BACKGAMMON
"Play it fucking loud" Bob Dylan called out to his band 50 years ago. Backgammon obeys - with this slogan the band has been making contemporary rock for the last 5 years and is a real head turner.
Backgammon gives new life to classic rock in their own way. Inspired by Neil Young, Tom Petty and Oasis - but without the brotherly dispute - brothers Thijs and Pim van der Meulen are two birds of a feather.
In 2013 Backgammon was the winner of the Dutch Student Band Festival, in 2014 they were elected Best Dutch Newcomer on Dutch radio and in 2015 they were runner up at the famous Dutch competition ‘de Grote Prijs van Nederland’. For the last year they have toured extensively in The Netherlands, UK and Belgium and were featured on many festivals this summer. Even more concerts are scheduled for this fall.
Previous single Gun In The Yard did very well in indie charts and Backgammon gave live performances on Dutch radio, as well as a Sofar Sounds session for Youtube.
Together with bandmembers Hugo van Dam and Maarten Hoekstra and produced by Martijn Groeneveld (John Coffey, Dotan), they swagger their way through their new single Oh Yeah!
In september 'Side A' of the Backgammon debut album will be released digitally. Later, 'Side B' will be released, and together they're turned into a vinyl release as well.
ECKHARDT AND THE HOUSE
The music of Eckhardt And The House can be best described as vintage pop.
Eckhardt And The House is the brainchild of Rik Elstgeest known in The Netherlands as a producer for a variety of projects, his latest being Mass Electric together with his producer buddy's Bo Koek and Gerry Arling.
Eckhardt And The House goes international
The single Mexican Wedding by Eckhardt And The House is doing very well internationally. It is being streamed on Spotify in no fewer than 51 countries: From Andorra to Singapore and from Argentina to Taiwan. And of course in super important territories like the UK, USA, Australia, France and Germany.
Mexican Wedding is a delightful journey through cowboy country. You hear the atmosphere of the prairie, mysterious guitars, wind on a deserted plain, a mariachi band, Clint Eastwood and all sung in a duet exciting as we have not heard since Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.
Meanwhile the track got wonderful international responses. Within 24 hours of sending out the promotional mailing, the first enthusiastic reviews from Glasgow to LA were online. It got compliments like "a modern version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood" and "This is one of those singles that on discovery and first listen, I keep replaying over and over" with a rating of 5+ (out of 5).
The first two singles from Eckhardt And The House did very well on radio. Debut Why Don't You Kids Dance got played for months on end at 3FM in 2014. Successor Beng Beng Beng was in 2015 on the playlist of Radio 1, Radio 2, L1 and Radio M. Enthusiastic responses came in from Japan and the United States. Additionally, the master of Understatement Pop surprised us with his Christmas single Eternity, a brilliant piece of festive season music with a wink. Besides the Netherlands, It got also picked up by Spotify Italy.
ELBA
If you get Mediterranean associations hearing the name ELBA, you are wrong... ELBA is an Amsterdam based electro-pop producers duo: Eelco Boonacker and Bart Engel.
With Eelco being an old punker and Bart a jazzfunker, their backgrounds could not be further apart. But Eelco and Bart share two things: passion for music and traveling. Both of them played in various bands during their teens and twenties and traveled the world independently.
In their thirties they met when they both worked at Polydor Records in the Netherlands. In those years countless different styles of music passed through their hands and after the two musical antipoles decided to agree upon the notion that there are only 2 kinds of music: "good music and bad music" their friendship was sealed.
In 2002 they started to make music together for sheer fun. No pretentions, no ambitions. Many people urged Eelco and Bart to release the music in 2004. Giving in to the social pressure "Follow the Sun" became their first album release in 2008. It’s a reflection of that time in sound and the music holds samples of sounds that Eelco and Bart recorded during their traveling.
In 2010 they released the single Lonely Time, it got them ariplay for several weeks on national radio 3FM in the Netherlands.
For the next years they made music but did not release any of it, the result was a pile of unfinished tracks which were good....but unfinished. Then a great thing happened, many talented artists who Eelco and Bart worked with over the years heard the material, loved it and all offered their collaboration. The result are three EP's which are a collection of different styles and sounds.
It’s a non-commercial, authentic and hard to categorize collection of styles from house, to hip-hop, to jazz, to soul to dub-step made without expectations, with love for music (of both ELBA and all the collaborating artists)
The intention is for you to listen and enjoy.