Album:

Het Zweet

Artist:

Label:

Format:
Year:
2022
Edition:
Ltd.400
Detail:
Double LP 180 gr heavy white vinyl, two color, hand stitched and numbered limited edition of 400 copies on special Gmund paper. Marien Van Oers work under the name Het Zweet (“The Sweat” in English) originally came out in the 1980s (specifically 1983-1988), but listening to the new reissue of this self-titled album from 1987 can feel like one is listening to something that’s both much more current and also much, much older than that. Van Oers, who passed away in 2013, made music that tended to get classed as “industrial”, and tracks here like the steady, clanging churn of “From the Lowland” or “On Earth” show why, but he was as or more inspired by tribal music intended to produce trance-like effects via rhythm and (percussive and vocal) repetition
Using instruments made by himself out of anything from shopping carts to cardboard tubes, the music of Het Zweet locks into grooves that somehow feel more elemental and physical than many of his contemporaries. It never quite feels like Van Oers is emulating or echoing the music of any particular region or tradition so much as trying to synthesize all the ones he’s heard into some sort of ur-pulse, an overtone so powerful as to compel the “Massive Trance” the title of the last song on the record evokes
The tribal drumming, the invocations, and the loops of acoustic sound add an entirely different rhythm to the game ('Red Robe', for instance). Z'EV meets early Muslimgauze and Test Department, less the political connotations. In the back of my mind, I thought the Dossier LP wasn't his best work, but I am sure I must have misremembered this. Maybe I had moved on in 1987? I no longer know. Hearing this, I realize this is an excellent record, remastered with great care by Radboud Mens and hopefully the start of a re-issue campaign of Van Oers' earlier work.(vital-FdW) 
Condition:
SEALED
Sound file:
€ 29 but +21% VAT in the EU:
€ 35.09
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