The Nits C/D S/D

"For this reason the Nits are one of the most subtle groups, because they have this very rare cultural heritage... For example you remember this song, "Nescio"? I thought that it was just a Latin word. By going to the Netherlands I discovered that Nescio was in fact a writer, it's a little Kafka or the Dutch Robert Walser. He wrote three new, that are among the finest ever written on youth, "The Young Titans" including. He never revealed his true identity and it became one of the leading figures in Dutch literature. A revelation for me, thanks to the Nits... They remain one of very few groups to have developed a strictly continental imaginary linked to Belgian surrealism, German Expressionism, with a kind of melancholy Mitteleuropa, at the crossing between the Netherlands, the Germany of the 1920s, all attached to a history of the classic Anglo-Saxon songwriting: Lennon, Dylan, Cohen, a very rare Alchemy... They evoke the imagination which is worn by no other group in the history of pop. And what singer! What voices! They wrote at least fifty songs absolutely gorgeous, and there's still two or three songs that I find beautiful, even in the last albums in "Nights", "1974", even in not very good as albums "Alankomaat" ("Three Sisters") and "Wool" ('Ivory Boy')... Ignorance that the Anglo-Saxons of such a group, it is crazy... The Nits, it should be at least as important as XTC, if not more! They had everything: charisma, voice, songs, references. "Giant Normal Dwarf", I think this is one of my ten top favourite of all time. This report to the children, the toy box that you open, illustrated books, fairy tales... No album in the history of the rock does this impression then reopen trunk treasures of childhood... It is so beautiful. In "Faber ", I believe that and I quote "Moon Moon" and "The Night-Owl"."

^ random machine-translation from French via http://www.popnews.com/popnews/blind-test-avec-tristan-garcia-episode-4, which I stumbled across while looking for the Walter Gropius line from Denim's "Council Houses" ... IDK, with the upthread mentions of Talk Talk/Laurie Anderson etc, figure this could be worth reviving.

that's sweet.

I just got this one this year

http://www.kesteloo.net/eshop/image/cache/data/shop/nitsurk-1000x1000.jpg

live double album. a big hit back in the day.

i have fond childhood memories of this one
http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/619/MI0001619122.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

almost like an ep. but it feels like a proper album, still sounds great, warm and noirish.

must admit Nits can be irritatingly intellctual too.. at times.

i made that typo on purporse, of course.

Thanks for the info. I've been big into Supersister recently and I'm glad to hear Stips went onto another great band.

Man I could talk about this band till the cows come home, I've been steadily obsessing over the Nits for a few years now (I started this thread, but it took years for them to really sink in).

Once you learn to deal with the occasional eighties synths (and we're not talking cool, retro synths, we're talking a *lot* of synth brass) their back catalogue opens up and it's mostly pretty damn great, even right up to present day. I travelled to Leiden to see them play this year, and apart from not understanding the between song stories it was a total thrill to see them play.

So yeah, lovingly created art-pop, if anybody wants a starter mix, just shout and I'll paste it up.

I'd be keen for that starter mix, MaresNest, if you've the time! They've quite an overwhelming back catalogue.

Heya, I've knocked a few tracks together and made an 80 min mix of stuff, it doesn't go right to the 2000's stuff very much or else it'd be much longer, but it's a pretty good mix different eras.

Will post a link when it has run off and uploaded.

Here y'go...

http://we.tl/OzgZIanKaF

Cheers! Had Great Firewall shenanigans here in the PRC so sent it to a NZ friend who rerouted it my way; looking forward to getting to grips w/it.

Sorry for giving you the runaround, hope you like it...!

thanks to this thread and it's recent 'bump' i listened to http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/lyricwiki/images/e/e5/The_Nits_-_Ting.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100628134042

for the first time, and it's indeed a very fine album.

:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVHmKPjRnM4

Bump to say that all of their back catalogue is now up on Spotify.

This is interesting.

https://www.academia.edu/21884149/A_World-Wise_Case_of_Dutchness_Cosmopolitanism_and_National_Identity_in_the_Work_of_the_Nits_Pop_Band

Going to see them Nits in Amsterdam in December, can't wait, just leaves the interesting proposition of flying out of Amsterdam on New Year's Eve

Oh, sweet!

That Geert Buelens paper is a good read.

New album out mid September! - http://www.nits.nl/nits/index.html

angst is the first NITS studio album since it's predecessor 'Malpensa' (2012). It was recorded spring '17 at the NITS' home-base studio 'de Werf ' in Amsterdam. The album contains all new tracks, written by NITS trio Henk Hofstede (also taking care of the lyrics), Rob Kloet and Robert Jan Stips.

angst is the story told of the occupation and liberation of Holland and life in post-war Germany. Elvis on a train trip along the Rhine in the 50's. Riding on a moped through Germany heading for the south. Grandmother knitting a sweater to protect you against the cold and the unknown.

Listened to Ting four times so far. It's very good, all the comparisons above make sense. Seems like the best tracks are in the first half though, but we'll see if I change my mind soon.

My copy said limited edition but maybe it's one of those things that really wasn't that limited and perhaps the only version.

How is the new album?

I stand by my assessment that the first half of Ting is much better but "Nightfall" is one of the highlights, with its gliding piano sounds.

The newest album is more eccentric and minimal than a mainstream chamber pop band of advancing years have any right to release, a loose suite of very personal songs about how Dutch people coped during WW2 and it's aftermath with a lot of Henk's personal recollections of his elder relatives.

On initial listens it's very low key and perhaps takes a bit of getting used with, but it unfolds beautifully after a couple of listens.

Lits Jumeaux might be my favourite song, it's the story of two young neighbours, boys, one inspired by fascism and one by American pop culture separated by the thin wall of their terraced dwelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoUOJfDUDYI

And yeah, Ting is kinda front-loaded with a few beloved Nits songs.

Hjuvi has four songs on it (two from Ting, but where are the other two from?), rest are orchestra pieces, including a complete copy of Beach Boys "California Girls"!

This version of "Cars & Cars" is okay but the version of "Night Fall" is really something.

The other two songs are 'Ting' era B Sides, from the Cars & Cars single.

Still haven't got fully into all the orchestra pieces but I need to give this one a rest and come back to it in a couple of years. There are a lot of good moments though.

Lyrics of "Moved By Her" seem to contrast with the peeping tom lyrics.

I travelled over to see them in Amsterdam this week, they played in an old church in the outhern canal district now called De Duif (The Dove), it was a lovely venue.

The performance was brilliant, best I'd seen them. It was obvious they had been working live most of the year and were really sharp but relaxed and stretching the dynamics of the older songs and all the weird noisy layers on the Angst songs were to the forefront, I guess I won't be hearing the album in full again, so it was great to hear one more time.

Lot's or Robert Jan related stuff on Dutch TV over the next few days for some reason and you can see a rebroadcast of the Hijuvi concert here -

https://www.parmando.com/watch/robert-jan-stips-hjuvi-concert/?fbclid=IwAR3Opt6zsX_qd0QaoJj3ypprTE_4MgLJVQbA_lKdmfUZv6gOy-4_7ZmsFiQ

Cool, might watch that soon.

You mean you wont be hearing Angst live in full again?

Lyrics of "Moved By Her" seem to contrast with the peeping tom lyrics.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, November 23, 2018 4:37 PM

Meant to say the sound of the song contrasted with the lyrics.

Yeah, when I saw them earlier in the year they played the whole record and this week they played all of it except for Breitner On A Kreidler for some reason.

Huu-uu-uun-gry

In The Dutch Mountains - I think I like this a bit better than Ting (as good as that was). Two of my favorite songs on it are upbeat with nostalgic melancholy choruses ("J.O.S. Days" and "An Eating House") and two others with a more subtle downbeat feel are just as good ("Two Skaters" and "The Swimmer"). "Mountain Jan" and "Moon And Stars" are also great (are they using a similar string instrument?).

I see that the final three tracks weren't on the original vinyl version. It does make some sense to end with "Goodnight" but I would miss "Moon And Stars", though I never really dug "Magic Of Lassie" or "Strangers In The Night" that much.

Daddy be hungry

ITDM is their imperial phase really, the resulting live album Urk is a testament to that.

It was also apparently recorded live to two-track as a reaction to the overproduction they felt happened with Adieu Sweet Bahnhof, which explains the big bass clanger in the middle of Two Skaters.

Nostalgic melancholy is a keystone of this era of Nits really, the last couple of times I saw them Henk had started singing that poignant last verse of JOS Days in Dutch, then when I saw them late last year he was singing the whole song in Dutch for some reason.

New album 'Knot' (a very Nits-ish title) coming in November!

Started listening to Giant Normal Dwarf.

It has a child-like quality, word is that Henk wrote some of the songs by adapting stories that he made up to tell his kids at bedtime.

This is an amazing album, probably the most consistent one I've heard yet. I always play it last at night because it just seems right, strange album. The last last third is particularly good.

"Around The Fish" is genius. "The Night-Owl" has references to Leonard Cohen but it doesn't seem like it's about him. Guitars on "House Of Sleeping Beauties are glorious.

The beautifully quirky little studio spot in Amsterdam, 'Werf' that has served as their home base for recording, storage, and rehearsals for decades is burning to the ground as I type, totally devastated for the members of the band.

Robert Jan has messaged that the band has 'lost everything...'

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdnxis0IEKv/

That's horrible

As is often the case, the band's fans rallied with a GoFundMe page which, after some news coverage, exceeded its initial target of €15k and has been reset to 25k, and it's nearly there too.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/inzamelingsactie-nieuwe-apparatuur-voor-de-nits

Awful to hear about the Werf fire, but glad the GoFundMe's gone well. Had dug out In The Dutch Mountains and Giant Normal Dwarf to listen to again; had tried to very crudely tell fellow NZers that they were sort've an equiv to how Split Enz/Crowded House are here (psych passing through new wave into beloved late-80s craft-heavy pop) but not sure how well that holds up.

MaresNest, this is a bit of a reach, but would you happen to have the tracklisting of that compilation you made ~7 years ago? My digital copy didn't survive the trip back from China / lost access to the email addresses I was using over there.

(also - loosely inspired by the Nits, I picked up an NYRB translation of Nescio's Amsterdam Stories)

Heya etc, well I had a look in my old music drive and I actually do have the mix, much to my surprise.

Here is a link - https://fromsmash.com/3YFmgggwoO-bt

https://fb.watch/epjNPKNpqY/