On The Move - Excel96038 Released: 1.11.1999

Tracks: T, J & S / Clusters of Edinburghs / They're All In Bed / Miniature Dave / Save / I'm Starting A War With Dolphins / Pet Scavenger / Pyrfic / Showalbum / I'm No Prototype! / Puppies / Baby Mustard / TV is 2000 Years Old

About 'On The Move'

Make way for a Dutch Jimmy Webb! Multi-layered instantly memorable pop of the highest rank; the tastiest of flavors. Lyrics en par with Robyn Hitchcock's or Randy Newman's. All contained within this shivvering slivver of compact disc technology.

Sudsing until 1 o’clock performing the weary Euro tapdance Is this the formal note stating the gas is really off?

The arrangements are intuitive. Splendidly so. Bearing in mind that this entire record is done in one room, on samplers, adding some drums and percussion, one is quite dazzled that these arrangements were done in Berend's head. I'd especially like to point on the etheral closing track "TV is 2000 Years Old" where song writing en par with Jimmy Webb or Leiber/Stoller (and you'd better believe it) has been garnished with an arrangement worthy of a production costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (real cost: $3.50).

Horses make heart and stray away To the Single Hoofed Museum.

Berend's musical past as the batterist of Bettie Serveert may come as a surprise since this does not overlap thematically with that fine combo, for the insider (i/e me) who has spent hours with Berend devouring frikandellen cooked to tender perfection in a variety of Holland's finest restaurants, not to mention the times at his tastefully decorated abode navigating through a record collection almost as creative and interesting as the Bauer record itself. If I only had the ability to strengthen myself with a golden, delicious and nutritious Kroketten from one of Amsterdam's fine eateries, I am sure that I could visualize a particularly greasy portion of the Berend Dubbe record library; Brian Wilson and prime Beach Boys bootlegs in plethora, vanity pressings, early Mute singles (Depeche Mode, The Normal, Silicon Teens), eurotrash (Luv, Boney M, ABBA) and all your favorite gothic pop albums (Scott Walker, Richard Harris "A Tramp Shining", Divine Comedy, Dion's "Abraham, Martin and John") and the list goes on. And somewhere in there: faint echoes of what there is to be experienced on this record.

Today’s breaking story: "TV is 2 000 Years Old" A box of remotes were dug up near Jerusalem some of them even worked Recent brands, covered in stone, of course, for time reason.s

Orchestral pop as an art form died with multi tracking and the birth of the singer/song writer concept. Circa 1972 or so. The fine craft of the arranger hit the wall simultaneously. The artist became an auteur; and was expected to control every aspect of his or her record, so they did, and the cocaine helped reinforce the belief that every little thing they did was genius. The cavernous caverns of cantankerous technology and flat drum sounds assasinated the lush, full sounds as AM radio stood giggling nearby. And 27 years passed, and the Bauer record is a a great orchestral pop record, and the laugh is on me, because it is an auteur record at the same time: the creation of one man alone, done in a room, where the complicated orchestrations and tasty textures are executed on samplers and such. I do hope that the advent of the home recording studio could lead to more records of this level of brilliance, but I ain't holding my breath. Both you and me know that technology in the hands of a talent of Bauer's magnitude is a rare thing, and we are pretty damn lucky to have this monumental record in our homes. - Johan Kugelberg

(Johan Kugelberg's recently produced albums by Spain, Mark Eitzel and Freddie Wadling. He co-edits the obsessive 150+ page fanzine Ugly Things where Uncle Dave Macon and the Treniers are more likely to be featured on the cover of the yearly issue than not. His label Omplatten has released albums by Os Mutantes, the Monks and Bjorn Olsson.)