Sonig
Uské Orchestra (B,2005)****'
I should mention this album, found at Lowland’s bankruptcy sell-out. It just looked too promising to miss, and I don’t regret it. This is entertaining, nonsense-fun-making, melodic, weird avant-pop/folk, songs and complex collage of found sounds, lots of weird voices, children instruments and just a few normal instruments like sax. It is compact with sounds (well recorded, perhaps as a latop-collage –especially in the beginning and more near the end?- combined with direct, multi-layered live playing?), playful and joyful in the way it is arranged and played. There are also longer and more stretched improvisations. I don’t know if the band still exists. Their website has already disappeared from sight. I only know that everything (included children and weird voices, arrangements, as well as the drawings) are led by Nico Uské (from Dinant). With no doubt this is one of the most advanced Belgian weirdfolk I have heard so far. For fans of Renaldo & The Loaf, the weird-folk scene, Salvador Cresta and such. Brilliant.
