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Ex
099D |
The notion
that a band could be truly
radical, that their music and
methods could be their
dissent-in-motion, is the notion
that sold most of us on punk rock
in the first place. It's an idea
that, 4 or 11 or 24 years later,
is understood as wishful thinking,
even on our least cynical days. So
the thought that there might be a
band, a great band, who practice
what they preach (rather than yell
righteous slogans congratulating
the converted), and have grown
increasingly progressive and
inspired over 27 years, well, we
might as well be talking about the
time Prince rode into your
backyard, naked, on the back of
Pegasus, to get back his copy of The
Road Less Traveled.
Compiling
their first decade of singles--A
and B sides--previously available
only in Holland or the U.K. with
the release of Singles. Period.
The Vinyl Years 1980-1990,
Dutch punk stalwarts the Ex remind
us of what's possible, remind us
that, save for their American
counterparts Fugazi, all other
bands are weak-willed sellouts,
hopelessly adrift in capitalist
bilge water. While the Ex may have
blasted into the world with
standard-issue early-punk fare
such as the anti-commodification
rant "Human Car" and
early tracks such as "Gonna
Rob the Spermbank," which
could have been a proto
death-disco classic, hew to the
Gang of Four model. But by 1981's
"Weapons for El
Salvador," we see the shape
of their punk to come: lumbering,
dueling basses; primal, tom-heavy
drumming; staccato guitar spikes;
and singer G.W. Sok, ever the
wisecracking pamphleteer, shouting
above the elastic din. And as the
collection progresses--see, for
one, "Enough Is Enough,"
their collaboration with
Kurdish-exile band Awara--the band
can only be said to sound like
the Ex, an incendiary device,
packed with hope, exploding in a
beautiful frenzy. The Ex grew out of Amsterdam’s once-fertile squatters’ subculture, and have always been politically conscious; Singles. Period. includes screeds that oppose American cultural hegemony, Dutch apathy, and eugenics. Their most recent album Turn likewise includes protests against globalization, consumerism, and cultural erosion, but its lyrics are quite nuanced and in touch with the grey areas of the issues when compared with the black and white prescription of 1981’s “Weapons For El Salvador”: “Guerilla-war
is not the problem, it’s the
bloody solution. That’s an extreme example, but if you have trouble with bluntly expressed hard-left politics, you might have problems with this record. The Ex’s recent efforts deliver a foundation-powdering punch, but their sound is also finely detailed. Newer fans might be surprised by the restraint of these nascent performances; the Ex were just kids playing with cheap equipment when they started out, but they had subtlety down from the start. The guitar sounds brittle as flint, the drumming is a primitive bash, and singer G.W. Sok’s voice steps effortlessly in front of the instruments. But by the time they recorded Weapons For El Salvador, they’d already found their sound; the guitars are more corrosive, the drumming implacable, the bass not so much a pulse as a massive foundational slab of sound, and Sok is shouting to make his sentiments heard. The Ex recorded quite a few songs that sounded just like that during the ’80s, and some of their LPs could be pretty monochrome; since it reduces a decade’s evolution to 60 minutes of music, Singles. Period. is actually more varied than many of those albums. It includes excursions into PiL-like smog-dub (“When Nothing Else”), industrial dance beats (“Rara rap”), and Brechtian theater music (“Lied der Steinklopfer”). The latter was recorded with members of the Dog Faced Hermans (whose guitarist, Andy, the Ex would soon recruit) and features some convincingly skittery improv interludes, a practice the band would explore quite profitably in years to come. People who already know the Ex’s history may have already done the math and noted that this collection is not complete. The Ex’s last six singles, which were recorded as a series and released over about a year in 1991, do not appear here; the liner notes promise a future reissue. People who don’t know that history, or who simply weren’t around in the ’80s to score these singles, should appreciate this chance to hear a singular ensemble growing into greatness. --Bill
Meyer, Dusted |
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1. Human car 2. Rock'n'roll-stoel 3. Cells 4. Apathy disease 5. Stupid Americans 6. Money 7. Curtains 8. Weapons for El Salvador 9. Dust 10. New wars II 11. Constitutional state 12. Gonna rob the spermbank 13. When nothing else is helpful anymore 14. Memberhips 15. Trash 16. Crap-rap 17. Long live the aged 18. Enough is enough 19. Rara rap 20. Contempt 21. Stonestampers song 22. Lied der steinklopfer 23. Keep on hoppin' Terrie - guitar (1-21, 23), acoustic guitar (22) G.W. Sok - voice (1-21, 23), backing-vocals (22) Katherina - drums (19-21, 23), vocals (22) Andy - guitar (23) Luc - bass (16-21, 23), double-bass (22) Nicolette - guitar (19) Yoke - bass (16-18) Sabien - drums (12-18) Bas - bass (8-15) Wim - drums (8-11) Ome Geurt - drums (1-7) René - bass (1-7) guests: Gert-Jan Blom (4, organ) Jon Langford (12-13, drums) Ferry Heyne (13, guitar) Coby Laan (12, tiny grand piano) Dolf Planteydt (16 heavy mental guitar) ? of Awara (18 violin) Jeroen (19 samples) Dog Faced Hermans (23, i.e. Marion, Andy, Wilf, Colin, Martin: trumpets, acoustic guitar, rattle, woodblock, mandolin, backing-vocals) (1-4) originally released in June 1980 recorded at Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Schellingwoude, Holland produced by Dolf Planteydt (5-7) originally released in June 1980 recorded at Raketbasis, Rotterdam, Holland produced by Wim ter Weele (8-10) originally released in March 1981 recorded at Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Schellingwoude, Holland produced by Dolf Planteydt (11) originally released in August 1981 recorded at Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Schellingwoude, Holland produced by Dolf Planteijdt (12-15) originally released in May 1983 recorded at Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Schellingwoude, Holland produced by Dolf Planteydt & Jon Langford (16-17) produced by Jon Langford & Dolf Planteydt recorded at KG Music Studios, Bridlington, England recording: 11/13-9-1983 / release: 11-1983 (18) originally released in August 1984 recorded at Joke's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Schellingwoude, Holland produced by Dolf Planteydt (19-20) originally released in June 1988 recorded at Sweelinck Conservatorium, Amsterdam, Holland (19); practice-room ADM, Amsterdam, Holland (20) produced by Jeroen Visser (21-22) originally released in January 1990 recorded at KGM Studio, Wakefield, England (21); ADM's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Amsterdam, Holland (22) produced by Jon Langford (21), Beat Cornaz (22) (23) originally released in December 1990 recorded at ADM's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Amsterdam, Holland produced by Dolf Planteydt
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