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The Lost Album

Karel Hendriks

Things get lost once in awhile: bobby pins, sweaters, thoughts – something once so precious mysteriously disappears out of sight & out of mind. There’s something about loss. It’s got the potential to bend badly, yet it’s capable of enabling the possibility to be found. In a world where we’re continually overloaded with new music, it’s easy to forget the albums from the past, ones that shaped us the most. This month we’re asking Karel Hendriks, known as Karel for his solo efforts and as other half of Idiott Smith, to dig into his musical archives and recover an album that touched the heart but was forgotten over time.

Which album did you find?

Ok so, I recovered the album We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves by John Maus

When did you first listen to it?

I was somewhere summer 2011, I was on an Dutch island chilling in the grass with friends when someone started to play this music from his portable speaker, it was fucking amazing.

Why did you want to recover this one?

This album did more than just musical enjoyment; this guy John Maus is insanely interesting. The philosophy behind his performance and lyrics are very inspiring. He calls his shows ‘karaoke shows’, which I’ve copied 100% to my own performance. But this album, it has so many nifty things. It’s extremely satisfying.

For fans of?

Fans of Ariel Pink, Henry Badowski and Glass Lady

What is your favorite song on the album?

‘Keep Pushing On’

Why?

The song ‘Keep Pushing On’ always fucks me up. The singing part: ‘There goes the rocket, City dies, When you go away”, I don’t know if its the chorus or the couplet, but that part, always kicks in so nice.

Don’t miss Karel at our The Summer Issue Magazine Release Party on Friday, 2 June at Butcher’s Tears, Amsterdam. 

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