Holland's high mountains - The Nits in the Jazzhaus
So there he is and he doesn't know where to put the joy about the enthusiasm
he and his band, the Nits, are receiving from the audience in the properly
filled Freiburg Jazzhaus. Henk Hofstede shows his best hamster's smile. The
singer is twitching on his nose, goes through his hair, grabs the water
bottle - and smiles again, connecting his earlobes with his grin. Awkward
and proud at the same time. This... after all the years.It is 14 years ago today that the arty and intellectual Pop by the Nits left
the feuilleton pages to give the Dutch group fifteen minutes of fame. "In
the Dutch Mountains" was in 1987 the only commercial success of The Nits -
kind of a mistake because the song didn't really fit in the charts at that
time. But still it is characteristic for The Nits' music until today. For
their bizarre humour - which mountains? - and for their fun in telling
stories.And this has not changed on their new record "Wool". But the music has. The
new songs starting the concert are more airy, easier, quieter, even a little
bit more melancholic than usual.Arwen Linnemann is playing the double bass, Laetitia van Krieken's keyboard
has all the minor key string sounds in it, the excellent Rob Kloet - the
only starting member next to Hofstede - gives a lesson in effectively
playing quiet. He shakes a tiny rattle and produces more athmosphere with
this than other drummers do with a whole music store.Percussion as the silent center of a band in the era of beats? In the
Jazzhaus the time is going back today. Hofstede shows his teeth and bends
over his instrument like Schroeder from the peanuts and leaves the mike to
his black co singer Leona Philippo. The Nits have soul and the mood is
rising. Extra applause. But the next song - "Sketches Of Spain" from '83 -
puts a nostalgic smile on the faces of the many people born in the sixties.
And after the fifth encore those smiles still remain. Dear, that was great.
Dear, how time flies.>Peter Disch, Badische Zeitung, Fr. 17.02.01
Main Echo 19 2 2001
Uncommon mixture
"The Nits": Melancholic pop music in the Colos-SaalAschaffenburg. Already since more than twenty years The Nits are proving
that Holland has a lot more to offer than just Gouda cheese and tulips.
Their music doesn't easily fit in one description, the songs of the four
Dutch are too complex and versatile. They now released their 18th record,
"Wool", and like their predecessors it is regarded highly by the critics,
sometimes the song writing team Hofstede/Kloet is even compared with the
legendary Lennon and McCartney.Their music is ageless, but you have to get used to it. It is filled with
surprises and contradictions and is getting stronger thanks to its
athmosphere. And the expert audience on wednesday in the Colos-Saal got
convinced by it.To find a category in which The Nits' compositions fit in is quite a
difficult task, but in the end it would probably be "Pop". But the
versatility is clearly shown by the numerous influences of other musical
styles, who can always be found in their songs. The Nits deliver the
unexpected again and again, jump across trends and cover Jazz, Country,
Rock, even oriental folklore with their music. They switch between a minimum
of instruments and bombast and reject the conventional ways of hearing.The songs get interrupted by changes of tempo and style, and often they end
in a totally different way than they started. The word "zeitgeist" doesn't
exist for them, they seem to override the laws of music. Some songs deserve
the label of "Ohrwurm" [catchy tune]. Their genius on stage was impressive,
especially the drummer was terrific.For years the true fans are coming to all The Nits' concerts and sometimes
even travel with them. The athmosphere was good, but not boiling. It was a
knowing audience which found their way to the Colos-Saal, they were here to
listen to the music and the funny presentation by the singer. Aftre the
applause of the previous song had died, there suddenly was a perfect, nearly
magical silence, and often The Nits used those moments of contemplation for
new surprises.It was an interesting act, but the music of The Nits doesn't come easily to
you on first hearing. A comparision with Lennon/McCartney seems exaggerated
- the music of The Beatles was basically simple. The music of these Dutch
seems more closed up, more complex, but it is compact. A meaningful gravity
and melancholy was the center of the programme. The Nits are not very
similar to everyday's music - one reason more for their uniqueness.Michael Jäger
(Short annotation: the text actually uses a lot of expressions I don't think
exist in English or I do not know, so this is a rather rough translation.
And the "stuttering" (missing connections between sentences) in the final
paragraph was already in the German version.Marten )
BRAINWASH (Legendary Pink dots fanzine)CATCHING UP WITH THE NITS
You know how it is, when you experience something so wonderful and sublime, you just need to tell the world about it? Well, since I can't tell the world, I can at least post it to a group of people who may get something out of it. I've just picked up the newest CD by Nits, a group from the Netherlands who-in my opinion-bear more than a passing relation to the Legendary Pink Dots. For over 20 years they've been releasing a steady stream of albums, each one different from the last, and each one worthwhile in its own way. When you pick up a Nits album, you never know what you're going to hear. While some of the tracks are invariably throw-aways, most of them are brilliant, heart-wrenching, sweet and catchy.
Here's how I see it: if you take the curious poetry of Edward Ka-Spel and Leonard Cohen, the varied instrumentation of the Dots, pass it through a sort of "Minimalism Filter," add the painful sincerity of The Red House Painters, throw in influences from all over the world and a big heaping mess of The Beatles and you get something approaching Nits.
Their newest album, "Wool," follows up "Alankomaat" as a shockingly melancholy and wistful CD. Most of the tracks are slow, jazzy pieces (aided by the ZAPP! String Quartet and The Stylus Horns). Henk Hofstede's lyrics are, as usual, oblique and observational, but-in keeping with the recent trends in his music-almost crushingly sad and uncertain. A singer named Leona Philippo sings backup on most of the songs, and I hope that she becomes a permanent Nits member. She swings between soulful vocals and a kind of angelic, crystalline sadness. Arwen & Laetitia are wonderful additions to the group, Arwen's bass helping the noir-jazz sound along.
There are moments of atypical Nits experimentation here as well: the odd, timestretched vocal bridge in "26A (Clouds In The Sky)," the weird whispery percussion of "The 'Darling' Stone," the analog "space" noises throughout "Seven Green Parrots," and the absolute croaky weirdness of "Frog," the only upbeat track on the CD (reminiscent of the earlier Nits track, "Orange," which helped to defuse the sad loneliness of another album).
I'm not saying that everybody who likes the Pink Dots is going to like Nits-far from it, probably. But if you see "Wool" at a listening station somewhere, or you can convince your record store to play it for you, give "Clouds In The Sky," "Crime & Punishment" or "Strawberry Girl" a chance...but beware. While buying up releases by Nits is not nearly so arduous as buying up LPDs, it's still quite a chore, and, in my opinion, equally necessary for my mental health. And if you're flirted with Nits over the years and haven't decided whether to buy this new one or not, I can't gush enough about how this is my favourite Nits album so far (excluding the double-live "Urk," maybe). It' cohesive, perfectly & clearly produced, and every song is essential. Not to mention the packaging is a work of art. Quite an accomplisment for a band known for their packaging. Nits website is at www.nits.nl. -
Muffy St. Bernard
Marten Holst kindly translated these three reviews from Germany and Swizerland into English. Thanks!musikexpress/sounds Juni 2000
>
>NITS Wool Connected/PiasIf I'll get the strange idea one day, to read out loud all the names of the
Nits records from my favourite record shelf after midnight, my neighbours
will probably assume that I am visited by some monosyllabic aliens from
outer space: TENT, OMSK, HENK, HAT, URK, HJUVI, TING, DA DA DA, NEST,
ALANKOMAAT - that sounds strange, without a doubt.But the Nits' music is no reason for such jaunts at night - it's just a
reason for another glass of wine and some twenty, thirty dreamy and romantic
thoughts about all those things that don't find a place in the hectic
everyday life.Nobody knows the Nits - apart from their random hit "In The Dutch Mountains"
from 1987 - but that's not their fault. Or is it? If you are listening to
them, you should think that they don't care at all whether somebody's
interested in them. Their songs seem to arise like those dreamy, romantic
thoughts at night: you just start floating and they're there.However, to let your mind float in this way is proscribed in these days,
would you please kindly start working, watching telly - or sleep, if it's
absolutely necessary. Listening to the Nits is close to refusing to work.
Maybe that's the reason why nobody dares to listen to the Nits.But no matter: the five (sic!) Dutch have now secured a planet for
themselves in the cosmos of the worldly innocent and dreamers, the tightrope
walkers and silent sorcerers. And from this planet they surprise us few
again and again with little miracles of naivity, experimentation and humble,
ravishing melancholy. Glittering pearls in the sea of arbitrarity and
perishableness. Little pieces of art which slow down life, which touch,
relax, make you attentive and sensitive. They tell of longing, loneliness,
teariness, hurting memories about the beauty of life and the world: "The
Strawberry Girl", "Seven Green Parrots", "The Wind The Rain"... again there
can be no doubt: WOOL is the most beautiful nits recore. So are all the
others.What? Trendiness? Potential hits? Mega-Charts? Out of here, now! Otherwise
you force me to read out loud all the names of the Nits records from my
favourite record shelf.
(msa)
***** (out of ***** = a must)
coolibri Düsseldorf Juni 2000
>Nits WOOLIt is always a thing of great joy and great musical pleasure to listen to
this Dutch group, which never came close to stardom (only a little bit with
their song "In The Dutch Mountains") and will not get there with WOOL
neither - and they don't want to, too.WOOL consists of new Nits songs, mainly laid back, very jazzy, partly crazy,
tricky, classically touched, chansonesque, provided with exotic spots.No easy listening, indigestible to many, unforgettable to those who dare to
sink in.(PIAS/Connected)
David WienandTagesanzeiger (CH) 10th of June >2000
Snapshots and short stories
The nits did not only sweep their usual audience off their feet during
thursday's concert in the Volkshaus, but their kids as well.By Thomas Bodmer
That's one way to do it: when the audience did not want to stop applauding
after one song, Rob Kloet just sat down behind his drums and started a wild
solo, which was rhytmically so complicated, that the clappers lost their
beat and becamed silent. Once this is reached, the Solo stops abruptly and
the band can start playing "Seven Green Parrots" from their new album,
"Wool".Moore and Picasso
The Nits are now in existence for 26 years and during the mid-eighties they
have been the embodiment of an intelligent pop group, they processed
influences of The Beatles, The Kinks, Talking Heads, of Kraftwerk and XTC.
The four founding members had been students of art in Amsterdam, which is
easily recognisable from their songs: "A Touch Of Henry Moore" is the name
of one of the most beautiful songs, they talk about Picasso, about
Tintoretto, but it is never artificial or pretentious, it's just a matter of
course, an important part of their way of seeing the world.Nits' songs are snap shots and short stories: "The 'Darling' Stone" is all
about a gravestone in Helsinki, which has only "Darling" inscribed; "Jazz
Bon Temps" is dedicated to a Texan waitress and "Crime And Punishment" talks
about a Dutch painter who lost both his legs to a car bomb.The introductions of singer and guitar player Henk Hofstede are masterly, he
keeps his audience attentive and interested, includes them, makes them
curious about the next song. Kloet and Hofstede are founding members of the
band and the composers of all songs, and they obviously still enjoy their
music and surprise each other with new ideas. New in the band are the young
female musicians Arwen Linnemann, who works skillfully with both contrabass
and bass guitar and who harmonizes very well with the percussion, and
Laetitia van Krieken, whose keyboard bubbles happily during "Soul Man" but
bulges to frightening Siren's howls during "Crime And Punishment". Guest
singer Leona Philippo moves smoothly, but overstresses her "Soul Sister"
impersonation and too often asks the audience to clap along.Great, on the other hand, was the appearance of Shoppers' guitar player Oli
Hartung, who played touching, simple, blues-like soli in two songs. Right in
the middle of one of those Hofstede starts talking about a concert in Basel,
during which suddenly there appeared a dog on stage, whom he recognised as
an incarnation of his father."What are you doing here?", the dog asked. "I'm singing", the sons answered.
"That's more clever than anything I ever did", the dog growled and went
away.Permanent members of the band are Paul Telman, who is responsible for sound
and the computers, and lighter Tom Telman. The video projections are kept
simple but in tune with the mood, the sound is clear, the lyrics are
comprehensibly and one more time Rob Kloet shows with his playing style that
he belongs in the group of the most interesting drummers in today's
Pop/Rock.First length of hair, then clothing
Adept the band mixes new songs with classics, because it doesn't seem like
their is another genius' song like "Sketches Of Spain" or "Adieu Sweet
Bahnhof" with the new material. When Hofstede announces, they want to sing
an old Dutch folk song, the audience gets suspicious and an alarmed murmur
comes up, which relaxes audibly when the song is recognised as being "In The
Dutch Mountains". With thirteen he argued about the length of his hair with
his mother, Hofstede sais as an introduction to "Walking With Maria", now
they argue about his clothing. In the audience there are 48years old found
as well as 13years old, and they don't let the band go before they played
for nine quarters of an hour and five encores.
IN THE DUTCH MOUNTAINS and DADADA are the only Nits albums released in the UK . Here are the reviews from Q magazine
The Nits In The Dutch Mountains
The Nits have been making an interesting noise for some
seven albums now. This, their eighth, is an absolute beauty.
Such singularity of vision and maturity of expression as this
Dutch rock quartet here display cannot have appeared
overnight: they are surely one of pop's best-kept secrets.
Drawing a certain tentative tone of voice from such
nerve-end merchants as John Lennon, Dylan and David
Byrne, The Nits' Henk Hofstede contrives a recognisable
European mood of rustic cheer, yet wistful reverie, despite
singing in English. All of this comes framed in melodies and
arrangements likewise drawn from the quieter side of the
Anglo-American pop tradition. Not, therefore, an album to
use up and throw away in a hurry: such haunting quirkiness
might keep one beguiled for years.rating **** (out of 5)
Mat Snow
Nits dA dA dA
Nits are superstars in their native Netherlands, and pretty big
elsewhere in Europe. dA dA dA is their fifteenth album, no
less, and although the title track is not a reference to
Dadaism (it's about child language, apparently), they do
make a habit of writing broadly accessible pop-rock songs
with a faintly surreal, art-house twist-a Dutch version of
Crash Test Dummies, perhaps, with echoes of Crowded
House and Pink Floyd thrown in along the way. As well as
the violin playing of Peter Meuris, discreet use of
harmonium, cheranga, djembe, and mellotron lends a faintly
exotic colouring to the instrumentation, but that is merely the
icing on the cake. What really stands out is the sheer quality
of the songwriting, a duty shouldered in the main by
Lennon-ish singer Henk Hofstede, with help from drummer
Rob Kloet and keyboardist Robert Jan Stips. From the
rootsy, throwaway pop of Chameleon Girl to the gently
reflective Whales Of Tadoussac and the desperately
mournful Mourir Avant 15 Ans, the material is rarely less than
excellent.rating **** (out of 5)
David Sinclair
if you find any interesting reviews for this section (in English or translated into English), please send them to
webmaster@nits.nl
or to
webmaster nits
p.o.box 51133
1007 EC Amsterdam
Netherlands
Thank you