- Where most punk rockers hang up their spiky jackets before they're past their 20s, Amsterdam's Mark Van De Maat hasn't given up the fight. As his Red Light Radio slot demonstrates, he's also into African music, funk, jazz, electro, techno and just about everything else. His Knekelhuis label releases music from prickly artists like Murray CY and Beau Wanzer, producers for whom Wax Trax! Records is just as important as Trax. As the vocalist of Volition Immanent, Van De Maat goes back to his punk roots, busting out pained, squat-ready vocals over menacing jack tracks that will liven industrial-leaning dance floors.
Mind Records used the preferred punk format, a limited 7-inch, for Wake Up, but it was recorded in a very un-punk setting, the Red Bull Studios in Amsterdam. Parrish Smith, Van De Maat's counterpart in Volition Immanent, is responsible for one of the nastiest slabs on Knekelhuis, 2016's Virgin Of The World EP. His approach on Wake Up is to mix industrial percussion with 707 clatter—imagine Armando and Einstürzende Neubauten stuck in an elevator. On the Dutch language track, "Het Grote Gebeuren," Van De Maat's tough vocals buoy a melody-averse beat that almost succumbs to low-end distortion. "Wake Up" brings the funk, introducing a rocking acid line and some widescreen pads. Van De Maat's on-edge vocals, essentially a call to "wake up, sheeple," suggest an alternate reality where The Warehouse feeds into the ABC No Rio hardcore matinee.
TracklistA Het Grote Gebeuren
B Wake Up