Today marks the 25th anniversary of Solex’s 2001 masterpiece, Low Kick and Hard Bop. To celebrate, not only have we pressed the record to vinyl for the first time ever, we have just dropped a surprise expanded digital edition featuring 11 additional b-sides and live recordings. Listen HERE.
You can also watch the recently-unearthed original video for ‘Mere Impostors’ and the 35-minute concert documentary ‘Solex vs. The Empty Bottle’.
Solex – ‘Mere Imposters’ (Official Video)
First released in 2001, this was the third album by Amsterdam-based songwriter and one-time record shop owner, Elisabeth Esselink. Here, her sampler-driven found-sound retro-futurist style came into full stride with hooks sourced from dusty vinyl, TV, radio, and street noise.
A generation later, Low Kick remains an ebullient work of retro-futurist pop – layered breaks splitting turf with bluesy riffs, girl group grooves, and surrealist swagger. Way back then, The Wire called it “A dizzying array of elements and exuberance,” and we dare you to argue otherwise.
“Solex’s Elisabeth Esselink takes you into her Dada-esqe, cut, paste, and fold sonic dance party,” writes Matador founder Chris Lombardi. “She reconstructs a million shards of sounds and styles into a kaleidoscopic musical masterpiece.”
As the compact disc was the dominant physical format of that era, Matador never got around to releasing ‘Low Kick’ on wax. This is a situation we have chosen to remedy as the record arrives at its third decade.
SOLEX
LOW KICK AND HARD BOP (25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
- Low Kick And Hard Bop
- Mere Imposters
- Have You No Shame, Girl?
- Not A Hoot!
- Knee-High
- Honey (Amsterdam Is Not L.A.)
- Shoot Shoot!
- Comely Row
- Ease Up You Fundamentalists!
- The Dot On The I Between The H And The T
- Good Comrades Go To Heaven
- Cayenne
- Ololo
- You Say Potato, I Say Aardappel!
- Look… No Fingerprints!
- Mr. Crockpot
DIGITAL-ONLY BONUS TRACKS
- Trainmobile
- Mogli
- Rico Puente Versus Tito Suave
- Pastrami
- Shady Lane (Pavement cover, Peel Session)
- The Cutter (Echo & The Bunnymen cover, Live at Maida Vale)
- 1969 (The Stooges cover, Live at Maida Vale)
- Knee-High (Live at Maida Vale)
- Low Kick And Hard Bop (Live at Maida Vale)
- The Dot On The I Between The H And The T (Live at Maida Vale)
- Solex Lipped (Peel Session)
