Love Substitutes, The
More Songs About Hangovers And Sailors
Four musicians from one of the richest and most eccentric corners of the Belgian underground, bringing together decades of experience across dEUS, Kiss My Jazz, Evil Superstars, Dead Man Ray, Gore Slut, iH8 Camera, A Clean Kitchen Is A Happy Kitchen and a bewildering network of solo projects, collaborations and experimental groups. There is, of course, an obvious dEUS connection. Rudy Trouvé was the original guitarist in dEUS. Craig Ward subsequently replaced Rudy. Mauro Pawlowski later replaced Craig. Bert Lenaerts was soundman for The Smashing Pumpkins. Amongst other things. Three musicians who successively occupied the same guitar position in Belgium's biggest alternative band eventually found themselves in the same band. By the time The Love Substitutes came together, Rudy, Craig and Mauro had already established extraordinary and highly individual careers of their own. They had crossed paths repeatedly within Antwerp's remarkably fertile musical underground, including through Kiss My Jazz, long before The Love Substitutes brought them together in the same four-piece in 2004. Another important part of the equation is that Rudy, Craig and Mauro all contribute vocals across the band's music. There is no single frontman, no dominant songwriting personality and no fixed musical template. The three voices bring three distinct approaches to melody, lyrics and songwriting, adding enormously to the variety running through both albums. At the time the band described themselves as "Death folk artwank." MORE SONGS ABOUT HANGOVERS AND SAILORS (2006) The second album is far more considered and fully embraces the bands' Fairport Convention side. There is still noise and experimentation, but alongside it are elements of folk, psychedelic rock, crooked pop, singer-songwriter music and a more developed appreciation of melody and arrangement. For the first record, the band had relatively few prepared songs and a huge amount of improvisation. For the second, they arrived with around twenty loose ideas that became songs like Bangladesh Fashions, Someone Like You and A Modern Band Needs It's Sleep. Mastered specifically for vinyl by Uwe Teichert (Public Enemy, dEUS, Placebo) he mastered the first time round and the same people who did the CD layouts for both albums were happy to do the vinyl such is the love for this music 20 years later.