'Bongo' is Rutger Roedemaekers' debut album and it sounds as if, afraid he may never get to make a second one, he's stuffed every idea he's ever had, every noise he's ever made, every thing he's ever felt into it, and then some more. The effect is disorientating, like getting off a long-haul flight to a new city and having a manic long-lost friend immediately drag you around at breakneck speed, eager to show you everything, whipping you from one experience to the next. Right from the start you're completely immersed, and it doesn't begin to make sense until it's ended.
It takes time and concentration to create such a sustained impression something so kinetic and sensory can't be achieved just by letting the computer do "whatever". It took Amsterdam native Roedemaekers three years and four collapsed lungs to make 'Bongo', and even on scuzzy toaster-in-the-bath opening track 'Think Niles Drink', you never lose the sense that there's someone in control, and that that someone is a never-satisfied OCD control-freak perfectionist. Roedemaekers is equally masterful whether creating goofy, exuberant party-rock like 'She Knows Everything About All Who Ever Drank Coffee With Her' (which veers scarily close to becoming the bastard child of Copacabana) or cut'n'paste magic glimmering in and out of existence, as on 'Nogato'.
'Bongo' works as a whirlwind one-off leaving you spinning, but benefits from repeated listening – details like 'You Got It And A Bit''s background sounds of thousands of tiny needling electric shocks only worm their way into your consciousness the third or fourth time around, like a robot thinking.
About has already played some of the best festivals in the Netherlands, and his live set – part rockshow excitement, part ass-shaking dance party -converts fistfuls of new fans every time he plays.


![Shex vs. Ommm by various artists [ADAADAT]](/2004/09/13/8067/adt00037sp_76.jpg)
