Muziekkamer - II: Popmuziek (2018)

"Contort Yourself continue to widen their scope of operations with this, their first dedicated reissue, and they've come in strong. Eschewing the grotty industrial tones of many earlier releases, the label have turned their attention to Dutch curio Muziekkamer, who self-released a small clutch of cassettes at some undisclosed point in the past. The unthinking experimentation contained within these tape jams is shockingly prescient - jagged rhythms, surreal sampling, techno atmospheres and more from a period well before such tropes became common tools for electronic expression. Take a trip into the vivid, imaginative and utterly unpredictable world of Muziekkamer." - JUNO

"...for folks into the resurrected subterranean experimental sounds of the era, I'd say this is a winner" - The Vinyl District

"Muziekkamer was the name of the home recording studio that gave birth to the twelve tracks on 'Popmuziek', an intriguing document of sketch arrangements and primitive, fairytale sampling wave cuts. This is music which excels due to its inherent naivety; the limitless ambition of 'Black Box' almost sounding like a precursor to the 90s ambient techno of Likemind or Stasis. On 'Being Home Tonight' we can hear an early form of what the likes of Tolouse Low Trax have been bringing to the forefront of contemporary club culture whilst the erratic art-rock of 'Walkman' mirrors what Leven Signs & co were doing over the pond. In trying to create something which represented 'intrusiveness' as a contrast to an earlier ambient tape the trio incidentally blurred the lines between various musical fashions to come. An amazing snapshot of time and place!" - Fergus Clark