You've Got Your Shooting Irons Sticking Out

When I saw that Matador Records had posted a Solex-related video last week, I momentarily thought that Elisabeth Esselink had been inspired to create and share new music.

Not so, sadly. The sobering reality is that it's 25 years since Solex's third and final album for the label. Low Kick And Hard Bop, like the albums that preceded and succeeded it, is an eclectic mix of ideas, musical notes, brain dumps and secondhand store samples, and all the better for it.

All three Solex albums were CD only and not formally released in the UK, so I had to resort to US import copies. In September, to mark it's quarter century, Low Kick And Hard Bop will be available on vinyl for the first time.

Whilst not a new song per se, Mr. Crockpot is a rarity and one that I haven't heard before now. It was originally available as the customary bonus track for the Japanese CD issue of Low Kick And Hard Bop. A few years later, it was also included on the US-only DVD, Solex vs. The Empty Bottle.

I'm pleased that it's been liberated from relative obscurity, and I hope that this may be the catalyst for new music. Elisabeth previous shared plans for a new album in 2020 and whilst that didn't happen, I remain optimistic.

For more Solex fun:

All Licketysplit (20th September 2023)

Say Captain, Say What (29th July 2021)

All Licketysplit

Solex vs. The Hitmeister was released on 10th March 1998 on Matador Records and I bought it on the back of a review in Melody Maker, NME, Sounds or some such, without having heard a single note despite a John Peel session to promote the album in May that year.

 

Here's some background info on Solex from the John Peel area of the BBC website, which summarises it better than I could:

 

Solex is the pseudonym of singer-songwriter Elisabeth Esselink. Formerly the singer in the Dutch group Sonetic Vet and owner of an Amsterdam record store, Esselink decided to go solo and came up with a deft blend of low-key techno and 'found' sounds. 'Solex vs. The Hitmeister' was her debut album for Matador in 1998 and was comprised of snippets from all the records in her shop that she couldn't sell. In a change of tack, 1999's 'Pick Up' was painstakingly constructed from dozens of recordings that she'd secretly made at live shows in Amsterdam. This extraordinary technique was continued on the albums 'Low Kick And Hard Bop' (2001) and 'The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock' (2004) which showcased Esselink's wry sense of humour. Her latest album is 2005's 'In The Fishtank'. Oh, and Solex is a Hungarian moped if you're interested.

"My favorite session was a live show in the studio (2000). We played twosets on air in front of a live audience. Peel, who did the show from thesame room, said the audience should get closer to the band and not make itthat obvious they were only there for the free beers and snacks.When he aired our final session in 2002, I listened to the live webcast. He said some nice things and I dropped him an email right away. I joked about doing the next sessions at Peel acres. He read the email on the show and said that the Peel acres session was a very good idea. Unfortunately that session never happened."

What also attracted me to the debut album was that all 12 songs (13 if you happened to buy the Japanese import with a bonus song) had 'Solex' in the title. Solex All Licketysplit was the sole single release from Solex vs. The Hitmeister and it's a wonderful statement of intent and a possible comment on the trials and tribulations of signing with a record label, 

As soon as I got a paycheck
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.
Tabloids will be all over it
Do you think I should be timid?
All licketysplit

"Upswing,
Plaything!"
That's very flattering

"Brand new!"
And that's just a preview

"One-two!"
I wouldn't know how to...

As soon as I got a paycheck
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.
Tabloids will be all over it
Do you think I should be timid?
All licketysplit

"Upswing,
Plaything!"
That's very flattering

"Brand new!"
And that's just a preview

"One-two!"
I wouldn't know how to...

I wouldn't know how to...
I wouldn't... 

As soon as I got a paycheck
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.

I've only just discovered that a video was made to accompany Solex All Licketysplit, directed by Birgit Rathsmann and Bruce Alcock. It's a bonkers couple of minutes of jump cuts, rapid editing, freight trains, bridges, rivers and Elisabeth bouncing around in a variety of brightly coloured clothes. All absolutely in sync with the song's character.

I loved the album and I had the good fortune to see Solex live in concert around the time. I've long lost the ticket and there's no info online to narrow down the date but I think it would have been late 1998, more likely 1999. What I do remember is that it was in the bowels of The Thekla, a former cargo ship permanently moored in Bristol's floating harbour and which I'd only known as a gig/club venue (it's still around and going strong, I'm happy to report).

Gigs in The Thekla, certainly in the 1980s and 1990s, were cramped, sweaty but energetic affairs and Solex was no exception. I saw Elisabeth carting her kit on stage, performing a great gig and then heading off to staff the merch stall afterwards. All de rigeur, I guess, but it just made me like Solex even more. 

To update the discography, Solex went on to release a further two albums. Amsterdam Throwdown King Street Showdown! was a collaboration with Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer, released in 2010. Solex Ahoy! The Sound Map of the Netherlands followed in 2013. In a 2019 interview, Elisabeth referred to working on a new album that she hoped to release the following year. The subsequent COVID pandemic as well as the usual obstacles of recording and releasing a record have inevitably had an effect but I really hope it sees the light of day as I'm interested to hear what Solex in the 2020s would sound like.

Here's a link to my previous Solex post from July 2021, including an hour-long DJ mix from 2007 and the aforementioned 2019 interview.

Say Captain, Say What

Elisabeth Esselink is a Dutch musician, DJ and artist known as Solex. Named after her cat, in turn named after a Hungarian motor scooter/bicycle hybrid, Solex first appeared on my radar with her debut album on Matador records in 1998, Solex vs. The Hitmeister. I saw her perform live to a small crowd in the bowels of the ship-cum-venue The Thekla in Bristol around 1999 (I think). Solex released several more albums after that, either self-released/solo or in collaboration with the Maarten Altena Ensemble, Cristina Martinez & Jon Spencer, the last being Solex Ahoy! The Sound Map Of The Netherlands in 2013. Apart from a remix of Psychopath by St. Vincent in 2014, Esselink has worked predominantly on sound & music for TV, although a 2019 interview promised a new album "next year". We all know what happened in 2020, but I hope that we will see more music from Solex in the near future.

There was a Solex website running in the noughties, which included a free download cover version of The Stooges' 1969 as well as a number of DJ mixes. This one dates from 2007, a 1980s-influenced excursion. None of the mixes included a tracklisting and, to be honest, I haven't a clue what half of the songs are. However, amongst them, you'll find J.J. Cale (twice) with Lean On Me and Right Down Here, Italo disco with La Bionda's I Wanna Be Your Lover, the 'Mutant Dance Move' mix of Move On by Fashion, Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S, The The's epic Giant and, giving the mix it's title, the 12" version of Wot! by Captain Sensible. All together, just over an hour of fun.

 

Say Captain, Say What (2007) (1:05:45) (GD) (M)

 

Psychopath (Solex Remix): St. Vincent (2014)

1969 (Cover of The Stooges): Solex (2002) (available to buy on Bandcamp) 

2019 interview with Elisabeth Esselink on the Polish website Porcys (in English)