Krang — Brussel

A new CD by Krang -oh brave new world that has such wonderful things in it ! And then my inspiration runs dry. Not that I can't thinkof anything to say, it's rather that I want to say so much it's all lumping together and blocking the exit.

You see, with CDs like these it's rather difficult to decide where to start. You could start with trying to describe the music. You could start by saying that with an album-titlelike "Brussel" you'd normally expect something like a Live-CD. You could also say that the track-listing contains (to my knowledge) only older tracks and their best tracks at that.

I might as well describe to you, the reader, what Krang is about. The name literally means 'inside-out' (of a t-shirt for example). I don't think that there's a great many bands that have a moreappropriate name. Eclectical and odd, Krang was formed by entertainer Andre Manuel, formerly of the band Fratsen. The musical side mightalmost be compared somewhat to Tom Waits meets Neil Young or perhaps the John Spencer Blues Explosion. With a tad more jazzy and weird parts at times. It's rather difficult to accurately describe them, as they move back and forth troughout the musical styles as the CD progresses. The lyrical side can only be described as sheer brilliance. What Andre shows on the stage as a comedian is surpassedhere. If you don't know any Dutch, lyrics such as those of "Kraaien" or "Junkie" would be excellent reasons to start studying the language.Every once in while you happen upon lyrics you wish you'd written yourself and "Junkie" is one of those.

My first thought that this was a live CD (not that unlogical, but logic is rather dangerous with a band like Krang), is not completelyright. There's a distinct lack of audience-noise, and atmospheric sounds. That is because the CD wasn't recorded at a gig, but ratherat a performance for a Radio-station. Every song was performed live and the result is a CD filled with a collection of (most) of the bestsongs Krang has written. In some cases the version performed for Radio I is a different one than the original. Something I'm very much a fan of, otherwise, what's the use of giving us a 'live' CD?

So far you've only read me put down one compliment after another... is there really nothing remotely negative to say about this CD?Sure there is. One would be the mix... it's good, but not quite perfect. It's a tad odd, but then again, so is the band. The choice in songs could've been better too, as far as I'm concerned. "Geil" or "Soogdier" aren't myfavourite songs the band has written... especially not the version of "Geil" as it is put down on this here CD. The other songs more than make up for this. And lastly, I'm definitely -not- a fan of the art that's inside the CD-booklet.It's just plain ugly.