But Still the Smell Remains #1

 

Nasmak was an experimental early 80s band from Neunen, Netherlands, just outside of Eindhoven. Back at the start of the 80s, despite its provincial reputation, Eindhoven was a magnet for musical adventurers like no other place in the Netherlands. Forward thinking venues like the Apollohuis & the Effenaar, even smaller spots like the Poort van Kleef cafe regularly hosted nights of avant-garde music. Those making the instruments & devices that could play or record such music worked or studied at Philips Laboratories & Research Studios. If you add the activities of local avant-garde composers & polymaths like Paul Panhuysen, Remko Scha, or Michel Waisvisz, this was a perfect creative storm for young punks. It has many parallels to Cleveland's music scene from a decade prior.

Although Nasmak are usually lumped in with the 80s new wave crews, to my ears their experimental bent gives them the sound of a weird Dutch Pere Ubu. They play punk-derived style for stark, punchy bass/drums riffs with spare but nasty guitar (& gruff English vocals). Nasmak's defining characteristic is the way they create songs & then work at stripping them of melody, replacing much of it with sonic space. They are more post-punk than new wave.

According to Nasmak:
     "This CD offers a remixed version of our album 4our Clicks originally released on Dutch independent Plurex in February 1982. We were dissatisfied with the original mix in which half of the recorded multi-tracks were lost. This updated version reveals 4our Clicks as it was intended."

Recorded at Ballad Sound Studio, 1981, Vuren, the Netherlands & Arnold Mühren Studio, 1982, Volendam, the Netherlands. Re-mixed at The Tango Studio, 1988, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

On 4our Clicks, Nasmak is: Henk Janssen & Joop van Brakel - guitar, vocals; Theo van Eenbergen - bass guitar; & Toon Bressers - drums. 

 

Nasmak - 4our Clicks remix, Eksakt Records 039, 1988.

decryption code in comments

Pilot in Charge    
Waiting Room    
First Dishhunt    
I Hope I'm Gonna Rain Today    
Nothing but the Lyrics    
Sade, M De    
Origins & Whereabouts    
Roger, Bill Iceberg    
No Touch & Go    
Take a Look    
Not Your Living Doll    
Nodedive    
4our Clicks    
The Smell Remains No. 1    

Enjoy,
NØ