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Dec 19, 2023 Web Exclusive By Richard Foster

One of the greatest Dutch bands of the post-punk era, Nasmak, celebrate a reissue of 1982’s wonderful album 4our Clicks with a new release, PM1 Perpetuum Mobile: It’s Long Since You Last Did Me. Both records are reminders of the fractious doemdenken era in the Netherlands’ history.

For those not acquainted with this restless, sometimes headstrong bunch of musicians, you are in for quite a ride. At one point on the cusp of the 1980s, Nasmak’s multiheaded worldview couldn’t fit into being just one band, hence their moniker for the 1980 release, Nasmak Plus Instruments/Instruments Plus Nasmak. This record, and 1981’s Indecent Exposure cassette releases, owed more to a wider European avant-garde take on rock music than any streamlined attempt to fit in with the Anglo-American dominated industry - a tendency that has led many Dutch bands over the years to be sunk below the waterline. When their siren singer, Truus de Groot left for New York in 1981, to form a radically new line up of Plus Instruments with Lee Ranaldo and David Linton, the band - now a core of Joop van Brakel, Toon Bressers Henk Janssen and Theo van Eenbergen - shook themselves down and made the outstanding 4our Clicks; a gargantuan, attitude-heavy helping of dry, metallic new wave and Euro-funk.

Most bands would be content to sit back and bask in the long overdue recognition of one of the great, “lost” records of 1980s European post-punk alternative scene. But this is not a normal band. And PM1 Perpetuum Mobile… is further proof - for long standing listeners at least - that Nasmak are not really just a “1980s band”. I suspect their outlook and modus operandi owes more to the likes of Can than it does the Gang of Four, say. Like Can, Nasmak created their own hinterland out in the sticks, living and recording in a huge house in Nuenen, just outside of Eindhoven. And consequently - like Can - their records have a peculiarly internal, chamber music quality to them; music that comes from repeated, concentrated application, whether through jams, edits or multiple reappraisals of a particular musical expression. As such their music, despite (4our clicks’ production) never really sounds dated. This new record could have been made at any time. There is a certain glossiness to the sound, but that also serves, somehow, to create a distance between them and any reference point. They still sound singular.

Another link with Can, perhaps is found in the name of the new release: the Perpetuum Mobile title hinting at things to come and the number 1 indicating that we should - like Can’s many anthologies made up of non-album tracks - expect quite a number of new records down the line. The “1” also maybe refers to another origin myth; drummer Toon Bressers has stated that the nine tracks we get are related to material from the band’s early days.

The first thing that hits you (in this case metaphorically, thank goodness) is the steady, machine press thud of Toon Bressers’ drumming, the emotional magnet to which much of Nasmak’s music still returns, year after year. These are driving tracks, the pace never really drops from the magnificent opener ‘Hobby Horse’, with its proto New Beat rhythms and simple melody ably held aloft by synthesised licks and samples. Maybe we get a breather six (yes, six) tracks in with ‘Unequal Arms’. For 40 seconds or so, anyway, before the beat morphs into a meditative electronic pulse. Listening to music like this you realise this is a band imbued with a sense of confidence born of continual, quotidian experiment and a refusal to do anything that may compromise their core beliefs.

The idea of Nasmak as a machine that swaps parts as you listen along is one that always sits high in my mind when I play their records. You can hear this quality in the same-yet-different grooves found in ‘Steam Spirit’ or ‘Kimono’. The restless De Groot is now back as a co-pilot and her distinctive voice giving tracks like ‘Bubbles’ and the cold sleaze of ‘Waiting For A LUCKY MAN’ an uneasy, antsy kick. Playful intelligent music, yes, of course - but the question forms and remains as you hear the dismembered voice samples floating above you, billing and cooing - do you really want to join in De Groot’s game?

Yes, it’s an “old” name, yes, we are also dealing with another iteration of reissue culture, but these are still essential records. Go and listen.

Author rating: 8/10