TRESPASSERS W
5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 (LP)
Line-up:
Hayo den Boeft: bas, gitaar, drumcomputer, achtergrondstem
Perter Bos: drums, synthesizer, achtergrondzang
Frank van der Bos: keyboards, piano, accordion, achtergrondzang
Cor Gout: vocals
Ronnie Krepel: gitaar, percussie, keyboards, achtergrondstem
Met:
Tom Freke: tenorsax, altsax
Bram Groothoff: baitonsax, sopraansax
Kurt Schwab: altsax
Frans Friederich: trumpet, euphorium
Margriet Buitenhuis: trompet
Teun Hertogs: trumpet
Attila the Stockbroker: viool
Opgedragen aan Wim Oudijk en Attila the Stockbroker.
Opgenomen en gemixed in de Framsound studio,
Nederland door Wil ‘Spector’ Heze en Trespassers W.
Hoesontwerp by Ronnie Krepel.
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Reviews in English: 6 Chronique en français : 1___________________________________________________________________________________
RITUAL # 19, août/septembre 1993 :
par E.T. :
– TRESPASSERS W- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 (TW/Konkurrel)
Il y a un an, on vous disait tout le bien qu’on pensait de Roots & Locations, l’album concept des Trespassers W axé sur le La Haye des années 1950. Avec 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0, TW poursuivent leur travail avec une démarche similaire. Chacune des chansons de ce disque est, avant tout, une histoire, belle, illustrée par une profusion de mots simples mais variés, baignant dans une atmosphère nostalgique digne de vieux films dramatiques noir et blanc. Et, de fait, quelque chose de cinématographique caractérise la musique de ces Hollandais. Ce qui ne revient pas à dire qu’elle soit réduite à un décor sonore d’accompagnement. Tout le contraire. Chaque morceau recèle des couleurs et des saveurs différentes et témoigne d’une créativité surprenante. Présence soutenue d’instruments à vent et du piano, touches d’accordéon et de violon (celui d’Attila The Stockbroker, passé inaperçu depuis l’époque Cherry Red Records), vitalité des premiers XTC (F.E.A.R) ; douceur de vieux ebregistrements de Robert Wyatt, influences slaves et bataves… Même quand Cor Gout chante en néerlandais (Bodega Slavia), on tombe sous le charme, une impression rarement ressentie à l’écoute de cette langue ! Ce disque mérite un détour, à la médiathèque vu sa distribution défaillante. Rien que la splendide pochette nous fait regretter l’époque du vinyle.
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EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, Greece, Summer 1994:
TRESPASSERS W – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0
(Translated from Greek to English)
Here we have an amazing work by the terrific Dutchmen. If you already knew Trespassers W from previous works, in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 you’ll find all the characteristic elements that constitute their music: musical multiformity, mixture of influences (from J. Brel and folk up to hard edged rock), Cor Gout’s voice penetrating your stomach and pouring inside of you, the amazing lyrics… Whatever on can say for this group of old-revolutionary aesthetic, it won’t be enough. This LP, simply is one of their « most » mature and fulfilled creations and is also accompanied by a very beautiful booklet. It is recommended 1000 times.
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ANEMIC BILLFOLD Magazine n°3, USA, October 1993
by KEVIN DYMOND :
TRESPASSERS W – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0
13 titles on a vinyl LP (snugly fits on a C-46)…comes complete with a rather hand-some full-scale lyric booklet…phenomenal album. Quintet featuring Cor Gout (great vocal color, presence, clarity…unique timbre…incrzedible elstic voice), Frank vd Bos (lots of super tasty shimmering acoustic piano, a good dose of nice organ stuff, variety of synth bits here n there), Ronnie Krepel (some tasty nylon – and steel – string acoustic plus all sorts of tasty electric stuff…wide range of tone colors), Hayo den Boeft (seemingly stays in the background doing solid foundational stuff but, it is rewardingly interesting to focus in on the bass notes) and Peter Bos (super nice touch on the drum kit…deft/comfortable with the wide assortment of tempi and feels). Also guest musicians…like, a half dozen saxophone and brass players…some real fine horn charts, scored by a variety of Trespassers…plus, real nice violin from Attila The Stockbroker. Musically, the parts (including voice) are tightly interwoven in crafty fashion. The lyrics are in every sense outstanding from start to finish, painting vivid images and provoking all manner of brain activity. Very tasty music, really well orchestrated, sometimes tweaky, always fully suited to the vocals. All of the selections are really great…tough call trying to pick a fave…can narrow it down to three tune: « Riefenstahl »…amazing piece, big gothic music canvas, lots of different parts…swirling building main body relentlessly carries the listener forward on an astonishing trip along parabolic path, very uplifting on the front side and absolutely bone-chilling on the back side…fantastic lyrics…real tasty brass, starts out muted, gradually builds, then uncorks and really gets to sailing; « Munch »…sort of a musical expressionist painting…tasty piano/voice to open…nice guitar thing enters…builds to tortured vocals over some nice organ…mellows a bit for an extremely tasty piano interlude…then the voice and organ go really bersek…wild climax…seriously beautiful piece; « The Sea and the Moon »…consisting of two parts which ebb & flow back and forth…exquisite harpsichord/spacey fuzz guitar thing with simple yet phenomenal lyrics about relaxing the grip on assorted baggage…and…wonderful chorus part with delightfully twisted vocal blends…having gone back and forth several times, a nice tag/punch is beautifully set up and perfectly pulled, so to speak…astounding imagery…cool horn chart…well, perhaps this is actually the favourite. Now, even if those three songs were subtracted from the proceedings, this would still be a great album. « F.E.A.R. »…crunchy rocker, very tasteful… nitty spastic lawnmover rhythm guitar…great lyrics of sheep in wolf duds…again, one solo guitar per LP – here it is – a shorty (16 bars, quite uptempo) but way tasty; « Mobilized » (awesome text, word density…great loungy feel) and « Department Store » (fat percussive situation…funny lyrics, really cool…sort of a down-escalator chord progression) are both great narratives on mindless consumerism; « Betrayal »… gritty text, snappy music…tasty…great break, very cool spanky hi-hat workout…nice breakdown part with just bass/drums under the vocals…strong lyrics; « Taboo »…crackling tune, really peels…nice organ interlude…fantastic mellow part; « Egg Song »…music hall thing…chipper euphonium bounding along…great lyrics, well chosen and arranged, interesting tale…killer trumpet bits, very colorful; « Bodega Slavia »…dreamy slow cabaret thing…nice piano/bass/drums… Dutch lyrics, really pretty, some nifty consonants…very tasty violin outro; « I Coud Have Lived Here »…delightfully goofy guitar situation…very colorful lyric images…music bed fills gradually…super nice tune; « Uncle Wanja »…exceptionally pretty, sparsely appointed aire (primarily vocal and nylon acoustic only)…actually, there’s some real nice violin crosshatching…great lyric imagery. Difficult to do much more than hint at the brilliance of this work in a hastily scribbled review. Absolute highest possible recommendation. Hut That.
Artist : Cor Gout, Javastraat 27 A, 2585 AC Den Haag, Netherlands.
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PANDORA’S LUNCHBOX, USA :
TRESPASSERS W – (c/o Cor Gout, Javastraat 27A, 2585 AC Den Haag, Netherlands) – Because of expenses, I don’t know how much this band can afford to trade, but Cor sent ma a vinyl (« 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 »), and even if you only get ordering information, this is an idiosyncratic, dangerously beautiful thing, musically challenging, but organized and arranged brilliantly, and lyrically contemplative and unique… one of my very favourite things that anyone has ever sent me. Plus it sounds really cool to say, « Hey!! I got mail from the Netherlands!! »
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ALTERNATIVE PRESS # 64, USA, November 1993
by MICHAEL C. MAHAN:
TRESPASSERS W – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0
Itself a circle, zero is at once a completion and a beginning. It is the point of birth, the instant of death, and all the moments between.
Like TW’s previous album, Roots And Locations, the music on this LP fuses a number of styles: the torch cabaret of Jacques Brel; the eccentric innovations of Peter Hammil, Daevid Allen, and Slapp Happy; a 60’s organ sound, both pop and psychedelic; and some superb brass and wind arrangements.
Unlike their previous album, the theme is not specific. It is philosophical, dealing with zero as a concept: beginning, completions, circles, and regrets.
The lyrics are very strong. The cyclic « Bodega Slavia » blurs the boundaries of a painting of one restaurant hanging on the wall of another. Other songs deal with regret: lifestyle, identity, the lemming existence of purchase and paranoia, and the fear-ravages club scene: « Fear of getting out of date, fear of decay, fear of aids. » Bookended by a psychedelic keyboard marck, « Riefenstahl » is led by a torch-laced piano and augmented by a rock beat and tremendous, ever-swelling horn arrangement. Using a countdown, the lyrics trace the meteoric rise and the slow, painful decline and decay of an artist to and from obscurity. From zero.
« Munch » is what Van der Graaf’s Peter Hammil should be doing. Initially a cascade of soft piano and guitar, Everyman finds blindness in the white purity of God’s Norwegian snow. With the music pacing his emotions, Everyman angrily shakes his fist at his own ignorance, be it in God or his own Demon, and ultimately defies and pollutes God’s white scenery with red markers of his own jealousy: houses, signs, and highways. Man imposes his self on the face of God. What was for God the completion of a cycle, becomes for Man a starting point.
The LP ends with « The Sea and the Moon ». Initially characterized by drones and soft guitars, it ultimately ends with a triumphant Sun Ra-styled horn arrangement. It reflects upon the cyclic nature of life and the sea, each event a wave being swallowed up by the one following. The singer realizes there are no regrets. Nothing should be done differently, because any change in the past would make you cease to exist. The person with your face would be another.
Only memories should be relived. Perhaps of a childhood balloon, loose on the breeze, flying to the circle, to the zero, of the moon.
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PUNCTURE # 30, USA, Summer 1994
by ROBERT ZIEGLER:
TRESPASSERS W – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 (TW)
I recall from long-dormant lore that Trespassers W is what was printed on a splintery sign outside the abode of Winnie-the-Pooh’s bosom pal Piglet’s grandfather Trespassers William. The more sagacious children suspected otherwise.
The band Trespassers W hail from the Netherlands, and (though I’d never heard of them) have been around for a decade. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 is a strange and intense work that plays more like a Kurt Weil opera than a rock-n-roll record.
The instrumentation is often dramatic, showing a profound proclivity toward swirl and crescendo, changing pace and mood frequently between and even within songs. Above all else, keyboards dominate. On most cuts, they are a subtle background; on a couple (like the brilliant energetic « Fear ») they burst through with a strange, almost out-of-place carnival-organ sound, and the manic piano plinkety-plink toward the conclusion of « Munch » is close to transcendent.
Trespassers W augment their sound with lyrics that paste the band’s learning on their sleeve. At times, the words sung by Cor Gout (whose delivery owes something to Bowie or Peter Murphy) seem designed to flaunt an academic psat (references to Schopenhauer, La Fontaine, etc.). But just as often, he infuses his ideas with elegance and insight as he broaches subjects like technology run amok, alienation, and a taunting memory of having, as a small boy, used anti-Semitism as a weapon. If this album is difficult to penetrate at times, its engaging qualities make the effort well worthwhile.
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FACELIFT # 13, USA:
TRESPASSERS W – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… 0 (TW Records TW1014)
A Dutch band of whom I’d heard nothing until about 8 months ago, yet one of some class. Trespassers W are one of those bands of 80s vintage who seem to combine a whole host of influences: guitar, mellow jazz touches, dissonance, punchy bass and drums.
They also craft songs in the slightly left-field tradition of say The Lodge or The Work, and their music wouldn’t be out of place on one of the more accessible albums from the Recommended network. Songs alternate between English and German lyrics, with « Riefenstahl » revolving around a singalong chorus with some extended ranting from singer Cor Gout. But you need go no further than the opening track « Bodega Slavia » for Trespassers W at their best. The jazz drumming work and laid back vocals recall certain Robert Wyatt compositions from the Eighties. « Taboo » with a circus-like organ riffs and driving beat, is also good, but by some distance the best track is the closing song « The Sea and the Moon », which bears an uncanny resemblance to the best of Peter Blegvad’s odd spoken word passages with National Health and The Lodge. This track alone makes the album essential listening.
An oddity of this record is the unlikely guest appearance of none other than Attila the Stockbroker, poet and ranter extraordinaire, who confines himself on this album to viola and is apparently a Trespassers regular.