<< REWIND 8 : Lennard Schuurmans
Ladies & gentlemen, El Solitario is proud to present the 8th take on ESMC’s <<REWIND, a new series of interviews with the people that rock our Moto-World®, centered around the music that shaped their lives. Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
For the 8th <<REWIND, we had Lennard Schuurmans in the house and asked him about those ten records he would take to a deserted island. Eccentric and avant-garde, this designer and sidewalk mechanic is above all an extremely sweet mofo. As most of you will already know, Lennard is a good friend and a very important part of El Solitario’s universe. This artist, living motolife in Amsterdam, is also the organizer of the Rusty Gold Swap Meet and the man behind the always rad www.bubblevisor.blogspot.com (Yes we fucking love blogz!@#)
Okay ESMC, lets’ start with the best 🙂
The rest is just in random order
Chances With Wolves on East Village radio – Yes I know, it’s not an artist or album but this radio show truly changed my life for ever and I’ve been listening to these shows every week since my friend Niels Wolf (how appropriate, haha) told me about this radio show. They have the goal to never play the same song twice, they play all kind of music, mostly classic hidden gems and overlooked beautiful failures so their show is more focused om emotion than on genre. The good thing is you can download all their shows (over 300 episodes, two hours each). Check it out, you wont regret it.
Devendra Benhart // Mala 2013 //“Fur Hildegard von Bingen”
This album sounds so good, beautifully warm songs with a lot of depth and brilliant hypnotic grooves.
Aphex twin // Come to Daddy, 1997 // “IZ US”
Wow, this EP blow my mind in the 90’s. Such an eclectic mix of sounds and rhythms. The track Come To Daddy and the video clip is so super hardcore and scary. The track IZ US is almost the exact opposite, super relaxed, laid back and atmospheric. I love that contradiction.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra // II, 2013 // Swim and Sleep
Brilliant album, saw them live at the Lowlands festival 3 years ago, sucked big time to be honest but I love their studio albums.
Whitey // Lost Summer, 2012 // “Dead Eyes”
I never heard of Whitey before I watched Braking Bad on Netflix.
And that’s not very strange because Whitey is doing it a little different than most other artist. He’s not on Spotify or Itunes, Whitey only sells his music via Bandcamp, still he recently passed his 15 millionth online play..!
Great artist, cool attitude.
Doe Maar // Dorris Day en andere stukken, 1982 // Vergeet Me
The dutch dub/ska/reggae group Doe Maar was so hugely popular in the Netherlands they stopped in 1984 because they could not handle their own succes. They could not perform any longer on stage because of all the hysterical teenagers almost dying of anticipation. I always wondered what the inspiration was for their sound. It still happens to me that I hear a song and then I think, “maybe this was an inspiration for their sound at the time!”.
Their sound is something like a mixture of the Clash, the Police and the Cure and I’m sure they would dig the Gorillaz, if they would have existed at the time.
LCD Soundsystem // Sound of silver 2007 // New York I love you
– I love the track “New York I love you”, it’s one of those songs that always keeps coming back in my mind for some reason. It’s so melancholic, maybe that’s why. Or maybe it has something to do with New York. When I was there for the first time I thought, shit, tis is it, I need this in my life. I’m such an emotional little kid you know, haha!
I wish LCD Soundsystem still made new songs. I like how they jam in a song. The build up is so hypnotising and strong. Their groove reminds me a little of Underwold’s album “Beaucoup Fish”. Also one of my favorite albums.
Beastie Boys // Aglio E Olio 1995 // Brand New
– This EP was released after the Beastie Boys realized that they had written too many hardcore punk songs for their next record. When I listened to this EP I was just starting get more into punk and hardcore music and the energy and fun of the record was so intense I had to buy it. Just imagine, it’s eight songs but only ten minutes, ha!
Pharcide // Labcabincalifornia // Runnin
First Hip Hop album that I bought, still one of my favorite 90’s HipHop albums.
U.N.K.L.E // The Time has come EP
This record came out in 1994 I think. At the time I was very much into “trip hop”, it was the new cool sound. 🙂
I was also listening to hip hop, weird electronic music, punk, soul, and drum ‘n base and old records from my dad. One of my dreams when I was 17 was being a eclectic DJ myself so I bought two fake Technics turn tables and a Numark mixer and I started collecting records. After a while I found out that one of my favourite record labels was Mo’ Wax. I was also very much into graffiti writing at the time and one of my big heroes was Futura 2000. So when I saw this obscure Mo’ Wax album featuring the art work of Futura 2000 I bought it instantly without hesitation. The owner of Mo’ Wax James Lavelle made this album with Tim Goldsworthy and this was the first incarnation of U.N.K.L.E. I don’t care so much for all the records that followed from U.N.K.L.E. but this “The time has come” EP is brilliant.
PS
I’m constantly collecting new songs. It’s hard to find good music but it’s not impossible. 🙂 I can’t stand listening over and over to the same tracks so I always need new songs in my live.
That’s why I started collecting songs on Spotify since last year. If you are like me, please start following me (Lennyway) on Spotify and check my playlist “Starred” so we can we can share good songs.