BeNe GeSSeRiT
THe SeCoND BeNeFiT
EE Tapes

In our April menu we informed of Alain Neffe who resurrected his label Insane Music Contact to release two cassettes/CD-Rs to finance new recording equipment for himself and his wife Nadine Bal and enable them to continue their musical adventures. The pair equals the synth-duo extraordinaire BeNe GeSSeRiT that has kept going since the early 1980s. One of the two albums included previously unreleased songs by BeNe GeSSeRiT and was called BeNeFiT. Well, as you can see by the title above, here's the second BeNeFiT offering, a six track seven inch vinyl EP, with the same purpose as the cassettes/CD-Rs. This time it's released by Alain's long time buddy Eriek van Havere on his EE Tapes. The label name suggest that Eriek, too, has kept going since the decade when the music cassette (MC) was the prime medium for more or less home-made independent free & easy music from the underground. We're talking about the dark side of the pastel coloured 1980s...

Well, back to the present day and the brand new vinyl disc. NeW SiDe includes three previously unissued songs recorded in the last few years, while oLd SiDe comprises three songs previously released on international cassette compilations in the 1980s. This is the first time they're available in another format. The strange thing about the six songs - or about BeNe GeSSeRiT as such for that matter - is that it's not that easy to find a clear development from the oLD to the NeW. That doesn't mean stagnation. On the contrary. The duo has always covered a lot of directions from the calm and neat to the harsh, experimental and hysterical. Only the 1980s flavoured beat-box gives a clue which songs stem from the 20th century. This time we're presented with the nice, almost conventional melancholic ballad "SHe SeLLS Sea SHeLLS oN THe Sea SHoW" with a moody sax or two, too (an oLD-timer), almost conventional danceable synth-pop in "WiLLeN Sie TaNZeN MiT MiR?" (NeW; sung in German as the title suggests), almost happy hysteria in "SteP By SteP" (oLD), the childish, moody and almost hysterical at the same time "LeS SiMPLeS D'eSPRiT Ne SoNT PaS" (NeW), sort of jumping-experimental "éLéPHaNT eXTRaTeRReSTRe" (NeW) and the busy-experimental "SLoWLy WaLKiNG BeTWeeN PeoPLe" (oLD).

Six different sides in all then, always playful and with Nadine's voice and Alain's keyboards at the fore. Nice sleeve with a bonus photo and drawing inside, too. Beside the vital and interesting music this is a chance to support the stubborn independent artists that really deserve all the support they can get. What more can you wish for?

Copyright © 2014 JP