2021: Reel To Reel Cacophony

Oh, it’s that day of the year again? Again? Another year, another cliche? No question mark is needed. I have been writing these end-of-year roundup things since 2008, and much like last year, I find it hard to say much sensible about this year. Maybe because this was a year in which not a lot happened. Or so it seems.

One concert, together with Martijn Comes and an impromptu thing with Jos Smolders, also performed that night. While I had some reservations about playing live, the evening went well. The train ride to ‘s-Hertogenbosch, thirty minutes from Nijmegen was no fun. Hot, mouth masks on (well, about 60% of the people, the other people didn’t give two shits. That’s the Dutch way, I guess), this was the first time on the train since February 2020, incidentally to the very same place I was now going.
I had another show planned in December but hesitated, dreading a longer train ride to Leverkusen, Germany. Finally, I found someone to drive, envisaged I could bring my tape recorders, she crashed her car, and I had to cancel.
It made me realize that I rather not play concerts if I have to travel by public transport until mouth masks (of which use I have no public opinion) are off. If that means just shows in Nijmegen, fine; if that means no concerts for another five years, also fine. I may make an exception for THU20 whenever they play again; who knows?

In March, I saw a picture of Wouter van Veldhoven’s cleaned up studio space on Facebook and realized I once handed him a reel-to-reel machine that didn’t work and which he was going to repair. I reminded him of that, and we both forgot which machine it was, but he kindly offered me another one to pick up, which I did. Rick Sanders visited me a day later and said, ‘I have one you can use if you want’. Peter Johan Nijland a week later: there is one in our studio that you can use. Then Rick gave me a second one, and I bought one. So now I have five reel-to-reel machines, and this year I made good use of them; well, in my humble opinion, of course. I spent about 190 nights recording music as Modelbau and released a music piece a week as part of the process.

That I will not do in 2022, I should finish a few projects that keep lying around; the final album as Quest, a QST album with one long piece, the ‘synphony’ and one QST with short pop (?) songs. The third Ruisch album that I started and never got around to doing. Plus a Kapotte Muziek album! Yes! In 2021 I transferred all my DAT tapes to digital with the idea of re-using them for a DAT only label (to find out a few days ago that my machine may no longer function) and also almost all of my cassettes. Part of that is a whole box of ‘raw material’ tapes, from Asmus Tietchens, Merzbow, Yeast Culture, All Fours, TAC, Agencement; well, basically all those I once made music with. It would be great to do an LP with that stuff, called ‘Distant Attractions’. I will explain that when the time comes.

Korm Plastics published three books; ‘De Nederlandse Cassette Catalogus’, ‘Wondersound’ by Freek Kinkelaar and ‘The Abrahadrabar Letters’ by Anthony Blokdijk and John Balance. I wish I could say there were more books done, but the release of the English version of the history of Dutch punk takes more time than I anticipated. However, it is great to report that Bertin van Vliet is now on design. More books are in the works; the complete BOH fanzine in a book and CD, Nul Nul with translation and CD, a book on Broken Flag, the Hafler Trio first Lp, Modelbau book, and Adam Morris’ novel ‘Losing It’. It would be great if, in 365 days, I could report that they are all available. Or more!

The cinema was open for about five months, and I managed to see about 40 films. I enjoyed ‘Nobody’, ‘The French Dispatch’, ‘The Father’ and ‘Benedetta’.

No other lists, other than my round up of releases. I should really use this website more!

[Freiband]
‘051020’ on Aural Annex (CD, Telekinett)

[Freiband]
‘Nein’ on 9 Beet Stretch 2.0 Meta Tones (USB, Telekinett)

[Modelbau & Pool pervert)
UMBAU 1-5 (CDR, NonInterrupt Records)

[Doc Wör Mirran]
MISCHEN IMPOSSIBLE (2 cassettes, Masking Tapes MT 633)

[Modelbau]
BIENENKORB (cassette, Vacancy Recs VAC-046, edition of 26 copies)

[Doc Wör Mirran]
CASSETTE (7″ by Marginal Talent thirty-one (mt-631), edition of 23 copies)

[misc]
CASIO COMPILATION 9 (3″CD by ao to ao)
tracks by Kapotte Muziek, Doc Wor Mirran, QST, Quest, Howard Stelzer & Frans de Waard, Shifts, Gome, Freiband, Surge, Wander, Wieman, THU20, Bass Communion & Freiband, The Toboccanists, Ezdanitoff, Modelbau, WaSm, Tech Riders, Ruisch, Hyster, Asuna & Frans

[QST]
QST 64/QST 60 (cassette single, Superpolar Taips spt30)

[Modelbau & PBK]
THE DEAD TIME (CD, Oxidation CDROT 091)

[Modelbau]
APRIL SHOWER (cassette, Grisaille 42, edition of 38 copies)

[Freiband]
‘The Smallest Cube’ on New State Of Flux (2CD, Reverse Alignment RA51)

[Modelbau]
AETHER ALEATORICA (cassette, Superpolar Taips SPT 23, edition of 50 copies)

[QST]
‘Auto 42 (QST remix)’ on ‘Somnoroase Pasarele – Auto [r]’ (cassette, OTA, OTA42, edition of 30 copies)

[Tech Riders]
IN A ROOM (cassette, edition of 20, CDR, edition of 20, Aphelion 19)

[Modelbau]
PREY (cassette, Tribe Tapes TT 118, 25 copies)

[Modelbau]
ORPHAX/MODELBAU (split cassette by Invisible City Records ICR 83)

[Modelbau]
WITHIN WITHOUT (cassette, Falt)

[Doc Wör Mirran feat Stadlmeier/De Waard/Gormley]
HOMININE PARTS 4 TO 6 (CDR by Attenuation Circuit ACU 1031, 100 copies)

[Modelbau]
ESCAPE CLAUSE (cassette, Dead Hound dhr 084)

[Modelbau]
SENDERFOLGE (cassette, Universaal Kunst MH-12, 40 copies)

[Modelbau]
NO TIME LIKE THE PAST (cassette, Grisaille 30)