S.o.t.D. - Stumble and Fall – Clan of Xymox

Stumble and Fall – Clan of Xymox

Probably my favourite band from my homeland off of probably my favourite label ever, 4AD.

S.o.t.D. - Obsession – Clan of Xymox

Obsession – Clan of Xymox

Off of Twist of Shadows. They had already left 4AD by this stage. Probably the last album of theirs I really paid attention to. Possibly because it was the last album Pieter Nooten had anything to do with. I went to see them on this tour and it was where this mind blower of a story happened.

S.o.t.D. - Stranger – Clan of Xymox

Stranger – Clan of Xymox

I don’t how it’s possible that I missed posting this. The standout track on a terrific album. A bit outside 4ADs usual oeuvre, but it certainly made me sit up and take notice.

S.o.t.D. – Medusa – Clan of Xymox

Medusa – Clan of Xymox

Another 4AD band. From Amsterdam no less. They put out two albums on 4AD, this track being from the second. Then they left the label. It seems like every band that left 4AD went downhill from there. These guys were no exception.

Logo – Clan of Xymox

I did this back in 1990 for a magazine article. I used Letraset, blown up PMT’s, cutting and pasting, more stat camera trickery, reversed film, scanning, redrawing in Fontographer, etc. Just a crazy amount of work. This was before the days of being able to turn type to outlines, which would have made it all really easy.

6° of PostContemporarity

I went to a Clan of Xymox concert in Toronto in 1989.

After the show, my friend Len introduces me to two guys that he went to college with.

Obviously twins, but trying hard not to look like twins.

We start to talk and it turns out that they were the people behind a record that I had bought recently, Empirical Sleeping Consort.

One of them mentions that he would like to go back stage and say hi to the band.

“Yeah me too. They’re from Holland and so am I and I think it would be neat to say hello.”

“Hey my brother’s girlfriend is from Holland too.”

We start to chat, in Dutch and she asks me where in Holland I’m from.

“Amsterdam.”

“Yes me too. Where abouts in Amsterdam?”

“In the new south district, the river borough (all the streets were named after rivers in Holland)”

“I don’t know the neighbourhood I’m from, but I was born in and lived in the KrommeMijdrecht Straat.”

Music was playing in the club, so I wasn’t certain I had heard her right. But I got a funny tingle down my spine. “What did you say?” I asked incredulously.

“The KrommeMijdrecht Straat.”

I must have had the most stunned look on my face.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“This is really going to freak you out, but I was born in the KrommeMijdrecht Straat!”

“Whaaat!”

(Now this is not a street that ran the length and breadth of the city, but a one block street!)

When we explained to the English speakers around us what had just transpired, they were equally amazed.

“Do you remember the number you lived at? What year were you born in?” I asked.

“I can’t remember the street number, and I was born in 1967.”

Same year I was born in.

“What school did you go to?”

“We moved to a different city when I was three.”

We continued to talk for a while longer and exchanged addresses (which much to my chagrin, I lost shortly there after.)

About five years later I walked into my friend Jarkko’s house, and there are two twins trying hard not to look like twins sitting on his couch.

“I know you two.”

They were looking at me with one of those I remember you, but why looks. “You do?”

“Yeah. Your girlfriend was born on the same street as me!”

“I remember you!!” They both shouted in unison.

And we’ve remained friends ever since.