Here is another totally obscure compilation of cassette-culture from The Netherlands on Truuktape (Trick Tapes). It compiles Dutch and Belgian home-taping artists of which some are known and others have sank into obscurity. Present on the compilation are: Unovidual (Flemish home-taper Henk Wallays who played great minimal synth), Totallos, Zyklon B, Oefening Kunstbaardt (mythical Rotterdam project that released one of the most sought after 7 inches of the Dutch minimal synth underground), Johan Schaaphok, Bert vd Kerk, Jan vd Einden and Lorraine.Tru.
It's a great compilation that really displays the Dutch underground zeitgeist of the period. Half of it is electronic minimal synth experimentation and the other half is collage and experimental tunes with subversive poetry and such. On the B-Side there is a moment that we hear the Dutch former queen Beatrix speak to the parliament about the greatness of the country. Within the Dutch squatting scene and punk circles it was very common to ridicule the monarchy. During her inaugaration in 1980 a war broke out on the streets of Amsterdam between squatters and the state. The riots were known as Geen Woning, Geen Kroning, meaning No House, No Coronation. Even the Dutch army had to intervene at a certain point. It was a time when alternative lifestyles and anti-authoritarianism were peaking in Holland, the legendary Staaltape shop (dedicated to DIY cassettes) was right around the corner of the Royal Palace on the Dam Square of Amsterdam and half of the city was squatted and inhabited by underage punks and junkies. A moment of a no-future mentality, nearly no employment for the youth plus the threat of nuclear warfare between the big East and West powers.
Truuktapes apparently hailed from Amsterdam and did this great compilation combining the forces of the musical DIY-attitude from those days and capturing a certain mentality just by using the right political and poetic sound bits and pieces. A way of undermining control, sharing a certain mentality with the listener and displaying the little means you need to be creative. This truly shows the power of the home-taping scene and the cassette as medium. You start playing the cassette and you get surprised by a collage of musical madness of empowering nature that you can tap into immediately and contribute to the same day. It's not made to be the greatest music, it's a message.
I left this cassette unindexed in its A and B side because there is no tracklist available and I don't know which band is which. Also in its statement as a collage of many sounds and tracks I present this here in its purest cassette form. As a compilation. Without knowing what to expect. It reminds me a bit of the pirate radio squat tape I uploaded a long time ago.
"I plant a knife in the ribcage of conscience, in the twist of thought of the executive power of the constitution, let's tolerate the fellow man like we were once cherished by the motherboard of desire. Let's cut the throat of the damage that always disposes us. Let's humiliate ourselves by self-destruction and torments of our souls. Let's become crazy and give ourselves to institutions or to the Russians near the Maas River. Give me a gun and I'll kill the queen and hurt morals.... etc".
The shock effect in writing is the impotence of poetry.
From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI
Get it HERE / Mirror link
