Nits: 1974 in 2003 – an adventure in time.

by Eric Facon

The Nits are an old band. The title of the new CD says it all: year of birth, 1974. 30 years, that’s old age for a pop band, and what do old bands usually do? The better of them refine their art, while most of them just go through the motions. And there are some – not too many – exceptions: the Beatles way back when, today Elvis Costello springs to mind, but who else refuses to stand still?
Oh yes, the Nits. They’ve made us devotees scratch our heads more than once. Since I know them, their search for the perfect Pop-Song has led them in many different directions. Along broad highways, down byways and up the garden-path. They’ve played fairytale-songs disguised as a psychedelic trio, they were a classicistic Amstel beat-band for the Eighties, they’ve written intimate chamber-pop pieces and Hillbilly-songs from the Netherlands (there’s a pun there and it is intentional!). Sometimes they are impressively quiet, almost refusing to touch their instruments, then they break into rather unfathomable noise, they’ve used small and big string orchestras, going back to electronic sound sources the next moment. They’ve been melancholy, sentimental even, and they’ve been ironic and often pretty funny. Pretty strange people. Pretty charming, too.

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< Remember Monty Python’s “Ministery of Silly Walks”? Henk once compared the career of the Nits to this unforgettable sketch (If you don’t know it, head for the videotheque!). John Cleese moving his spidery legs across a London street is a sight to see; very funny, very strange indeed – but also pretty hard to do. A bit like the Nits indeed.> What keeps it all together? The songs, the words and the voice of Henk Hofstede, the unique and very sensitive drumming of Rob Kloet (drumming is the wrong word: Rob is a percussionist in my ears), the inventive, intricate keyboard sounds of Robert Jan Stips (for as long as he was there) – without wanting to forget the contributions of all the other members past and present (Personal accolade goes to Arwen Linnemann and Titia van Krieken for the jazzy touch on “Wool”). The guide-line through the world of the Nits is a vision of the pop-song as a beautiful vehicle, a short space in time that can be filled with beauty, emotion and, style.

The Nits have set high standards for themselves. And the listeners ask themselves: can they do it again?

So, what’s really new about this new CD?

First: Robert Jan is back – welcome back indeed!
Second: The lay-out is simply class! Open, friendly, colourful, and one of the few that fits the CD-format. (Open the digi-pack, the first photograph you see is taken from my friend Simon Ho’s living room. Buy his CD “Before sleep” – Henk sings on it. So much for product placement).

Third (fast forward to 1974): The music.
The title is not an indication of artistic direction – no mindless boogie, no classic rock-pomp here. Neither is “1974” like “Wool”. It is rather the exact contrary. Where “Wool” was a jazz-inspired, intimate recording, an album almost entirely in one mood, “1974” is stylistically all over the place. It is, dare I say it, adventurous. Disconcerting at first. There are even some things that sound unfinished, like short stories that leave the conclusion to the reader. Some sound rough, playful as the Nits have often been in concert and rarely in the studio.

For example “Rumspringa”, a strange concoction of two parts, one slow, another fast. This sounds like a band-jam, there are practically no lyrics, a synth spouts mandolin-like sounds and a deep bass goes haywire, the drums and the acoustic guitar do some frantic sprinting; blink an eye and the collapses into a dreamlike sequence about disappearing. The whole thing is called “Jump around” in a German dialect and I can perfectly well imagine this live on stage – Henk or Robert Jan wearing some furry rabbits ears like Steve Martin. Or “Used Furniture”, which sounds like Bob Dylan let loose to a madman fiddling with a synthesizer. (Later on, Mr. Ho makes an appearance as a rabbit in one song).

Puzzling. But then the whole of it starts to creep up on you, rolls over you with all its might. “Aquarium” and “Chain of If’s” and “Between the Buttons” offer the melodies that we’re used from the Nits. Synth-sounds and samples abound, great effects on vocals. It’s inventive, weird, engaging, moving even. That’s saying a lot for a band that has recorded some 20 albums in search of the perfect pop song. Is this elusive song here? No, I guess not. (Let us all hope for another instalment of their quest). These are 12 personal moments in the life of a simultaneously old and very young band. Where other bands let their music grow stale at a Beverly Hills poolside, the Nits have headed for the playground. Great technique to stay alive.
< Remember the Beatles? They fell apart once they tried to stand still, to “get back” to their sources and produced “Let it be”.>

The Nits: 1974 in 2003 – an adventure in time.
Expect nothing less. Accept no substitute.