I now live in fear of moving on from Kinderen voor Kinderen, henceforth referred to simply as “KvK”. This Dutch music collective, producing an album’s worth of music every year for 46 years to soundtrack an annual television dance extravaganza, has gotten me through some traumatic times of late. I discovered them down a Spotify rabbit-hole, as I sombrely searched for something to lighten my mood and provide escapism for a quickly-shrinking personal world.
Fucking intense, huh?
I’ve already written a few articles about them, with each one expecting to be the last. But, here I sit, penning the introduction to yet another. Maybe tomorrow, my cyclothymia will finally shift and make my brain believe it has had enough of awesome Dutch power-pop, but not today. Not today! These are albums featuring lyrical ideas suggested by children, which are then crafted into songs and recorded by a talented staff of revolving door songsmiths, then sung by a gaggle of preteen vocalists. The latter, for reasons I hope I do not need to explain, are also in the studio on a revolving door basis.
After the first decade of dated music hall ditties, written surely to mimic the sound of a tedious school play, the great Henk Temming mercifully produced 1990’s 11, which gave listeners and viewers music that listeners and viewers would actually want to listen to and view. The rest of that decade proceeded to follow suit, including 13, 15, and 20, which I will boldly describe as three of the greatest indie rock albums nobody in the English-speaking world has or will ever hear.
Except for myself. And hopefully you, patient reader.
I would usually cram all my thoughts into one overblown article, but I’ve decided to break things up into multiple posts. I just think one long ramble will be too much. Even for me, the bloody thing’s author.
So, yes, ik ben klaar voor de start, and I hope you are too…
You can find my very simple playlist featuring all three uncut albums here.
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Doui!
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