August 31, 2018

White noise evokes White Christmas if you think about it

Filed under: Music,Science by Orangemaster @ 2:12 pm

Harald Merckelbach and Vincent van de Ven of Maastricht University published a study back in 2001 entitled ‘Another White Christmas: fantasy proneness and reports of ‘hallucinatory experiences’ in undergraduate students’ in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, which, for whatever reason, has been brought to Improbable Research’s attention this week.

Forty-four undergraduate students were asked to listen to white noise and instructed to press a button when they believed hearing a recording of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas without this record actually being presented. Fourteen participants (32%) pressed the button at least once…. hallucinatory reports obtained during the White Christmas test [might] reflect a non-specific preference for odd items rather than schizophrenia-like, internal experiences.

In my neck of the woods, we used to sing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, and all the cars stuck in the snow.” And in case you’ve never heard this great Christmas classic, here it is.

(Link: improbable.com)

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August 24, 2018

‘Trading black brothers in for white ones’

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 6:45 pm

Since popular rap group Broederliefde (in Dutch, ‘brotherly love’) from Rotterdam, with backgrounds from Curaçao, Dominican Republic and Cape Verde, attracted too many people at Gorinchem’s summer festival in 2017, the mayor has now banned the music style this year altogether ‘for security reasons’. The ban is being understood very differently by the Dutch media, accusing the Caucasian mayor of different shades of racism. Sure, safety is important, but this doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it. Why not get smaller, lesser known urban acts instead of punishing an entire segment of the Dutch population?

Not only is the ‘no urban’ thing doing the rounds in the media, it’s even a selling point on the festival’s website: “no urban, but still a party”, with acts that are the polar (ha, pun) opposite of urban, that is, carnivalesque après-ski music from the whitest of Caucasian Dutch men, amusingly enough called De Gebroeders Ko, which means the ‘Ko brothers’ who are also brothers just like Broederliefde.

Last year fights broke out when Broederliefde was performing, and that has made the mayor weary of anything urban, leading to an all out ban in the name of security. Problem is, there’s tons of urban-like music being played at festivals throughout the Netherlands and elsewhere, but the mayor is turning it into a ‘we don’t want black music [who is ‘we’ many people ask] because it attracts a bad element’ without flat out saying something overtly racist.

To drive the point home, one of the people in charge of programming (I bet he’s white) even said ‘we don’t want any acts like Ronnie Flex or Lil Kleine because they attract too many people. It’s scary to know that being popular is a reason to ban an entire genre of music that is mainly represented around the world by non Caucasians.

UPDATE: Hip hop and R&B festival Encore in Amsterdam is letting thefirst 300 visitors from Gorinchem in for free.

(Link: ad.nl, Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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August 10, 2018

Dutch singer Glennis Grace rocks America’s Got Talent

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 9:03 am

Anyone in the Netherlands who has heard Amsterdam’s Glennis Grace sing knows how fantastic she sounds in both Dutch and English. But in today’s America-obsessed Netherlands [constant comparisons to the US in all fields], if you make it big in the US in English, you’ve reached the top, at least in music.

These days Glennis Grace has been batting them out of the park, to use a baseball expression on America’s Got Talent. At 40, she’s not the doe-eyed 20-year-old looking for validation as annoyingly pointed out by judge Simon Cowell in not so many words in the video below. Glennis also addresses comments to Mel B on the panel, while Cowell finds a way of making it about himself, which doesn’t bother the worldly Glennis one bit.

The next step is singing live with six other contestants. Glennis has met them all and says they are good, but that she plans to stay focused on herself. As well, she’s keeping which song she’ll be singing in the next round a secret, but won’t give any details except that it’s a difficult song to sing.

Listen to Glennis Grace charm the room with ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Prince:

(Link: nu.nl, Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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June 12, 2018

A solution for morons who blab at concerts

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

Called the ‘Dutch disease’ by both the Dutch and foreigners, it’s terribly irritating when concertgoers talk through a concert. I can’t say there’s nothing worse than that because they are also morons who let their phones ring or block your view while filming, and a few other annoyances of that category. In any case, it’s disrespectful and a big problem.

Luckily, The Hague pop venue Paard had already introduced in February the ‘lul-niet-lolly’ (roughly, ‘don’t-blabble-lollypop’) and it’s now caught on at another 22 pop venues, including 013 in Tilburg, de Oosterpoort in Groningen, Doornroosje in Nijmegen, Rotown in Rotterdam, and de Effenaar in Eindhoven.

You suck on a lolly and you’re not ruining the concert experience for someone who actually cares about the money and time they spent to get to the show. It’s so bad sometimes that bands from other countries are warned this might happen and that it’s a shameful cultural phenomenon. I’ve even seen acts stop playing and tell the persons talking if they are enjoying the show and then tell them to shut the hell up or even leave.

If people want to act like children, they might as well suck on a lollypop to keep quiet.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of South African rapper Jack Parow by Orangemaster)

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May 9, 2018

Dutch orchestra gets first female conductor

Filed under: Dutch first,Music by Orangemaster @ 3:43 pm

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, which ranks third in the hierarchy behind the Concertgebouw and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, has just appointed its first ever female conductor, the American Karina Canellakis, 36, who will succeed German conductor Markus Stenz in September 2019.

Canellakis, the first woman music director of a major Dutch orchestra, made her debut at the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Utrecht and Amsterdam, with works from Britten, Shostakovich and Beethoven. In 2016 she won the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. Canellakis was also assistant to Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden in Dallas and is being introduced to Dutch media as his protegée. She credits her first conducting opportunity to a stint at the Berlin Philharmonic Academy, when Sir Simon Rattle offered her the baton.

(Links: nu.nl, slippedisc.com, Photo of Carlo Antonio Testore violin, Milan, 1738 by Jason Hollinger, some rights reserved)

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April 14, 2018

Dutch country music at Eurovision again

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:11 pm

Back in 2014, Ilse DeLange and Waylon sang ‘Calm After the Storm’ as The Common Linnets, which came in second at the Eurovision Song Contest that year, right behind ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’, performed by Conchita Wurst of Austria.

This year, Waylon is going it alone, with another ‘I’m European, but I want to sound American’ song called ‘Outlaw in ‘Em’, which sounds like a light beer advert to me, featuring truckers wiping their sweaty brow in slow motion after a long day on the road, at least in my head. And a lot like The Common Linnets, I’m not the target market for this type of song, but at least Waylon can actually sing and pronounce English properly.

A quick tour of the Dutch Internet suggests Waylon is a top 10 contender, as I write this.

(Photo of Microphone by visual dichotomy, some rights reserved)

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April 6, 2018

Commodore 64 chiptune based on Skype ringtone

Filed under: Music,Technology by Branko Collin @ 12:09 am

Helmond based, legendary 1980s home computer composer Jeroen Tel teamed up with LMan (Markus Klein) in February to enter CSDK’s “$11” Commodore 64 chiptune competition.

jeroen-tel-staffan-vilcansThe code $11 does not refer to a dollar amount, but to the value used for selection of the waveform; composers were only allowed to use a triangle wave for this contest.

Tel and Klein elected to take the famous Skype ringtone as the basis for a 2 minutes and 39 seconds long song called Skypeople.

They entered a second song called $11 Heaven, notable for the absence of arpeggios, a type of chord extensively used in the heyday of home computers when these devices lacked sophisticated sound chips that would have allowed for the playing of polyphonic chords. At least the Commodore 64 with its advanced SID sound chip allowed for three notes to be played at once.

Skypeople and $11 Heaven netted the two composers the 1st and 3rd prize respectively.

See also: Chiptune pioneer Jeroen Tel took on the British gaming giants

(Photo by Staffan Vilcans, some rights reserved; video YouTube / HierGibtEsJedenSch****)

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March 14, 2018

Sepultura’s bassist opens rock bar in Amsterdam

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:47 am

Cimbal-BR020

Bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr of world famous Brazilian metal band Sepultura has opened a bar in Amsterdam called BR020 (BR for Brazil and 020 for Amsterdam’s landline city code).

According to his bar staff, Paulo had always wanted to own a bar in Amsterdam even though he doesn’t live there. The bar staff play vinyl records, so you can ask to hear something and even pick from the wall (see photo below). My party went for some Motörhead, AC/DC and Pink Floyd.

Sepultura is finishing off a tour next week and the entire band is scheduled to attend the private opening of the bar although BR020 has been open for business since January. They serve one type of beer as their regular beer, a lesser known choice in Amsterdam purely because another beer from the same distributor is the beer the band has on their rider: Czech beer Pilsner Urquell.

BR020 also has a small stage that I’m sure will be put to good use soon enough. They also have a very nice collection of signed cymbals on the wall (see photo).

Guitar-Sepultura

Wall-BR020

See also:

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February 4, 2018

Groningen Rhapsody, protest song about earthquakes by Maartje & Kine

Filed under: Music,Nature,Sustainability by Branko Collin @ 4:37 pm

The ninth largest gas field in the world is located under the Dutch province of Groningen and extensive exploitation has led to an instability of the ground. In 2015 local comedy duo Maartje & Kine wrote this parody of a famous rhapsody in which they lament the troubles the region has seen.

groningen-rhapsody-maartje-kineThe lyrics are in Dutch, but you could try your luck with YouTube’s automated translation. Here are some quotes to get you going.

“Open your eyes, look at your barn and see… [a crack].”
“Our cows only produce milkshake these days.”
“He is the minister, evil and sinister.”

Last month, Groningen was hit by a gas exploitation induced earthquake that registered 3.4 on the Richter scale. It was the strongest quake in Groningen since 2012 and the fifth quake that month. As a result, 3,000 citizens filed insurance claims, on top of the 100,000 claims made earlier.

(Illustration: partial screenshot of the video, YouTube / Maartje & Kine)

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January 29, 2018

Dutch orchestra LUDWIG wins Grammy award

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 2:21 pm

On Sunday, 28 January 2018, Dutch classical music orchestra LUDWIG won a Grammy in the category Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with ‘Crazy Girl Crazy’, directed and sung by Canadian conductor and soprano Barbara Hannigan, aka the ‘conducting soprano’.

Peppie Wiersma, artistic director of the collective, qualified this feat as ‘quite incredible’. “We’ve only been doing this for a few years and this is our first CD. The fact that we’re the only Dutch winners makes it extra special”. The album Crazy Girl Crazy includes the Girl Crazy Suite, with music written by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin.

Despite receiving no subsidies or not really doing any fancy marketing (a very big point of contention in the Netherlands), LUDWIG was very quickly successful and has won many Dutch prizes since their debut in 2014.

The only other Dutch person to be nominated for a Grammy this year was conductor Reinbert de Leeuw in the category Best Classical Compendium, but unfortunately, he did not win. The 79-year-old De Leeuw was said to have been ‘a bit disappointed’.

Here is LUDWIG performing in concert.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of Carlo Antonio Testore violin, Milan, 1738 by Jason Hollinger, some rights reserved)

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