| Scrabbling at the Lock | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 1991 | |||
| Recorded | at ADM's Koeienverhuurbedrijf, Amsterdam, Netherlands | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 51:24 | |||
| Producer | Dolf Planteijdt | |||
| The Ex chronology | ||||
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| Tom Cora chronology | ||||
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Scrabbling at the Lock is the first of two albums by Dutch punk band The Ex in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Tom Cora. [1] [2] It is also the first of The Ex's studio albums to feature the work of then Dog Faced Hermans guitarist Andy Moor,who has remained in the band ever since.
With the release of their album Joggers and Smoggers ,The Ex were developing further collaborations with musicians from around the world,including New York-based cellist Tom Cora. In the midst of launching their six-part record subscription series and organizing tours on North American,the Netherlands,and Great Britain,The Ex and Cora spent a week in Dolf Planteijdt's studio at the end of January 1991. The 12 songs were mixed in February and slated for a release during a break from tour that summer. [3]
The album features heavy interplay of two guitars,bass,cello and more prominent female vocals. Dean McFarlane of Allmusic wrote that by this time the band "were starting to experiment in new tangents that incorporated the influence of folk and free improvisation." He found the album to "explore the delicate modalities of European folk." [4] The Wire described the collaboration as "unusual even by their far-reaching standards." [5] The track "Batium" is an adaption of a piece by late Turkish musician Ismet Siral while the track "Hidegen Fújnak a Szelek" ("Cold Winds Are Blowing") is a cover of a song originally written by Hungarian folk music band Muzsikas. [6]
Another version of the album's second song,the Hungarian folk anthem "Hidegen Fújnak a Szelek",sung by The Ex's drummer,Katerina Boerfield,had been previously released as a single without Tom Cora,included on the A-side the third 7" in The Ex's 6 album . The album's lead track,"State of Shock," would later be recorded for the Dutch language album Een Rondje Holland featuring The Ex backed by a 20-piece orchestra.
Scrabbling at the Lock was released in August 1991 midway between the first and second half of The Ex's 6 singles series . The album's title was adopted from a text by songwriter Peter Hammill whose song "A Motor-Bike In Afrika" The Ex had covered on their album Aural Guerrilla . Scrabbling at the Lock's cover photo depicted the Montparnasse derailment,a dramatic trainwreck that occurred in France in October 1895,and the record was the first of The Ex's album's to include only one insert:a single,large,black-and-white poster. The band arranged a concert that coincided with Cora being in Europe,held at Amsterdam's Paradiso club,to celebrate both the album's release and the band's 500th live performance (though it was actually their 499th). [3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [8] |
| The Great Alternative &Indie Discography | 5/10 [9] |
| Tom Hull | B+ [10] |
Many critics have described the album as one of The Ex's best,and buzz about the record bolstered the band's career internationally at the time of its release. Writing for Trouser Press ,critic Douglass Wolk gushed about the record,calling it,"the Ex's first genuinely great album," calling Cora "the closest thing the cello has to a Jimi Hendrix," noting that "the Ex were expanding how a punk band could sound by exploring improvisation and traditional music," and summarizing the album's results as "adventurous,fresh and lovely-and also rock like a house on fire." [6] LA Weekly called the "genre-smashing project" as where "[t]he band arguably hit their high-water mark". [11] Dusted magazine described the album as "dissonant and jarring,yet also strangely beautiful in places [...] almost 20 years after it was first recorded,[it] still feels unlike anything else." [12] Bill Meyer of Chicago Reader noted "an intoxicating chemistry" from the collaboration. [2]
Despite its middling score, Allmusic's retrospective review is quite positive,calling Scrabbling at the Lock "a beautiful,candid recording that marks an inspired new tangent for the Ex which sparked themes that would run through their recordings for the remainder of the decade –where folk and free improvisation would collide elegantly with their soaring autodidactic avant-rock." [7] Exclaim! considers it to be one of the "Key Recordings" of "non-idiomatic improvised music" to have come from The Netherlands. [13]
Thomas Henry Corra, better known as Tom Cora, was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, Butch Morris, and the Ex, and was a member of Curlew, Third Person and Skeleton Crew.
The Ex is an underground band from the Netherlands, started in 1979 at the height of the original punk explosion as a Dutch punk band. The Ex originated from the squatting movement in Amsterdam and Wormer, and was inspired by bands like The Fall and The Mekons. Although initially known as an anarcho-punk band associated with the Dutch post-punk ultra scene, over the decades The Ex's sound has gradually developed into its current form of highly intricate, experimental punk/post-punk/no wave-inspired work. This sound includes a combination of diverse genres and styles, such as noise, folk, world music, free jazz, and crossovers between these genres. Other examples of branching out stylistically include the improvised double album Instant and a release under the moniker Ex Orkest, a 20 piece big band assembled for performances at Holland Festival. "One reason we are hard to describe is that we never had an education at music school, and in that sense we are not influenced by any traditional playing," explained Katherina Bornefeld, drummer for The Ex since 1984. The Ex's lyrics consist of straightforward statements about politics and abuses in society. The band enjoys international acclaim for this socially critical message, as well as for the energetic, rhythmic, atonal guitar playing, and for the furious vocals of singer G.W. Sok, who was replaced in recent years by Arnold de Boer of the duo Zea. The Ex have released over 20 full-length albums.
Dog Faced Hermans were a post-punk band that formed in Scotland in the mid 1980s and remained active through the mid 1990s. They emerged from the UK anarcho-punk scene with a guitar/bass/drums line-up, but also incorporated trumpet and other instruments not commonly found in punk music at that time. Their composition style incorporated many genres of music outside of rock, including folk, jazz, ambient and noise music with often unorthodox instrumentation.
Joggers and Smoggers is a double album by punk artists The Ex, released in 1989 as a double vinyl record album, and issued as a double CD in 1992. It is the first of the Ex's albums to feature extensive use of improvisation and instruments outside of the standard guitar/bass/drums arrangement of punk rock, as well as great numbers of international guest musicians, most notably New York's Sonic Youth, Glasgow's Dog Faced Hermans, Amsterdam's Instant Composers Pool, as well as numerous folk musicians from a variety of European and Middle Eastern traditions. The album marked a turning point in The Ex's artistry, foreshadowing many collaborations and delvings into avant-garde, experimental, improvisational, folk and world music that the band would mix with their abrasive trademark post-punk sound in the 20 years to come.
Disturbing Domestic Peace was the debut album from Dutch anarchist band The Ex.
And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders is the second of two albums by Dutch punk band The Ex in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Tom Cora. Cora was acknowledged in the credits of earlier album Joggers and Smoggers but didn't actually appear on an Ex album until a recording session in 1990 which led to Scrabbling at the Lock as well as And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders.
Dizzy Spells is an album by Dutch post-punk band The Ex. It is the band's 11th studio album and 18th overall, and was produced by Steve Albini who had also produced its predecessor. Dizzy Spells was also The Ex's final studio album to feature bass guitarist Luc who would end up leaving the band after being a member for 20 years.
Tumult is the third album by Dutch anarchist punk rock band The Ex, originally released in 1983. It was produced by Jon Langford of The Mekons and Dolf Planteijdt.
History is What's Happening is the second album of songs by Dutch punk rock band The Ex, originally released in 1982.
Pokkeherrie is a 1985 album by The Ex, originally released on vinyl only on the Pokabilly label. The original release included an eleven-page booklet containing lyrics & artwork and a double sided poster. It was reissued on compact disc in 1995 on Ex Records. The album comprises a collection of songs the group had performed on an anti-military tour. The title of the album is a Dutch word that means something like "so much noise" or "awful noise". It is the first of the Ex's albums to feature Katrin on drums, cementing the band's core lineup that would last for nearly two decades.
Mudbird Shivers is an album by Dutch punk/experimental band The Ex. The album prominently features vocals by guest musician Han Buhrs, who also plays a number of different instruments on the recording. It was released the same year as The Ex's entirely instrumental improv album Instant.
Aural Guerrilla is the 1988 studio album by Dutch anarchist post-punk band The Ex, co-released by American indie label Homestead Records.
Too Many Cowboys is the second double-album Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. Released in 1987, it mixes live and studio recordings and marks the band's beginning of a collaboration with British anarchist group Chumbawamba.
Instant is a double compact disc by the Dutch experimental post-punk band The Ex. The band recorded the album in conjunction with many guest musicians, notably members of Holland's Instant Composers Pool (ICP) for whom the album is partially named, the other part being that the Dutch term for "free improvisation" literally translates to "instant composition."
Blueprints for a Blackout is the fourth album by Dutch post-punk band The Ex, originally released in 1984. It was the first of The Ex's albums to feature Luc playing bass guitar and he would remain as the band's bass player for 20 years. The album also featured many guest musicians, a notable trend in The Ex's discography that would provide musical elements unique to each of their albums.
Een Rondje Holland is a live album by Ex Orkest, an orchestra made up of the Dutch post-punk band The Ex accompanied by 20 other musicians. The album features orchestral arrangements of previously released Ex songs mixed with pieces of improvised music. The tracks were recorded over a series of four performances in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, and compiled for release on the band's own label in 2001.
6 is a collection of six singles by Dutch musical group The Ex. The singles were available in record shops and also through a subscription with a new one being issued every two months throughout 1991. Each of the singles explored different facets of The Ex's musical relationships and interests, featuring collaborations with an array of musicians and other artists. The 6 singles were not released on The Ex's CD collection, Singles. Period. The Vinyl Years 1980–1990 as they comprised an album to be collected and stored in a single box. The band announced plans to reissue the collection on CD in 2010, but have yet to do so.
30 Years of The Ex is a compilation album by the Dutch band The Ex released in 2009, marking the group 30-year anniversary and the departure of original singer G.W. Sok from the band. The album features songs from all The Ex's albums released between 1980 and 2006, as well as tracks from various singles and EPs. 30 Years of The Ex was released on double LP and double CD with the CDs containing seven extra tracks.
1936, The Spanish Revolution is an album of songs and archival photographs related to the Spanish Civil War, recorded and assembled by Dutch anarchist punk band The Ex. The band released it in 1986, the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, on their own label as a square 7" (17.5 cm) soft-cover book with two 45 rpm records. A 5" (12.5 cm) hardcover edition was republished by AK press in 1997, replacing the records with a pair of 3" CDs.
The Ex are a Dutch music group from Amsterdam founded in 1979. In their four decades as a band, they have moved from playing anarcho punk to post punk, jazz, folk and African music. They have collaborated on records with fellow indie musicians Chumbawamba, Dog Faced Hermans, Tortoise and Sonic Youth, improvisers like Tom Cora and the Instant Composers Pool, and toured with African musicians Konono Nº1 and Getatchew Mekurya.
