Even voorstellen – The Names – Balancing chaos

THE NAMES - Balancing Chaos CD
What if “Encore!” wasn’t the end of the story but the explosion after the applause?
£With “Balancing Chaos”, THE NAMES tear open the songs of “Encore!” and let others rewire their DNA. 13 remixes deconstruct, reshape and reignite the material, before 4 original tracks bring everything back into focus. Not as a return to the past, but as proof of transformation.
The groove has shifted. The perspective has widened. This is not a remix album as accessory. This is a parallel dimension. Sound revisited. Sound reimagined. THE NAMES have always balanced melancholy with movement. Here, they push that tension further than ever. If “Encore!” reaffirmed their timeless identity - born out of the legendary Factory Records era alongside JOY DIVISION and NEW ORDER - then “Balancing Chaos” dares to dismantle that identity and reassemble it in motion. Taking what exists. Breaking it apart. Preserving the core. Creating chaos from order - and then sculpting a new balance.
Jean-Marc Lederman’s tribute-laced take on “Watching For The New World” - dedicated to Annik Honoré - opens the album in cinematic, emotional depth. From there, the pulse intensifies. Ukrainian HARD FACTS injects “Procrastination” with urgent, war-forged club energy. Producer Gil Robert becomes a central architect of the album’s sonic mutations and his multiple reworks slide from retro-futuristic drive to dark electro-pop elegance and shadowy ambient tension. Elsewhere, the reinterpretations spiral outward, coming from an eclectic panel of artists like the unique Mike Theis (known for his work with TRICKY/MASSIVE ATTACK), EDEN, NEVEL, HALCYON LOOP, Rob G. Nichols, DISKODIKTATOR or yet ERROR FATE. Beats harden, basslines deepen, textures freeze into glacial synthscapes or spiral into hypnotic loops. The dancefloor becomes laboratory…
Each remix preserves the lyrical DNA and melodic essence of THE NAMES - those unmistakable vocals, that tension between melancholy and momentum - yet opens unexpected corridors. Words dance on new beats. Meanings shift without betrayal. This is not a polite remix collection. It’s controlled demolition. Familiar melodies fracture, vocals gain new weight, grooves turn physical.
Where “Encore!” celebrated continuity, “Balancing Chaos” celebrates transformation. Chaos is introduced - but never without purpose. And that’s the point! THE NAMES are not a heritage act protecting a legacy. They are fearless enough to let their songs mutate. “Balancing Chaos” shows a band still unpredictable, still daring, still ready to jump into new dimensions of sound. And what if the jump isn’t forward but sideways?
With “Balancing Chaos”, THE NAMES deliver another “Encore!” but not as you expect it. Not a repetition. A mutation. THE NAMES are not a heritage act revisiting former glories. They are fluid. fearless. open… From post-punk roots to dark electro pop, from ambient abstraction to club propulsion, “Balancing Chaos” shows a band willing to jump onto the dancefloor - and into the unknown - without losing identity. The unpredictability is the point. Reinvention is the tradition.
Prepare for shifting textures. Prepare for shadows illuminated by strobes. Prepare for balance meeting chaos - and finding a new equilibrium.

THE NAMES are timeless. And still moving.

When balance meets chaos, THE NAMES do not fall apart.
They evolve.
Procrastination (Hard Facts remix) - Official video clip
"PROCRASTINATION" - THE NAMES - HARD FACTS Rmx
Far From The Factories Official video clip
The Names - "Far From The Factories"

Lokerse Feesten 2026 – van 31 juli t-m 09 augustus 2026 – met Therapy?!
THERAPY? vervoegen DROPKICK MURPHYS, GOGOL BORDELLO, THE MARY WALLOPERS en THE SCRATCH op maandag 3 augustus! Én: ze spelen voor de gelegenheid integraal hun meesterwerk TROUBLEGUM!
Nowhere! Screamager! Die Laughing! Isolation! Trigger Inside!
Wie er bij was op één van de uitverkochte AB concerten in 2024 weet genoeg: maandag 3 augustus wordt mosh dag!

Tickets zijn reeds te koop via www.lokersefeesten.be
Therapy? – Troublegum 30Y – Een therapeutische furieuze avond! 2024 live 

De 51e editie van Lokerse Feesten vindt plaats van vrijdag 31 juli tot en met zondag 9 augustus 2026. Eerder werd de komst aangekondigd van LENNY KRAVITZ, EDITORS, TOM ODELL, OSCAR AND THE WOLF, THE KOOKS, SUEDE, XAVIER RUDD, ZAZ, POMMELIEN THIJS, ROXY DEKKER en DROPKICK MURPHYS. Meer nieuwe namen volgen binnenkort.

Pse Belgium - kalender

2026
Jaap Reesema, 14 maart 2026, Capitole, Gent
Jaap Reesema, 20 maart 2026, Trixxo Theater, Hasselt

Club Classics - iconic beats, Live orchestra, 13 maart 2026, Lotto Arena, Antwerpen (met o.m. Jessy)

CAVALLUNA zaterdag 21 maart om 14u & 19u, zondag 22 maart om 15u - AFAS Dom, Antwerpen

HET SCHLAGERFESTIVAL zaterdag 21 maart om 20u30, zondag 22 maart om 15u00, zaterdag 28 maart om 20u30 - Trixxo Arena Hasselt

DE AVOND VAN DE FILMMUZIEK zaterdag 9 mei - AFAS Dome, Antwerpen (top sopraan Ella Taylor brengt nummer uit ‘the white lotus’ // Ibe brengt ode aan Bruce Springsteen)  

Milk Inc. –30Y, ‘Forever’ 23 + 24 oktober 2026, AFAS Dome, Antwerpen

Night of the proms 2026 vrijdag 20 november + zaterdag 21 november + zondag 22 november 2026, AFAS Dome, Antwerpen
(in 2025 haalde man 50000 euro op voor het Goede Doel)

2027
Cleymans & Van Geel, ‘groeten uit Bordeaux’, Lotto Arena, Antwerpen op 5 mei 2027
Metejoor, ’10 jaar carrière’, AFAS Dome, Antwerpen op 5 mei 2027
Mohsin Abbas, Moh experience, Lotto Arena, Antwerpen op 7 mei 2027

www.pse-belgium.com

FKP Scorpio concert – Wilco in OLT Rivierenhof, Deurne

WILCO TERUG IN OLT RIVIERENHOF OP 25 EN 26 AUGUSTUS 2026 MET "AN EVENING WITH WILCO" NA SUCCESVOLLE SHOWS VORIG JAAR!

Feest voor liefhebbers van alternatieve rock: De Amerikaanse band WILCO keert terug naar België voor twee avonden op dinsdag 25 augustus en woensdag 26 augustus 2026 in het OLT Rivierenhof.  Na de succesvolle shows van vorig jaar belooft het opnieuw een feest te worden voor fans van alternatieve rock, folk en experimentele pop. Het Amerikaanse indiepop/folkduo Hovvdy zal optreden als voorprogramma tijdens deze shows van Wilco. Tickets via fkpscorpio.be.

De 2026-shows maken deel uit van Wilco's nieuwe tour "An Evening With Wilco". Critici noemen Wilco "one of the most consistently relevant and rewarding American bands of any era" (Paste), een lof die ook live volledig voelbaar is.

Tijdens de tour put Wilco uit hun volledige oeuvre, met materiaal uit zowel recente als oudere releases. Zo worden het dertiende studioalbum Cousin uit 2023, een plaat die ontstond in samenwerking met Cate Le Bon en de EP Hot Sun Cool Shroud uit 2024 opgenomen in de set. Daarnaast verschijnen twee belangrijke heruitgaven: een uitgebreide drie-LP-versie van The Whole Love en een deluxe negen-LP/vier-CD boxset van A Ghost Is Born, die de blijvende relevantie van hun repertoire benadrukken.

Al bijna drie decennia bepaalt Wilco het underground muzieklandschap. Frontman Jeff Tweedy en zijn bandleden brachten klassiekers als Jesus, Etc., California Stars, Radio Cure, Impossible Germany en Love Is Everywhere (Beware) tot leven. Elk optreden is uniek, met een brede en flexibele setlist die subtiele passages afwisselt met krachtige, meeslepende momenten.

Hun vorige passage in Antwerpen bewees nog maar eens hoe krachtig hun live-reputatie is. Met een uitgebreide setlist en een dynamische spanningsboog tussen ingetogen en krachtige momenten wisten ze pers en publiek moeiteloos te imponeren. Op 25 en 26 augustus 2026 belooft "An Evening With Wilco" twee onvergetelijke avonden te worden.

Wilco, dat is Grote Kunst, zorg dat u erbij bent!

Praktische info
Datum: dinsdag 25 augustus en woensdag 26 augustus 2026
Locatie: OLT Rivierenhof, Antwerpen
Tickets: www.fkpscorpio.be

Het muzikale voorjaar 2026, De Grote Post, Oostende

Dit voorjaar verwelkomen we heel wat getalenteerde muzikanten in ons huis. Duik in het nachtleven tijdens de vijfde editie van Push The Button, luister naar de mooiste klassieke muziek in het Kapucijnenkerkje tijdens Recital op Zondag, pik een gratis concert mee in het CultuurCafé of geniet van de ingetogen indiefolk van Isbells.
Meer info www.degrotepost.be

Belgian Blues Awards 2026
De Belgian Blues Awards zullen worden uitgereikt op 14 maart 2026 in zaal Den Ouden Tijd in Herent. Tegelijk is dit evenement een minifestival want Tom Eylenbosch, The Dibs en David Ronaldo & The Dice zullen er een volledige set spelen.

Belgian Blues Challenge 2026
Bluesbands en solo/duo-acts opgelet! De Belgian Blues Federation is op zoek naar getalenteerde bluesmuzikanten die België gaan vertegenwoordigen op de European Blues Challenge 2027 in het Portugese Vila do Conde en op de International Blues Challenge 2028 in Memphis. Deze ongelooflijke opportuniteiten staan de winnaar(s) van de Belgian Blues Challenge 2026 te wachten.
Stroomt de blues door jouw aderen en resoneert ze in elke noot die je speelt, dan is dit de uitgelezen kans om jouw carrière naar een hoger level te tillen. Aarzel niet! Tot 30 april 2026 kun je jouw act of band inschrijven voor deelname aan de Belgian Blues Challenge. Uit alle inzendingen zal een werkgroep van de Belgian Blues Federation acht finalisten selecteren. Die zullen het tegen elkaar opnemen tijdens de live-finale op zaterdag 17 oktober 2026 in CC De Steiger in Menen.

Alle nodige info over de Belgian Blues Challenge vind je hier op onze website.

European Blues School 2026
In het kader van het project Blues For Youth is de European Blues Union een samenwerking aangegaan met drie zeer bekende internationale projecten die verband houden met Blues for Young Generations en Blues Schools. Het belangrijkste doel van Blues For Youth is om de blues terug te brengen naar jonge generaties, vanaf schoolgaande leeftijd tot jonge muzikanten. Het doel is niet alleen om muziek te onderwijzen, maar vooral ook de cultuur achter dit Afro-Amerikaanse erfgoed, dat verband houdt met gelijkheid en mensenrechten.
Dit programma biedt Europese bluesmuzikanten/studenten van 18 tot 26 jaar die geïnteresseerd zijn in deelname aan een zomercursus blues een beurs. Er is een samenwerking gestart met Little Steven Blues School in Notodden, Noorwegen (een weekkamp in augustus), van 27 juli tot 31 juli/1 augustus 2026.

info:
https://europeanbluesunion.com/ebu-blues-school-norway-2026/
www.belgianblues.org

MayWay records news - Ciska Ciska nieuwe single ‘Sweet Sixteen’
Debuutalbum uit op 11 september 2026
Sweet Sixteen - Album van Ciska Ciska
Na haar optreden op Best Kept Secret vorig jaar schoof de muziekpers Ciska Ciska naar voren als een van de grote nieuwe beloftes in muziekland. Nieuwe single ‘Sweet Sixteen’, een heerlijke, naar tijdloze countrytraditie geurende song over teenage heartbreak, bewijst waarom.

‘Sweet Sixteen’ zet de toon voor het debuutalbum dat verschijnt op 11 september, geproduceerd door Pieterjan Coppejans (Sylvie Kreusch, Eefje De Visser) en gemixt door Tobie Speleman (Dressed Like Boys, The Haunted Youth, blackwave.).

Ciska Ciska is de band rond Ciska Dhaenens (26), singer-songwriter uit Gent en telg uit een muzikale familie (zie ook: vader Dirk/Derek en broer Vito). De zaken lopen voortreffelijk voor Ciska Ciska sinds ze in de lente van 2025 voor het eerst van zich liet horen met debuutsingle Biotope. Die werd uitstekend onthaald, net als opvolger Jump Right In, dat vorige zomer uitgroeide tot een radiohitje op o.a. Radio 1 (#6 in Vox) en Willy.

Met Lukja Vanaverbeke (zie ook Frans Kalf), Mathijs Steels (zie Shht) en Lou De Smet (ex-Eosine) omringt Dhaenens zich met een uitstekende band die al indrukt maakte op fijne podia als Best Kept Secret dus, Left of the Dial, Leffingeleuren en tien dagen geleden nog op We Are Open in Trix. In 2026 komen er veel nieuwe optredens aan, waaronder albumreleaseshows in Gent (Minard) en Antwerpen (AMOR/De Roma) en een resem nog aan te kondigen zomerfestivals. Die zouden wel eens heel drukbezocht kunnen worden, zeker als je weet dat Ciska Ciska door Humo en Focus Knack (‘Signalement’) werd bestempeld als ‘one to watch’ voor 2026.

CISKA CISKA LIVE

01 mrt 2026 | Staminee De Living, Heist-op-den-Berg

06 mrt 2026 | 4AD, Diksmuide (support Johnny Dowd)

28 mrt 2026 | Mezz, Breda (Ik Zie U Graag)

03 mei 2026 | Les Aralunaires, Arlon

21 mei 2026 | Snuffel Hostel, Brugge

04 jun 2026 | De Grote Post, Oostende

15 sep 2026 | Minard, Gent (albumreleaseshow)

07 okt 2026 | AMOR/De Roma, Antwerpen (albumreleaseshow)

(a lót) more tba

www.maywayrecords.com

Even voorstellen – David Gray – Nightjar

DAVID GRAY ANNOUNCES NIGHTJAR
COMPANION ALBUM TO LIFE IN SLOW MOTION
19 UNHEARD SONGS FROM THE LIFE IN SLOW MOTION WRITING SESSION
OUT 27 MARCH 2026 VIA BELLA FIGURA MUSIC
 “WHEN I FALL IN LOVE” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6MM7jwiask

David Gray has announced Nightjar, a companion album to his landmark 2005 record Life in Slow Motion, released on 27 March 2026 via Bella Figura Music. Featuring 19 previously unheard songs written and recorded during the same extended creative period, Nightjar documents a time of upheaval, recalibration and intense productivity, and opens up the wider story behind one of Gray’s most vital albums.

The announcement follows November 2025’s 20th-anniversary reissue of Life in Slow Motion, released as its first-ever vinyl edition, including unreleased demos and previously unheard tracks. Nightjar draws from the same sessions, capturing material that sat alongside the eventual album as Gray and his collaborators moved through an open-ended and prolific period of writing and recording.

Looking back, Gray describes the years leading into the Life in Slow Motion sessions as deeply unsettled. After White Ladder’s transformation from spare-room recording to international phenomenon, he found himself navigating a convergence of personal and professional extremes. “We were almost three years on the road touring White Ladder,” he recalls. “My father had passed away in the midst of that campaign, and then, shortly after I got home from all of that, my wife gave birth to our first child in somewhat traumatic circumstances. I was also now a successful, famous and wealthy man with the world apparently at his feet. It was a lot to make sense of. Personally, privately, professionally, emotionally, creatively. Way too much to chew in one bite.”

That upheaval fed directly into the record that followed. “Making A New Day at Midnight was a difficult experience,” he says of the preceding album, “in as much as it was difficult to be natural and unselfconscious about the music making due to the extraordinary circumstances I suddenly found myself in.”
The scale of the A New Day at Midnight tour intensified that sense of dislocation. “It was all the crazy success of White Ladder suddenly coming in to land,” Gray says. “Vast venues and stages. A travelling crew of 50 plus personnel. There were some truly unforgettable shows, but a lot of the time it felt like a ‘Being John Malkovich’ moment of looking out through someone else’s eyes… I was basically in shock.”

When the tour ended, Gray knew change was unavoidable. “When I returned home after the tour I knew that I needed nothing less than a total reset,” he says, “a new home for my family and a fresh start for my music.”

That reset arrived unexpectedly in the autumn of 2003, when Gray visited The Church Studios in Crouch End, then owned by Dave Stewart. “It was a pinch yourself moment when I walked into the main live room,” he recalls. “It was vast and airy but had a powerful and welcoming atmosphere… there were definitely good music making vibes in the walls.” What began as a tentative “test drive” of the studio soon became permanent: “The upshot of the test drive was that I never moved out,” Gray says. “Crazily it made more sense to buy a huge studio that was already up and running than to try and build a much smaller personal studio somewhere else.”

Several of the songs that appear on Nightjar were written and recorded in those earliest sessions. “There was a darkness in the post 9/11 world and a darkness in me,” Gray reflects, “and there was no escaping the fact that it was spilling out in many of these new songs.”

With the studio fully set up, including a Steinway Model D grand piano that had to be craned in through a window during a winter snowstorm, Gray’s process expanded and shifted. “To own my own personal grand piano was a dream come true,” he says. “This is the moment when a lot of my writing began to centre around the piano… it felt as if a whole new world of possibilities had opened up.”

With all the instruments ready, Gray deliberately chose speed and instinct over refinement. “The basic protocol was to work fast and get ideas recorded as spontaneously and instinctively as possible,” he says. “I didn’t want to be hindered by trying to organise everything into a compact set of commercially viable songs, I just wanted to stretch out into the space in front of me.”

That immediacy is central to what Nightjar captures. “One of the things I really responded positively to when I listened back… was just how directly and unfussily so many of these songs had been rendered,” Gray explains. “There is often only one drum take and one ‘guide’ vocal on the sessions and I really enjoy that slightly raw and unpolished aspect.”

The title track “Nightjar” held a particular status within the wider sessions. “It was a song that Marius de Vries was involved with as it was in the reckoning to be a part of the main Life in Slow Motion album,” Gray says, noting that “a lot of detail work went into both the recording and the mixing of this song, which marks it out from many of the others.” De Vries also added input to several other tracks, including “Money”, “The Easy Way Out”, “When I Fall In Love” and “The Final Order”, all part of the long list of recordings gradually curated down into the final album sequence.

However, Gray emphasises that Nightjar as a whole reflects a broader creative collaboration. “The mainstay of Nightjar is the result of the creative teamwork of myself, the band and the producer Iestyn Polson,” he says, “all working together within a very free and open process.”

Emotionally, the songs occupy darker and more conflicted territory than the finished album that followed. “The flavour of some of these songs is one of grief, and in others of confusion and disillusionment,” Gray reflects. “I think I was attempting to make sense of everything that had spun me round so completely in the previous four or five years. That would prove to be a long process, perhaps a never-ending one in some respects.”

That rawness is part of why Gray feels the record matters now. “I think there is a rawness to the emotional tone as well as to the high tempo recording process, and that’s one of the reasons I think it’s important to put this music out,” he says. “Life in Slow Motion was the ambitious and highly produced end result of this 18-month recording blitz, but these other songs reveal much more of the story and shine a light on many of the dark and conflicted feelings that were beginning to crystallise.”

Crucially, Gray is clear that the songs were not held back due to quality. “The reason that all these songs didn’t get released at the time wasn’t because they were judged to have failed the quality threshold for Life in Slow Motion,” he says, “but because what we were looking for was a coherent flow and they were either heading off in other sonic directions or due to the large amount of recordings, simply surplus to requirements at the time.”

Preceded by the single “When I Fall In Love” on 20 February, Nightjar stands as a vital companion record to 2005’s Life in Slow Motion.

“To me personally,” Gray says, “it feels very satisfying that this intense and super creative period of musical regeneration (2003–2005) will now be documented in much greater detail.”

NIGHTJAR
1.     When I Fall In Love

2. Money
3. The Easy Way Out
4. Nightjar
5. Green Light
6. Mr. Bennett
7. Long Gone Now (Alt Version)
8. Everybody’s Leaving Town (Drum Delay Mix)
9. Alive
10. Poor John
11. Wave
12. Sacred Ground (Alt Version)
13. The Golden Ray
14. Far From Here
15. A Model Life / My Angel Now
16. Madder Rain
17. Laughing Gas (2004 Version)
18. Side Effects (May Also Include)
19. The Final Order

Even voorstellen – Tanaya Donelly & Chris Brokaw – the undone is done again

TANYA DONELLY & CHRIS BROKAW “THE UNDONE IS DONE AGAIN” 17/04 (fire/konkurrent)
“novus annus adiit” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9b0xYwm9N4

Two of Boston’s most influential and enduring voices have joined forces for a bold new project. Tanya Donelly—co-founder of Belly, Throwing Muses, and The Breeders—and Chris Brokaw, guitarist/singer for the legendary Come, Codeine drummer and longtime collaborator with Thurston Moore, have come together to reimagine the centuries-old form of medieval music for the modern.

Their forthcoming four-track new EP The Undone is Done Again (Fire Records, 2026) is released on 17th April with a special edition vinyl release as part of this year’s Record Store Day. An alluring collection of modern interpretations of medieval music, their new EP is built on the intimate interplay of Donelly’s luminous vocals and Brokaw’s intricate, atmospheric guitar work. The result is music that resonates with an ancient yet contemporary energy that’s timeless, haunting and defiantly new. “Medieval purists be forewarned, we go where we want.”                                                                                                                                                 

Bringing together decades of experience shaping alternative and indie rock history for the first time. Donelly’s unmistakable voice and songwriting has inspired generations, while Brokaw’s genre-spanning guitar work has pushed boundaries in rock, folk, and experimental music. Together, they’ve created a remarkable new project that is at once stark and lush, rooted and progressive, whilst bridging Renaissance tradition with richly layered arrangements and contemporary songcraft.

Recorded at Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham MA during Spring 2025. The project began with medieval Christmas carol, ‘In Hoc Anni Circolo’, produced for a benefit show during late 2024. Nuanced and intricate with majestic early music influences Brokaw’s improvised guitar techniques and melodic repeated patterns alongside Donelly’s beguiling vocals brings a minimalist and European classical feel to the release. Chris explains, “The repeating guitar melody in the last third of the song was an improvisation that came together in the studio”. Lead track ‘Novus Annus Adiit’ is a compelling otherworldly entry point with its hypnotic guitars whilst ‘Plaudat Letitia’ was arranged from its original melody and an acapella version of the song they sourced.

“Having always been a big fan of all of Chris Brokaw’s music, bands, and projects, I asked him if we might team up to play a song or two for our mutual friend Hilken Mancini’s annual holiday event last year. He had the unusual and very cool idea to perform a medieval carol, in Latin, something far outside of anything I’d done before.” Tanya Donelly

“I’d been listening to the Norwegian vocal group ‘Medieval Trio” and kind of on a lark suggested that we perform a medieval Christmas piece. I felt like we immediately came upon a new language, sound, dialect. It sounded more like Bedouin music to me than anything particularly ‘Christian’, or much like anything we were ostensibly drawing from. I’ve always loved Tanya’s music but her voice here is, I think, on an entirely new level.” Chris Brokaw

In support of the release, the duo will be embarking on a series of live concerts, bringing their collaboration to intimate spaces across North America, Europe, and beyond this Spring. Audiences can expect intimate, mesmerizing performances of the madrigals, where two artists at the height of their powers explore uncharted musical territory alongside songs from their solo histories.