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Oct 10, 2024 Web Exclusive By Dom Gourlay

The Netherlands has produced more groundbreaking music than pretty much any other European nation over the past decade. While names like Pip Blom, The Sweet Release of Death, Personal Trainer, and Neighbours Burning Neighbours could be seen as torch bearers, there’s a new breed coming through ready to join them on their homeland’s throne of magnificence.

The latest of those are Tramhaus, a five-piece from the port city of Rotterdam in the south of the country. A city steeped in art and culture that also plays host to the internationally renowned live music venue WORM, Rotterdam is perhaps the perfect place to cultivate a band such as Tramhaus. The band’s disparate mix of all things punk (post-, noise, angular), melody, and an occasional panache for subversive jazz-orientated breakdowns seems consistent with a city that thrives on unpredictability and the element of surprise.

The First Exit is the culmination of two years of hard work. It’s a record steeped in the band’s diverse range of influences and ideas but also one strictly stamped with the Tramhaus trademark. If you’ve been fortunate enough to see the band play live, you’ll understand the way their music ebbs and flows before taking unconventional paths when least expected.

While the band’s former releases—last year’s “Minus Twenty” seven-inch and 2022’s Rotterdam EP in particular—dropped less than subtle hints at what might be on the horizon, The First Exit is a real bolt from the blue. A welcome excursion into a world that embraces and bludgeons its citizens in equal measures.

From opening gambit “The Cause” via the claustrophobic “Semiotics” and fastidious blowout of “Worthwhile” through to the soothing (by Tramhaus’ standards) finishing line of “Past Me,” The First Exit represents one of the most exciting debuts you’re likely to hear this year.

All hail the new Netherlands revolution! (www.tramhaus.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10