Snapshots festival: Brussels based label run by Quix.
http://cheloniamydas.org/snapshots/
For this occasion, Ming (Frédérique Franke and Nicolas Ekla) Belgian electro-pop duo played their last gig, together with musicians Quix and Alex Waterman from N.Y……………………..It was great!!
They took the opportunity to re-interpreted many songs from their first band Les Brochettes, a few songs from their never to be third Ming album and some from the older ones, thrown in a few cover versions: Eisbar (Grauzone) fantastic with Watermans’ frantic celloing, a New Order and a… Niagara cover!
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Frédérique and Nicolas have been playing together for more than 10 years, writing songs in frantic situations, between Geneva, Brussels and the Belgium countryside: 4 albums, many remixes, loads of kms, gigs all over the place, late nights, cigarettes, beer and gouda sandwiches…. and lots of studio mounting, un-mounting, cabling, de-cabling, re-cabling the analog vintage machines….
Their songs are stories, tainted by the surrounding reality, some times funny or ironic, sad or melancholic, pink and dark, sweet and acid, with references to literature, old films and photography,
The texts are poetical and often rooted in some kind of a new wave feeling.
After auto-producing their first band Les Brochettes, Ming formed and signed with German label Doxa.
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Once the concert hall cleared, we all went to a little bar for last drinks. The bar was empty, and silent. We got Les Brochettes CD out, Frédé laughed and said she hadn’t listened to it in years. It turned into quite a party, people were happy, beer was flowing, musicians were kissing, and the bar tender turned the volume up.
Then the pigs turned up, barked aggressively, fined the bar tender and chucked us out. Frédé and Alex got arrested for taking photos, and spent the rest of the night in a cell.
While walking back in to town, the girls got called bitches by a passing car (our skirts were under the knee, our boots over the knee and our hoods where up, not really very exciting)…
But all of this is just more anxiety for future songs and better parties!!
If you can’t get rid of it, use it.