In the spring of 1977, two young Belgian musicians who call themselves Aksak Maboul (Hollander & Kenis) set out to record an album in which they playfully fused and deconstructed all kinds of genres to create their own musical world. Three years later, Hollander founded the Crammed label.
Leapfrogging over style & genre boundaries, they took in elements of rock, electronics, jazz, early 20th century classical, imaginary African & Balkan music, American minimalism, and even proto-techno (as in the surprising track Saure Gurke, which foreshadows some characteristic Detroit techno riffs by a good ten years).
"Onze Danses…" became a cult album, and can retrospectively be viewed as a manifesto for the Crammed aesthetics, a blueprint for some of the directions which the label went on to follow during the next few decades.
Audience interest in the music of Aksak Maboul has been constant over the years, and has significantly increased since last year's release of the band's "lost" avant-pop opus, Ex-Futur Album (recorded in 1981-83, completed and first issued in 2014), which was enthusiastically welcomed, and led Marc Hollander and (Honeymoon Killers singer) Véronique Vincent to form a new band and play shows for the first time since the 80s.
Onze danses pour combattre la migraine is reissued with its original 1977 artwork. It will contain a double insert with texts and pictures, as well as a digital download code for the album plus three bonus tracks.
More info here.
"Onze danses… " as seen by the press
“One of the jewels in the crown of new European music... Intimist and mischievous, bouncy and velvety, brimming with inventiveness” (Le Monde, France, 1978)
“Moving from traditional dance motifs to modern musical riddles, the result simply defies any attempts at pigeon-holing.... music for your body, your head and your heart” (Time Out, UK, 1981)
“One of the most beautiful records ever produced... Aksak Maboul brought together every musical material which Europe had to offer, which resulted in a perfect, fresh and unusual masterpiece” (Tip, Germany, 1982)
"It's the steamy brew from which Crammed emerged… equally erudite and nutty, imbued with psychedelic visions and foreshadowing Detroit techno " (Libération, France, 2003)
"Celebrates the prescient aspect of Hollander's trajectory: he forestalled before everyone else the irrigation of cerebral, Pan-European electronic music by an influx of planetary influences" (Les Inrockuptibles, France, 2003)
"Visionary" (Magic, France, 2014)
"An UFO of an album, which anticipated the sounds of the next two decades" (Libération, France, 2014)