Seconds after I started the ‘Gliss Ep’ from the Belgian formation Tattoed boy from Birkenhead, my room began to change.
At first I was sitting on an ugly leather couch, watching empty white walls in a small student dorm, wide awake with a nasty shiver down my spine. Then, I heard the first tones of track one called ‘Space-love’, suddenly I began to feel very loose, very relaxed and it was as if warming sunlight reached for my body. That the track was a little dark didn’t matter, the sliding guitars and warm low voice coming from a distance, created a sense of smoothness, of cocktail drinking in a lounge with all kinds of lazy day-dreaming sleepwalkers.
Track two only strengthened that feeling. My room became a clearly visible lounge as I was getting more and more drowsy. I saw smoke curling alongside red curtains that embedded the room, people slowly nodded, welcoming me, sipping their cocktails in slow motion, eloquently tipping their cigarettes.
Just because the music reminded me of it, I saw Angelo Badalamenti, composer of a.o. the Twin Peaks soundtracks passing by. Also, the post-rockers Barzin were playing their instruments of soothing slide guitars, and the Mormon band Low visited quickly too.
The man singing on stage in a far corner of the lounge, listened to the name Daniël. I watched him moving gently in a slim fit black suit. I whispered or thought: ‘You should use real drums instead of a drum machine,’ but he didn’t hear me.
After enjoying ‘Never ending day’, ‘Richmond hotel’ and ‘On/Off(slowly)’ the music suddenly stopped. Daniël walked towards me, but I didn’t see him coming.
‘Hey shoegazer, wake up dreamy boy. The EP of Tattoed boy from Birkenhead is over,’ he said. And suddenly I was on my ugly black couch again.
