when I tell him with all love and sincerity that he’s a pain in my ass. The Patient Mrs. will no doubt follow-up with, “Being annoyed is one way Daddy shows love.” And that is true.

Next week? Uh… new Psychlona track on Tuesday. Gonna review the Nebula record if I can. Feels a bit neglectful to not have done that yet. Got a video for Echolot going up next Wednesday that’s gonna get like no play or likes or whatever but I’m doing it anyway because I dig it, and Thursday is a song from Gone Cosmic that I got pitched this morning, so that’ll be fun. My to-do list is pretty long at this point, and I’m behind on news and questionnaires too, perpetually, so yeah. Plenty of fodder to frustrate my shortened mornings.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate as best you can, watch your head. Wear earplugs if you’re out. And thanks for reading.

FRM.

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Astrosoniq, Son of A.P. Lady (2000)

Vastly underrated album from a wildly underrated band. First released in 2000 via Freebird Records, the quizzically-titled Son of A.P. Lady would mark the full-length debut from Netherlands heavy rockers Astrosoniq, and the band, who’d come eventually to be known as the “Wizards of Oss,” could hardly have made a more powerful opening statement. Son of A.P Lady (previously discussed here) bears some of the hallmarks of its era, with a CD-minded 50-minute runtime and its use of samples as a means of transitioning between its eight component tracks, but it’s also got classic-style drive and groove and an underlying progressivism that not only shows itself as much in the funkified “Earthquake” as in the bounding weirdness of “Afterlife Rulers” and the self-aware post-Motörhead charge of “Godly Pace.” It’s a record that brims with personality to a righteously arrogant degree, seeming to borrow some of its hell-fucking-yes-we’re-about-to-do-this snottiness from punk rock at its finest, but never failing to live up to the significant ambitions it sets forward for itself, whether questioning if it’s possible to make a record without selling your soul before even beginning opener “Fistkick” or bassist Erik de Vocht taking the fore vocally to reimagine Ronnie James Dio as a stoner rock singer on the party-time blowout “Ego Booster” later on.

That cut is one of several genuine getdowns Astrosoniq throw on Son of A.P. Lady. Already noted was “Earthquake,” which not only bounces and swings accordingly, but behind a mess of feedback and noise in its midsection actually goes so far as to sample what would seem to be Funkentelechy-era P-Funk with a speech making references to “Flash Light,” Free Your Mind… and Your Ass will Follow, Chocolate City, “Bop Gun” and so on (though I’ll admit I haven’t put on Funkentelechy in a while, so it could be from another source), and even the speedier penultimate “Doomrider,” something of a complement to “Godly Pace” earlier in the tracklisting, doesn’t lose sight of the fact that the band are and are supposed to be having fun. Van Bergen, guitarist Ron van Herpen, drummer/producer Marcel van de Vondervoort, de Vocht on bass (since replaced by Robert-Jan Gruijthuijzen) and keyboardist Willum Geerts, no matter where they were headed on a given track, be it the snarling attitude and nod of 13-minute closer “You Loose” (actually “You Lose,” and complete with Willy Wonka samples and the most expansive jam on Son of A.P. Lady) or the proggy and percussive swirl of “Pegasus,” it turns out to be their willingness to do whatever they want that most unites the material together across the album, creating a flow out of a consistent-sounding tonality in the recording itself and the wide-open vibe that lets Astrosoniq explore. There are moments of Son of A.P. Lady one would be tempted to relate to grunge, or to the post-Kyuss sphere of heavy/stoner rock — certainly that was booming throughout Europe circa 2000, as Freebird Records could well attest — but the edge of complexity Astrosoniq bring to “Ego Booster,” “Afterlife Rulers,” “Fistkick,” etc., makes them as much kin to the latter work of countrymen 35007 as to Swedish outfits like Dozer or Lowrider, the latter of whom made their debut the same year.

It feels almost impossible to overstate the level of achievement Son of A.P. Lady presents, especially as Astrosoniq‘s first album. Formed by van Herpen and van de Vondervoort in the wake of their prior outfit, A.P. Lady, they’d follow the 2000 Astrosoniq outing with 2002’s Soundgrenade (discussed here), the 2005 Made in Oss EP (discussed here), and 2006’s Speeder People (discussed here) before releasing their latest full-length to-date, Quadrant (review here), in 2010. Each of those releases — and let me just say that the bevvy of links there stems from a willful exploration I did their discography in 2010/2011; one of the most satisfying and least-regretted projects I’ve taken on in the eight-plus years I’ve run this site — continued to build on what Son of A.P. Lady set forth as the tenets of who Astrosoniq were as a group, and not a single one of them failed to add new elements or take a step forward from where they’d been previously. Whether you know their material or not, this is a special, special, band. 17 years later, Son of A.P. Lady still proves that was true at the outset.

Respected purveyor Ván Records did a vinyl reissue of Son of A.P. Lady last year as a deluxe boxed-set 2LP that’s gorgeous enough to say it’s the record getting its due, and though health issues have largely sidelined the band over the 2010s, I was fortunate enough to see them play at Roadburn last year (review here), where they were nothing short of jaw-dropping. I keep my fingers crossed for a new album — long said to be in the works — but the band also recently suffered the loss of manager/programmer Bidi van Drongelen, and though they paid him homage at memorial concert in June, that loss no doubt cast a pall over future plans as well. Still, one can hope.

And along those lines, I hope you listen to, absorb, and come to love Son of A.P. Lady if you already don’t. Thanks for reading.

—

Little bit after 5AM as I pour my first cup of coffee and get ready to close out the week. The sun isn’t up yet but it’s starting to get lighter out. I’ve been up since about four — alarm was set for 4:45, but I rolled over and was awake — but it’s taken me a while to really get myself going. Last night for dinner I overdosed on #garlicworship and made myself kind of sick. Gonna have to lay off for a week or two, maybe.

What did it, you ask? Well, the homemade pesto I was having with cloud bread was thoroughly-enough garlicked, but then I took an entire bulb and roasted it in the oven for an hour. Then I took another half-bulb of raw garlic, and another pack of store-bought roasted garlic from the salad bar at the Whole Foods down the way and I put all that in the food processor with some salt, pepper and olive oil. Blamo: garlic paste. It actually hurt to eat, but that didn’t stop me from spreading it on the bread in combination with the pesto or licking the spoon when I was done. It was awesome, and my thought at the time was if that’s how I’m going to die, at least I’m enjoying it.

Likelihood of my survival is yet to be determined. In the meantime, I have a well-earned stomach ache and garlic coming out of my pores. As I said to The Patient Mrs. when the meal was done, I’m the garlickiest garlicky who ever garlickied. She could do nothing but agree.

Needless to say, today’s a protein shake day. Going to take it easy. Have to.

On a completely different note unrelated to gastrointestinal distress, as of this week, for the first time in more than a year, I’m completely caught up on the mail. Not email (that I’ll never catch up on), but physical mail. Fun fact: I log every CD, LP, 7″, tape, etc., that comes in for this site. All of it. And I throw away nothing. The note a band sends with a disc that says, “Thanks for checking out our stuff?” Yup, I keep it. I’ve got a drawer full of press releases and notes like that — some are just post-its, some are on the backs of stickers or show flyers — going back a decade at this point.

And all the discs and so on themselves get logged in an Excel file, to keep track of what came in, when, what format it was in and from whom it came if that info is available. Sorting through everything is a time-consuming process and though I kept up as best I could with actually writing about the releases that were being sent, it had been since 2016 that the log was completely up to date. Now it is. I got four pieces of mail yesterday and logged them immediately. The box that was holding stuff is empty upstairs, just sitting there in the corner as my quiet victory. I could tell you how stoked I was to get through it all, but you likely wouldn’t believe it anyway.

To my silly, feeble and garlic-addled brain, that counts as part of baby prep, so I’ll say that’s proceeding well, despite the basket of laundry upstairs that still needs to be folded. The Patient Mrs. is tired but doing great because she’s amazing so of course she’s doing great. She’s been tired a lot, but The Pecan is getting bigger and so has all the more feet with which to be kicking her ass, so yeah, fatigue isn’t necessarily unexpected at this stage. By the end of next week we’ll be about two months away. Staggering.

I don’t usually do this, but I want to point something out before we look ahead to next week’s reviews and such. Let me put it in bold so it stands out to anyone skimming: I featured some seriously fucking awesome music this week. Seriously. I know it wasn’t all super-high-profile releases, but from the Radio Adds on Monday onward, it was excellent stuff all the way. Here are links because I think they deserve reiteration:

The Obelisk Radio Adds: Boris, Sólstafir, Desert Suns & Chiefs, Elara, Fungus Hill

Review & Lyric Video Premiere: Eternal Black, Bleed the Days

Review & Track Premiere: Papir, V

Review & Track Premiere: Howling Giant, Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2

Review: Zone Six, Live Spring 2017

Put those in combination with stuff like the Beastmaker Six Dumb Questions on Wednesday and yesterday’s Sergio Ch. video premiere and the Astrosoniq record above and you have the makings of one very kickass week. I don’t know how much of it you got to check out, but if the answer to that is “any,” you were only doing yourself a favor.

Next week is shaping up to be pretty choice too. Here’s what’s in the notes, subject to change as always:

Mon.: Pagan Altar track premiere/review; Argus lyric video.
Tue.: Six Dumb Questions with Demon Eye; Dead Heavens video.
Wed.: Six Dumb Questions/track premiere with The Quill; Blaak Heat track premiere.
Thu.: Paradise Lost review.
Fri.: Mindkult review.

I expect some of that will shift, but yeah, more righteousness there. I put in a request to do a track premiere for the Mindkult record and wasn’t cool enough, but whatever. The whole thing’s streaming now anyway and it’s good, so I still want to get it featured. The Paradise Lost is right on too. Hell, all of it is. I don’t cover bullshit. Not enough time.

Speaking of time, I’ve taken up more than enough of yours. As I sit here and sip my coffee and continue to burp garlic, I wish you a great and safe weekend with just the right amount of moderation in whatever you do so that you don’t make yourself ill. I may be another day in recovering, but I think I’ll make it.

Thanks for reading and please check out the forum and radio stream.

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Sometimes you have a leisure suit, and sometimes you put it to good use. Netherlands-based newcomers ZooN will issue their debut full-length, DeeP, on Dec. 19 through Lighttown Fidelity. The band’s guitarist, Ron van Herpen, has a pedigree that traces back to The Devil’s Blood and Astrosoniq — the Wizards of Oss themselves — so there’s some immediate interest there, but if that’s not enough to grab attention, the laid-on-mustache-thick Nick Caveisms of vocalist Fred van Bergen in the video below for “Darkness Falls” might do the job.

They’ve got a release show planned in Oss for the release date, and moody vibe to spare. Here’s the background, album info, links and video:

DeeP will be released by Lighttown Fidelity, an independent record label from Eindhoven with whom the band share their eagerness to go off the beaten path and find their own way of doing things.

ZooN is melancholic, cathartic, fiery, dark and intense with a twist of 60’s psychedelica.

The exact date of ZooN’s birth is unknown; however it is stated that the parturition took place somewhere in the year 2013 in Oss, the Netherlands. Founding father is Ron [ ex-Astrosoniq and ex-The Devil’s Blood ] who added a couple of friends to the ranks who already earned some spurs in the music scene.

Featuring members of such acclaimed bands as The Devil’s Blood, Astrosoniq, and The Gathering – ZooN conjure up certain expectations, but the album is willing you to put preconceptions to one side to one side and dive right in.

ZooN is also:
Ron van Herpen: guitar
Tim Ruterink: Rhodes and guitar
Tom Delforterie: drums
Niels Duffhues: bass
Fred van Bergen: vocals

additional:
Marcel van de Vondervoort [ production, percussion ]
Teun van de Velden [ photography ]
Jérôme Siegelaer [ videographer ]

official release of upcoming album deep on december 2015

tracklist
1. darkness falls
2. deep
3. down
4. wood
5. hide
6. breathing space
7. strike (ft. Farida Lemouchi)

https://www.facebook.com/zoonsound/
http://www.zoonband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1680012822215234/
https://www.facebook.com/LighttownFidelity
http://www.lighttownfidelity.nl/

ZooN, “Darkness Falls” official video

It’s somehow fitting to end this Buried Treasure series on Dutch rockers Astrosoniq‘s discography with the album that was recommended in the first place. Not just because I’m a jackass who bought Soundgrenade when it should have been Speeder People and now I’m trying to make it seem like it’s all worked out anyway — because I know I most definitely am that jackass — but also for Speeder People‘s direct continuity with the latest Astrosoniq full-length, Quadrant (review here), which initially inspired me to check out the band’s other releases.

But although I’d say it’s worked out pretty well in the end, it was definitely a long road to get here. From Soundgrenade, back to the 2000 Son of A.P. Lady debut, jumping ahead to 2005’s Made in Oss, and interviewing drummer Marcel van de Vondervoort last month, it’s been an awful lot of Astrosoniq around these parts. The funny thing about it: the more I listen, the less I feel like I know. Don’t get me wrong, after listening to the entire full-length catalog multiple times over, I’d call myself familiar with the band’s work for sure, and a fan, but there’s still a lot to learn here.

Speeder People genre hops with unsettling ease. From the dark lounge and female guest vocals of “Lonely Woman” toward the 70-minute release’s midsection to the sci-fi samples spread throughout, the spaced-out feel of “Orbital Relay,” the swing in “Lipstick Traces,” the goofball country guitar of “Hot Chick” (which, unlike the preceding “Rocket Science,” isn’t actually about a hot chick), and the speed-metal-into-funk and winding tones of closer “Quadrant EL 6500/It’s Monster Surfin’ Time” that show up on Quadrant opener “Faustian Bargain,” there is at least one fuckload — maybe two fuckloads — of ideas to digest on Speeder People. I’ll definitely pass the recommendation on that came to me from reader Mathieu gave to me, but man, if you’re going to tackle this album, you’ve got your work cut out for you.

Three track titles end in exclamation points — “Cold Hearted Guys, Like Us, Like it Loud!” “Godeater!” and “Red ‘Uns Go Fasta!” — which only adds to the charm, and in comparing Speeder People to the rest of the Astrosoniq catalog, I’d say it solidifies some of the weirdo elements of Made in Oss and sets up the refinement process that pays off on Quadrant, at once fitting well between the two and having no shortage of appeal on its own. The samples sprinkled throughout, varied as they are, do a lot to tie the songs together, though to be perfectly honest, by now I don’t blink twice when one track has a different sound than the next. That’s just what Astrosoniq does, and they’re ridiculously good at it.

And that, I suppose, is what I’ve learned more than anything else while exploring their catalog. Rampant experimentation? A seemingly endless creative drive offset by thick heavy rock grooves? Well, that’s just Astrosoniq being Astrosoniq. They did it on the first album, and they’ve only gotten better at it since. If you’re looking for a place to start, I’d say go with Quadrant, the latest album, and work your way back. Wherever you pick up the thread, though, what you should understand is that the brilliant turns you’re hearing didn’t happen overnight. They’ve been there all along. Keep that in mind and your adventure can only get better.

[Special thanks to Astrosoniq manager Bidi for sending me Speeder People. It was the perfect way to end this series.]

I have to admit, I’ve screwed this one all up. What I should have done that first drunken night when I was placing my order was go back to the original recommendation in the comments of my Astrosoniq, Quadrant, review and started working my way back from 2006’s Speeder People. At least that way, my understanding of the band’s progression would make some temporal sense. As it is, I’ve started with the latest album, then heard the second, then the first, and now the third — 2005’s Made in Oss.

The learning process seems endless, though, because even though by now I’ve interviewed drummer Marcel Van de Vondervoort about the growth over the band over the course of their 12 years together, I’m still just now finding out that Made in Oss, which has a total five tracks, isn’t an EP at all as I first thought when I bought it and a requisite couple other goodies off Amazon, but instead a 46-minute full-length album. Boy, is my face dumb.

Not only that, but it’s just about the most experimental release I’ve heard from Astrosoniq yet. Some familiar elements are there: the samples (the Wonder Woman ones spread over the last couple tracks are second in my heart only to “Hey, wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” from Dumb and Dumber, which starts “Soul Searcher”), the riffy rock, the gruff, post-Garcia vocals. But the bluesy guitar work that makes up most of 11-minute closer “The Secret of the Magic Tiara” — also listed on the album as “The Magic of the Secret Tiara” — was a complete surprise, and an overwhelmingly pleasant one.

And as it was the final track, it was also nowhere near the first part of Made in Oss to catch me off guard. Right from the start of “Black Chasm,” Astrosoniq‘s goal seemed to be to defy the formula they’d established on their previous two albums, 2002’s Soundgrenade and 2000’s Son of A.P. Lady. It’s a fascinating turn, because now that I’ve heard this, I’d say Quadrant — discovering the stylistic origins of which has been the impetus for this whole exploration — has more in common with the first two records than it does with Made in Oss.

What does this mean? Well, it means I’m all the more nerdily excited about getting my grubby mitts on 2006’s Speeder People, for one thing. It also means that, as we round out this Recommended Buried Treasure series in the next and final installment, there are still questions unanswered about the direction Astrosoniq have taken over the course of their career! That’s fucking awesome. Perhaps geeky glee isn’t the easiest of emotions to carry across in type (though blogging seems to have been built specifically for that purpose, so maybe it’s just me), but I couldn’t be more stoked to dig into Speeder People and finally get to the root of why it was the album recommended in the first place.

To be concluded…

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.

Read more »

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…