Six years later, they’re finally back, with a third album. Mousetrap marks the start of the second chapter in the band’s history: Not only has their producer Marc Tee joined the band as a guitarist, they’ve added a singer in the form of Lize Accoe, who used to front Delavega and who released the solo album Me, Versatile Me in 2010.

“Making instrumental music has never been a choice,” explains drummer Lieven Declercq. “We were always looking for someone to sing. We collaborated with a lot of people, but we never found the right one.”

He calls Accoe “the perfect match”. She sings “very intuitively, without trying to sound American or Jamaican. She has a very soulful voice, warm and with loads of power. That’s necessary, if you look at the band: We have three brass players, two guitarists, a bass player, a pianist and a drummer. You can’t add a vulnerable voice to that mix.”

The band has had to adapt their music, in fact, to allow for even a strong voice. “When making instrumental music, we tended to fill up the place of the voice,” explains Declercq. “Now the players have to leave room for it. Moreover, it’s important to listen very carefully to the lyrics and adapt the arrangements to them.”

Between two stools

Five of the 11 songs on Mousetrap are still instrumental. Strikingly, the six songs with Accoe are the first six on the album. “We spent a considerable amount of time discussing the running order of the album,” Declercq says with a smile. “Placing the vocal songs at the start of the album is a statement. We’re proud of them.”

Adding a voice is also a way, Declercq admits, of “reaching out to a broader audience. We can’t complain about the lack of attention for our music in the past 10 years, but instrumental music is a bit less accessible. So we put the more accessible songs at the front.”

With Accoe on board, the Internationals sound more and more like a soul ensemble. It seems quite a stretch from their ska origins, but it isn’t, according to Declercq. “The Jamaican music has been fed by Afro-American genres like soul and rhythm & blues. We drink from both sources.”

Isn’t there a danger of falling between two stools? “There is, and indeed we do!” he says. “For hardcore ska fans, we’re too weird, and for a pop or soul audience, we sound too Jamaican.”

They never perceived that as a handicap, though. “It’s a relief not to belong to a specific niche. The benefit of it was being asked to play Pukkelpop, Feest in het Park or other big rock festivals.”

Despite their name, the Internationals mainly play in the Benelux. “We toured twice in South Africa, in Spain and France. But all of us have jobs which makes it a logistical hell to set up tours.” They can’t live from the band, but Declercq, who works at the Antwerp music centre Trix, notes that “the professional activities of the different members are music-related. And we all play in other bands, too. So, we do live from our music. I’d even say: Music is our life.”

www.internationals.be

Music reviews

Hooverphonic

Hooverphonic with Orchestra • Sony

Hooverphonic has used orchestral arrangements on most of its albums, but a whole CD with a symphonic orchestra – that’s a first. Apart from the single “Happiness” (not the most impressive page in their songbook), there’s no new material on Hooverphonic with Orchestra. Since it contains mostly hits (“Mad about You”, “The Night Before”), it can be seen as an alternative best of. But they’re of course all new versions, and successful ones at that. But you won’t be tempted to forget the originals, partly because Noémie Wolfs, who replaced iconic Hooverphonic singer Geike Arnaert in 2010, still has some work to do to allow us forget her predecessor.
www.hooverphonic.com

Flying Horseman

Twist • Unday

“There’s too much love,” Bert Dockx hypnotically repeats in “T.M.L”, the song that opens Twist, the second album of his band Flying Horseman. It sets the tone for what’s to follow: ominous, eerie, utterly mesmerising music. At times, the Antwerp fivesome lashes out with frenetic songs, but mostly opt for a subdued tension that leads to a feeling of unease, as if they’re creating a soundtrack for an impending apocalypse. Weirdly, this dark music has, in the end, a soothing quality. Though some might argue this says more about the reviewer than about the music. Anyway, too much love? Maybe. But there’s never enough Flying Horseman.
www.myspace.com/flyinghorseman

Aroma di Amore

Samizdat • Onderstroom

A quarter of a century after their last LP, Aroma di Amore makes a strong comeback with Samzidat. Apparently the band sees itself as an outsider in the Flemish music scene, since the title refers to the act of dispersing censored texts in the Soviet Union. Samizdat is no radical change from the band’s 1980s sound, and that’s OK: Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. The trio mixes forbidding, unruly guitars with electronic rhythms (they don’t have a drummer). Elvis Peeters, also a lauded writer, has written some of his most poignant lyrics here.
www.aromadiamore.be

Fence

Fence • Fons

The Limburg threesome Fence reunited in 2010 after a hiatus of four years, resulting in their fourth, eponymously titled album. You thought they couldn’t get more Beatlesesque than they were before? Think again! Not that I care, because the result is beautifully crafted pop songs with celestial harmonies and a slight psychedelic edge. Fence is a record that is intriguing right from the start and yet becomes more captivating with every listen. Ooh ooh, summer’s here, thanks to Fence.
www.fence.be