Maarten Demetter reviewed “Are You Free Now” by Jonas Van den Bossche for Luminous Dash
If you speak Dutch you can read the full article here, if like me the only Dutch you know are the ingredients used for brewing, Google translated it for you here below:
“”Are You Free Now” is the latest release from former Ghent resident Jonas Van den Bossche. Former, because Van den Bossche has been residing in Florida for years. The sun shines more often, but the beer is more expensive. It is choosing or sharing in life. We know the man from Ghent as drummer with Kapitan Korsakov and Rye Jehu bassist. But now that the rehearsal room of these bands is a bit far away, he is concentrating on a solo life as an improv artist and now also as a songwriter.
On “Are You Free Now” Van den Bossche shows his poppiest side.
Opener “Kintana” immediately sets the tone: the crystal clear clattering 12 string is reminiscent of the early solo work of Sugar and Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould. The instrumental could easily have been an outtake from Sugar’s dark LP Beaster. Melancholic and hopeful. Cloudy with clear spells, to keep with the weather. And that remains the case for a while on the autumnal “Are You Free Now”, a dreamy song supported by a bass clarinet-like synth.
With “Far Away”, the musician seems to be applying for a place on the Dranouter bill, but this song completely explodes under the influence of a wonderfully frisky bass. Lou Barlow is lurking around the corner, and when the electric strings make their appearance we are completely sold. Beautiful song to get through the day in a happy mood, just like the equally summery “King Of Fronds”. We hear echoes here of the lamented Pieter-Jan Van Campenhout, not coincidentally a contemporary.
In between, Van den Bossche misleads you with the introspective “Canonball”. The tempo goes up and down like a record player with a poorly functioning pitch control. And what starts as acoustic-intimistic gradually turns into the better nineties shoegazer work à la Ride and early Verve.
“For me, songwriting is mainly an internal process, so I generally don’t think about style or influence when I’m doing it,” he says. “Most songs come about organically. That being said, I am a child of the nineties, so that sound will inevitably find its way into my songs.”
With this mini-LP, Jonas Van den Bossche hopes to gain more of a foothold in Belgium. On “Are You Free Now” he shows that he is much more than a drummer or experimental dadaist. That he is a musician who can draw you into his songs, even though they rarely or never have a classical structure.
A Beautiful autumn picture.”
Listen to the “Are You Free Now” here
