With The Ex, Arnold de Boer has been a part of a movement which has continually redefined the forefront of genre-defying music, evolving from the Netherlands’ anarcho-punk scene in 1979 to subsequently embrace everything from jazz to avant-garde experimentalism. As a solo artist, working under the name Zea, he’s done pretty much the same thing, only within a more electro / pop context. Note, that isn’t electro-pop. From the jittery hyperactive ‘We Buried Indie Rock Years Ago’.
The songs in themselves are diverse, but the fact this compilation is being released on cassette is fitting: not only does it capture the spirit of the old mix-tape, but the kind of four-track home recording you rarely hear these days (de Boer writes of how he has never stopped recording songs to tape and still uses C90s for his dictaphone to lay down new ideas.
Stylistically, it’s a mixed bag, the product of a creative and inquisitive mind abrim with ideas exploding at various tangents. Wonky indie rock and lo-fi electro tunes dominate, but it’s endlesly inventive and completely non-formulaic. And then tracks like ‘Why do good things happen to bad people’ (here captured as a live recording for the BBC) leap into messy, grungy post-punk, with squalling guitars in battle with primitive drum machines, cranked to the max through tinny practice amps, and finding Zea sounding more Metal Urbain than Pavement.
‘Dance Electric’ brings together looping samplism and salsa to create a spicy sonic cocktail. Ok, so given what the KLF were doing under the guise of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, it sounds more 1987 than 1997, but it’s still cool, and the fact it was created using what was already outmoded technology gives is an authenticity few can lay claim to.
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The cover of Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’ is a masterpiece. ‘I thought the melody was not bad but would sound better twice the speed’. He’s right. Coldplay as happy hardcore with a bangin’ bhangra break and samples of ‘motherfucker’ dropped in may seem sacrilegious to some, but fuck ‘em. Elsewhere, ‘Muzikawi Silt’ sounds like PigBag on acid.
There’s humour here, but it’s not tacky, corny, cheesy or self-conscious, and as such, it works. What’s more, the self-effacing sleeve-notes, packed with anecdotes and musings around the conception and creation of each track are a joy to read.
Enjoyable and enlightening, it seems as good a place as any to find a route into Zea’s vast body of work, and while some fans may gripe about the various omissions and whatnot, there’s plenty to keep the majority more than happy.
Zea Online
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