2manydjs have announced they are doing a ‘This Is Belgium’ dj set at the ‘Making Time Is Rad’ festival in Philadelphia in September.
We don’t know exactly yet what they’re going to do, but the fans on the Soulwax reddit and discord love to guess what it might be.
Of course one of the hours of the Radio Soulwax series has the same name. Well, actually there are 2 parts. Part one tells the story of New Beat, while part 2 (Cherry Moon On Valium) has all the tracks pitched down.
Longtime fan HijackFB took the time to do a full write up of the transcript.
So if you haven’t heard about New Beat and why it’s a Belgian thing, just watch the video below or read the transcript.
Radio Soulwax presents: This Is Belgium Part 1 – New Beat
Between 1987 and 1989, New Beat ruled.
Sometimes youth culture produces fads that live forever.
This is one that died and left a bad taste in people’s mouths
But people forget that so much of the music was amazing and very influential and attracted people all over Europe.
Wearing New Beat clothes, dancing the New Beat dance.
This is our attempt at telling the story of New beat using articles from late 1988 from the NME, I-D and Time Out.
It’s 1988.
In the 1970’s, Belgian clubs were playing “Popcorn” music, an often slowed down, cousin of Northern Soul. This was superseded by American and European Disco.
Disco remained a staple of Belgian nightlife ‘til 1985.
In the early 80’s, a smattering of clubs throughout Belgium were dedicated to electronic music.
Places like The Happy House in Aarschot, The Atelier in Leuven and On The Beach in Kortrijk, all spun a variety of import material, from The Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ through Throbbing Gristle’s ‘United’.
An Antwerp DJ, known generously as “Fat Ronnie” was already pushing for change, working the floor with raw eurobeat and UK synth pop in small clubs,
building his audience with favourites from the suburban venues, film music and tracks from the likes of John Foxx and Soft Cell.
A new club, The Ancienne Belgique opened and offered Ronnie the chance to play a crowd with a full battery of laser effects.
“A lot of people from outside town came to Antwerp… they began to call it AB music, after the club.
We didn’t think it was possible to entertain 2000 people with that kind of music, we were still playing top 40 music, but the spark was there” – DJ Marc Grouls
At the Ancienne Belgique, Ronnie mixed ska with new wave classics, strange jazz and euro disco. Rarely letting the tempo go over wanting 110BPM, the records he played were often slowed down to create atmosphere. The AB became the most popular club in Antwerp in the mid eighties.
However, Ronnie had a drug problem and despite his success, he was fired from the AB after only a few months. Legend has it, he went to prison after mugging a little old lady for drugs…
The focus of the scene shifted…DJ Marc Grouls gave AB-music a new name…
The most common legend goes like this: Marc and a handful of other DJs were listening to ‘Fresh’, the latest 12” from Belgium electronic band, A Split Second, in Antwerp’s USA Import record store. By slowing the pitch control down to a lurching 33, Marc transformed the track from pleasant euro-industrialism to a melodramatic, pomp-laden epic.
“Then, we started to talk of Belgian New Beat” – Marc Grouls
The pitch-altered split second disc reverberated throughout the Belgian DJ community. It came to the attention of Maurice Engelen, a former promoter who had brought the likes of Modern English, Eyeless in Gaza and Josef K to the country.
“I saw there was a strange atmosphere on the dance floor when they played the record, so I asked Bellucci to produce another record with the same ingredients.”
– Maurice Engelen
Roland Bellucci teamed up with Cohorts Morton and Sherman to produce a 12” under the name Fruit of Life, entitled ‘Not Afraid To Dance’.
“We went over to USA Import and played them the tape… the guys from the store said ‘Take out this one, that break there – take out that one’…
So I went back to the studio and spliced the tape… it was just bashing for six and a half minutes from beginning to end…
We put it out and in two or three weeks time we sold five thousand copies.
We couldn’t believe it.” – Roland Bellucci
So what does New Beat sound like?
Well, the records are slowed down to a constant, unyielding bass drum thud.
New Beat is a sparse, relentless, mogadon groove.
Why so slow?
“Here in Belgium we can’t dance to an acid record on normal speed – we can’t follow it because we don’t take drugs or anything!” – Marc Grouls
“We mix very loud like we’re in a club with maximum power. We are aware that most of the tracks are listened to in clubs; you have to give yourself to the sound, let the sound come over you” – Roland Bellucci
“What’s good about New Beat is that the best ingredients are taken from the other dance styles” – Maurice Engelen
They took the low bass drum and heavy old synthesiser tunes from electronic body music.
They also took sounds from acid and for the track now playing (Ed note: The track is The Pro 24s – Technotronic), they were heavily inspired by Farley Jackmaster Funk’s “The Acid Life”.
Although New Beat looks to an electronic European past rather than black culture, it’s not without feeling or humour.
The standard way to play a record New Beat style, is to take a 45 and play it at 33 with the pitch control at plus 8%.
This slowing down deepens the bass frequencies, vibrating the air, and creating a new sound that wasn’t intended by the creators.
Once you’ve felt that bass rumble through a big soundsystem and got used to the slow swing of the groove, it makes the rest of your record collection sound like weedy, badly produced rubbish.
Not all records sound good this way and the DJ’s needed more to play, so they teamed up with local producers and recreated the effect.
Belgium is a traditionally catholic country.
Paradoxically, many New Beat records are quite overtly about sex.
“There’s a lot of sampling in this scene, we’re well aware that some of the things we are doing are not very legal.” – Roland Bellucci
Particularly prevalent are erotic, near pornographic samples, many which border on the offensive.
The overt sexual references can be seen as an act of youthful rebellion against the status quo.
It all started with Subway 001, an anti-aids tune entitled “I Don’t Do a Thing With a Thing On My Thing”, a Chris Inger/Praga Khan project.
Maurice from Subway struck upon the bright idea of issuing the record as a limited edition with a free condom.
“We made 1000 with condoms stuck on the cover. From the 1000 we sent out, we had 700 returns from the shops because people had ripped off the condoms”
– Maurice Engelen
The sexy sampling debacle really took off with a Morton Sherman Bellucci project entitled “Move Your Ass And Feel The Beat” by The Erotic Dissidents.
“When ‘Move Your Ass’ started selling, we were supposed to do a television show, there was no real Erotic Dissidents – it was just an idea in Morton’s mind…” – Maurice Engelen
“We tried to find an image in the style of La Cicciolina (the Italian pop star-turned-MP)
We looked for a girl to give image to the erotic part but it was really difficult to find somebody to do it” – Roland Bellucci
With its monotone sub-village people hook, it’s more camp than offensive, but the Belgians were shocked and sales began to soar.
With their bondage gear, sex toys and semi-nudity…The Erotic Dissidents are hardly family viewing-
Still, their notoriety led them to the top of the charts, selling over 40000 copies.
The New Beat hits flood in…
In parallel to UK dance releases, all the New Beat hits have stemmed from independent labels.
“The majors are scared.” – Roland Bellucci
Not only were the majors scared, they were highly suspicious.
Unable to accept such high sales figures, they set the Belgian equivalent of the B.P.I. onto the indies.
In 1988 there were only two national TV stations both run by the state.
“We have to fight against the media.
The people are calling out to them to play some New Beat” – Marc Grouls
PLAY SOME NEW BEAT
As with Detroit radio’s lack of response to it’s city’s techno music and Radio One’s ignorance of chartbound house, the conservative audio programmers pass up the exploding domestic scene in favour of an imported sound.
National TV and radio boycott New Beat.
They don’t consider it real music made by real musicians.
It’s in the clubs however and the scene is really kicking.
After Fat Ronnie’s mysterious departure from The Ancienne Belgique, three new clubs picked up the action.
All are high-tech pleasure domes fitted with shockingly expensive hi-fidelity sound systems that grind to the beat.
Prestige in Antwerp
Vertigo in Brussels
and Ghent’s Boccaccio Club.
Entering the Boccaccio Club in Ghent is like falling into a dislocated version of life in slow motion.
The club is a massive mirrored place of glitz.
Two and a half thousand dancers are standing, bancks rigid, limbs swinging at robotic half speed to a soundtrack of deconstructed underground eurobeat.
Standing at the bar, on the stairs, on the balcony and the dancefloor, everyone is moving to the New Beat.
When DJ Olivier pushes the soundsystem to the bass limits of endurance,
switches the lasers to overdrive and mixes up IN-D’s “Bastion In-D Stress”, one of the New Beat crowd’s own records, the reaction is total bliss out.
How to dance to New Beat: A lesson in three parts
- Wave your arms
- Slide your feet
- Repeat
Your turn!
Like in many club based music genres, the majority of records were made by a handful of producers working under different aliases.
Because of its anonymity and relatively simple production it was the perfect way to get into music production.
Kind of like how punk inspired everyone to start a band, except with synths and much, much slower.
New Beat proved to be the genesis of a new generation of Belgian producers, like Patrick De Meyer who was active as Fatal Error, Tragic Error, Jarvic 7, Concrete Beat, G-Force, T-99 and many more names.
Legend has it he was also the producer behind the original version of ‘Pump Up The Jam’ by Technotronic which was released under the guise of “The Pro 24’s”.
Jade 4U, also known as ‘the queen of New Beat’, released dozens of records both as a solo artist, under various aliases or as a member of groups such as Lords of Acid.
Maurice Engelen as co-owner of Antler Subway was highly prolific in the New Beat period. He is the man behind some of the most well known hits, often in collaboration with Jade 4U.
Marc Grouls was a DJ in Antwerp and an active producer under the names of IN-D and The Two DJ’s. One legend says it was he who renamed AB Music as New Beat.
Ro Maron or Rembert De Smet already had a successful career with ‘2 Belgen’ and became a very prolific New Beat producer (often with Ferre Baelen of TC Matic),
working under the names of Agaric, Zia Zsa Boum, Le Mystere, Edwards and Armani, Little Little, Kaos 007, etc..
His productions tended to feature the Roland TB-303 quite heavily.
Renaat Van De Papeliere is the mastermind behind the legendary R&S label and was credited on dozens of New Beat records such as Code 61, Executive Board, ION, TC, etc..
Morton Sherman Bellucci were quite simply – the slowed down stock, aitken and waterman of New Beat.
They were responsible for some of the biggest New Beat tracks and they produced a high volume of releases in a very short time.
Jo Bogaert, who was known as Nux Nemo before New Beat and later became one of the successful producers with Technotronic, was also a New Beat master as N’Umoh.
Serge Raemakers was known for the more commercial side to NewBeat such as Confetti’s and The Maxx.
In the beginning of 1988, there were only a few New Beat records available.
So a big part of New Beat DJ sets were slowed down New Wave records like the one now playing… (Ed Note: the track is Carol – Breakdown)
But after the large selling hit singles of the Erotic Dissidents and Confetti’s, suddenly everyone started to produce New Beat on their synthsizers.
A new type of New Beat started to emerge…
Even though both the singles from The Erotic Dissidents and Confetti’s were made to be danced to in clubs, this “Nougat” Beat was made to get in the charts and make money.
To keep the quality of the music high, the pioneers of New Beat meet up.
They decide to create the B.N.B.F (The Belgium New Beat Foundation).
They create stickers to differentiate real New Beat from Nougat Beat.
Back in the Boccaccio, the whole club shifts to and fro in unconscious Mexican wave formations.
The crowd are decked in high fashion by Six of Antwerp or BOY of London, flaunting imported Oxford Street ‘Have a Nice Trip’ T-shirts or flamenco fashions.
The New Beat Uniform
- D.M Shoes (cut the leather to reveal the steel toecap)
- Cycling Shorts
- Wear a “BELGIANS DO IT BETTER” T-shirt* *Available at Soulwax.com (Ed Note: Not anymore 🙁 )
- Vandalise a V.W. or Mercedes and wear the badge.
- Wear black and white
- Go to a graveyard, steal photos of the dead and wear them on your outfit
- Cover yourself with smileys
Concurrent with the rise of Acid House in the UK, the smiley became a symbol of New Beat.
Summer 1988 was the Summer of Love…and New Beat had a presence in Ibiza.
Heavily inspired by (New Beat producer and resident DJ in Brussels Mirano club) Jean-Claude Maury, DJ Alfredo opens the minds of many foreigners from all over at Amnesia by playing a slowed down blend of Pop, New Wave, Latin, early house and of course New Beat, calling it the Balearic Sound.
Those who could not afford to experience the Summer of Love in Ibiza, found a welcoming home in Belgium.
As a result DJ’s from all over the world travelled to Belgium to buy New Beat records and see what was going on.
These DJ’s discover the New Beat sound and its slowed down effect but not just of the newly made records, also of the rediscovered New Wave tracks by the likes of Snowy Red and Carol, which are now bootlegged and sold as New Beat 12”s.
News of New Beat spread and foreign magazines sent journalists,
I-D Magazine,
The N.M.E.
and Time Out.
Unlike the initial reaction of the Belgian music press, the foreign articles aren’t sneering and negative.
They too send people to one place and one time, the Boccaccio on a sunday night.
Inside the Boccaccio, two thousand people are grinding their dirty Doc Martens.
These are the well off kids, the kids that can afford the cocktails and the clobber, the kids that can stand losing a monday’s pay in the cause of some serious sunday raving.
The club is so popular that on sunday nights 1000 people from all over Europe queue to get into the already full venue.
Outside the club, hundreds of yards of polished motors, Mercedes and Porsches among them, testify to the wealth of both the scene and the country.
The New Beat action pivots around Antwerp and Ghent.
The car is central to the scene with clubbers driving from venue to venue on the same night.
The music itself creates a perfect electronic soundtrack round the neon riddled autobahns. Not least thru the silicon valley strip between Brussels and Antwerp.
New Beat marks the start of the 4 day weekend where people would stay out from Thursday night until Monday morning’s closing at the Boccaccio.
This left Tuesday to recover and Wednesday to prepare for the next weekend.
At the height of New Beat, the city of Ghent has to close the highway exit because there is too much traffic coming into Destelbergen.
All this for Boccaccio.
A whole new generation of clubbers are starting to live for the weekend.
Despite the national media blackout, a local Antwerp radio program has supported New Beat, since back when it was known as AB Music.
The show is Liasons Dangereuses, and it’s hosted by Paul Ward and DJ’ed by Sven Van Hees.
People from other cities would cruise the streets of Antwerp to pick up the show on their car stereos.
They’d record the show and then go back home and bootleg it for their friends.
The bootleg tapes made it around the world.
Ironically, foreign DJ’s were buying New Beat records to play sped up next to their Acid House.
Despite international acclaim the response from the Belgian media is the same.
Even without radio play, in October 1988 8 out of the top 10 records in Belgium were New Beat tracks.
Eventually radio relents and New Beat makes it to the national airwaves.
With national radio exposure, New Beat sales rocket.
Bands who had to fight for exposure now become Belgian household names.
The Boccaccio goes from strength to strength. It’s packed for 3 days every weekend.
With New Beat at its commercial height, the Boccaccio hosts “The European New Beat Festival”.
The appeal of New Beat spreads far and wide, with compilation records being licensed and released worldwide.
On Belgian TV, BRT runs news reports.
New Beat Xmas singles enter the charts.
The New Beat bandwagon is in full swing.
Even advertising picks up on it.
The BNBF logo gets faked.
Even the bouncer at Boccaccio has his own New Beat record.
Nougat Beat dominates the charts.
Since the very beginning New Beat had fought for the national recognition it now has.
However the rampant commercialisation leads to a feeling that New Beat has lost its charm.
While the rest of Europe is still enjoying New Beat, the initial creators and then the public move on.
The new style of music is all of a sudden, not so new anymore.
Belgium turned its back on New Beat.
From 1990s onwards, it looked like New Beat had never existed.
Once the slowed down beats were forgotten and everyone started to make faster electronic music, most of the prolific New Beat producers went on to become techno gods.
There were however, some casualties.
The first European New Beat festival is also the last.
Eventually the Boccaccio closed its doors after a series of raids.
Peter, the front man from the Confetti’s apparently goes to an insane asylum after having been dropped from the spotlight.
Fat Ronnie spent many many years fighting his addiction.
New Beat helped put Belgium on the map as one of the meccas of electronic music.
Nightlife in Belgium is still famous, or notorious, depending on how you look at it.
It gave birth to many record stores and nightclubs in its heyday, many of which are still important and influential in dance music.
R&S thrived as a groundbreaking techno label, discovering some of the biggest artists in the dance scene.
Praga Khan and Lords of Acid kept doing their thing and became huge in the US.
Technotronic conquered the charts all around the world.
New Beat is the story of the last music based youth movement to come solely from Belgium.
Overall the whole thing didn’t last for more than two years.
Because of its fast rise and even faster decline and the way it fizzled out in commercial overkill, it is often looked upon as an embarrassing period.
In our opinion, it really shouldn’t be.
The music is amazing and underrated
and we hope to spread the gospel of New Beat to more people.
Thanks,
Dave & Steph.
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