"My favorite session was a live show in the studio (2000). We played twosets on air in front of a live audience. Peel, who did the show from thesame room, said the audience should get closer to the band and not make itthat obvious they were only there for the free beers and snacks.When he aired our final session in 2002, I listened to the live webcast. He said some nice things and I dropped him an email right away. I joked about doing the next sessions at Peel acres. He read the email on the show and said that the Peel acres session was a very good idea. Unfortunately that session never happened."
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.
Tabloids will be all over it
Do you think I should be timid?
All licketysplit
"Upswing,
Plaything!"
That's very flattering
And that's just a preview
I wouldn't know how to...
As soon as I got a paycheck
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.
Tabloids will be all over it
Do you think I should be timid?
All licketysplit
"Upswing,
Plaything!"
That's very flattering
And that's just a preview
I wouldn't know how to...
I wouldn't know how to...
I wouldn't...
You ask me to make it high tech
And to bleach my flecks.
I've only just discovered that a video was made to accompany Solex All Licketysplit, directed by Birgit Rathsmann and Bruce Alcock. It's a bonkers couple of minutes of jump cuts, rapid editing, freight trains, bridges, rivers and Elisabeth bouncing around in a variety of brightly coloured clothes. All absolutely in sync with the song's character.
I loved the album and I had the good fortune to see Solex live in concert around the time. I've long lost the ticket and there's no info online to narrow down the date but I think it would have been late 1998, more likely 1999. What I do remember is that it was in the bowels of The Thekla, a former cargo ship permanently moored in Bristol's floating harbour and which I'd only known as a gig/club venue (it's still around and going strong, I'm happy to report).
Gigs in The Thekla, certainly in the 1980s and 1990s, were cramped, sweaty but energetic affairs and Solex was no exception. I saw Elisabeth carting her kit on stage, performing a great gig and then heading off to staff the merch stall afterwards. All de rigeur, I guess, but it just made me like Solex even more.
To update the discography, Solex went on to release a further two albums. Amsterdam Throwdown King Street Showdown! was a collaboration with Cristina Martinez and Jon Spencer, released in 2010. Solex Ahoy! The Sound Map of the Netherlands followed in 2013. In a 2019 interview, Elisabeth referred to working on a new album that she hoped to release the following year. The subsequent COVID pandemic as well as the usual obstacles of recording and releasing a record have inevitably had an effect but I really hope it sees the light of day as I'm interested to hear what Solex in the 2020s would sound like.
Here's a link to my previous Solex post from July 2021, including an hour-long DJ mix from 2007 and the aforementioned 2019 interview.