After three years of 'it's out soon' and 'have you heard it?' and 'just a little later... soon... I promise!' one of the most anticipated releases of the year has arrived most officially at the KNOTORYUS offices.
Produced by Soulwax.
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More scans of the official Das Pop artwork after the jump.
So the question remains: is it as good as everyone says it is?
Daspop
The short answer: yes.
Yes it is.
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The long answer:
It's the Beatles, 10CC, Joe Meek, XTC, The Pixies and ... I could keep going for a while. Most songs are of the finger-snapping variety, with enough poppy hooks to disembowel Timbaland. The difference between earlier Das Pop work and this album is staggering. It's just a completely different band. It's like (frontman) Bent & Co invented a new style of Kung Fu, where someone hops around like a teenage idiot at a Beatles concert, punches you in the mouth and skips off whistling a tune you can't get out of your head, even long after the stitches have healed.
The back story is fairly well known by now, I think:
Das Pop achieve success in Belgium, but hit a glass ceiling. So frontman Bent Van Looy burns several bridges in his hometown and moves to Paris to start from scratch. A year of financial struggling and playing in small pubs ensues. Justice picks up on them and starts playing their songs in live sets. Old friends 2ManyDJ's/Soulwax/Dewaele Brothers hear them play live and are blown away by the new material. They agree to produce the album. As payment, Das Pop agree to cook them a meal. Soon after, the album is recorded. Sequencers and samplers & other studio tricks are thrown out in favour of a live, garage-like sound. Everybody loves it. The buzz starts growing. But Das Pop isn't signed to a label any more. So it takes a looooooooooong time to get that sorted out. Album buzz reaches guns 'n roses-like levels, post-poning and re-scheduling every time a date has been set. At one point there was even an official press release, including a release date, and several magazines publish a review of the album (although they haven't heard it yet). Soon after, the release is set back for a full year.
And now it's here.
And we love it.