S15: Voicst - Sgt. Gonzo

"You're talking to a freak."

Way back when (actually, not so long ago) I was Head of Music on a student radio station. This seems like an exciting job at first, until you realise that around 95% of all you receive is pap (you may choose either definition, especially given the number of people famous simply for having breasts getting into the recording studios has risen dramatically these past few years). It then becomes a grueling task, getting up and trying to find the diamond amongst the rough. For a while I had fun sending biting reviews to the marketing companies, until one suggested that perhaps we ought to find a Head of Music who actually liked music and I stood down, instead taking over the role of Programmer, which with its dependency on Spreadsheet management, suited me far better and allowed me to make some much-needed changes to the output of the station.

One band who did capture my ears not unfavourably were Dutch three-piece Voicst. Their name means "manic energy" in Afrikaans and this so precisely defines their sound I feel at a loss describing it else. This song, like the song on which promo it was featured (Acts of Fire), is from their debut, 11-11, released in 2004 in Holland before putting a girdle about the world at a snail's pace, though not for a lack of impact. They've supported the likes of The Raveonettes, Nada Surf, The Bravery, The Presidents of the United States of America, and others. Working hard on touring and building up their fanbase the old-fashioned way, they have only just this year released their second album - A Tale of Two Devils - on which they worked with producer Peter Katis (Interpol, The National).

Good luck finding that one if you're not an iTunes user, like myself.

Much of the information for this article was researched on their Wikipedia entry, which was either penned by someone from their native Holland, or by an English-speaker with a curious idea of the proper application of the present and future conditional tenses.

Download: Voicst - Sgt. Gonzo

And here's a video. We've not had one for a while*. This is the aforementioned Acts of Fire:

Voicst's official website (a few streamable songs set amongst a too-oft clumsy design)
Buy 11-11: Amazon UK (where they've gotten the name wrong) | US

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*EDIT: I remembered I could have added one yesterday, so have just done so.