#ravageravage

Oh my. It took some time. More or less a full decade. Originally released on MySpace, the songs with which Ravage! Ravage! debuted were long unavailable. Until now. Way back when, the post-electroclash — the media coined 'em 'new rave' — tracks like Oh My Beau Gigolo, Join Up for the New Young Pony Club and BMBRJXXX roamed the blogosphere, and soundtracked London Fashion Week shows. Now they may even already evoke nostalgia. Ravage! Ravage! — 'grandson of Marc Almond', according to Dutch music media platform 3voor12 — grew up in small-town Holland, on a diet of 80s synthpop (Pet Shop Boys, Talk Talk), 90s eurodance (2 Unlimited, Snap!) and started writing songs in his bedsit in Suburbia when electroclash (Miss Kittin & The Hacker et al. <3) made a short-lived but exciting splash. Only a month or so after putting some of these songs on MySpace, he got invited to perform at a new rave party in Shoreditch, London, and duly turned into something of an underground cult figure. Not content with doing solo shows, Ravage! Ravage! became a full-blown band in the years that followed. As a band, Ravage! Ravage! released three EPs, supported by two MTV playlisted music videos, for the same two songs that went to number one on the Dutch indie charts, and performed all over the Netherlands and in cities like Milan, Brussels and Berlin. Since the death of MySpace, the early solo songs more or less disappeared, hence Out Of Fashion, a compilation that collects the most popular — Oh My Beau Gigolo, Join Up For The New Young Pony Club; the most obscure — Velvet Grrl, Stay a Little Longer; previously unreleased demos — Up the Ante, It Girl; and finishes it off with the best remixes. Nowadays, Ravage! Ravage! focuses on DJ gigs, after having hosted his monthly Dark Allies party in Paradiso, Amsterdam for two years. Although he does occasionally still do solo guest appearances, like at last year's Milkshake festival, premiering the song he wrote for Amsterdam's queer icon Maxime Duvall, which is scheduled for release later this year on Bordello A Parigi. For now, Out Of Fashion makes the early Ravage! Ravage! songs available forever. Until the demise of Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes, that is — or the apocalypse, of course. SOME QUOTES from WAY BACK WHEN 'Holland's new rave reverend'—TimeOut London 'Electropop is still in fashion, proves make-up smeared Dutchman identified by Ravage! Ravage!' —Exberliner 'Een jeugdige Hollandse Boy George met synthesizer obsessie maakt een stamper uit een postnucleair Ibiza (...) samen met Aux Raus de belofte voor 2006'—Thomas van Aalten, VPRO 'Übergeile master of elektrokitsch'—Cruise Control 'Ravage! Ravage! is te eigenzinnig om in het hippe indie-rave hokje te passen, want ondanks de mascara, het asymetrische haar en de te strakke zwarte spijkerbroek te muzikaal en te pop'—stereomedia.nl 'Soms kom je een artiest tegen waarvan je niet gelooft dat deze uit Nederland komt'—TMF 'Hij strooit rond met Christiane F.-verwijzingen, geremixed Weimar-cabaret en trashy popparafernalia. Zijn muziek wordt gedraaid tijdens de London Fashion Week, hij doet het ook wel eens zelf het buitenland aan en grootheden als Joost van Bellen zwaaien hem lof toe'—Thomas Blondeau, Mare 'Sophisticated like Pet Shop Boys with a storm of Soft Cell's nastiness'—Noddy Riot 'Debauched rave-noir'—Amsterdam Weekly 'Muzikale leider van de new rave scene in Amsterdam'—Het Parool 'Kleinzoon van Marc Almond, Pet Shop Boys en Divine'—3voor12 Hollandse Nieuwe 'Ook over de Britse landsgrenzen slaat new rave aan. Zo heeft Noorwegen Datarock, Brazilië CSS en Nederland Ravage! Ravage!'—OOR 'Great music!'—DJ Hell For more information please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.ravageravage.com Ravage! Ravage! on Facebook Ravage! Ravage! on Twitter Ravage! Ravage! on SoundCloud Ravage! Ravage! on YouTube

‘It was never going to last...’ #tbt to this week 5 (!) years ago when the second Ravage! Ravage! video hit the MTV playlist. A good occasion to finally unearth a selection of the #amazing photos Andy Tan made behind the scenes of the shoot. Of course, the video, directed by David van Woerden, is still very much available on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFTvdLqgg64 #never4get

Before Dark Allies’ host Ravage! Ravage! turned into a DJ, and even before it was a band, Ravage! Ravage! was a solo artist. His electroclashy synthpop was declared 'new rave' by Dutch media such as OOR, de Volkskrant, 3voor12 and Het Parool when he first put his demoes online on MySpace, back in 2006 when new rave was all the rage. As a tribute to the shortlived 'scene', he wrote this slightly creepy love song for the then brand new band the New Young Pony Club. Ravage! Ravage! performed it live at new rave parties such as Dirty Dirty Dancing (London), Penis In Vagina (Amsterdam) and Dirty Diamonds (Berlin). The New Young Pony Club themselves gave a shout out to Ravage! Ravage! during their Amsterdam concert at London Calling in Paradiso, which you can hear at the start of this song. Forgot all about new rave? Read www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/new-rave-10-years-on-a-joke-or-britains-last-great-youth-movement-a6898476.html and play open.spotify.com/user/maartennauw/playlist/1dS5qczgQ6nMBENGJYI3bW as soundtrack. Glowsticks optional.

COMING SA†URDAY—CLUB GRAUZONE OT301 AMSTERDAM ft. DJs TRISH TRASH x RAVAGE! RAVAGE! x DOLLKRAUT x DAVID VUNK EVEN†—www.facebook.com/events/1635052163441597/

Because possibly maybe you've heard Bing, Mariah and George & Andrew a tiny bit too often... Here's the new, second online mix by Dark Allies host and resident DJ Ravage! Ravage!—soundcloud.com/d…/ravage-ravage-dark-allies-mix-no-2 ✨feat. The Knife, Tr/st, Helena Hauff, John Talabot, Zhala, Soho Rezanejad, @princesscentury, Jef Barbara and many others! 💙

DARK ALLIES No 13 feat. AUTOMELODI live Event — https://www.facebook.com/events/383564601796426/ + DJs Kaseta — Spellbound Trish Trash — Grauzone Ravage! Ravage! — Dark Allies Dark Allies is a Paradiso Dondergrondse night hosted by DJ Ravage! Ravage! featuring early 80s and ultra modern synthpop, electro, Italo disco, post punk, minimal- and new wave brought to you by: † AUTOMELODI — live — Montreal, Canada — Hidden Treasure Automelodi proudly embraces the infinitely rich ground of French pop musical influences - including the legendary 'chanteurs' of the '60s and '70s, classic French cold wave (aka 'La Vague Froide') and minimal synth, and early UK new wave. ‘This is like if pre-rockist Depeche Mode and the composer of the Addams Family theme hijacked their songwriting chops. That same ineffable pop nous the Pet Shop Boys nailed time and again – a minimal grandeur where the feel of an orchestral sweep is achieved without any of the instrumentation or effects. For anyone who understands pop music can exist on the fringes without being oxymoronic.’ - The Quietus http://automelodi.com/ https://www.facebook.com/automelodimusic/ http://hidden-treasure.bandcamp.com/album/surlendemains-acides Video Métropole Sous La Pluie—http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2QlWEhGS4 Video Schema Corporel—http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaIrN9f-IM † KASETA — dj set — Amsterdam — Spellbound Dark Allies is delighted to present Kaseta, one of the regular DJs of Amsterdam's queer underground dance party Spellbound. His taste for postpunk and new-, no- and synth wave have been his trademark since the start of his DJ career, which started 15 years ago. In the span of these years, performing in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris and London, he has always kept an alternative side to his style http://spellbound-amsterdam.nl/ https://www.facebook.com/SPELLBOUNDamsterdam † TRISH TRASH — dj set — Grauzone Daylight's wasted on her, this femme fatale only comes out at night. Not only does she organize shows in various venues, most recently the GRAUZONE Festival in the Melkweg, you can also regularly find her behind the turntables with her impressive collection of vinyl. Post punk, cold wave, synthpop; often dark and doomy, but always danceable. http://www.facebook.com/trishtrashbookings http://www.facebook.com/grauzonefestival † RAVAGE! RAVAGE! — dj set — Dark Allies Dark Allies' resident DJ plays a mix of early 80s and ultra modern synthpop, minimal wave, electro, Italo disco and new wave. Like Bowie, Siouxsie, Depeche Mode and The Human League dancing side by side with The Knife, Glass Candy, Trust and Savages, in a timeless Blitz, or on echo beach - far away in time. https://soundcloud.com/darkallies/dark-allies-mix-no-1 https://www.facebook.com/darkalliesforever † Paradiso Amsterdam Batcave/Kelder Thursday October 23 23:30 — late Entrance € 5 incl. membership ‘Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing’ www.paradiso.nl www.darkallies.nl † Event — https://www.facebook.com/events/383564601796426/ Poster design by Maarten Nauw — mail at maartennauw.nl

† Event — https://www.facebook.com/events/1518486608383816/ Poster design by Maarten Nauw — mail at maartennauw.nl

† Event — https://www.facebook.com/events/1438889903054225/ Poster design by Maarten Nauw — mail at maartennauw.nl