The Belgian Sound

Eras

• Jacques Brel & Chanson, The song tradition, and the man who defined it. Brel at the Olympia, 'Ne me quitte pas' and 'Amsterdam', plus the Flemish and Walloon songwriters either side of him, words first, and a voice close to the microphone.
• Jazz & Classical, Django Reinhardt with two working fingers, Toots Thielemans' harmonica, the Belgian jazz clubs and big bands, the orchestras and conservatoires, and Adolphe Sax of Dinant, who in 1846 patented the saxophone.
• Front 242 & EBM, Electronic body music, invented in Belgium. Front 242's hard sequenced rhythm and shouted vocals, the industrial scene around them, the leather and the military imagery, and the sound that Nine Inch Nails and half of techno took from them.
• New Beat, The accident that became a genre. A 45 played at 33 with the pitch pushed up, the Antwerp and Ghent clubs that adopted it, the records pressed in a matter of weeks, and a national craze that burned out inside three years.
• R&S Records, Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes' Ghent label with the Ferrari logo. Aphex Twin's 'Digeridoo', Joey Beltram's 'Energy Flash', Derrick May and Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams', one of the most important techno catalogues anywhere, run out of a Belgian house.
• Bonzai & Trance, The Antwerp label that made Belgian trance a European export. Bonzai's roster and its sleeve art, the hard trance and hardcore records, and the club nights built around them.
• Cherry Moon & La Rocca, The temples. Cherry Moon in Lokeren, La Rocca in Lier, Illusion, Carat and Boccaccio in Destelbergen, the mega-clubs of the late eighties and nineties, their residents, their light rigs and the coaches that brought people from three countries.
• Fuse & Cafe d'Anvers, The techno rooms. Fuse in Brussels from 1994, Café d'Anvers in a former church, Kompass in Ghent, C12 under the Brussels central station and Ampere in Antwerp, the clubs where the music kept moving after the temples closed.
• I Love Techno & Laundry Day, The indoor festivals and city events. I Love Techno at Flanders Expo, Laundry Day, 10 Days Off at the Vooruit, Belgian dance culture at scale, in halls rather than fields.
• Tomorrowland, Boom, from 2005. The stage builds, the aftermovies that sold the festival to the world, the two-weekend format, the Mainstage designs and the crowd shots that made it the most-watched dance festival on earth.
• Dour & Pukkelpop, The field festivals. Dour in the Borinage, Pukkelpop at Kiewit, Rock Werchter, the line-ups, the mud, the tents and the sets that people still cite decades later.
• Deewee & Lektroluv, Soulwax and the studio they built. 2 Many DJ's and the mash-up records, the Deewee label and its house band, Lektroluv's green masks, and the Dewaele brothers' long influence on how Belgian dance music sounds.
• KNTXT & Lenske, The current techno complex. Charlotte de Witte's KNTXT and Amelie Lens' Lenske, Belgian artists running their own labels and events, and touring them worldwide.
• Rave & Retro House, The rave years and their long afterlife. The warehouse parties and the Popcorn and retro nights, the records that Belgians still fill rooms for, and the anthems that never left rotation.
• Rock & Indie, Belgian guitar music. dEUS out of Antwerp, Zita Swoon, Girls in Hawaii, Balthazar and Warhaus, the venues that grew them, and the Ancienne Belgique as the room every band wanted.
• Metal, The heavier end. Belgian death, doom and black metal, Graspop Metal Meeting, the labels and the small venues, and a scene with more international reach than its size suggests.
• Hip-Hop, Rap in three languages. The Brussels and Antwerp scenes, French and Dutch and Arabic on the same record, the crews and the battles, and the artists who went from the estates to the arenas.
• Flemish Pop, The chart music people actually grew up on. Flemish-language pop and schlager, the television shows that broke it, Technotronic's global hit, Lost Frequencies, the Eurovision entries, and the songs everyone can sing.
• Stromae & Angele, Two artists who took Belgian pop global. Stromae's 'Alors on danse' and 'Papaoutai' and the choreography that came with them, Angèle's records and her stagecraft, and the francophone pop moment they built.
• Rampage & Netsky, Drum and bass, Belgian style. Netsky's records, the Rampage nights that grew into the biggest drum-and-bass event anywhere, and the Antwerp Sportpaleis full for it.
• Documentaries & Out Soon, The scene written down and filmed. The Sound of Belgium documentary, the Panorama and Jambers television reportages, Telefacts, plus the Out Soon magazine archive, flyers, press sheets and the stacks of DJ tapes.