Thursday, August 16, 2007

Suspect - Above Suspicion (LP, Backstreet/Backlash, 1980)


Suspect is the forerunner of Schlaflose Nachte. The band existed for litte over a year (1980-1981), but managed to play a lot of concerts and record this LP. The line up was always fluctuating. Here it's Berni von Braun (guitar), Peter Prima (drums), Gila Du Juice (bass) and The Frank (microphone). He left shortly after the recording of this LP, and was replaced by Rob Scholte, now one of the most famous painters in The Netherlands. Much of their music was made through improvisation and rhythm plays an important role. I believe they also released a cassette on LeBel Period (the label ran by Tox Modell), but I don't have that one. If anyone does, please let me know. Dry post punk with some groove. 'Instinct music' as a Dutch magazine wrote.

download

27 comments:

Jim Slip said...

A fantastic album, thank you very much.

charlye said...

yo
i am the frank from ex suspect.
by fooling around the net, i got to your blog and was surprised that there's someone still on the subject of the 80's.
i am still busy and will bring out some of old suspect and another recordings in mp3 format and of course for free.
if you are intrested i will give you some to host it.
keep up the you know what.
you can reach me at:
bluesonicinternational@web.de
charlye ;-)

Anonymous said...

One I cherish until today. (Do owe the LeBel Period - tape as well.)

Curious to hear more material.
What about it ?

433 RPM said...

yeah, i have another tape by them, but didn't post it. maybe i was waiting for charlye to post some (see other comment)

433

gila said...

vanity googling- as you do : )
what is that 'le bel' tape? I only remember releasing one tape, think it was called "tanz auf dem vulkan", through 'boudisque'...????...and have a vague memory of some "experimental punk jazz" tape-but dont think that ever got out there...
someone still cherishing "above suspicion" in july 2008- BIG GRIN! you sure made my day!
xxgila dujuice/electrick/moussou

gila said...

oops-memory failure- the tapes I referred to above were with the follow-on band "schlaflose naechte"...duh!
so... what is this 'le bel' tape???? some live stuff?? really bugging me!
I'd love to hear it!!! please get in touch!
xxg

433 RPM said...

i think you were right the first time. tanz was a tape on marc tegefoss' lebel period label as suspect. send me an e-mail <433rpm@gmail.com> and i'll send it privately so you can check. you were in both bands, right?

gila said...

thanks for the quick reply! will e-mail you.
for those interested:
yep- bernie, peter and me were in both- we changed name after the break up with charley- which was just after the 'above suspicion" came out- stuuuuupid!-
then rob scholte (who also was in a band, think called "young lions") sang with us (schlaf's "the angel will not come"), then we were a 3piece, then others joined, then ...

ah-marc-nice guy- rickenbacker bass player in...????..
and yep I remember him starting a label, remember an afternoon at his house talking about releasing something... but remember this as during schlaf time...but... : ) hazy brain...
xxg

Anonymous said...

The LeBel Period tape is an Ultra-
compilation (Oktopus A'dam) featuring Suspect twice: once with
The Frank on mike, once with Scholte.
Tanz auf dem Vulkan was released
later.

I think Above Suspicion should be
re-issued on c.d.
Dear Gila - enjoy the big grin ! -
I remember mine after watching you
play live.

Rob S. / Tel Aviv

gila said...

oops- "charley breakup-stupid" comment- stupid in a 'business sense'-who breaks up just when you release an album???!!! : )- creative/work/fun/friend wise no regrets at all over this!
(regret though over how we 'broke it' to charley and dealt with it- charley if you ever read this...SORRY!)

tel aviv?- serendipity at work!
started the googling the other day cause I vividly dreamt about an israeli guy from back in the A*dam days, found a portrait of him on an israeli painter's website... and now there's a comment on here from someone in israel...
just love 'coincidence' like that!

wondering about some other 'coincidence/serendipity'- poss 'thought travel' oops-hippy alert!- but before I 'publicly' make a total fool of myself...I'll do some 'private' checking...

looking forward to mp3s of the le bel tracks!
xxg

gila said...

no luck with 'private checking'- so blox to looking a fool! am far too curious to let this sit...

Rob S.....???????...if you are the "redress the balance" rob s ; ).... fancy 'making the same mistake twice' and get in touch?
433 rpm has an e mail address of mine...
if not... thanks for the comment and your past big grin!!!

re re-release- bernie mumbled something the other day re someone suggesting to re release "the angel"...
due to health reasons I pity enough have v limited energy these days, so not much chance of me getting any re releases sorted out...
but life is good- still giving me loads of big grins!
xxg

Anonymous said...

Dear Gila,

Sorry it took me a minute but your
confusion became mine. No, I'm not
the one (same mistake once) you had
in mind. Very unthoughtful of me to
write my name like that (in the
context).
Funny though (coincidence? - no,
not really) that I know the other
Rob pretty well - we had a friendly
relationship - from highschool days
until the summer of 94 when I swapped Adam for Tel Aviv. The weird bomb-attack on Scholte seemed
like a ricochet of the ones going on over here at the time.
Add to my coincidence-confusion the
fact that I'm a painter, that I might know the Israeli friend from
your dream or at least the artist
who painted him (small world -
stupid curiosity).

Feel good.

Anonymous said...

I've some trouble recording the Ultra tracks onto the computer. But
I'll work it out. Give me some time. I'm just really bad at this shit.
Meanwhile I had another idea.
On the tape-inlay is mentioned that
the recordings were made by Harold
with a Revox a 77. If I remember well that's Harold Schellinkx (Young Lions). I remember someone
making a remark about the big effort it took to make the selection for the compilation. That
means that Harold still may have extensive material in his possession (or know who does).
Maybe more Suspect will pop up. I think one should try to contact Harold and find out.

R.

433 RPM said...

contacting harold is easy:

http://www.harsmedia.com

gila said...

R-think I confused myself too : ))))
did we ever cross paths?
thanks for the harold- tip- I will get in touch with him.
as thanks to 433rpm!!!- it's easy.
but I'm still not having any luck downloading any of the ultra tape and other things off this site... with firefox it now just says 'file not found'... grrrhh
xxg

433 RPM said...

massmiror has some problems, and in stead of re-upping right away, i'll wait a few days and see if they get their act together. please e-mail me (433rpm@gmail.com> if it doesn't work on monday

433

gila said...

yeah!!!! managed to download the ultra tape! some great stuff on there that I had totally forgotten about... and even some stuff that somehow passed me by at the time... thank you!!!!
xxg

Anonymous said...

G. Our paths didn't cross - except
from watching you play - by the way: in which city do you live ? - I lack some orientation in space ))).

I did sing (a band called
Killing Levels - 82 - I think) We did some gigs - the Dutch circuit -had it coming - gave it away - I don't suppose you ever saw or heard ( no recordings except from rehearsel-tape - some live - the best still out there in the hands of some stranger ).

Back to Suspect. Didn't understand
if anyone has been in contact with Harold S. What about the existence of more material ?

Happy to hear

R.

Anonymous said...

so dann, how do you post some stuff? i did not get an answer to my proposition of sharing some.
i've recorded round a 100 tracks at rehearsals, most never reached the stage.
2 gila=i have forgiven the stupid decision of kicking the founder and singer of this band at the time of the album release-out.
never were intrested in stardom and never will. i think you pipo done a punch into your own face anyway.when looks are more impressing than talent it always ends up broken. see ABC's ugly developement on backstreet's homepage-who cares about fast cars when your neighbours r hungry?
i'll remaster some old shit for you pipo in september.
your humble it's not me singer-the frank

433 RPM said...

send me an e-mail, in plain english (that isn't that goobligoo from streets) with your questions. i'll be happy to answer them. specific questions that is. not the overall 'how do i do this?'.

ok? 433rpm@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

R- sorry I indeed missed "killing levels"- with hindsight we as a band were probably too "self obsessed" ,not that uncommon in musos though ; )
and too "anglo/americano-phile"...

I live in London.

I havent gotten round to contacting Harold S, but it's on my list. would harold also have anything by 'killing level"?

oh the israeli painter is 'daphna arod'.

charly- hey!
backstreet/backlash still exists and has a website??
would you post the url please, I cant find it...

and yep, as said already I do agree, we did "punch our own face"- commercially speaking- but as 'fame and bling' indeed never were the aim... the punch left no lasting scars ; )

musically speaking- on hearing the 'tanz' cassette again- I did think "that was rubbish/lousy!!!" : )))) despite enjoying it-
but I blame us being in too much of a hurry to release 'something'-
I still think Rob's talent shone on "the angel", as did yours on "above suspicion".


oh, if anyone's interested what I got up to after leaving A*dam... google "sugardog" in conjunction with lazy and/or guerilla and/or psychic tv records...you should find something...
and my most recent, and tiny, excursion into music, (my friend made me do it : )))), is on a dubsteppy track called 'hungry'- which can be found at
hit-by-a-rock.com or at download sites that sell "red volume" (label) things.

downloading- hmmm we've got new laws in britain!- though I doubt it will affect the non-commercial side of things... but it would be 'funny' to get done for downloading your own old stuff...
: )
xxg

Anonymous said...

Dear Frank - First of all - as a
fan - I have to pay respects. If
you're the founder of the band -
people owe you. I understand it
was hard to split but all the
working-class-hero shit - I'm
sorry - I don't catch your drift.
If you're The Frank on Above
Suspicion (maybe Suspect at it's
best, whatever) - it's something
to be proud about and maybe more
was not in it.

If you'll have material to share -
it may be great but personally
I'm more curious to hear about what you've been doing since and how's life these days.

Thanks

Pipo # 1

Anonymous said...

charley/the frank was the founder.
it first was:
charley, his mate Janosz on drums and ch's girlfriend miriam.
then I joined -I'll never forget doing first gig at a full paradiso, a gay festival night, after only playing bass for a week or so... : )))))
then bernie joined(was my bf), think miriam left...
then janosz... left? or did we decide we needed a steadier drummer?
we briefly played with...Joost (?)- nice dutch guy who had a staffordshire bullterrier-and think also a few times with a mate of joost's...
then we found peter, the living drum machine man : )

so quite some 'suspect' line up changes... and none of them anything to do with 'looks'- or, charley, did you let me join cause I 'looked alright'? cause my bass skills were nigh nil... ; )

charley being the founder-we should have straight away agreed to change name when we broke up, sorry,charley, it took some arguing and some time!
but we felt as 3/4 of 'above suspicion' line up, who did the music... we had some 'right' to the name...

sorry everyone for "washing our very old! dirty laundry" in public...if it bores/bothers you-tell me- I'll shut up : )))
xxg

Anonymous said...

yo
i am not going into personal arguements, just note.
1.as the name of this site indicates,the goal is to revive old stuff.
2.there were much more to suspect than 10 songs,since we rehearsed over a year before our first gig.
3.working class hero yourself.(pipo#1)
4.i do not ask anybody's respect for being in a band.
2 gila-i do not have the url but you shurely will find BBR.-i live in berlin-can write 2 my e-mail...
;-) the frank or charlye or who ever i am (but not anonymus)
p.s. the past is gone but music's going going go!!!

Anonymous said...

my apologies,

pipo #1

p.s.: respects anyway

Anonymous said...

anybody out there ?

BarbaricFellow said...

'Was talking about old times, then remembered this album and started googling. AWESOME UPLOAD!!

THX for that and greetz to Martin v/d Leer may he read this.


RuuD Verschoor.