Belgian New Beat is completely out now but some people are freaking to it like in the good old days. A short lifetime A great history... :
Early New Beat from the years around '85 is linked with Electro, Synth pop, Avantgarde, Soul, Disco, EBM and had a 96 bpm. This is low beat stuff and really cult for me! Very carefull selected records were played and at different speed which results in a deep, dark and slow sound never heard somewhere before. Old Cult dance Music, let's say AB-music or records they played in clubs as Ancienne Belgique in Antwerp and a few more clubs as Prestige and Fifty Five and Carrera in Ghent. This is also the basic sound for a new style of music better know as the later New Beat.For me the first original New Beat track (100bpm) is born in Aalst around the year 86-87 and came from Jo ‘Technotronic’ Bogaert. With tracks as ‘Acts Of Madmen - The Dream’ and ‘Nux Nemo – Chinatown’ & ‘Hiroshima’.
Later around '87 '89 they pushed up the beats to 118bpm. A New club called Boccaccio in Ghent had a big influence and became the place to test the new sounds on the dancin crowd. But also Antwerp was still in touch with the beat, Sven Van Hees and Paul Ward broadcasted their own radioshow named ‘Liaisons Dangereuses’ where you could hear the latest selected tracks brought in a very original point of view.
To make new contacts and organise things and a lot more the USA Import records shop was also a meeting place where people buyed new releases while other people brainwashed about the sound to make something that scores for the next weekend.
We could say we created a new sound over there. Interesting stuff that many people in the electronic music scene would come over to see what happened in Belgium. New Beat changes and had to handle with quality overseas influences from Detroit, Chicago, UK acid house. These sounds where imported in the center of europe, Belgium. We take care of it and mixed these sounds into more commercial quality New Beat.
At this moment New Beat was a hype, big money, big new clubs, new labels as R&S, Music Man, USA Import, Antler Subway and much more where born...
In the year '90 and at bpm124 New Beat was fucked up by commercial breakout and results in producing 99.9% crap. But not all crap because Belgian techno 130bpm was born and is gonna evoluate to the maximum together with the rest of the world. Let's say belgian producers are the one's that gives Techno a little push, so who can concur against our belgian electronics :-)
It will never die, maybe it will sleep for a while, but sure it's gonna wake up again! Today New Beat is maybe to slow to dance for young people... Just enough for me to find out the good times of belgian Music Industry. Keimi still Rocks To The Beat until today :-))Respect And Thanks to : Jo 'Technotronic' Bogaert, Jean-Claude Maury, Rembert De Smet, Roland Beelen, Jos 'Chris Inger' Borremans, Peter 'Chrismar Chayell' Bonne, Marc Grouls, Marcos Salon, Paul Ward, Sven Van Hees, Harry Van Oekel, Jade 4U, Maurice Engelen, J.P. Ruelle, Renaat Vandepapeliere, Maurice Engelen, Dirk Danton's Voice' De Saever, Takis Gritzelis, Dirk TeeCee't Seyen, Kris 'Kastaar' Van den Hooff, Eric Beysens, Fat Ronnie, Olivier Adams, CJ Bolland, Frank De Wulf and many more...
About me : Influeces by NATURE - ART - FOOD - MUSIC
In '75 Keimi was born is Aalst, the carnaval city with nice minded party people. I started in '84 to collect some Michael Jackson records and listened to Public Enemy & other good music.In '87 I visited weekly the local music shops Target Records & Pop Shop, this to discover the world of old Electronics, Front 242 & New Beat. I buyed my first records and started to compile my own music tapes with good music...
In the year '90 I discovered the Belgian techno and club sounds and did my first visit at a club named Xanadu Wetteren & FIX Aalst. My first big rave party was the 1st Rave Explosion (1992) at the Globe Show Center Denderleeuw.
A few years later around mid '93 you could find me almost every week at club Cherry Moon and other clubs around the country. My first international rave called Mayday opened my eyes and until today followed by many other German and international party's.
'95 was my/the golden year! From then on I went more into the music, learned about WARP records and many other labels. I played a bit Sax and African percutions and slacked down clubbing and visited a lot of festivals to discover a new world of electronic music. This could be the breaking point of a musical way of living...
I am not a DJ but music lover who would like to spread the beat and awake people, making contacts with the next generation from the past for the future, feed us and feed others.
From 2002 until 2005 I started over the spirit of clubbing again. Mainly the German scene with leader Sven Vath & friends. 3 years of clubbing around Europe is a nice way of living but life is more than that! It's a hard way of living with these people around you but what a time we had...!Because of this we organized in 2005 a big party concept named Minimalicious in club Silo Leuven. Our target was to bring up the German minded party scene in Belgium and let the Belgian crowd enjoying the good life we had over there. Quality music brought you by Tobi Neumann, Discodesafinado, Dominik Eulberg, Andrew Wheaterall, Tomaz, Tom Dazing... The party concept exist still today as Forbidden Fruit with the same point of view with the same quality party people, quality music for a next generation,...
Now I screwed back to basics to take a trip back to my roots. Nowadays 80's electro and New Beat is ruling my live again. What will the future bring us...? I can tell you I feel the music more than ever! Expect the unexpected! Enjoy life, take care of the people around you, your life, friends, nature & let the music take control...!
For us it's forever war and not a war of fame, fortune or females. It's a war for soul...We are an electronic continuation of it. - Mad Mike Banks U.R. -