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The Record Man
The New York producer / composer Bob Gaulke gathered 29 musicians from all over the world, including 7 from the Netherlands, to make a tribute album dedicated to music connoisseur Ron Kane, who died last year.
A tribute to Ron Kane
Ron Kane was a fanatic collector of rare presses, cassettes, videos and CDs of more or less obscure bands and artists, preferably from countries other than England and the US. From the eighties on, he made contact with a wide range of musicians from various international pop, kraut rock, post-punk and new wave scenes. He became friends with members of Split Enz in New Zealand, Toshio Nakanishi in Japan and MAM and Nits in the Netherlands. In the United States, he inspired friends and followers with his contagious enthusiasm, his non-conformism and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the outskirts of pop music. In those days, when there was no internet and no Spotify, the nerdy Kane was an inexhaustible and fanatical source of information for many about new, idiosyncratic and small-scale releases.
When Ron Kane suffered from health problems in 2017, Bob Gaulke, one of his friends and admirers, started a musical “get better soon” project that got a different purport.
The project
When Kane died at the age of 59, Gaulke decided to follow through on the project and make an album with all those musicians who, some of them without knowing it, enjoyed the warm interest of Ron Kane. He sent e-mails to American, Brazilian, Japanese, New Zealand and Dutch artists with the request to contribute to the album. With the help of modern recording technologies they replied within weeks with guitar-, keyboard- and vocal tracks, percussion samples and above all ideas. A wonderfully lively album emerged that reminds one of the music of Frank Zappa, not by chance Ron Kane’s great hero. Although most of the musicians were never in the same studio, it doesn’t sound like that at all. Such an approach can easily lead to a democratic mix, but on this record it all worked out extremely well, thanks to the inspiring leadership of Bob Gaulke and the obvious desire of the musicians to get the best out of themselves and each other and thereby to pay tribute to a unique personality.
The twelve songs on The Record Man are alternately funky, experimental and jazzy, sometimes weird and humorous. But above all, the joy of playing together is abundant on this worthy tribute to Ron Kane. It is proof that modern technology can still lead to warm-blooded pop music, made by wilful artists who play together passionately, without the need for a plane.
Listen to The Record Man!
The album is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and all the other streaming channels. The CD will be ready end of May.
The musicians on The Record Man are: Tom America, Tony Backhouse, Pieter Bon, Warren Bowman, Matt Carrillo, Emily Champion, CharlElie Couture, Yamee Couture, Hans Croon, Marcos Kuzka Cunha, Peter Dasent, Fane Flaws, Ace Farren Ford, Bob Gaulke, Leon Gru, Ken Heaton, Henk Hofstede, Fay Lovsky, Andrew McLennan, Peri Mason, Suely Mesquita, Mark Moerman, John Nuyten, Gil Oliveira, Marco Raaphorst, Paul Scott, Rick Snyder, Celine du Tertre and Peter Veliks.
Reviews
Here are some reviews of The Record Man:
Gary Steel for witchdoctor.co.nz
Post-punk Monk
The Sampler
The Record Man live
Bob Gaulke will take a few of the Record Man musicians with him on stage in Paradiso Amsterdam (Aug 27) and the NIMBY festival, The Hague (Sept 1).
Here‘s a great review by music blog Written in Music (in Dutch) of the live show in Paradiso.
Various artists – The Record Man
A tribute to Ron Kane
CD
Release date May 15
Gaulke/Carillo/Croon – How Can The Human Heart Occur In The Universe?
Single
Release date May 15
Vervormer – Human Heart
Podcast by Marco Raaphorst