Benny Zen The Recording Artist

With his first band, Nemo, Houben already gained considerable acclaim. Together with Mauro Pawlowski, he also started Mitsoobishy Jacson, often labelled ‘the Belgian alternative lofi supergroup’. And then there was UltraCowboy – remember the ridiculously melodic radio hit “the song that says fuck you”? Enter Benny Zen the Recording Artist ft. the Syphilis Madmen! With the first album, ‘UFO Conspiracy Believer’, this snappily monikered band positioned itself as a unique voice within the Belgian alternative pop landscape. The second album, ‘Run Back To The Safety Of The Town’, took their awkwardly provincial paranoia a few steps further and got voted one of the best albums of 2011 by weekly HUMO. Album number three ‘Tony the Hindu and the Advocates of Science and Culture’, was a daring concept album: 22 miniature-songs (max. length 2 minutes) + 22 videos + 22 stories about inspiring people from the realm of, you guessed it, science and culture. ‘Go out and Love the People’ marked a return to the garage-rock of the early Nemo days. And now there’s ‘HITS’ which boldly rides the early 80’s UK indie wave, taking inspiration from The Passions, The Lotus Eaters, China Crisis, The Blue Nile and even A Flock of Seagulls. The album prominently features the old Korg Polysix and Yamaha CS-15. Both synths date from the early 80s and have developed serious issues. The Yamaha cracks and blips and one of the six oscillators on the Korg is detuned. Every six notes there’s one that sounds a little off. GO OUT AND LOVE THE PEOPLE