The best Dutch popband

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Biography

by Chris Evans

Few bands in the history of rock music have sustained such an impressive period of creative longevity as The Nits. Since their formation in Amsterdam in 1974, the band has released an incredible 20 albums, and their latest -- Les Nuits -- is one of their very best.
Between 1974 and 1982, The Nits were a serviceable New Wave act who borrowed heavily from bands like XTC and Talking Heads. But in 1983, during the recording of their Edison award-winning album Omsk, the band's lead singer and principal songwriter Henk Hofstede decided he wanted the band to create music of greater substance, music that would stand outside the world of fashion and trends.
With keyboard player Robert Jan Stips -- already established as a virtuoso through his work with Supersister and Golden Earring -- having recently joined the band full-time, Hofstede knew he had the means to realise his ambition. Though he was no mean composer himself, it was Stips' subtle orchestrations and inventive use of samples that brought the band's sound an entirely new dimension.
Hofstede's voice, too, acquired a whole new depth of expressiveness around this time. From being an acolyte of David Byrne and Andy Partridge before Omsk, suddenly he was prompting comparisons with the likes of John Lennon and Elvis Costello.
Not quite the final element in the mature Nits sound is the drumming of Rob Kloet. Utterly distinctive, instantly recognisable drummers are a rare breed in rock, but Kloet is one of them. A master of touch and colour, he refuses to simply lay down a conventional off-the-shelf beat, and his contributions form an integral part of every Nits song. And no overview of the Nits should minimise the role of their hugely inventive sound engineer Paul Telman, who constantly shapes and configures the band's output at every stage, from rehearsal to recording.
In 1987, the band enjoyed the biggest international hit of their career with the single -- and album -- In The Dutch Mountains. But rather than capitalise on its success by serving up more of the same, The Nits became ever more doggedly determined never to repeat themselves. And so over the next 18 years, while playing to packed houses across the continent and further afield, they released a further nine albums, each one instantly recognisable yet clearly distinct from all of its predecessors. By this time, too, the band's palette had expanded to embrace a remarkable range of music -- from Beatleish pop to electronica, minimalism, jazz, folk, country, classical, world music and all points between.
Now comes Les Nuits, on which the Nits are augmented by the Mondriaan string quartet. And for anyone who believes that the only way a band can survive for 20 albums is by serving a successful formula, it's sure to be an eye-opener.
At the heart of the album is a moving trilogy of songs -- 'The Laundrette', 'The Pizzeria' and 'The Key Shop (War and Peace)' -- prompted by the brutal assassination of the outspoken Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh in the street outside Henk Hofstede's Amsterdam home. In the opening song, the bustling rhythms of everyday life are suddenly replaced by an eerie calm as bystanders struggle to register what has happened in such a numbingly familiar setting. It's a genuinely chilling and unsettling moment.Yet with 'The Key Shop', Hofstede delivers a life-affirming slice of pop which also serves as a clear rejoinder to those who would commit murder in the name of an abstract cause: "I am a believer/In the things I can see with my eyes/No burning hell/No paradise".
Humour has always played an important part in The Nits' music and 'The Red Dog' is sure to raise a broad smile, as Hofstede roars a country-style refrain over a rollicking Balkan brass band (as provided by Stips' keyboards). Songs like 'The Rising Sun' and 'The Hole' also reveal a band whose appetite for sonic experiment remains undiminished, yet never at the expense of melody. And rounding off an album that has provided a rollercoaster of emotions is 'The Milkman', a simple tale of enduring love that brings us gently back down to earth.
Combining a spirit of adventure with wisdom, experience and a limitless passion for music of every form, The Nits are a unique entity in modern popular music. At a time when pop and rock has never been more trivialised or compartmentalised, they still take their work seriously and refuse to conform to any doctrine.
Perhaps most importantly of all, they still get tremendous pleasure from playing together in front of an audience, and their audiences clearly love them for it.