JoosTVD - Just Say Know (2018) Hi-Res

There are a few things to explain about this album. First of all, the stage name JoostTVD. TVD stands for “The Vanished Dutchman” and that is an alias of the Dutch singer-songwriter Joost van Dinther. He describes his music as “self-defiling, narcissistic, self-kicking, obsessive and squeezing music”. Quite a mouthful. On this album Joost reveals himself as a musical do-it-yourselfer, who mixes all kinds of music styles with the greatest of ease and creates one beautiful whole.
Tom Robinson, the English artist who scored hits in the new wave period with “2-4-6-8 Motorway” and “Listen To The Radio”, was so impressed by Joost that he played a number of his songs in his radio program on BBC 6.
What are we hearing here? Music influenced by artists such as Todd Rundgren, Frank Zappa, The Tubes and many more artists/genres.

The opening track, Not Now, for example, is a funky rock song with influences floating around from Todd Rundgren, Gino Vannelli and Frank Zappa. That transverse xylophone in particular could easily have come from Zappa. Very clever to turn all those influences into a catchy swinging funky song. There's a lot going on in this song. Crackling Tower Of Power-like horns, a ripping guitar solo and electronic rhythms that do not disturb at all. The Vanished Romeo starts with new age-like pan flute sounds, which are quickly swept away by a searing wah wah guitar. Then a lazy, horny Zappa funker is deployed full of ingenious breaks. Joos has a perfect sultry voice for this song. The idiosyncrasy of The Tubes and Todd Rundgren are also reflected in this song. The airy funky Indie mixes Zappa, The Tubes and Toto into a warm rocking song. My Cat Is Stoned is a bizarre mix of vaudeville, funk and Zappian madness. There's a lot going on in this song: crazy voices, whistles, belching, and all about a stoned cat! Loaded is then a Tito Puente-like Latin fusion song. Sultry swinging with soulful vocals and almost Philly soul-like strings. In terms of synthesizer sound, Gameface is reminiscent of the spacey work of Gary Wright in his “Dream Weaver” period. But Joos of course mixes this with the sound of The Tubes, the erotic swooning soul of Barry White and Zappa.
Nervously rattling electro rhythms develop in Rottendance into a languidly grooving song full of floating synthesizers and tight Zappa breaks. Try dancing to this! I guarantee you will have cramps in your calves in no time! In Crest Of A Wave we go on a soft soul tour with a high Gino Vannelli content, complete with rushing surf. In the fierce, idiosyncratic funk rock of There's No Sense In Making Sense, Zappa seems to have entered into a marriage with Johnny Guitar Watson and the rhythm section of Tower Of Power. All The Way is a sultry nightclub song reminiscent of Kevin Ayers and his “Falling In Love With You”.
Joos closes this very adventurous album with the fairytale instrumental Not Ever, which is dominated by his warm romantic keyboard work.