PEUK : the next big thing!

PEUK is a trio based in Hasselt (Belgium). Their line-up consists of the incendiary songwriter/lyricist Nele Janssen on vocals and guitar, Jacques Willems (HEISA) on bass, and the hard-hitting Dave Schroyen (ex MILLIONAIRE) on drums.

The band have built a solid LIVE reputation in Belgium and the Netherlands, where they opened for DEUS and won a legion of new fans at last year's PUKKLEPOP festival.

The 11 tracks of their album, recorded in one day on analogue material, perfectly capture the band's intense energy. It is highly enjoyable, tense, and edgy. It is by turns stirring, overwhelming and beautifully emphatic, yet somehow inaccessible and mysterious.

Which self-respecting indie rock radio station in the world would refuse to air at least half the tracks on this album? PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Cat Power .. yes, all those names and more spring to mind during the album 48-minutes running time, but it will nonetheless remain the liveliest and most refreshing 48 minutes you will spend today (or any other day for that matter).

"Faceless Doll in Voodoo" should be to used to break any silence (comfortable or otherwise) ; "Magpie" achieves the unlikely feat of rendering the aural equivalent of a kick in the balls agreeable, irresistible even.

"Skin It" and "Koppijn" raise the intensity levels to a delightful fever pitch.

One can only imagine just how intense this band is LIVE. As De Caunes famously said when introducing Nirvana: "if it's too loud for you, then you must be too old!" .. Kurt Cobain would have worn a PEUK t-shirt. He was a man of taste.

"Was ..." But PEUK is here now, so let's revel in that !!!

It requires good taste to come up with catchy and appealing riffs like the ones on "Cave Person" or "Endless Spark", especially when they are used to illustrate deeply thought-provoking lyrics.

Lyrics as poetic as a gob of spit on lily and carnation petals.

The whole thing reeks of sensitivity, sincerity and the need to escape. Escape from what? Escape to where? For fuck's sake! Stop overanalysing and bow down to this awe-inspiring revelation of a band. Make no mistake : PEUK remind us exactly why we love ROCK. (alternative, indie ... call it what you will).