Solex [CD-single]

Solex [CD-single]

Track Listings

1. Radio Edit

2. Club Vocal Cd Mix

3. Dogzilla 12" Mix

4. Original 12" Mix

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Australian dance single from the acclaimed producer is a classic big room trance anthem that sticks in the memory after just one listen, with a distinctive riff, lush synths, beautiful female lyrics, & hooky melody. Four tracks, 'Solex (Close To the Edge)

Tracks:

Pick Up
Randy Costanza
Dork At 12 O'Clock
That's What You Get With People Like That On Cruises Like These...
Oh Blimey!
The Burglars Are Coming!
Superfluity
Snappy & Cocky
Five Star Shamberg
Chris The Birthday Boy
Athens, Ohio
Escargot!
Another Tune Like 'Not Fade Away'
That'll Be $22.95

Amazon.com

Sarah McLachlan may sing about "Building a Mystery," but Dutch singer-songwriter Solex is the current queen of what-is-that? pop. It's not just because her music is constructed of usually unidentifiable samples, either. Elisabeth Esselink begins her second album, Pick Up, with a title track that's an inverted version of Patti Smith's "Gloria"--but instead of walking right up to that sweet young thing leaning on the parking meter, Solex just stands there. By song's end, she hasn't reached a decision to move in on the object of desire or just get back to her records. The word "dreamscape" may be overused by now, but it fits Solex's world of oblique meditations and subterranean hooks perfectly. Her sing-song vocals couldn't be enunciated any more clearly, but pleasingly, Pick Up only hints at what she's getting at. --Rickey Wright

Album Details

AKA Elisabeth Esselink. This Record is Made Entirely from Bootlegged Samples from Jazz, Classical and Pop/Rock Concerts.

Customer Reviews:

Quirky, Funky Pop.......2007-02-01

A Dutch girl with a knack for great beats and jazz samples. Totally fun to listen to, however it kind of reminds me of Cibo Matto (not that that's a bad thing at all!)

[Solex, Pick Up] You don't have this record already?.......2005-06-16

I love this disc for the musical universe it inhabits. Whatever you can say about electronica, pro or con, when I hear "Pick Up" I think straight-up rock and roll. I don't concern myself with how the album is made; I'm having too much fun listening to it. It's endlessly inventive and entertaining; this is definitely one of the records I would seriously consider if I could only bring one on a road trip to listen to over and over and over again.

I had read somewhere that the lyrics are assembled from bits and pieces of American television shows and other pop-cultural material, little turns of phrase that just sound interesting. So when I'm turning the pages of Elmore Leonard's Maximum Bob and find the phrase "Bright blue suit from Taiwan China," all I can think about is the song on "Pick Up" called "That's What You Get With People Like That On Cruises Like These..." which has the same line, sung, to a waltz rhythm.

"Pick Up" hasn't disappointed me in the six years since I bought it; I don't think it will disappoint you.

Pure genius....and IMPOSSIBLE to dislike!.......2002-04-07

I am not really a fan of contemporary "electronic" music, but ever since I picked up (no pun intended) this CD on a whim a few weeks ago, it has not left my CD player. Solex is the most refreshing and original "band" that I have ever had the pleasure to hear, and having discovered them purely by accident just makes this CD all the more special.

Solex is definitely not just another pretentious "electronica" outfit putting out boring, repetitive techno beats with pseudo-hip samples bleeping and blooping all over the place. In fact, this barely sounds like an "electronic" album at all. Elisabeth Esselink has an amazing talent for "playing" her samples as if it were a real life musical instrument (and from what I understand, she actually does NOT use sequencers when recording or playing her songs live and triggers all the samples manually, which makes her talent all the more amazing). In fact, if you didn't know that the bulk of the sounds on her records come from sampled bootlegs of live musicians and obscure "unsellable" CD's and LP's, you would think that Solex is an actual "band", with real musicians playing all the parts. What sets Solex apart from the typical breed of electronica yawnmeisters out there today is that Esselink actually can write a compelling SONG, complete with memorable, insidiously catchy melodies, shifting drum patterns and very unusual, yet highly compelling vocal stylings. The fact that the samples she uses are *really* cool (theres a LOT of neat samples of different jazz licks) just adds to her already-solid composition skills.

Admittedly, her lyrics are ridiculous. But that's part of the appeal of Solex. Esselink sings seemingly nonsensical strings of English words with a Dutch accent that borders on being cute and kitschy (at least for wierdos like me who find european malapropisms spoken by females to be adorable--I just love the way she sings "His cyoote onn-dies..." in "Randy Costanza"), and at times, her voice is an absolute dead ringer for Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays. But don't bother trying to distill any sort of deep dadaist meaning out of her nonsensical lyrics. Esselink herself has admitted that she gets a lot of the words and phrases for her songs directly from American TV shows, which she writes down and ultimately uses in a song, simply if she thinks that the phrase "sounds" cool. The lyrics themselves become the canvas for her wacky, yet highly melodic vocal phrasing, instead of the other way around. It's very reminiscent of some of the better hip-hop and rap artists that have really stupid lyrics, yet deliver them in really interesting, rhythmic ways.

Standout tracks include the aforementioned "Randy Costanza", "Oh, Blimey!" (what an AWESOME bass sample!), the plucky "That's What You Get With People LIke That On Cruises Like These", the pseudo-industrial "Snappy and Cocky", "The Burglars Are Coming!", and the uncharacteristically punky (and catchier than all hell) "That'll Be $22.95". Admittedly, there is some boring "filler" material on "Pick Up". But the number of gems far outweigh the amount of mediocre stuff, so I don't think you'll find yourself skipping tracks very often.

Solex's music is challenging, make no mistake about it. But, unlike most supposedly "avante garde" music, Solex is completely devoid of any type of pretension, and has enough incredible hooks and groovy beats to ensnare listeners of even the most mainstream of tastes.

Pure genius....and IMPOSSIBLE to dislike!.......2002-04-07

Admittedly, her lyrics are ridiculous. But that's part of the appeal of Solex. Esselink sings seemingly nonsensical strings of English words with a Dutch accent that borders on being cute and kitschy (at least for wierdos like me who find english malapropisms spoken by european females to be adorable--I just love the way she sings "His cyoote onn-dies..." in "Randy Costanza"), and at times, her voice is an absolute dead ringer for Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays. But don't bother trying to distill any sort of deep dadaist meaning out of her nonsensical lyrics. Esselink herself has admitted that she gets a lot of the words and phrases for her songs directly from American TV shows, which she writes down and ultimately uses in a song, simply if she thinks that the phrase "sounds" cool. The lyrics themselves become the canvas for her wacky, yet highly melodic vocal phrasing, instead of the other way around. It's very reminiscent of some of the better hip-hop and rap artists that have really stupid lyrics, yet deliver them in really interesting, rhythmic ways.

Solex and some Internal Conflicts in Medieval Thought.......2000-08-01

To my mind, there's nothing as good as "Solex in a Slipshod Style" here--though the first two tracks come close--but it's much less uneven than the previous CD, and the arrangements are more varied and playful. She sounds like she's having lots more fun this time around! Still, despite all its charm, there's definitely a certain sameness to "Pick Up" after a few listens. My solution was to compile a half-hour CD by choosing my favorite tracks from this one and "Hitmeister."

I have to point out that despite what many reviewers have claimed, "Solex vs. the Hitmeister" had live instruments all over it! Four musicians are credited on that CD (they play drums, piano, guitar, cello, bass, melodica, saxophone, and clarinet). Recorded surreptitiously in the back of a record store? Maybe some of it was...the samples, perhaps. On this release, there are guest musicians as well, and yet Amazon's description above says that it consists entirely of music "bootlegged" from obscure records. Obviously Elisabeth herself is not trying to hoodwink anyone, since she lists her collaborators prominently. So do people just read Matador's press releases and believe whatever they say, or is it a case of desperate music fans hypnotizing themselves in order to find something more about Solex to love?

Tracks:

Yadda Yadda Yadda No. 1
Round Figure, A
The Boxer
Honkey Donkey
You're Ugly
Hot Diggity Dog Run Run Run
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like An Egyptian
My B-Sides Rock Your World
On An Ordinary Day
The Show Master
Take That Gum Out!
You've Got Me

Album Description

Solex is the one-woman juggernaut otherwise known as Elisabeth Esselink. She creates her percolating rock tunes out of samples and loops. She's a blazing talent whose music, lyrics, and song titles betray a cutting sense of humor. This is her fourth full-length and first for Arena Rock.

Customer Reviews:

really awkward.......2007-05-13

I love her voice and the drums are cool, but the music is so awkward. It sounds like she made it with Mario Paint (if anybody knows what I'm talking about). It has a very disjointed unorganized flow. My favorite track is #8 My B-Sides Rock Your World and that is only because of the trippy chorus "hello boy." If Miss Solex were to get herself educated on composition I believe she could craft a very nice tune.

[Solex: Laughing Stock of Indie Rock] Eyeopening, unfocused.......2005-03-20

This is a bubbly, lively record with plenty of good beats, plenty of weird and thoughtful lyrics (not printed in the booklet, but available on the internet), and plenty of strange samples that you may never have heard before. For those of you who are newcomers to Solex's sonic stew, it involves collecting samples from long-forgotten records and re-recording them or using them directly.

I was prepped to like this record; it's her first one in a couple of years, on a new label, at that. But it didn't hit me over the head the way "Pick Up" or "Solex vs. the Hitmeister" did.

Listening to "The Boxer," you hear a catchy beat played on electric guitar with trap drum and Solex's trademark squeaky, down-in-the-mix voice, with lyrics that are largely incomprehensible because they don't scan or rhyme; it's as if she's singing a little prose story. Then in the middle is dropped in what sounds like the soundtrack to some video-game-console boxing game.

Mostly, "Laughing Stock" features guitars and trap drums and bass, with little electronic accents here and there. The rhythm parts sound herky-jerky, as if a single song's guitar track comes from four or six other records; the verse is played as if it was one record, then the chorus sounds like a second one, and the bridge a third, then the out-chorus a fourth.

It's an eyeopening sound, to mix a metaphor the way Solex might. But it's hard for me to imagine this as the soundtrack to any particular activity or emotion. Where her first two albums just insinuated themselves into everything I did: driving, working out, drinking coffee, going to sleep, et al., this one just doesn't seem to harness any particular kind of energy. It's just guitars and crazy lyrics and odd sonic textures that sound sampled but probably aren't. It still deserves four stars for the sheer imagination and creativity involved, but a fifth star awaits a Solex record with the same kind of brain-reshaping sonic awareness that "Hitmeister" and "Pick Up" conjured.

700 miles from here! <wink>.......2004-10-26

She's done it again! A totally chill stream of tunes that will boggle the brainstem while at the same time massaging it - this album is like candy, baby -- sweetness! If you are new to Solex, this is as good a place to start as any. But definately PICK-UP the back catalogue if you dig 'the laughing stock..."

Solex crafts tripped-out sound cubes that when placed on the eardrum melt into colorful beat vibrations and dissolve into your consciousness. If you're up for the absorbtion, her smooth vocals and playful bubbles of sound-waves will prove to be your cup of tea. One might sit about with a flask of brandy or cognac to sipple upon while spinning a disc from this wonderland-wiz. I mean, she's from Amsterdam, so its gotta be somewhat off-the-wall.

Not sure if this is trip-hop, experimental, indie rock, dance or somewhere in between....its just SOLEX. And I can't wait to see her live in Chapel Hill next month. I think I'll wear a shirt that says "Jack Daniels" and a hat that says "I love you".

Extraordinary Esselink!!!!!.......2004-10-07

A new Solex album (The Laughing Stock Of Indie Rock being the first in three years) is a treat and a gift. Elisabeth Esselink (aka Solex) builds her songs out of "found sounds" and samples from used CDs and taped bootlegs in the basement of her Amsterdam CD shop, and the result is music the likes of which almost no one else is making right now - pop music that challenges the head while simultaneously moving both the heart and feet! The Detroit Metro Times describes Esselink's music as "heavy orchestral cartoon music for carports; William Burroughs as Bugs Bunny; like 'Fantasia' for 60s delinquents, a strong dose of freakout fun."

Esselink's songs, not to mention her coy, mischevious voice and prankish, crafty lyrics, are often compared to that of Bjork and Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori. While the latter band has long since broken up, and Mrs. Gudmundsdottir has spent her last two albums meandering about in search of a memorable melody or rhythm, Solex has proudly carried along the tradition of tightly crafted, idiosyncratic, and utterly winning pop. Her last three brilliant albums on the Matador label (which inexcusably dropped her from their label for being too eccentric - !?) were masterpieces of warped, kitschy dementia, head-spinning originality, and delightful sounds. To listen to a Solex song or a Solex album is to literally be wrapped up in and hanging on every moment, every note, every outrageously creative and unexpected direction and detour, texture and effect - all the while having great fun figuring out how to dance to the damned things!

Whereas her previous albums often consisted in large part of inspired sonic experiments carried out over a number of minutes, The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock (Arrco) is probably Esselink's finest collection of purely constructed SONGS; indeed, verse/chorus/verse structure is prevalent throughout the whole disc. "The Boxer" and "Take That Gum Out!" are more giddily toe-tapping and genuinely radio-rotation-worthy than anything on Bjork's highly hyped latest 'Medulla' album. "Yadda Yadda Yadda No. 1" re-imagines Cibo Matto's trip-hop as performed by a Cajun horn ensemble at the world's most demented Mardi Gras. "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like An Egyptian," in Esselink's words, conjures up a line dance between the Bangles and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian - imagine a country/alt tiki torch procession and you're almost there. (Out of the entire set, only "You're Ugly" and "On An Ordinary Day" fall into, well, a sort of ordinariness - which is an adjective otherwise impossible to apply to Solex's gleefully unorthodox musical strategies.) Album closer "You've Got Me" recalls the sweeping and hypnotic ambient lyricism found on Yo La Tengo's masterful 2003 'Summer Sun' LP; over a gorgeously ethereal backdrop of piano, drum brushing, glittering keyboard samples and guitar noodling, Esselink softly croons and wails while a 'mystery guest' (actually one Mr. Stuart Brown of Australia) recites a spoken word tome, "Nobody told you/how to unfold your love." It may just be the most beautiful music Solex has ever created; if you count yourself as a pop music romantic, it will unquestionably break your heart into a million blissful, shimmering pieces.

http://www.solex.net/

Average customer rating:

"I got a snag in best tights"
Try whistling this
Solex is the hitmeister in disguise
A great album.
sometimes little risks pay off

Solex Vs. The Hitmeister
Solex
Manufacturer: Matador Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock
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The Good, the Bad & the Queen

ASIN: B00000649P
Release Date: 1998-03-10

Tracks:

One Louder Solex
Solex Feels Lucky
Solex In A Slipshod Style
Waking Up With Solex
Solex's Snag
Rolex By Solex
There's A Solex On The Run
Solex All Licketysplit
Solex For A While
Some Solex
When Solex Just Stood There
Peppy Solex

Amazon.com

As Dutch record-store proprietor Elisabeth Esselink watched the pile of CDs that would not sell in her Amsterdam shop grow larger, she figured out a way to make them useful after all. She listened intently to each crummy disc until she found an amusing melody or fresh beat. Then she recycled them all into the magnificent sound panorama that is Solex Vs. the Hitmeister. Her innovative musical ideas were then expanded on by the introduction of a character named Solex who inhabits every song. The sludgy trip-hop of "Solex in a Slipshod Style" is reminiscent of Portishead, but beyond that there is little with which to compare her music. The cut-and-paste jazz saxophone of "Solex Feels Lucky" and distorted banjo of "Waking Up with Solex" are utterly original. So are her sexy and literate lyrics about snagging her tights in a backseat make-out session and how the straps of her dress keep slipping off her shoulders. Rock & roll needs more enigmatic Europeans like this. --Lois Maffeo

Customer Reviews:

"I got a snag in best tights".......2004-09-27

I was fortunate to pick this CD up. I listen to pretty weird stuff and was surprised when I first listened to this CD - it was unlike anything I had heard before. That is why I think Solex gets Bjork comparisons. Both are interesting female artists that are wonderfully bizzare. That's the extent the comparison can go.

Also it is important to note that Solex is nothing like Tricky, Martina Topley Bird, Portishead, Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, DJ Shadow, Theivery Corp, Dot Allison, Laika, Everything But the Girl, Lamb, Morcheeba, etc. If you like those bands you should be intrigued. If you don't you still might be intrigued.

In fact if I had to label this I would call it indie electronica. There are elements of trip hop, jungle and general yummy weirdness.

Her lyrics are funny and I love the way she sings. The CD booklet helps you understand her. Earlier this summer I was listening to this CD on my bus ride to work and I liked that it wasn't that familiar and I think that was when this CD is best.

This is very original music and I love it. If you aren't familiar with eleectronic music I think this might catch you quite off-gaurd. It might be an aquired taste but I still recommend it. However, I highly recommend this CD to someone who wants something different and fun and is open-minded.

Enjoy!

Try whistling this.......2000-05-03

Glorious honking and boinging all over the place. Some bits are quite scary 'cos you think you are surrounded by the things that are boinging.

Solex is the hitmeister in disguise.......2000-01-03

Snappy collection of cute pop miniatures, like sketches of a day in life of Solex. And just as I'd think one of them is perhaps a liiitle bit too "sweet" some new interesting detail brings the balance back, be it a less-than-ordinary beat or passage. Somewhat reminiscent of a crossover between Portishead and Bjork, with singing having a kind of "girlie-freshness" (pardon my English, folks) comparable to Kate Pierson of the B-52's. If qualities of "Solex vs. the Hitmeister" were a prevailing standard for the songs they play on most of the FM radio stations in my area, I wouldn't have to hit that frequency button on the radio so often.

A great album........1999-09-03

Solex is able to match samples together in a seemless blend in a way that is ear catching. The songs are fun and interesting, Solex is completely original. [even though she uses sampling] Rooster 91.7fm WKDU, Philadelphia

sometimes little risks pay off.......1999-08-09

i bought this largely out of curiosity - expecting a sort of quirky diversion but not much else. paydirt! if the story about the genesis of solex is true, then ms. esselink has created a more innovative and finely crafted album as a lark than most of the thousands of djs who devote themselves to cut-up tunesmithing full-time can cobble together in a single track. it's concomitantly hypnotic and organic, occasionally frantic, frequently fun, and always brilliant.

i'm not sure i get entertainment weekly's comparison to bjork. ms. esselink's voice isn't the strongest bit here. she coos and mutters insistently over strange frozen vignettes, but her voice never soars exactly. but her voice is perfect for her purposes. she repeats herself like a teletubby in a padded cell as she relates and obsesses over mundane anecdotes and suggestions of subtext. don't try to follow her with the lyric sheet! she'll drive you nuts as she circles back around to the beginning a couple times before working her way slowly to the end of the "story". just ride with her as she skitters off the track and back on again.

and the music matches her issues; she's thickly layered and warped the disparate samples over meaty beats and swarms of chiming percussion until it's appropriately claustrophobic, paranoid, and neurotic but never hostile. what a great way to slowly lose your mind!

Average customer rating:

Amazing... for the Solex fan.
Good Solex Better Than Most People's Greatest!

In the Fishtank, Vol. 13
Solex , and M.A.E.
Manufacturer: In the Fishtank
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock

ASIN: B000026IA8
Release Date: 2005-02-22

Tracks:

5 Superstar
Go Easy on the Fun Fund
1+1=11
Birthday Superboy

Customer Reviews:

Amazing... for the Solex fan........2006-02-27

This is a very interesting album, not just because we get to hear early/experimental versions of Solex songs, but because they all have an acoustic sound. Hearing Solex sing versions of her songs that she doesn't mix electronically is almost shocking, and the album can be very fun at times--it's almost a shame it's over so soon. Problem is, this isn't accessible to newbies. It's doubtful if non-fans would even find the album tolerable. Newbies should definitely stick to "Solex Vs the Hitmeister" and "Pick Up."

Good Solex Better Than Most People's Greatest!.......2005-07-08

This EP is an experimental performance between Elisabeth Esselink (aka Solex) and the large jazz group Maarten Altena Ensemble. It is not comprised of pop material but rather focuses on the odd, dissonant sounds and off-kilter time signatures of Esselink's further-out-there material. However, the entire EP is worth the price for the combo's covering of the utterly winning pop ditty "Birthday Superboy" (aka "Chris The Birthday Boy" from Solex's Pick Up LP for Matador); the arrangement here is even prettier, livelier and more weirdly touching than the original album version, and is definitely among the most enjoyable track recordings Solex has ever done. (Imagine a big-band toe-tapper written for the Muppet Show and you're almost there.) When Solex is at her best, she delivers the finest qualities of Bjork's pop music without the affectation or pretense, just sheer giddy musical charm and infectiousness.

Average customer rating:

Athens, Ohio
Solex
Manufacturer: Matad
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000026S5S
Release Date: 2000-04-03

Tracks:

Athens Ohio
Chris The Birthday Boy
Randy Costanza (Push Up)
Another Tune Like - Not Fade Away (Throwing My Life Away In 3/4)
That's What You Get With People Like That On Cuises Like These
Another Tune Like - Not Fade Away

Album Details

6-track Remix EP of Tracks from the Recent Album 'pick Up'.

Average customer rating:

Bluesin It Just for You!

Manufacturer: Jim Kahr Band
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Blues | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000CAANIW
Release Date: 2003-05-13

Average customer rating:

Together Again
Solomon Edmond
Manufacturer: Solex Enterprise
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Cool Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000RZOGWG
Release Date: 2007-04-16

Tracks:

Distant Thoughts
Destiny
Together Again
Behold
Sunshine
If U Don t Come
Hold Fast
Midnight Kinda Mood
One More Day
Winddown
Grateful
Never Alone
Spend Some Tyme
Windsong
Heaven Knows
Some Kinda Love
I Mean It

Product Description

In one word Solomon s music can be described as UniverSoul ~ It s a mystically interwoven sound of instruments played under the anointing of God and brings healing to the soul. His music resonates cross-culturally and has no boundaries. The language of his music is universal. He is a phenomenally gifted musician and makes no boasts for His musical talent, but credits his Daddy (Jehovah) for blessing him with the ability to do what he does. A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Solomon grew up as a PK (Preacher s Kid) and was exposed to the ministry of music early in his childhood. He was the oldest of three siblings and began playing the bass guitar at age 15 with his family s gospel quartet, The Edmond Family. Solomon also loved tickling the ivories. His passion for playing the keyboard would ultimately lead him to a celebrated career as a minister of music. Indeed, he has much to celebrate. For you see, not only was Solomon gifted to play music, he was also gifted to draw and design. Together Again, a soulful compilation of jazz, rooted in gospel with a mild mix of Latin and R&B beats.

Average customer rating:

All Licketysplit
solex
Manufacturer: matador
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000OY6DY4

Product Description

1998 Made in the UK features 2 tracks solex all licketysplit, and solex west, this is OUT OF PRINT

Average customer rating:

Low Kick and Hard Bop
Solex
Manufacturer: P-Vine
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005NRTZ
Release Date: 2001-09-17

Tracks:

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 Fundamentalist!
Dot on the I Between the H and the T
Good Comerades Go to Heaven
Cayenne
Ololo
You Say Potato, I Say Aardappel
Look... No Fingerprints!

Average customer rating:

All licketysplit
Innovative, Creative-Nothing Like It
Horribly Addictive!
Blasphemy!
c'mon, make with the reviews

Low Kick and Hard Bop
Solex
Manufacturer: Matador Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock
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ASIN: B00005NGZ4
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Tracks:

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 Fundamentalist!
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!

Customer Reviews:

All licketysplit.......2007-04-04

Solex is the nom de musique of the Amsterdam secondhand record shop owner Elisabeth Esselink, who in the nineties had been a member of indie pop act Sonetic Vet. At De C&D, her record store, the discount bins proved a valuable archaeological source of copyright free found sounds that could be plundered, deconstructed and rebuilt into Spectorised sound assaults, using her vintage eight-track sampler; impressive collages that form the basis of her delightfully surreal and exuberant stream-of-consciousness lyrics, multi-track vocals and left-field tunes. The results have little in common with other sample artists but have a quirkiness and humour that perhaps are closer to British plunderphonic artists such as People Like Us or Listen With Sarah.

By the time of this third album (the others being Solex Vs. The Hitmeister in 1998 and Pick Up in 1999, both recommended), Solex had honed her art and toured extensively with live musicians who had helped translate her found sound concoctions into the context of an onstage performance, so that this becomes a notable progression from the earlier albums, and features Geert De Groot on guitar and Robert Lagendijk on drums, whilst retaining the sense of fun and spontaneity that typifies her musical approach.

On her website Solex describes her found sounds as "Old vinyl, crappy un-sellable CD's (again), television (Wheel Of Fortune!), the `better looking' talk show hosts (they seem to sound better as well), noisy deaf people, films, bootlegs (again), radio, street-noises and animals. The noisy deaf people were my favourites. They do know what they're talking about, but don't have a clue what they sound like (opposite to most musicians)."

In lesser hands, it couldn't work, but Solex has a real gift for creating works of art from these unlikely audio fossils, and is never less than engaging, providing here over 40 minutes of fresh musical weirdness.

Innovative, Creative-Nothing Like It.......2002-03-10

I've heard countless artists who do the sampling thing. It's all so predictable and limited. But listen to Solex. You absolutely cannot predict Elisabeth Esselink's next move. Not only is it fresh and appealing, it's unsettling, scary, humorous, passionate, naiive AND sophistocated without sounding more artier than thou. How does she pull this off? Say what you will, but it's huge talent. She's completely mastered this genre, and if it's a genre, it's completely invented by Solex. She winds her voice in and out of these complex-yet-deceptively-simple song structures based upon samples. Yet again, I reiterate that sampling can make anything easy if you are not a musician or an artist. The music Esselink creates from samples, however, is extraordinarily clever and well put-together, and takes a mastery that involves a lot more intellect than have the usual wannabes who seek out this type of music tool. Yet, she makes it sound so simple. That, my friends, is indicative of genius. And Elisabeth Esselink is that.

Horribly Addictive!.......2002-01-06

Short note here because I'm tired: I just want to quickly second the vote of the last reviewer. Solex is brilliant and fun and totally different than anything you're listening to now. Just buy it and surrender. You'll thank me.

Blasphemy!.......2001-12-10

This album must be done justice, I'll be damned if the people of the world take a pass on this one because of some bad review. This is the work of a genius. "Low Kick and Hard Bop" sounds like the female version of 'Odelay'. In each song Solex succeeds in blending several different musical style together perfectly, she created this all with an old sampler and her singing. I haven't come across an album this infectious since Radiohead's Kid A, The Beta Bands Three EP's, DJ Shadow's Endtroducing, or Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane... I can't stop listening to it. It probably spun 6 times yesterday just driving around with friends. Go and download the first song on this album, then buy it. It's amazing.

c'mon, make with the reviews.......2001-11-28

Solex is, like, that girl who doodled all the time, that you never knew quite what to make of. Her wholesome would-be sex appeal was kind of at odds with her clothing, which was ratty and second-hand enough to qualify as thrift-store chic, but always a little too colorful. You wanted to write her off with epithets like "spunky" and "cutesy," but weren't sure whether she would reject them with an indignant glare or maybe just smile lopsided and pixie away. She's gotten a lot more self-assured, and it's clear that the coolness side of the equation is winning out, though still with that hefty slice of dorkiness which, let's face it, was what cool was all about anyway.

Actually, Solex is the nom du disque of Elisabeth Esselink, whose approach to sample-based music is, if nothing else, unique. For her third long-player, the satisfactorily titled "Low Kick and Hard Bop" (it sounds right, don't bother about what it might mean), she has apparently abandoned her working method from the last record, of bootlegging her own copyright-free samples from live performances, and returned to salvaging bits from "unsellable" CDs at her Amsterdam record boutique, along with found sounds and folderol. We're talking about tiny snippets - a few xylophone notes here, a fragment of a horn riff there - culled wittily, but wielded musically. Whereas someone like Beck might use a sample for its humor value, but fall back on live instrumentation, Solex sculpts Beck-like music beds with nothing more than a live drummer and an array of carefully placed samples. Take the album's opening title track as an example: Esselink's oddly Asian-sounding voice (reminiscent of Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda) intones "Elisabeth!" repeatedly, as though to renounce the first two albums' excessive reliance on the Solex moniker as a source for wordplay. Then we get a percolating drum stutter, jumpstarted by a bluesy harmonica blast, which repeats and is soon followed with a slinky guitar slide, before the drums burst into a funky loping groove. The drums here strut and shuffle, but later on they're just as likely to swing or bossa nova, and the musical accompaniment might be equally varied.

Complementary, but somehow also in opposition, to Solex's modernist-retro sound collages are her loopy lyrics. Take the full text of the tune "Ease Up You Fundamentalist!": "They were all using the mirrors to study their mouth movements for themselves/They were all learning that the curve is the thing when making up lips." These are absurd nonsense stories delivered with an earnestness and quizzicality that we usually associate with children or foreigners. Esselink does fall into the latter category (and her pride in her Dutchness is evident in titles like "Amsterdam is not LA" and "You Say Potato, I Say Aardappel"), but there is certainly something self-consciously childlike here as well. Is her English accent really as awkward as her bizzarely stressed deliveries would have us assume? Doubtful. No, she's a crafty one. Odd, because a lot of the appeal of Solex's music is it's charming disingenuousness. Clearly, a lot of it is calculated. Come to think of it, that doesn't make it any less charming. (6/10)

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