Here we are, trampling leaves and ducking our heads whenever those Belgian rains shower us. This yearly transition objectively sucks (winter-loving contrarians keep your opinions to yerselves!) and nobody likes trudging home in the dark. But as deliverers of light and lightness into inboxes and listening channels, we have a few things to shine some brightness into these low-hanging clouds:

VENEDIKTOS TEMPELBOOM - SYNE VUYLE HOECK LP OUT TODAY

YES TODAY! Following his 2021 tape Het Vuil Volkske, our favorite long-haired Ghentian vagabond Venediktos Tempelboom drops a new nugget of transcendent guitar spiels on the KRAAK label, this time in solid LP format. With Syne Vuyle Hoeck, the full gamut of the Tempelbomian vernacular reveals itself through the seven pieces that form the album. From primitive Americana to bohemian melancholia with good dousings of Flemish acidity by way of gloomy tape echo, it’s a particular but vast world contained within these dirty corners. Listen and git your copy over on our Bandcamp!

Also if you happen to be in the Brussels pentagon this weekend, come hang at the Venediktos release show at AB Club on Saturday 16/11, with a live performance by the man himself and sharing the bill with Ghentian bedroom producer Ishtembashtok and Italo/German space jammers JOOKLOYD ~ tickets and info this way!

LAST SHOWS OF THE YEAR COMING FAST!

Two KRAAK nights left in 2024 before we close shop for some quiet plotting time before the madness that will be 2025 rolls around. SO:

• November 28 at Kinky Star, Ghent:KRANKY STARS with KOU (FR), FROM (ES) & De Kat Memwa dj set ~ continental weirdo pop of the highest order, enough to get you stoned by candelight at the heart of Ghent’s meat market
• December 7 at gr’Ambacht, Mechelen: gr’Ambachting with Lagno (FR) and Ameel Brecht (BE) ~ violin drones entaglements and the elegant collapsings of guitar and mandolin in the coziest home venue in Mechelen <3

ODDS N ENDS

• Radio Roundup: we finally made our way back to the Panik airwaves but not the studio quite yet! Our timid return last month is not for the reverb-averse ~ and there’s a lot of updates on the Kiosk front, starting with much belated posting of Bear Bones, Lay Low’s sauna show back in January, a record-release live set by Maibaum on the last summer day with the Nonlocal gang, as well as some diversions from the DB and the GG, together and separately! Check it all out on our Radio tab!
• Reckoning with the end of summer is never easy, but at least we have some lovely fondness to fall back upon. Case in point: some photographic footage of our UK Microcase Tour with Younes Zarhoni, Maria Bertel & Nina Garcia, and Firmaet Forvoksen back in September! Shoulda just been called the breakfast tour ~ can’t wait to do it again! Here’s to more photo reports ~ and hopefully the return of KRAAK THIS WEEK posting on IG!
• While nothing else is set in stone, KRAAK Festival 2025 is!! Or at least the date: mark yer calendars for March 8 2025 for the yearly rendez-vous at Het Bos. More details ~ and perhaps a first look?? ~ in next month’s update