Black Dye Audio CDr packed in a recycled Dutch Tax envelope.
This is UNIFAB006 – 2025
This release is dedicated to all vicims of the Dutch childcare benefits scandal (Toeslagenaffaire)
The bottom of the disc has an engraving with tracktitles. Music by Chandor Gloomy and Martijn Hohmann.
Mixed By Martijn Hohmann, design by Universaalkunst. The quote ‘Schop de Mensen tot zij een geweten krijgen” is by Louis Paul Boon.
Reviews
Vital Weekly 1487
DE FABRIEK – DE AANSLAG (CDR by De Fabriek)
The Dutch tax office sends out its requests in a characteristic blue envelope. The tax assessment is ‘aanslag’, which means ‘a hit’ or an attempt at someone’s life. The latest release by De Fabriek comes in one of those envelopes. It’s about what is called ‘kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or toeslagenaffaire’, which Wiki explains for us as “The Dutch childcare benefits scandal (Dutch: kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or toeslagenaffaire, lit.?'[childcare] benefits affair’) refers to a political scandal in the Netherlands involving false allegations of welfare fraud by the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) against thousands of families claiming childcare benefits. Between 2005 and 2019, approximately 26,000 parents were wrongly accused of making fraudulent benefit claims, resulting in demands to repay their received allowances in full. This sum often amounted to tens of thousands of euros, driving families into severe financial hardship.” De Fabriek makes clear, in no uncertain terms, what they think about this. For this release, De Fabriek honcho Richard van Dellen took a backseat and Chandor Gloomy delivered sound material to Martijn Hohmann, who mixed this with his music, and reasonably quickly, there was this concept and four finished pieces, and with Van Dellen’s blessing released. Music-wise, we find De Fabriek in a particular experimental corner we haven’t heard in quite some time. I know Gloomy lives in the Netherlands, but I don’t know much about him. The four pieces deal with the cruder end of drones, primitive sampling, and, possibly, turntable manipulations; I hear looped and scratched vinyl. There are also some highly obscured field recordings. However, the music refrains from being all too noisy, as distortion is not too much part of it. There is a creepy undercurrent here, which is hard to define, but I like to think of that spooky uneasiness; maybe of a bit of dystopian, big brother is watching you, but that’s no doubt the thematic approach drawing me right in.
The titles and some info are printed on the playable side of the disc, which I never saw before and looks great. (FdW)