Ovens van Ondank Ovens van Ondank LP
Live 1983 recording from this below-below-the-radar Dutch group, who have otherwise been relegated to the demo-only dustbins of Euro post-punk history. I don’t usually go too hard for live records, but there’s not exactly an abundance of OVENS VAN ONDANK releases out there, and the sound quality of this set is surprisingly solid—if your tastes in DIY art-punk skew toward the unpolished and the off-center (as they should), the warts-and-all live translations of these eleven tracks will most likely only be an asset. Like their local Utrecht contemporaries COÏTUS INT., OVENS VAN ONDANK had that bleak, early ’80s Manchester-patented pallor of post-industrial decay, with a sound centered around driving, naked basslines, stern-yet-anguished vocals (in dual Dutch/English), and in this case, some of the most prominent use of accordion in a post-punk context this side of DIE ATLANTIKSCHWIMMER. Sure, the extra-moody “Paradijs” and “Vluchten in Waanzin” are about a Robert Smith backcomb away from proper goth, but even one close listen to the collapsing, almost No Wave rhythms of “Hout en IJzer” should reveal something much cooler and genuinely weirder at play here.