Fearless Cows without References

Reflections on the release of a new album by Nits, “angst”.

It’s Friday night and I’m writing at the kitchen table, still listening to this real beauty Nits made…I had been warned though. The pre-release of “Pockets of Rain” had alerted me that something good was about to happen… I was immediately taken by the staggering, entrancing drive of the song. It reminded me of Gary Numan’s “Are friends electric”. It has the same bewildering, albeit dark energy, the wilful drive of the rhythm haunting the whole song. A swaying rhythm that drives it forward and of which – I find – I cannot get enough. Nits in full command. It feels like the impetus of desire itself. The desire to hang on to a homely world that is familiar but in danger of falling down. The abyss feels hauntingly close. The plaintive and melancholic line of the vocals is sucked into a deep abyss of emotions by the rhythmic drive, an abyss made of percussive cliffs and rocks. The human voice is trying to keep afloat amidst some very beautiful but dark and menacing meanderings. The twisting, wringing contrast between the vocal line and the drive of the rhythm creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and unease, of fear for a bare world. Angst. An intriguing prelude…A prelude to a new love affair…

Now that I have listened to the complete album, I’d like to start at the end with “Zündapp nach Oberheim” (also one of my favourites on this album). It has such a thoughtful rhythm and “Stimmung”. It is grounding. The rhythm is so intimately connected to the ground, to steps, footsteps touching the ground, – like towards the end of Radio Orange, it’s just breathtaking really. It’s a rhythm of movement and marching, of dancing, of moving around in circles, of things returning, of confusion, of connectedness to the earth, of flesh and blood, of going forward and backwards, traveling through history, a rhythm of dramatic steps being taken. How the earth is connected to the people that live there, to their heartbeat : “and my little sister” – one of so many poignant moments. The uncertainty and fear when the ground beneath our feet opens up into a dark abyss, into the menace of the unknown. I don’t know how they do that, giving such a deeply concrete meaning to the rhythm and beats, to every note. The atmospheric detailing and precision is also due to the handiwork of Robert Jan Stips who bends and twists and deepens melodies, and shapes them into all kinds of surprising and moving forms, like I thought only Chopin could… Like a true craftsman; it only adds to the concreteness of their musical paintings, to the tangibility of their universe, with a direct link to all emotions of the heart. The everyday objects, portraits and scenes that are always on the centerstage of Henk’s lyrics gain shape and form through Robert Jan’s light-fingered hands. And Henk’s voice…! Pronouncing the lyrics of the phenomenologist and impressionist that he is. The voice of a chameleon, lightness and gravitas at the same time, soft and warm, tender and clear, charming and comforting, peaceful, resembling a whispered prayer at the end of the cracking “Lits-jumeaux” in an almost murmured duet with Robert Jan. The most moving moment on the album in my eyes is on “Two Sisters” when Henk’s voice rises up from the rhythmic background and proclaims a few wondrous verses: “with my little sister, in our blue canoe, on a chocolate river..” bathing in a vast, out-of-this-world melody. Henk’s voice has been compared to numerous other great singers, Nits’ music often considered a mere derivation of a Beatlesque tradition. Their musical roots are always emphasised when trying to define what Nits are about. Yes, roots, also musical roots are important, but we have so many of them, tiny tiny roots that connect us to a myriad of people and places, ideas and images, some known to us, some unknown, some we are not even aware of. We are all influenced by so many things around us. Inspiration or imitation, who can tell? But what I like so much about Nits are precisely their very personal, intimate stories, the pictures of Henk’s family on the album. I think most great art is very very personal. But we have become a society that likes to compare and associate anything with great names, famous artists. We are obsessed by references to people with name and fame. It’s à la mode, I suppose, but I don’t like it. To me it adds nothing. It only bores me. Great artists cannot be defined by their relationship to others… (forgive me my mention of Numan and Chopin). Nits talk about socks and buttons, tables and chairs and other little things. I like that a lot better. When you build your work (music, art, literature..) upon the example of another work, you skip the most profound source of inspiration: your own personal relationship with the things and the people around you. Nits know that. Angst is of course a very fundamental “Stimmung” that is founded precisely in our relationship with everything that surrounds us. It’s a “Stimmung” of the body that comes from our attachment to the world beneath our feet, which is so beautifully translated in their music. “How can I protect you?”. The percussion especially ties this bodily awareness of angst directly to the ground beneath our feet, to the base of our existence, in a very “moving” ( in its double meaning) way. It lends “Angst” this profound dimension of what phenomenologists call “Bodenständigkeit”, a firm rootedness in a deeply personal and – at the same time – , shared European history. In a beautifully written review of “Les Nuits”, Richard Gonzalez wrote something very strange I thought at first sight, but then I found it a very moving idea: he wrote that the melancholy of Nits songs perhaps had its root in some kind of disappointment Nits felt because there wasn’t a big international breakthrough after Giant Normal Dwarf, which he considers one of their best albums. A bit naively I thought that it was perhaps the reason why Henk nowadays so often feels the need to refer to all those famous artists and musicians. He shouldn’t have to, because he and Nits are some of the greatest artists I know, in their own right…!

So I was quite relieved to see that a cow made its entrance on Nits soil… It’s a steadfast animal, bodenständig, planted in the soil, loving the green green grass of home…and no references whatsoever… No doubt, Nits are at their best when they’re just being themselves, which they are here on “Angst”, fearlessly. On the whole I find the music depicts a series of floating images that pass like soldiers on a field, people making their way through their own personal history and through a history that threatens them and makes them feel insecure. It feels like watching a dramatic moment in time, passing before our eyes. The percussion especially playing the role of a vehicle of locomotion, bringing us from one place to another. An intense energy of movement that symbolises Dasein’s enigma that is one of being and of movement in time, movements of feet on our eternal earth, motion as a deeply dramatic historical movement.

The sun peeping through occasionally…Always.

Joke Roelandt, September 2017