TRESPASSERS W
THE DRUGS WE ALL NEED (CD)
Line-up:
Cor Gout: vocals, tapes
Ronnie Krepel: guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, organ, harmonium,
backing vocals, whistle, bycycle pump, grain mill
Marcel Nab: bass, guitar, backing vocals
Bart Vos: drums
Frans Friederich: trumpet
Laura & Zoltan Nab: children choir
Wim Oudijk: samples
Assistance from a distance:
Igor Stravinsky: notes
Samuel Beckett: entourage
Rosalee Linehan: voice
Recorded and provisionally mixed by Camille Dings.
Definitive mix by Wim Oudijk and Guus van Leewen.
Packaging concept, design and layout: Robert Robbins.
Photos: Ronnie Krepel.
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Reviews in English: 2___________________________________________________________________________
BAD ALCHEMY #48, september 2002:
TRESPASSERS W, The Drugs We All Need (Somnimage, SOM00013)
(Translated from Dutch to English)
This is part 2 of the Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’roll-trilogy by Dutch music-poet Cor Gout, without whose sophistication it is impossible to imagine Bad Alchemy. Like already was the case with Sex And the End Of It, his grazing lights on the subject matter of sex, which was presented in BA 40, here his ad libs and blank verse on the theme of drugs once more show a somewhat deep-set andvery free impetus. So the songs are not so much about mushrooms, pills and injections, but rather about the angel dust of nostalgia in the wonderland of pop (‘Eyes to drink from’), about the trance-effect of highway-cruising (‘Roadmaster Eldorado’), about the kick of deathly danger at a bull’s fight (‘Viva la corrida’), about Chanel 5 (‘Coco and Igor’), about caffein (‘Coffee Blues’), about candy floss (‘Candy Floss’), the mass intoxication (‘The Crowd’), about the spooky thrill of a merry-go-round, which Mark Gertler painted in 1915 (‘The Merry-go-round’), about dreamlike absences (‘Absence’), but also about the lyrical brain attacks by the rhyme and rhythm of his own verses. This self-referential refinement defines particularly- with a small bow towards Syd Barrett- the large interval s in the melody of the language and the tongue breaking rapping in ‘From Syd to Lib’ and the lyrical psychedelics of ‘Absence’: « …sing words of love in a song everyday words which will do things to you ».The music adds to this by showing itself in very different nuances, in a limited sense psychedelic in the instrumental ‘I’m not going to stay here for ever’. Always rock-like with Witte van der Veen’s guitar, Ronnie Krepel on keyboards, Marcel Nab on bass and Bart Vos on drums, but then again with loans from Stravinsky in ‘Coco and Igor’, excessively gay in ‘The organ-grinder’, nostalic-racy thanks to Frans Friederich’s trumpet, but also totally broken in ‘Happy Days’ with its evergreen crooning from the good old days, yet hammered through by machine gun salvo’s. ‘Make Me Sad’ is a Vic Godard-cover, ‘Eyes to drink from’ reminds us of David Garland, ‘The Crowd’ of Bing Selfish, resemblances which underline Gout’s originality and do not decrease it. A real drugs song is surely ‘Dumbo’s Dream’. But what, in heaven’s name, is Reichsstrasse 1, which as ‘oblivion of the Occident’ portrays the road from Aachen to Köningsberg? How strongly and beautifully these Goutian mindgames and plural codes operate, shows ‘Eyes to drink from’, when he mixes Alice’s trip in Wonder- and Riddleland-« I wish I was a traveller in time so I could admire alice riddle before going under in wonderland »- with time travels to Asta Nielsen and the Comedian harmonists and then moves over to the 1920 pin-up-postcard of vaudeville beauty Lily Bayliss, who inspired The Who to their ‘Pictures of Lily’: »…I wish I was a traveler in time so I could see the real lily bayliss and not just pictures of lily, li;y-o-lily… ». To make about-turn in the last song: « Nostalgia, nostalgia get out of my brain you’re blocking the drain they’re forecasting rain you are a real pain go away you’re not the kind of drug I need anyway. » (Nostalgia IV)
Note by Cor Gout
Reichsstrasse 1:
For ages Reichstrasse 1 was a trade route from Aachen to Koningsbergen (now Kalingrad). Until nationalism, war and communism created borders in the middle of Europe and the road was cut into pieces. Since in 2002 in Kopenhagen was decided that Poland was going to be a member of the European Union, this old road became passable without barriers. Still all the traces of history are visible. Even the origins from the Roman period (from Aachen to the Rhine)and those of Charles the Great (Hellweg, leading through the Ruhr Territory) can be tracked down easily. In the 19th century the road was broadened and hardened (these parts still exist als Bundesstrasse 1). In 1934 the Nazis called the road proudly ‘Reichsstrasse 1’. During the cold war borders were erected from Morsleben onwards. Passing Reichsstrasse 1 is a trip through history, remnants of all these historic moments mentioned are still there.
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TESTCARD #15, April 2006:
Trespassers W, The Drugs We All Need
(Translated from Dutch to English)
The band around Dutch singer and songwriter Cor Gout now offers the second volume of their trilogy Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’roll and contues to work at its very personal and therefore unexchangeable exposition of music-poetry-synergism, in which text and band play around each other, from Brecht/Weil to psychedelics, from rock’n’roll to polka, lately more and more reminding of The Legendary Pink Dots. It won’t come as a surprise that From Syd To Lib, in the middle of the big drugs-kaleidoscope, pays tribute to Syd Barrett. Not so much for his druggy past, as for the fact that Barrett was a pioneer in equating music and text in the best possible homogeneous interlacement. Trespassers W find themselves in this respect on the best track too.