El Fish & Roland - Waterbottle

Size: 108,9 MB
Time: 47:05
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2001
Styles: Blues Rock, Harmonica Blues
Art: Full

01. Tengah (4:42)
02. The End Is Not In Sight (5:17)
03. Canzoncina Per Jaco (4:17)
04. Lack Of Time (4:59)
05. As Bad Can Be (4:16)
06. I've Seen That Face Before (3:41)
07. This Or That (3:58)
08. Mustallah (6:17)
09. Bad Tattoo (5:26)
10. The Chinaman In The Dessert (4:07)

El Fish was a legendary Belgian blues band. They consisted of Steven De Bruyn (bluesharp), Jan Ieven (bass), Rohal De Ridder (drums), Filip Casteels (guitars, vocals) and Toon Derisson (drums). The group disbanded after the 2001 album Waterbottle featuring legendary blues guitarist Roland van Campenhout. They have played a reunion concert in the AB in Brussels on the first of October 2011.

In 2001, the ideal replacement for Filip Casteels was found in the form of the living blueslegend Roland van Campenhout. With Roland, the remaining members El Fish started touring with a varied (and somewhat inconsistant) programme that was premiered in the AB in Brussels on February 9. It quickly became clear that there would also be an echo of these shows on CD, and this became true in June with the album "Waterbottle". This cd was put on tape almost in a live-situation, with just four recording days and a resulting raw sound with the slogan "Do You Rock from the Botttom, Or do you play it from your head?". That El Fish wasn't going to give on in the adventure-department was proven by the cover of "Libertango - I've seen that face before" (as known from Grace Jones).

Thanks to Kempen
Waterbottle

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El Fish - Wisteria

Size: 108,0 MB
Time: 46:26
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2000
Styles: Blues Rock, Harmonica Blues
Art: Full

01. Strange Situation (3:24)
02. Black Olives (3:31)
03. Lucky (3:21)
04. Sonny Boy's Advice (3:36)
05. (Jan) (1:19)
06. Lack Of Time (4:17)
07. (Filip) (1:24)
08. Annie One (3:10)
09. (Stevo) (0:57)
10. Another Sign (4:50)
11. Waitin' (2:17)
12. 7 Cigarettes (3:48)
13. Pussy Arrete (2:14)
14. (Rohal) (1:05)
15. (Jmx) (0:38)
16. The Ticket Man (6:27)

El Fish was a legendary Belgian blues band. They consisted of Steven De Bruyn (bluesharp), Jan Ieven (bass), Rohal De Ridder (drums), Filip Casteels (guitars, vocals) and Toon Derisson (drums). The group disbanded after the 2001 album Waterbottle featuring legendary blues guitarist Roland van Campenhout. They have played a reunion concert in the AB in Brussels on the first of October 2011.

In 2000 the band released their fourth CD, entitled "Wisteria", more adventurous than ever, with lots of influences the band picked up during a trip to Morocco. However, almost simultaneously with the release, there was a serious blow to the morale when singer/guitarist Filip Casteels decided to call it a day (citing lack of money and perspective as the reasons for doing so). The last show of El Fish in the original line-up was held in front of a filled-up Vismarkt during Marktrock Leuven in August.

Thanks to Kempen
Wisteria

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El Fish - Rewinder / Hooked

Album: Rewinder
Size: 139,1 MB
Time: 59:30
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1998
Styles: Blues Rock, Harmonica Blues
Art: Full

01. Bop' Till You Drop (6:27)
02. Ain't Gonna Hurt You (4:40)
03. All Right (3:23)
04. Look At The Children Run (4:38)
05. Green Shoes (3:06)
06. Blues For Bekie (3:32)
07. People In Traffic (2:25)
08. Rail Roll Love Song (3:48)
09. Hangin' Over (4:22)
10. Visit Dr. Boogie (7:07)
11. She Moves Me (4:12)
12. One Kind Of Favor (8:19)
13. Shake'm (3:26)

El Fish was a legendary Belgian blues band. They consisted of Steven De Bruyn (bluesharp), Jan Ieven (bass), Rohal De Ridder (drums), Filip Casteels (guitars, vocals) and Toon Derisson (drums). The group disbanded after the 2001 album Waterbottle featuring legendary blues guitarist Roland van Campenhout. They have played a reunion concert in the AB in Brussels on the first of October 2011.

On "Rewinder", their second album of 1998, the band left the trail of the "pure blues". "The musical spectrum we are covering now has gotten much wider. Back then, we started playing American oriented blues, but this time we have tried to mix in a bit of rock and fun. Actually, we do aspire a career like Los Lobos : that group has always maintained their true self, has never done concessions to commerce, yet still they are the only band that has played every major Belgian festival : Peer (blues), Dranouter (folk), Pukkelpop (alternative) en Torhout/Werchter (rock). That's the kind over versatility we are aiming for."

Thanks to Kempen
Rewinder

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Album: Hooked
Size: 85,4 MB
Time: 37:10
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 1999
Styles: Blues Rock, Harmonica Blues
Art: Full

01. Visit Dr. Boogie (Alternative Version) (4:47)
02. People In Traffic (3:05)
03. 55Th Street Boogie (5:12)
04. Copydog (5:13)
05. Shake'm (4:54)
06. Why Do You Treat Me So Mean? (4:25)
07. Look At The Children Run (4:50)
08. Little Boogiemachine (4:39)

Normally this kind of a cd makes us say : "this collection of alternative version, live-takes and rarities is typically aimed at the die-hard El Fish fan", if it wasn't for the constatation that the quality is so good, chances are real you could become a die-hard fan àfter listening to "Hooked". It's your choice.
What you get are eleven pieces of adventurous blues, in very different recording qualities (ranging from the muffled sounds on the big Pukkelpop stage, the near-studio quality of the Bassta-studio in the VRT, to small blues-venues and even a performance with óne microphone on a Dutch riding train) and very different atmospheres (from the rippling chill-out blues as a backing band for Willie Foster or Bob Pearce to the fucked-up bluesrock with Jean-Marie Aerts on the Pukkelpop-stage, from Canned Heat-ish roadblues to simple straightforward jumpboogie).
The tracks that worked best for me are the menacing atmosphere on "Look at the children run", the wildness of "Shake'm" the nervous shuffle of "People in Traffic", and certainly also the bonus-track "Mighty Long Time", in which harp-player Steven de Bruyn proves that he also can stand his ground as a singer, but most of all because he does that in a heck of a song of Sonny Boy Wiliamson.

Thanks to Kempen
Hooked

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