Description
BRANDSTICHTERS & OPLICHTERS
IT’S A BAD HABIT
it’s a three-dollar mexicano and a beer
it’s a late-night ride from Taxi Alessandro
it’s a red-eye
it’s a sensual funk like cigarettes indoors, dirty laundry, skin on old guitar strings, or some freak jerking it in my living room.
it’s the shruti’s last gasps for air
it’s the fret buzz rattling around your skull
it’s that fucking zither.
it’s an ex-Ukrainian militiaman in a Parisian park
it’s the 100 dollars Café Central never paid you
it’s a long, tall piempampoentje with golden yellow hair
it’s Jean-Luc snorting cocaine in his birthday suit.
sunburst on the Belgian subterranean
it’s the death of beatniks, squares, hipsters, and freakfolks
it’s the ecstasy of the orphans on Bisschopstraat
it’s a pigeon milker.
it’s the lovers, like Bert and Katja, and it’s the dreamers, still dreaming like you and me.
blame it on my youth, but what if Jacob’s Ladder only leads to a toilet at a bunker in Nantes?
and what if this is the cosmic booger flicked by some god or primordial beast traveling through the heavens and through the stars and through us all, binding each and every one of us to a FlixBus ride to some corner of endless existence—
a place where even the Atomium is no longer visible to the naked eye
would we dig it?
would we dance our hearts out to the eternal boogie and wear shades at night?
would there be a full bottle of amaretto waiting for us there?
I hope so. Damn it, I know so.
just turn up the stereo, and soon I think you will too.
— Manfred Tragil, Annex Blues Society
May this raw and vivid poem by ‘Manfred Tragil’ sketch the absurd picture of our European tour with Liam Grant. As Liam went further down the road, we were invited for a two-day residency with Tashi Dorji at ‘Dropa House’ – the new project of Koen Vandenhoudt & Christel Kumpen.
This record contains our opening duo-set for the first night of that residency and was recorded live by Koen Vandenhoudt & Yves Demey. All the sounds contained in this record are 100% improvised – with a little help from a moodboard we made some 20 minutes before the gig. We are very happy with how this record turned out! We think it shows a detailed picutre of what ‘De Vlaamse Primitieven’ are all about.
De Vlaamse Primitieven would like to thank: Dropa Disc – Koen Vandenhoudt & Christel Kumpen
Carbon Records, Yves Demey, Louise Mrazkovà & Arth Verreydt, Jeroen Wille, Liam Grant & Grace Clements, Bert Lezy & Katja Louise Stonewood, Tashi Dorji, Venediktos Tempelboom & Toon Janssens.
DROPA DISC #017
CARBON RECORDS #309
LP (incl. download) – Edition of 500
DE VLAAMSE PRIMITIEVEN: BRANDSTICHTERS & OPLICHTERS
SIDE A
SIDE B
Release: 9 May 2026 – shipping as of 22 May 2026
Jan Boudart: 6- & 12-string guitar – Banjo – Zither – Nyckleharpa
Freek Vreys: 6-string guitar – Shruti Box – Banjo – Percussion
Recorded by: Koen Vandenhoudt & Yves De Mey at Dropa House
Mix & master: Toon Janssen
Lacquer cut: Helmut Erler
Art Work: Arth Verrydt & Louise Mrázková
Design: Jeroen Wille
Published by: Carbon Records CR309 – Dropa Disc DD017
MMXXVI
* De Vlaamse Primitieven is a band that will be forever in debt to the Great Poets & Painters – or as we like to call them ‘Brandstichters & Oplichters’.
