michiel van der kuy

this thread is an offshoot of the bleep 'n' bass thread, which then turned into a discussion of belgian hardcore . . . .

i had asked about this track w/ a sample that goes "we are taking every precaution" over a breakbeat, which jimbackhouse then identified as:

jimbackhouse said:

it's called 'precaution' by exposure to little electronic noises; on stealth records. it's on the first 'reactivate' compilation too, and the first 3 or 4 volumes of that are as good a primer on bombastic belgian rave as you can get (just avoid the other 15+ volumes!)

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my compulsions then took over -- still not sure if jimbackhouse made the correct ID (no solace for the doubting thomas!) -- and i did some research, which eventually led to me to this site --

http://www.xs4all.nl/~halco1/mur/090800/more.html

seems that the person who made "precaution" also made "james brown is dead" -- and several other 1991 dutch hardcore tracks, none of which are familiar to me by name

but even more interesting (or disturbing), this person -- michiel van der kuy -- had been making dance music since 1983 and continues to do so to this day

i suspect that most of van der kuy's output has been really cheesy italo disco turned euro house turned euro trance . . . .

AND YET discogs (hardly an infallible authority, but nonetheless . . . ) assigns 5 out of 5 stars to much of van der kuy's 1988/89 output, released on his "made up records" label:

MUR 112 Sheila Stewart It's You (12")
MUR 1212 Sheila Stewart Tonight (12")
MUR 412 Rygar Star Tracks (12")
MUR 512 Claudia T Dance With Me (12")
MUR 612 Sauvage Do You Want Me? (12")
MUR 712 Various Made Up Megamix Vol 1 (12")
MUR 912 Claudia T Fatal Destination (12")

so my question to dissensus is this: does anybody know this body of work?

and if most of his work is, as i suspect, pretty crap -- then how to account for the moments of 1991 techno inspiration -- especially "precaution"?

again, i think we're outside both the genius paradigm and the scenius paradigm . . . .

can't be a genius is most of your stuff is crap & can't be scenius if you're a professional producer w/ a background in classical music

jimbackhouse said:

'Startracks' by Rygar is a great record, but yes - it is INCREDIBLY cheesy (unashamedly so...)

van der Kuy also did some great work under the name Laserdance and 'PowerRun' and 'Humanoid Invasion' are prime mid-late 80s italo / euro-nrg. They all came out on his own Hotsound label, then on ZYX (with great artwork!)

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cheesy can be good w/in measure -- and seriousness/weight/rebel program can be deadly boring -- standard arguments that don't need rehearsing -- i mention this only to let you know i'm aware of the issue

i was basing my assumptions about "cheese" on: (1) the album covers on the site that i linked; and (2) the fact that michiel vdk has produced so much music

and of course zyx is a "serious" label -- so who knows (w/o listening)

jimbackhouse said:

Peter Slaghuis (Hithouse) was the other scarily prolific euro-rave producer who seemed to follow a similar trajectory.

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so sounds like dutch/belgian hardcore was the same phenomenon as italy -- i.e., former italo producers jumping on the rave bandwagon

that is, i think that "precaution" is one of the greatest rave tracks ever -- and yet michiel vdk seems not to have been terribly into the music -- he simply churned it out

most of the important uk producers had previously been involved in other kinds of music production -- industrial music, hip hop, soundsystems, avant funk, rock -- but i always *imagine* uk rave as a d.i.y., populist movement

also, professional producers who got into rave in uk seem to have undergone a "conversion" experience -- or else they shaped rave to fit their own musical heritage (thinking of the junglists here) --

whereas the italian & dutch producers seem simply to have jumped the trend from italo disco to hardcore rave for a year or two -- and yet succeeded in making lots of good records

and of course i say all of this w/o having heard michiel vdk's earlier or later work -- i'm speculating w/o shame -- so perhaps his rave production is continuous w/ his earlier & later work???