"Ammehoelahop" is a compilation LP (vinyl only) of songs by five English and five Dutch bands.

During their (altogether) seventeen UK-tours the three Dutch bands (and Transformed Dreams recording artists) The Suicidal Birds, Persil and Zea got to play with numerous exciting British bands and decided to organise a festival with five of them in Leeuwarden, in the north of Holland on October 28, 2006. The festival is called "Hit The North". Added were a Dutch Rhythm & Punkblues band (Two Dogs) and a Dutch laptop artist (Malorix).

Soon after the idea of the festival was born, the three Dutch bands and the label thought of giving the festival a physical accompaniment, which resulted in "Ammehoelahop".

The tracks of the British bands have been available in some sort (7"-es and cdr's on independent labels/downloads), the songs of the Dutch bands are brand new.

Although the songs vary from dark and introvert (The Lovely Eggs) to wild and raw (Two Dogs, The Suicidal Birds), joyfully poppy (Das Wanderlust), teasingly rough (Look Look (dancing boys)), weird (Chips For The Poor), purely electronic (Malorix), psychedelic (Zea), jumpy rock (Le Tetsuo) to wide and floating (Persil), all songs have intensity, originality and a vital stubbornness in common.

Dutch reviews

MusicFrom (07/11/06):
Het was een leuk initiatief van Persil, Zea en The Suicidal Birds om de UK bands waarmee ze overzee speelden naar het Hit The North festival te halen. Naar aanleiding van dat festival verscheen deze lp met werk van de tien acts die het evenement in Leeuwarden aandeden. De bijdragen van de acts uit Groot-Brittannië verschenen wel eerder, maar allen in zeer beperkte mate. De nummers van de vijf Nederlandse acts zijn allemaal voor het eerst verkrijgbaar.

Het is natuurlijk geen wedstrijd, maar als dat het wel zou zijn kwam Nederland er zeker niet slecht vanaf. Met name als het gaat om originaliteit blijken de Nederlandse bijdragen beter te scoren. De Britten grijpen bijna stuk voor stuk terug naar het begin van de jaren tachtig, dat wil niet zeggen dat het allemaal afgekeken is, maar vooral Zea, Persil en The Suicidal Birds blijken wat verder in het hebben van een eigen, herkenbaar geluid.

De Nederlandse rhythm & bluespunk band Two Dogs komt met een lekker stuwend nummer vol schots en scheef explosief materiaal, maar het nummer lijdt absoluut onder de slecht opgenomen vocale partijen. Laptop-artiest Malorix valt weliswaar enigszins buiten de boot wat betreft stijl, maar 'Belsalama' is wel een onweerstaanbaar smakelijke track met de Oosterse geluiden en de speedy vocale samples. De bijdrage van Zea draagt de titel van de laatste langspeler, maar is dus niet op dat album te vinden. Het is niet Zea's sterkste nummer van de afgelopen jaren, maar als het nummer al voorbij is voor je er goed en wel erg in hebt, ga je het deuntje toch al missen.

The Suicidal Birds gaan weer heerlijk "over the top", maar in alle gekte en ongecontroleerde heftigheid is 'No Way' wel een enorm catchy liedje. En dan Persil, met het gevaar teveel te dwepen kunnen we toch niet anders stellen dan dat 'Living Is Easy' zonder meer de slagroom op de taart is. Wat een fijn liedje weer! Een rustig nummer, met zoals het begeleidend schrijven al zegt "weids-golvend geluid", dat aan het eind even transformeert in een dreigend gitaar-drone-ding waarna Martine ons weer geruststelt met haar fraaie vocalen.

Aangezien alle bijdragen eigenzinnigheid als gemeenschappelijke noemer hebben is het materiaal best goed achter elkaar te beluisteren, de onderlinge variatie is flink groot, maar door de rode draad raak je ook weer niet de weg kwijt. Daarnaast bevat het album als extraatje een bijzonder probaat middel om bezoek weg te jagen. Het bonusnummer bestaat namelijk uit de tien nummers, maar dan wel tegelijk. Een grappig idee, maar wel totaal onbeluisterbaar. Dus mocht je vinden dat het tijd wordt dat de visite elders gaat vertoeven, is deze collage beslist aan te raden als weinig subtiele hint.

Fries Popnet (07/12/06):
Ammehoelahop, zo zou je het ook kunnen noemen, tyfusherrie ook, maar vooruit het is avant-gardistische kunst op dit verzamelaartje van Transformed Dreams. Tien liedjes met een bonustrack. Als je ziet dat Zea, The Suicidal Birds en Persil een bijdrage hebben geleverd, dan weet je wat je te wachten staat. Het overgrote deel bestaat uit sterke vrouwen, vooral op de A-kant met als meest verrassende track die van Malorix met ‘Belsalama’. Deze klinkt alsof de jongens van Zea geïnspireerd door Bløf naar Marokko zijn gereisd om aldaar met lokale muzikanten een plaatje te maken: spannende oosterse elektronica dus. Ook de afsluiter van de eerste kant, The Lovely Eggs, brengt de enige ‘ballad’, maar dan wel met een valse gitaar natuurlijk.

Toch zijn het de bovengenoemde grote namen die de dienst uitmaken al is er een eervolle vermelding voor Chips For The Poor, omdat ze het enige een nummer aanleverden dat dan ook echt onuitstaanbaar is. Zea doet wat het doet en beukt de boel professioneel bij elkaar; The Suicidal Birds gaan na het opwarmertje van Le Tetsuo lekker verder met de female-fronted noisepunk; en dan als donderslag bij heldere hemel is daar Persil met het werkelijk prachtige ‘Living Is Easy’, dat ergens doet denken aan Massive Attack.

En dan de bonustrack waarbij alle nummers tegelijkertijd worden afgespeeld, niet erg prettig om naar te luisteren, maar het dekt wel exact de lading. Deze langspeler is namelijk niet voor iedereen, maar aan de andere kant niet missen als je wilt weten wat er zich in de diepe underground afspeelt.
 

English reviews

LosingToday/The Sunday Experience (December 2006):
Much loved since it arrived in our gaff little over a week or so ago - in fact so loved we've nearly managed to wear a second hole into the vinyl.

Holland's finest purveyors of taste Transformed Dreams hit home with their final release of the year in the shape of a corking 10 band compilation which culls together 5 ensembles from both the UK and their native homeland and sprinkles a spot of magic dust to the proceedings that culminates in an unlikely though strangely engaging mash up finale.

The seeds of the vinyl only compilation (incidentally dedicated to the late Mr Peel himself a firm fan of all things Transformed Dreams having featured both Persil and the sadly missed Seedling in session) where sown following all the featured artists appearance at the recent 'Hit the North' festival staged last October in Leeuwarden, North Holland - 'Ammehoelahop' the compilations title loosely translating 'refuse to dance' or something to that effect is a document of that event featuring studio cuts of all the bands involved.

As previously said 10 bands feature - some should be household names by now (Zea, Persil and Suicidal Birds) the rest - only a matter of time - and not a duff track in sight.

The set opens with Two Dogs 'Looking under my bed' - much to our embarrassment previously unknown to us - ho hum (new year resolution - must try harder) and annoyingly absolutely no information attached (to much gnashing of teeth) - that said best described as a time trip back to the late 70's - 1979 to be precise - for a spot of Siouxsie and the Banshees c. 'Mirage' rewiring PIL's 'Flowers of Romance' with some thickly snazzy yet sombre Joy Division bass motifs - certainly worth further investigation. Look Look (dancing boys) stump up the equally engaging 'Hell Yeh' - this London based duo have by all accounts been putting jaws out of joint on the live circuit with their impish agit casio core punk pop - this dirty little cutie in particularly transfuses on elements of the Normal and early primal Cabaret Voltaire with a healthy side serving of an Lene Lovich thrown in for good measure - check out their my space site at http://www.myspace.com/looklookdancingboys for a chance to hear 'Arse Road' and the agit distort minimalism of 'Tit Wank' - think Shaggs on bad speed. Again much to our embarrassment another ensemble we were previously unaware of - Das Wanderlust are a North East (England) based quartet (2 chaps / 2 chap-esses) who play schizoid sugar coated electro bubblegum pop at pace. With a handful of releases under their collective belt all of which we are well gnawed off about missing 'The Orange Shop' (their most recent) is rejigged here in it's 'rude version' and a rough and ragged riotous ripper of a tune it is, bargain basement toy keys, crooked kindergarten melodies, Sleeper like shouty vocals that sound like they were mothered by Annabella LeWin and a jarring hook so incessantly catchy it'll get so irresistibly deep under your skin that it will hot wire your life signs into a jangling mass. For further reading head over to http://www.myspace.com/daswanderlust and check out 'I wish I was a robot'. Next up and serving a tasty slice of Arabesque deep house electronica are the Laptop wielding mystery personnel of Rotterdam's Malorix - 'Belsalama' mainlines directly into the bouncing bass heavy beats world of early career Wagon Christ as though rewiring Transglobal Underground and blends into the core matrix an alluring and deeply intoxicating middle eastern snake charmer haze that ultimately sounds like pre chart action Belle Stars grinding hard to an upbeat and salaciously erotic Muslim Gauze coda - check out www.malorix.nl and rip 'Raddi'. The Lovely Eggs hail from Lancaster, number in two - Holly sings David plays guitar - they make music consisting of melodies that appear to be held together by the same stuff that holds stars in the sky - think Velvet Underground meets Palace Brothers sweetened by Anna Kashfi. 'In Watermelon Sugar' creaks, chills, caresses and crushes in equal measures - inebriated prairie porch tuneage culled from the finest casks of distilled Southern goodness - in other words a ruddy gem - tune into http://www.myspace.com/thelovelyeggs for more of the same - particular attention though for 'last night I burned.'

Side 2 opens to the ominous sound of Chips for the Poor - 'LSD Who said that?' is the lead cut culled from their 'every home must have a copy' 4 track EP of the same name (which we reviewed over at Singled Out - Missive 96 via www.losingtoday.com a little while back) released by those rather nice people over at Invisible Spies about a year or so ago, loosely associated with the equally superb Supreme Vagabond Craftsmen and still all this time down the line sounding like a potent slice of gnarled minimalist menace - for more info go to http://www.myspace.com/c4tp. And we feel a long overdue apology is deserved given that we've apparently had Zea's killer third album 'Insert Parallel Universe' for a fair few months now, somehow the blighter got itself lost in the frankly huge CD mountain only to be discovered a few days before the arrival of this compilation - and even then its discovery as more of a happy accident being that we had initiated and dispatched fore with a full scale elite search team to nail another (unrelated - and - still) lost CD. Ho hum. The duo acquit themselves mightily with this the title track from their third full length which strangely enough didn't appear on that album (confused?). Brief and straight to the point this cute little nugget frenetically rumbles and festers with quick slow dynamism into action in a buzz sawing grind overdose of angles so obtuse they'd keep a trigonometry class busy for days on end and welds into the equation some teasingly acute slices of tenacious hip hugging west coast flavoured power punk pop for good measure. Classy - for more instruction see www.zea.dds.nl. Le Tetsuo are a trio based in Norwich - to date they've had two acclaimed singles under their collective paint palette (sadly missed by us - tut) and two of their number also moonlight as the Bells, the Bells who much to our embarrassment (again) we've just noticed staring back at us from the must listen to pile of cd's their debut full length which we will be investigating and no doubt doing a jig of some description to in the next day or so or our name isn't Fred Titmus - which keen spotters among you may realise isn't our name so why we say it and indeed type is far beyond even our failing reasoning. Where were we - ah yes - Le Tetsuo their primal toned 'Dog Bitch' sounds like it's been culled straight from a Peel broadcast c.1980, this baby mooches uncomfortably replete with battery acid jabbing riffs coated in an edgy austere chill that exude frostbite to its mere touch and see saw ominously with all the sinister overbearing detachment of early Killing Joke and which blister and bleed with puss filled agitation erupting into moments rampant squall like some vicious fusion of Penetration and the Slits - all mighty damn fine it has to be said - check out more of their wares via http://www.myspace.com/letetsuo1. The Suicidal Birds are an all girl duo based in Friesland which is up in the northern quarter of Holland - one full length to date in the shape of 'Z List' which was so loved in our gaff we suspect we forgot to review it - 'No way' a new cut is a short, sharp slice of intense battered, bruised and bent out of shape gritty lo-fi garage blues recorded with the kind of low budget production that would make the Mummies green with envy and no doubt hankering to hump - fuzzed riffs distorted vocals and the impish though subtle purloining of a Dinosaur JNR like motif at the close make this one of the compilations more raucous treats - check out www.suicidalbirds.com. Last and by no means least - and if the truth be known best thing here - 'Living is Easy' by Persil. Of course they are much loved here which is always a head start don't you find - though on this occasion revealing themselves in succulently restrained and dare we say thoughtful mood. The lightly sun sizzled honeycombed 'Living is easy' is a dreamily breeze like portion of reclining exquisiteness that engages with the lazy eyed sophistication of Dubstar as though deliciously fused with St Etienne both to be found softly basking in the ear candy pop romance of classic Strawberry Switchblade - nuff said really except to say - perfect.

'Ammehoelahop' is in case you haven't worked it out by now - essential. 

Scottish mag/e-zine IsThisMusic? (12 may 2007):
A label with attitude - specifically, punk rock, and certainly DIY. From the distortosound screamo of Two Dogs via the 80s electro ESG-stylee of Look Look, we are treated to Das Wanderlust’s exuberant electropop, Malorix’s beatboxes-on-acid, and the Lovely Eggs’ Arabic breakbeats. Chips For the Poor’s no wave paranoia also intrigues while an act familiar to itm? readers, Zea, donate the title track from their top Insert Parallel Universe album, sounding for the world like something Ron Johnson might have released in the 80s. Le Tetsuo, similarly, yelps frantically, like the Slits or, in pop mode, Fuzzbox. Suicidal Birds keep that new wave spirit going, like an electro version of X-ray Spex, while Persil make the best boy-girl electropop that side of the channel with one of their trademark dreammode chilled numbers. There’s a ‘bonus’ track too - ‘All Together Now’ which is just that, all 10 tunes mixed at the same time and to be honest no more fearsome than a lot of what has already gone before!
//Stuart McHugh  

Vanity Project (19/01/07):
A vinyl only album put together by three Dutch bands, Persil, Suicidal Birds and Zea off two fellow countrymen and five English bands they have played with on their many journeys to the UK for shows. On the English side of the tracks, we have Chips For The Poor and their low-key alt-psyche; Look Look (dancing boys) rolling out their detached Shoreditch strut; Das Wanderlust’s electro knees up; Le Tetsuo’s dampened itchiness and The Lovely Eggs’ despondent country-surf. For our Dutch cousins, we have the acidic static-shriek of Two Dogs lo-fi post-glam-punk; Malorix’s clippy robo-shards; Zea’s swirling electro-wave ride through Beefheartian desert-blues, The Suicidal Birds sprinting, tricksy fuzz-weasel and Persil’s electro-twee, rise-and-shine pop splendor. What with a bonus track that melds all ten together in a simultaneous burst of hearty, but surprisingly (relatively) coherent, you can't go wrong.
Skif