Only The Lonely

The Misz - The Lonely Crowd [MW 069 USA 2019 24-Bit FLAC]

To the uninitiated (ie me!) The Misz sit vaguely in a musical world somewhere between The Minny Pops and Young Marble Giants with their simple programmed rhythms, monochrome synths and plucky guitars. Well done to Minimal Wave for convincing Dries Decocker and Jan Van Den Broeke for digging out the original reel-to-reels for this release -this is a high resolution rip from the white vinyl pressing. I'm now trying to track down their Eddy Merckz which was re-released a few years back in limited quantities.

The Misz formed in Gent (or is that Ghent or perhaps Gand), Belgium in 1983 by Jan Van den Broeke and Dries Dekocker at a time when they had both just relocated from the Belgian countryside. They lived on the same street and collaborated freely with the limited equipment they had, which always centered around the Fostex 250 4-track tape recorder. They used an unknown monophonic synthesizer, casio synths, roland drum machines, hand drums and guitars through effects pedals, improvising with their voices and often included friends for additional voices and sounds. They captured these sonic experiments and sometimes released them on cassette - It Ain’t all Garbage, 1984 - Eddy Merckz, 1985 - Violence and Love, 1987 in very limited editions of 100-200. They were also included on numerous cassette compilations throughout the 1980s on labels like Mad In Belgium, The Cassette Factory, 3RIO Tapes, Minimart production, Fraction Studio, Cauchy Productions, Home Product, R.R. products, ZNS Tapes, and Body Records. 

They described themselves as young, immature and bit strange yet totally bold and fearless. They sang about what surrounded them from world politics and environmental catastrophes to love and lust. The songs on The Lonely Crowd span from various cassette releases and have been remastered from their original reel to reel tapes.

A1 Only Lunies Fall
A2 Tameless Horses
A3 It Ain't All Garbage
A4 Even Bad Times Are Good
A5 Le Jolie Jardin
A6 A La Recherche de B.L.
B1 The Wave Of Miszbehave
B2 When Preachers Come
B3 Zastava Home
B4 The Lonely Crowd
B5 Roll Over Bhopal