Picking three albums to sum up a career that spans 25 years must not have been an easy feat for Stijn Meuris. The various bands he was in, in their ever evolving incarnations, produced quite the discography over the past decades. It is a joy to see then, that of the albums that made the cut to be included in this retrospective vinyl box, two out of three have been (partially) co-written, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by yours truly. And it’s a very nice box to boot, check it out!
New album by Marco Z mixed at tonekitchen.be
Marco Z ruled national airwaves a few years back with his smash hit “I’m A Bird”, a single from his debut album. “Hold Me Like The World Is Ending” is his currently released follow-up to that successful debut. Marco’s writing had been so prolific of late that he saw no way to fit the material on one album, so he actually released two! The first is a collection of more densely arranged, rich and often sparkling pop tunes. The second album holds a more sparsely arranged, largely acoustic set of songs. I had the profound pleasure of mixing album one, a gem of richly textured and expertly crafted songs. Have a listen!
Stoomboot debut CD mixed and mastered at tonekitchen.be
Up and coming Dutch singing artist Niels Boutsen, aka Stoomboot, just released his debut album. I am pleased to see it is garnering great reviews and the singles are getting tons of airplay, as I had a great time mixing and mastering the album. I even got to dust off the old Hammond organ on a couple of tunes!
Tonekitchen.be makes intro track for Alex Agnew DVD “The Legend Ends”
Kind of old news, this one, but we’re admittedly running a bit late in updating the site. Stand-up comedian Alex Agnew recently wrapped up a series of sold-out performances in Sportpaleis Antwerpen (which seats 12000 people). Tonekitchen.be was quite honored to be commissioned to compose, perform, mix and master the intro track to the DVD-release of these shows. Godspeed as thou rocketh on, Alex!
Paulien Mathues releases debut album
Out now: the debut album “Flying Thoughts” by Paulien Mathues. Produced by David Poltrock, mixed by yours truly at tonekitchen.be. Buy it on iTunes here.
Winning single of “The Voice Van Vlaanderen” once again mixed @ tonekitchen.be
Never change a winning team, or so the saying goes. Last year I had the pleasure of working with songwriting/producing tandem Jasper Steverlinck and David Poltrock on Glenn Claes’ winning single for “The Voice Van Vlaanderen”. This year we did it all over again for Paulien Mathues. I mixed her single “There’s Some Place I’ve Got To Be”, which is currently climbing the national charts and contributed to her victory in the contest. Congratz to Paulien and team Jasper!
Meuris: new band and new album “Mirage”
In 2004, I produced, recorded and mixed the album “Grand” for the band Monza. It was lauded as a landmark effort for the band by both critics and audience and remains a firm favorite in my personal back catalogue. Needless to say then, I was thrilled when lead singer Stijn Meuris reconnected with me in 2012 for the production, recording, mixing and mastering of his new album “Mirage”. “Meuris” is now also the name of the band, and an invigorating, inspiring and energetic bunch they are. “Mirage” finds Stijn reliving his early musical thrills of the eighties wave and punk era, updated by yours truly to sport a more present-day sonic footprint. Check out the album, which is already enjoying great critical acclaim, and check out one of the band’s explosive live sets! For some footage of the recordings, surf to www.meurismirage.be.
“MANdolinMAN plays Bossa Nova”, recorded, mixed and mastered by tonekitchen.be
Having successfully dusted down old regional flemish tunes on their previous album “Old Tunes, Dusted Down”, the talented chaps of MANdolinMAN decided it was time to garner inspiration from way outside the national borders. The result is a solid mixture of intimate reworkings of Bossa Nova classics and some great original material. Like on their previous album, tonekitchen.be took care of recording, mixing and mastering.
“Ik Hou Van U/Je T’aime Tu Sais” exclaimed best Belgian song ever
In a recent poll, listeners of radio station Joe FM were prompted to pick the best Belgian song ever. Winner of the poll was “Ik Hou Van U/Je T’aime Tu Sais”, a 2005 bilingual remake of the classic Noordkaap song from the soundtrack of the movie “Manneken Pis” (1995). The remake was commissioned as an “anthemesque” theme song for the 175th anniversary of Belgian independence and was produced, arranged, recorded, mixed and mastered by tonekitchen.be.
New Gorki material
New songs from Gorki were recently mixed by tonekitchen.be: the new single “Ninja” (also did the mastering for that one), and upcoming new releases that will be featured on various compilation and tribute albums, to be announced soon..