The Big Exercise

Description

Originally from Dokkum in the province of Friesland (Netherlands), Jaap van der Velde, Erik Woudwijk and Elias Elgersma skillfully courted spirituality under their own anticonformist whims on their first LP Youth Hunt. The Dutch trio’s second album, The Big Exercise, takes them toward more tangible and down-to-earth pastures. With its title taken from a passage in Scott Walker’s biography, Deep Shade Of Blue, the record is a focused effort by Jaap van der Velde, Erik Woudwijk and Elias Elgersma to explore the physicality of their music in an original way. The Big Exercise finds the band questioning its basic chemistry as a live unit, infusing its post-punk angles with baroque elements like piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and even clarinet. With aplomb, The Homesick have made a record full of impressions that, once layered, still fit perfectly under the pop umbrella. This obvious nod to Scott Walker is no aberration either: straddling pop sonics and cacophonous fringes, it is something worthy of aspiration.