Yup, March is over, done did. And what a month it has been over here at On-Point HQ!
I have to take time out to thank all the supporters out there, we’ve finally reached the 100+ daily visitors number (over 150 the last two weeks even). This is not to brag or anything but it’s just to point out that indeed there is an audience for on-pointness. The more the better and that’s what keeps us keeping on.
And as for the audio side of life:
1, 2, 3 new podcasts (vic&lloyd, Ame (After Hours), …)
vic&lloyd guestmix in De Hop (StudioBrussel)
So yeah, we’re still here, not planning to leave you off-point either so get up, get out and go tell your friends! Make the world an even better place, and stay on-point!
And once again, thanks for your continued support, big up yourselves!
Although I’ve been having some comments on dropping way too many videos lately, I feel like this whole street drumming scene is wày too on-point, not to share it with you peoples.
Now, turn it up some:
(Thankyouverymuch BeelWout for hooking me up with this movement!)
It’s that time again: the new Alice expo is opening tonight, this time around Olivier Kosta-Théfaine (aka STAK) is what’s up!
We know Stak as the man who took a logo for a name when tagging in Paris started boring him. Check the on-point video interview right here.
After that he went into slogans, made the legendary WorldSigns magazine and recently made a remarkable come-back as the chief-editor for the brand new NuSign magazine.
(Check the picture banner on Alice Gallery’s site, click left and right to see more pictures, brilliant site design, lovin’ that!)
Another chapter in the Jazzbreak saga: tonight live on stage: Flowriders!
Featuring, amongst others, none other than Bembe Segue (Mark De Clive-Lowe, 4Hero), Tania Saw (Zap Mama, Youssou N’ Dour) and Richard Spaven (4Hero, PlatinumPiedPipers, Jazzmatazz, Marc De Clive-Lowe, TY) and Colonel Red. Click on the flyer below for more info on the featured live set-up for tonight!
Album “Starcraft” out now on Kindred Spirits Records!
Indeed, I shit you not. Early month of June for the first time I’ll be participating in an expo. It’ll be a group exhibition featuring about 8 to 10 local artists. Cats from the quartier, combined in an expo with poverty, misery and le quartier tout court as central themes.
Friday the Buurtwinkel/Boutique du Quartier is moving from one side of place Anneessensplein to the other, moving in the former Oxfam shop. A small part of the building has been reserved to give a sneak preview of what’s to come in June. The official opening is scheduled for Friday, from 14h til 20h.
For this preview all artists were asked to deliver one or two pieces, so I got my Andre pimped up and may I say it sure looks cool to me. Come and check it out this Friday in De Buurtwinkel/Boutique du Quartier Anneessens. My guess is the mayor and some free drinks and nice people will be there too!
Hope to see some of you on Friday, let me know if you’re passing by, don’t want to miss out on any of your presences!
Other participants are, amongst others: Altomare Mukendi, Larissa Oktecheva, Suzan Delouche, Guy De Beeck, Irène Deneuville and Marc Vanoverstraeten.
(Location: Place Anneessens 13, 1000 Brussels - Date: Friday 30/03/2007 - 14h til 20h)
This ain’t no joke, the postman just delivered mine. The poster features an extreme typetest, a wicked collage of fonts thrown together into a lovely lady, now ain’t that something!
All you’ve got to do is mail the people at fontshop, drop your address in the mail and hope they haven’t run out of posters just yet. (E-mail: info@fontshop.be)
I’d like to take some time out to thank all the Wonderful peeps who came to get down at Le Tavernier last Saturday. It was lovely to see how many found their way to Brussels, coming all the way from Kortrijk, Antwerpen, Gent, Aalst and probably even more exotic and far away destinations!
I for one think I made the wrong choice by not going for the P Diddy interview, but that’s just life for me then.
Next time I’ll be bigger, stronger and uncut, I’ve got my first disco edit set up, ready to cause mayhem on the dancefloor, so I hope to see all of you again at the fourth edition of Wonderful, end of April! For the people waiting for a vic&lloyd mix, have no worries, we’re working on a promo-mix-thing, to be launched in the bootleg cd-r circuit near you very soon, we’ll keep you posted on that!
By know you probably know I’ve been into Ricky Gervais over the last couple of weeks, and guess what, there seems to be a lot of material online of the man who seems to be the modern day John Cleese, and guess what I’m all in favour of that title!
Check this and yes it’s an old one, but I had to share it because I hadn’t seen it yet:
A Microsoft training video created by Ricky Gervais has surfaced on online video sharing sites.
YouTube has since removed the file at the request of Microsoft, but it is still available on Google Video:
Tomorrow live at Jazzbreak: the long-awaited SOUL:ID gig, back in Brussels! Warming up is Dyno, after-party by Eric Soul and Brown Moshunz.
Got high expectations of this one. Check the snippets on their myspace page and you’ll quickly realise this ain’t no kiss-ass radio! Expect an on-point interview with the band and a whole lot of live footage online as soon as possible. Now, go and tell your friends! See you all tomorrow night!
The SOUL:ID debut album will drop early this Summer on ABB Soul, home to Peven Everett, to name just one.
Dyno “Is Sol Waters” is out on Citywurl records right now!
Also, last week we finally launched the jazzbreak.be site, which will be served with news in close collaboration with on-point.be, so keep an eye open for that!
One of the flyest Dutchmen around seems to have finally taken off: I.N.T (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) was featured in last weeks Worldwide show, that is the infamous Gilles Peterson show on BBC Radio One!
Frank n Dank - ‘One Time For The… (Dopeness Galore)
Have no doubt about it, that’s an I.N.T. production right here! Congratulations to him, looking forward to hear the upcoming Kindred Spirit release of him, being a remix on the new Rednose Distrikt single.
More I.N.T. exclusiveness will be featured in the next on-point podcast, being a track of the La Melodia album, released in Japan as we speak, facing a worldwide release somewhere early this Summer!
Got me reminiscing about my dirty old Imadodattaz demotape, I bet that one’s limited as hell and I’ll be damned if I don’t still play it up to this day! Think I’ll put it on kopjekoffie somewhere next week, it’s only right.
Important works by Crouwel
‘Cut-up’ Calendar for the Van der Geer printing company (1963-1964)
Logo Rabobank (1973)
Number Postage Stamps for the PTT in the Netherlands (In circulation 1976-2000).
He has been and still is one of the most important designers in Dutch graphic history. In the years 1985-1993 he was director of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam
Crouwel is still an active member of the Dutch graphic design scene.
I just had to refuse an offer for a possible meet-and-greet / interview with none other than P Diddy. As short as it probably would have been, at least I’d have been in an exclusive champaign flavoured after-party.
Sure would have looked good on the old resumé, plus it would have been published in quite a well-known magazine.
Recently I’ve been watching the entire first and second series of “The Office” for the second time. After that I did me an “Extras” marathon, watching the first series (+ the killer dvd extra’s) on one lonely night. Currently on the look-out for someone to fetch me the follow-up second part of the series. So yeah, I’m a huge fan of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, his writing partner.
And then all of a sudden, in comes this trailer for a BBC charity thing called “Red Nose Day”. It features Ricky Gervais and Stephen, and a whole lot more. See for yourself:
They just took it up to this whole other level I can’t really see happen anywhere else than in the U.K.
Never met the man but as with all cool cats, I’m happy to see Piet Parra getting his groove on on the transatlantic side of the globe. This week he’s having an exposition in Miami and April 5th he’s opening one in L.A. Ain’t thàt something?
Check the flyers. Seriously, to see how he flipped the a for an e in “arrive” that just almost made me cry. I’d lay down some eurobills to see the mastermind at work, no joke. Sorry if I’m a bit too overenthousiastic for some of you, but I’m a fan, and this is just it to me!
Hope to see you all next Saturday for the third edition of Wonderful, last time was brilliant, and with Kid Sublime lined up for next week I can only look forward to the new edition, hope to see you all there!
Opening tonight in Antwerp: Dave Decat - Encore un con qui me regarde.
You know Decat from those dope-ass Carhartt ads. Loving the dirty sides of society where he seems to draw his inspiration from. That combined with the grime of the fifties era gives a damn unique style, and that’s how we like it. (At least that’s how I look at his works, don’t really know if he’d name the same influences.)
Ben Westbeech is hot! And damn rightfully so. The new “So Good Today” clip is just online, and I love the playfulness. Check it out and remember where you saw it first!
Ben Westbeech will be joining Gilles Petersonlive on stage at Het DepotFriday May 18th. Don’t miss out on that one! Meanwhile, vibe along to some liveness:
Brand new! The new Mo&Grazz clip for Some Things Never Change, taken from the “Fallin’ upon def ears” album, ofcourse.
(Don’t miss out their upcoming Jazzbreak gig, April 18th, first time backed up by a full live band, ft. Nina Babet, Patrick Dorcean, Chan and other guests!)
I know some of you have had it with the overwhelming amount of new J Dilla material seeing light, but for the fans and just because I am a fan, here’s some more videos about the last chapter in Dilla’s life and the influence he’s had on other peoples lifes and music:
Taken from the Dilla tribute myspace page:
“With all of the events happening around the world to celebrate the life and music of J Dilla, a few people who knew and worked with him have been interviewed to talk about Dilla and the new Ruff Draft release. ”
Interviews by Havana Joe & Ross Harris
Filmed & edited by Ross Harris
Been down with them since day one and by what I’ve seen them do last week I can only forsee a bright future for them. Too bad if you’ve missed the gig, but no worries if so, because on-point tv was there, and you know it:
Tonight’s the second gig of the new Jazzbreak season: NToumos More info right here.
You know we’re all fan of Bai Kamara Jr. over here at On-Point Headquarters.
For those of you who don’t know about Bai just yet, get with the program, check the Living Room album for instance, and vibe along with Substitute, taken from the Urban Gipsy album, and to be featured on the new Vaya Con Dios record:
And for the Dutchies, here’s my article on Bai, published in Brussel Deze Week, last year.
By lucky coincidence I ran into the mastermind behind kopjekoffie.be. Regular readers know about my past contributions to this uber-conceptual site.
And well yeah, we’re back:
Thanks to digitalovers.net for the book, which blessed me with a whole lot of wisdom about what appears to be the king of all dogs: the poodle. Bless’em!
Ever since I was told to get on down I’ve been into this underground type of vibe. Literally, can’t nothing beat a good old trip down to the nitty gritty belly of the city - you can say that out loud if you want, three times.
The Brussels network is of course a bit pathetic compared to the real metropoles, but still it’s enjoyable to me. Let’s have a look around though, the underground worldwide. There’s a whole lot of things happening down there!
The best movie made about the underground is probably Marc Singer’s Dark Days. The documentary tells the story of a community living in the New York Amtrak tunnels. Singer spent 5 years of his live capturing their lives on camera and eventually even had to join them when he ran out of funds.
And then there’s the London tube, that might be on a whole other level too, ideal for glocking girls - or so I was told.
As always artists saw the light in Brussels we have our personal favourites: Bonom & Lork’s animated wall at Etterbeek Station (you’re right this one is located above the ground, but you’ll see why it’s in the list when we move on to the next):
The marketing boys quickly adopted the concept and are now investing in them concrete underground walls, can’t blame them for that - they’redoing it in New York so it’s only a matter of time until we’ll see this type of promo in Brussels:
In Paris graffiti veteran Psyckoze claimed his part of the city’s underground and has been working in the tunnels for years:
And then there’s music. Underground music:
To round it up, be warned and don’t fall asleep when rolling through town - sleep is the cousin of death, always keep one eye open:
One can also ski down the longest escalator in Europe, deep down the London underground.
Into the Sao Paulo undergroud with the artist Zezão. Yup, it’s that time again, another underground newsflash, and this time around it’s not about trains, trams, metros or catacombes. We’re talking sewers here. And one artist literraly getting down to the nitty gritty.
Not really a video, but a flash presentation with photos and an audio interview, killer soundscape straight out of the underground. (subtitled in
English)
Last year I saw a whole lot of concerts. Only one to be classified in the rock genre. But it was a blast, it’s always a blast when you get the wall-of-sound type of vibe sizzling through your veins and at the same times detect some Daft Punk influences - at least that was my personal analysis.
Anyway, me and the rock genre were good friends back in puberty, we quickly grew apart, only to reunite in 2007. By none other than The Sedan Vault!
The Sedan Vault released their debut album “Mardi gras of the Sisypha” only last year and they’ve basically been touring around the country and the continent ever since. Building on a strong live reputation, I seriously recommend everybody to go see them live and obviously to buy the record, because…
This Spring the album is getting its proper vinyl release and guess what, it will come with a nice little extra: an official The Sedan Vault Poster, drawn by yours truly, edited by jtothec. My first illustrator job really, let there be more to follow!
As you might have noticed by looking at our banner-section on the left hand side, there’s two vic&lloyd gigs for the upcoming week. Giving the “I won’t make it, my schedule’s fuller than your two’s combined”-type-of-people lesser and lesser space to come up with excuses.
Wednesday Brothers on the Run are kicking off the new Jazzbreak season - afterparty by: Brown Moshunz and vic&lloyd.
Friday we’re having our monthly Tavernier soirée, this time around backed up by a special guest feature by Namissy, or actually it might just be the other way around. Either way, that’s one promising line-up if you ask me!
Basically we hope to see you Wednesday and Friday!
Tonight I’ll go check out this movie. I don’t know the full story behind it, but here’s what the site says:
‘The Apple-eater’
Filmperformance of the collective: ‘The new Swallows’
‘This film is dedicated to B., who has been in this country for six years. Since then he has been living as a ‘Mr Nobody’. Without papers, not considered to be working, not considered to exist, and with the shadow of authority looming over him. He has twice almost been sent back to his home country, where values and standards have become inhuman. There was a brief deliverance but it was again brutally taken from him. And yet I don=t know anyone who so avidly does his best to be accepted as a Belgian. During the day he takes one course after another, and every night he cleans away plastic cups, cigarette ends and the stink of beer in order to survive. He told me: sometimes I catch myself staring into the void for hours.’ (ED, 2006)
Tonight, at 18h in Paleis voor Schone Kunsten/Palais des Beaux Arts. (also plays on Sunday, same time, same place, entrance is free)
Emich’s tour of the Brussels public transport hotspots stops at my place: Anneessens. Loving the concept. For those interessted you’ll find all info at emich’s place, in Dutch and French.
I don’t think the station has any fans at all, except maybe for the occasional exhibitionist, but he’s probably only there waiting for mich. Anyway, thanks mich for sharing the info, and stories!
I always wondered who this Anneessens fellow was, turns out “the citizens of Brussels have never forgotten to venerate the memory of their fellow-townsman as a martyr for public liberty”. (source: Wikipedia)
I was on the look-out for quite a while and it has finally happened, Alice’s New Site is online!
With that you’ll see it’s official now:
Alice is looking for a full-time employee,
and a new Sozy.One expo is announced for December!
Before all of that we of course still have the Alex.One expo currently running, and we’ve got the Olivier Stak expo coming up.
Looking good, and for those who don’t know about A.L.I.C.E. yet:
“You will find A.L.I.C.E. right in the center of Brussels
Don’t be afraid to walk all the way down the exotic rue Antoine Danseart towards the canal.. That’s where you’ll find us!!”
Next week the new Jazzbreak season will be opened at Le Tavernier. First up in a line-up of killernames are the Brothers On The Run. Long-time part of the extended on-point family I for one am looking very much forward to see them work their funk next week.
After-party oblige, so count vic&lloyd in. In! I said that two times. Twice!
Here’s some footage of the Brothers warming up for Lefties Soul Connection at De Kreun, Kortrijk:
It’s that time again: 
Links:
On-Point Podcast