Last week the slightly fantastic Ghent based band Absynthe Minded released its new nameless album through the belgian magazine Humo. No doubt they will shortly be topping the charts in Belgium…

The second single from the new album, Envoi, is a real gem. And it even becomes better if you know it is based on a poem by one of Belgium’s finest writers ever Hugo Claus. Absynthe Minded did so after an invitation by Poetracks, a Dutch initiative for setting Dutch or Flemish poems by famous writers to music:

One image in the music video struck me as familiar. It seems to refer to a cover of a single by Ghent based companions Soulwax:

Absynthe Minded – Envoi lyrics:

My verses stand gawping a bit
I never get used to this
They lived here long enough
Enough!
I send them out of the house
I don’t wanna wait
Until their toes are cold
Enough!
I wanna hear the humming of the sun
Or that of my heart,
Hardening
Enough!
They don’t screw classically
They babble commonly
And bluster nobly
Enough! Enough!
In winter their lips leap
In spring they lie flat at the first warmth
They ruin my summer
And in autumn it’s girls and a broken heart
For another twelve lines on this sheet
I’ll hold my hand over their head
And then I’ll kick them out
Enough!
Go and pester elsewhere, one-cent rhymes
Find somebody who cares
Enough!
Go now on your high feet
This is where the graves laugh
When they see their guests
Enough!
One corpse on top of the other
Go now and stagger to her
Whom I do not know
Enough! Enough!
In winter their lips leap
In spring they lie flat at the first warmth
They ruin my summer
And in autumn it’s girls and a broken heart