[Jef Mertens]

New album out now/soon!

 

With his third full album ‘III’, Bram Devens alias Ignatz, has once again surpassed himself.
In his usual brain-melting futuristic blues folk psych, he’s calling the ghosts of Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes and Robert Pete Williams, as seen by a adolescent Lou Reed.
‘III’ suggests a fictional, unclear and vague story about the deaths of musical genres. It’s breath cold, raw made of carbon and gas. The smell of a wet dog or a badly dried towel. The musical assiociations are reduced to a minimum, unless they contribute to the fictional line, where the tragic is enclosed in the crackling, atonal and repetitive melodies.
This album breathes a more sentimental atmosphere than it’s predecessors by Ignatz’ wailing voice, not unlike Skip James. A tormented soul that after the last song is over; liberates the listener from a personal journey and leaves him dazzled. ‘III’ projects the times of the Alaskan Klondike gold rush and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog to the modern times, dominatd by technology. So, this album bears testimony to a sincere melancholy that popmusic these days hasn’t know in a while.
Ignatz forces us to look at the pure essence of his music: to translate raw emotion into sound and to reach an essential beauty.


text by K. Berckmans


www.ignatz.be

[Jef Mertens]

Check out this exlusive track from the new album

Ignatz - The Water mp3

[nicfit]

thanks for the heads up Jef!
lovely avatar he eh!

[Everyneurotic]

yay!

[Jef Mertens]

 

European / Japanese tourdates September - November 2008

European Tour with LSD March

• wed 17-09-2008 - Lisbon - Museu do Chiado
• thus 18-09-2008 - Porto
• fri 19-09-2008 - Madrid - La Boite
• sat 20-09-2008 - Barcelona
• sun 21-09-2008 - Lyon
• mon 22-09-2008 - Genève - L’Usine
• tue 23-09-2008 - Köln
• thu 25-09-2008 - Amsterdam
• fri 26-09-2008 - Brussels - De Bunker
• sat 27-09-2008 - Linz
• sun 28-09-2008 - Prague
• tue 30-09-2008 - Hamburg
• thu 02-10-2008 - Aarhus
• fri 03-10-2009 - Bremen

Japan Tour with LSD March

• mon 27-10-2008 - Tokyo - UFO club
• wed 29-10-2008 - Tokyo - Enban
• thu 30-10-2008 - Shizuoka - Lucrezia
• fri 31-10-2008 - Hyogo - Helluva lounge
• sat 01-11-2008 - Hyogo - Ease
• sun 02-11-2008 - Osaka - Musica Japonica

[nicfit]

aaaaand, again, looks like Italy isn't part of Europe ....ok,ok....

[Jef Mertens]

Originally Posted by nicfit

aaaaand, again, looks like Italy isn't part of Europe ....ok,ok....

Yeah I know! i was posting these dates and thinking: shit there's no Italy date, NicFit's gonna be pissed

I don't know why there's never an italian date, might ask him next week.

[nicfit]

I think it's actually "italians" fault... The situation here in terms of new bands/artists (new as in=not well known by the italian audience) is not much good...lots of small clubs fight to stay alive, and don't have much money to invest promoting/organizing gigs that possibly won't get much attendants, and the bigger ones always go after the bands that assure them a good number of paying customers and they DON'T invest the money gained to set up "alternative" gigs. There are still a few nice venues but I guess it's not easy for an artist to set up a proper tour, and coming over for just a single date would probably be to much of a loss in economical terms (not to be overlooked when planning a tour...). This is probably a pretty common situaton overall, but the most annoying thing is that when a little club hosts a really nice and interesting gig from a relatively unknown artist there' a good chance NOBODY except the guys involved in the organization and a bunch of other people from the city where the venue is will know it...bah.

btw, tell him to set up a gig @ Unwound club in padova, thanks

[Jef Mertens]

and a fucking amazing video for The Water by Sami Sänpäkkilä

The Water video

[pokkeherrie]

Originally Posted by Jef Mertens

European Tour with LSD March

Also the 24th in Den Haag, in a recently squatted church.

[█████████]

actually they played lisbon last night, i finally got to see him.

[Jef Mertens]

Originally Posted by █████████

actually they played lisbon last night, i finally got to see him.

Any thoughts on the nite?

[Everyneurotic]

Originally Posted by nicfit

I think it's actually "italians" fault... The situation here in terms of new bands/artists (new as in=not well known by the italian audience) is not much good...lots of small clubs fight to stay alive, and don't have much money to invest promoting/organizing gigs that possibly won't get much attendants, and the bigger ones always go after the bands that assure them a good number of paying customers and they DON'T invest the money gained to set up "alternative" gigs...

i'm sorry, for a moment there, i thought you were talking about mexico.

[nicfit]

Originally Posted by Everyneurotic

i'm sorry, for a moment there, i thought you were talking about mexico.

Yeh, that's probably a quite common situation around the globe, but some countries seems to be way more "receptive" than others when it comes to setting up decent "alternative" festivals and shit...and some cities are obviously priviliged for a number of reasons...

[Everyneurotic]

the problem with mexico is that, when bands come, people go to see them and, commonly as a result, they start getting attention from more people and the press.

it happened with the gathering who first toured with anneke here and have one of their biggest fanbases here, same with shit bands like placebo and rammstein. recently, there's tons of people who are massively into acid mothers temple because they came as the japanese new music festival 2 years ago, and most went there through word of mouth: "this crazy, psychedelic band from japan is playing and the drummer once played with JOHN ZORN!!".

but people don't like risking it, the promoters and clubs; i have helped set up some noise shows and some have been really troublesome to set up, others not so much. but there has always been people to see the shows.

on the other hand, this festival happening in november is considered "avant guard" because broken shitty scene, the black lips and the fujiya and fucking miyagi are playing...avant guard if it happened 15 years ago.

Not enjoying this new track much. Do you know if the album is going to be all like this? It sounds like Jimi Hendrix or something. I'm surprised that this is meant to be ''futuristic blues psych folk'', this song could have been recorded 300 years ago. He's a good guitarist, though.

[Jef Mertens]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

Not enjoying this new track much. Do you know if the album is going to be all like this? It sounds like Jimi Hendrix or something. I'm surprised that this is meant to be ''futuristic blues psych folk'', this song could have been recorded 300 years ago. He's a good guitarist, though.

o surely the lp will not and in fact does not sound like Jimi Hendrix at all.
It could be recorded 80 years ago if they had cassettes.

No really, it really sounds new to me. a record straight to the core of his music. Actually it sounds a bit more like his live shows as opposed to his previous work, which is good.

[atsonicpark]

Love this album.

[atsonicpark]

also was wondering, is everything else he's done as good as this album?!

[Everyneurotic]

i've heard II and they are quiet as mice and their split with shepherds besides III and they are all ace.