Massive Trance…’Het Zweet’ uncovered

Het Zweet/Marien Van Oers. South London 1986.

Nenad Vujic asked me to write something about ‘Het Zweet’ . Nenad said that there is a lot of music from the 1980s which no one knows about because the musicians at the time didn’t have access to the pervasive digital promotional methods that we all have at our fingertips now and that these musicians have no interest in promoting their work from twenty(!) years ago.

(This is quite an interesting idea – How do we cut through the noise of supposedly democratic acces to self promotion now? i would also argue that only music that suits self promotion becomes visible i.e. ‘products’ that have certain attributes that allow it to ‘cut through the noise’ attributes that are not necessarily musical – over time this effect creates a self regulating system that refines and defines the music itself – hence the overwhelming blandness of current music that we are sold by traditional or non traditional means. This is obviously not a new effect but when applied en masse through so called ‘social media’ is amplified, exagerated and fed back into itself…)

‘Het Zweet’: Not a group but one man; Marien Van Oers, native of Breda in the Netherlands active from 1983 to about 1988. The music consisted of long 10 minute percussion pieces played on self built instruments (shopping trolleys amplified with pickups, blown cardboard tubes etc.) whith repetetive shouted vocals by Marien. The music was often placed in the industrial camp and linked with the likes of Test Dept but infact Het Zweet wer more concerned with ‘tribal’ music, physicality and trance effects.

During their lifetime Het Zweet released one LP ‘Het Zweet’ originally intended to have been released on my label ‘Recloose Organisation’. Unfortunately the break up of Bourbonese Qualk and Recloose prevented this and it was eventually released on the Berlin based Dossier label – much to Marien’s chagrin. Other titles were all cassette releases on various labels and contributions to compilation records (including ‘psycho pomp’on the Recloose organisations sampler ‘songs from the new international in 1986). We (Recloose) also worked on various video and film projects with Marien (the cover shot of ‘Het Zweet’ LP shows a frame from a video loop of Marien hitting a metal boiler with a pickaxe which was used as a projection during live performances). Het Zweet performed live around Europe often as a support group for Bourbonese Qualk whom he toured with on a number of occasions. The last i heard from Marien was ten years ago – he had stopped ‘experimental’ music and was working playing accordion in a wedding band.

‘Het Zweet’ LP Dossier 1987.

MP3 Recordings. click to download:
A1 Cry Or Laugh
A2+A3 From The Lowland – Topsy Turvy
A4 Wild Man
B1 Ram
B2 On Earth
B3 Red Robe
B4 Massive Trance

Releases:
Fase (Cass) Staalplaat
Massive Trance (Cass) Zweepslag
Zweepslag 1+2 (Cass) Sound Of Pig
Het Zweet (LP) Dossier 1987

Compilations:
Homo Sexpiens Project (Cass) Dante’s Second Circle 3Rio Tapes
Beyond Step One (Cass, C60) El Voz Sound Of Pig 1984
Katacombe Vol. 3 (Cass) Untitled, Untitled Korm Plastics, Schrei Records 1984
Katacombe Vol. 3 (Cass) Untitled, Untitled Industria Tepa 1984
Thee Book (2xCass, Ltd, C90) The Ice Graf Haufen Tapes 1984
Katacombe Vol. 5 (Cass) Vacuum Voice Industria Tepa 1985
6×10=60 Vol. 2 (Cass) Indus I. Korm Plastics 1986
Live Series 2 (Cass) Repeat Recloose Organisation 1986
Songs From The New International (LP) Psycho-Pomp Recloose Organisation 1986
The State Of The Art (VHS) Repeat Provision, Recloose Organisation 1986
Q.E.D. (2xLP + 7″ + , Ltd, Gat) Tribal Noise 2 N.L. Centrum 1988
Q.E.D. (CD) Tribal Noise 2 Staalplaat 1990
6×10=60 Vol. 2 (CDr) Indus I. Korm Plastics 1999