At a time when the music world is being cheered up by a motley procession of freak folk artists, coupled with a reappraisal of obscure American folk, the question arises more than ever about the Dutch contributions to the genre. Pop journalist Matthijs Linnemann delved into the archives of the Institute for Sound and Vision and discovered a variety of high-quality, obscure Nederfolk. With a few
… exceptions (Fungus, Gerard van Maasakkers) the material was once released in a limited edition on LP, but never re-released on CD. The harvest can roughly be divided into Dutch, English and instrumental work, with the first category in particular filling a gap. But the English-language work also exudes something unmistakably Dutch. Dutch Rare Folk offers us a rare glimpse into a colorful Dutch subculture from the past, a subculture that seems to have almost disappeared. Perhaps a new generation will be inspired by this double CD. (MS)more
