DEC24: CLOSING STATEMENTS
with two winter promos, DB & GG's faves of the year + dates to remember in 25 👀
We close off this weird and tragicomic year as gracefully as possible. Namely, with fewer words and more actions (but there’s more than enough words below). STILL, and goes without saying, that despite the trials of our tiny two-person operation, this year was a memorable one, and we thank each and every person who’s supported KRAAK with their patience, presence and enthusiasm ~ it’s what’s kept us going and it’s what’ll keep us trucking as 2025 crowns its slimy head through the birth canal of time. Let’s round shit up now:
DUAL WINTER PROMOS, ANTICHRISTMASLY
Because we’re not even going to pretend that any shipping will happen before Christmas, but we’re still doing 25% OFF EVERYTHING on our Bandcamp from now until end of January 2025 ~ LPs, CDs, tapes, zines and who knows what else, from Veneditkos to Afternoon Saints! Use the promo code winterdisc25 at checkout or whatever ~ shipping starts early Jan, just in time for your New Year’s life improvement resolutions.
PLUS!!! For a very limited time only, as gesture of support towards the flailing record industry: 90% off our entire digital discography on BC! That’s almost 80 top notch releases spanning 3 decades of KRAAK’s existence, digitally rendered and ready to bedazzle your Bandcamp collection for less than 60 bucks. Much (maybe too much) to discover here, even for us, so seize the day and support our label operation this way, and maybe you’ll be a bit wiser about the history of this unseemly little org ~ promo going until December 31!
FIRST BELLS OF 25 A RINGIN
With our yearly KRAAK’s Nieuwjaar’s fete happening January 15! Moving the opening festivities to Etterbeek’s cultural hub Atelier210, we’ll be ushering in a tuneful 2025 with dreamy sounds from unlikely places: electronic ragas from No-Neck Blues Band icon Decimus, cyclical time expansions by Ghent-based Natasha Pirard, and the chaos ruling trance-dances of Brussels duo Orphids. Tickets on sale now (12 on presale versus 15 at door), we’ll be expecting you in our finest threads with a glass or two in hand 🥂
KRAAK FEST FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Here’s an eyeful to imprint onto your brain already: KRAAK FESTIVAL 2025 is happening March 8 2025 at Het Bos, and it’s going to be a bangers and mash kind of affair (not catering-wise, sadly). We got ticket sales up & running for those who trust enough to snag a spot already (WHICH WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND) ~ full lineup plus all sorts of extra info will be announced in the January newsletter & social hollerings, whenever that’ll be. In the meantime, let those two Italian hounds (picture courtesy of the wonderful Canadian filmmaker & photographer Shauna Eve) worm themselves into your psyche, you’ll be seeing them a bunch these next few months. SEE US BY THE SCHELDE, sooner than it seems!
ODDS & ENDS ARE END OF YEAR’S REMINISCINGS
This year’s faves at the extended KRAAK HQ!! Because nobody asked for these:
Spanish food galore: pig ears, riverbed shells, heavenly (and scamworthy) fresh shrimp, pimientos de padrón in everything (with anchovies they should be a pizza staple), broken eggs with greens cooked in chorizo fat, pilgrim stews on Camino villages, unappealing but improbably delicious seafood pastas. More to come on my retirement-funded food blog. Special shout out to the people of Colapso Colectivo/ElMuelle1931 in Santiago, who are not only commendable bastions of the Galician experimental scene, but whose food worship is aspirational for a glutton like myself.
In a year of darkness and scant curiosity, some new releases have perked up my earstrings: posthumous Pablo A. Gimenez compilation on Ediciones Fontenebro was a serious discovery, as was the mysterious Inner Cop Avoidance, and Lavina Yelb does it again, this time on Psychic Sounds. A man called Gazpacho just sent us this ~ “Yaraki Rum, Songs, and Sexual Jokes” sounds like the essence of my upbringing. And Kjetil Brandsdal & Thore Warland keep churning out lounge music for the deranged, complete with cover art for deranged lounges.
Books: Forgot everything I’ve read and my Goodreads account is so neglected it helps not one bit. There was an Ottessa Moshfegh pseudo thriller that hit too close to home in the lonely-lady-paranoid-about-death department. And finally started reading Songs in the Key of Z, got as far as the Tiny Tim chapter but I’ll have some free time now. Anything else is either not worth mentioning or subconsciously gatekept.
Some (nonKRAAK) shows, Jean Philippe Gross at Brellefest for all the wrong and right reasons (all of Brellefest was basically full of wrong and right, everyone should make the trip ~ the new petitfays!), Jooklo U&Me + Reptilian Expo + Aidons Antoine at La Cheminée, and I guess Wolf Eyes was a real throwback fun hang ~ felt like it was 2004 at AB Club all over again, minus the cigarette smoke. And of course the Kiss cover band in Luc-Sur-Mer.
And I’m ending the year on a Garcia Marquez kick, as the Netflix adaptation of Hundred Years of Solitude + this Arte documentary have stirred major yearnings for magic and connection (and rustic home decor) that I considered lost to time and cynicism. Still gotta read his books though.
FOOD
D-cure 25.000 U.I. - Solution Buvable (Vitamin D)
No Sugar Daddies - Choco Chunks Exta Puur (with dates as sweetener!!)
Polish Kapuśniaczki (the ones with sauerkraut and mushrooms)
Sticky rice in the rice cooker (no need to soak!)
Bouchée à la reine with Spätzle and an Alsace red wine in an inn somewhere in les Vosges after very nearly being hit by lightning.
MUSIC
Everything Virgina Genta/JOOKLO related!!
Megalithic Statues of Vishapakar - Andra Ljos
Familiar - Moebius story leidecker
Pepper's Ghost - Nuke Watch
Bereft - Ryosuke Kiyasu (Ultra Eczema)
Peeesseye & Talibam! - Peeesseye & Talibam!
Asbestos and a little rain - Lau/Corsano
All to None - Gyeongsu & June (Dear Dogs)
DJ ANTI CRISIS - CA$H = HEALING - social harmony
Live: Futura Resistenza show with Big Blood, Linus Vanderwolken and Julie Fossaert at NGHE
Live: Sea San (Hye Young Sin and Sebastian Von Der Heide) at Vroom
Live: Airchoirs - Anouk Kellner at STUK (Q-O2 Showcase Emerging Sound 2024)
BOOKS
Free Jazz in Japan: A Personal History - Teruto Soejima (reads like I was there)
La musique minimaliste - Renaud Machart (first book in French since high school!)
Een slaafse hond - Françoise Sagan (perfect)
Bad Habit - Alana S. Portero (perfect perfect)
The 120 Days of Sodom - Marquis de Sade (finally, and obviously wtf)
The Vegetarian - Han Kang (good in-betweener with enough wtf)
RADIO ROUNDUPS ARE IN THE USUAL SPOT IN CASE YOU WANT MORE CONTENT, can recommend our return to Radio Panik for studio amateur hour and the the usual unintentional hilarity.