Boris Dzaneck Was the Perfect Mix of 80s Emotion and Cold Calculation

It's the drums on Boris Dzaneck's 1983 track "Dance" that stand out. Over jittery, minimal synth, the thuddy lo-fi percussion sounds like someone is beating on cardboard boxes. It's this mix of organic sounds and the emerging technology that makes a mark on the Dutch band's sound. To be honest, before I heard the Euro sounding vocal, I thought it was a new track from Melbourne synth punk band Ausmuteants.

Recorded at Studio Schoots in the city of Culemborg in 1983, and appearing on the band's In His Own Words tape, the track has recently sprung back to life through interest in YouTube clips, an appearance on a compilation from Dead Wax Records and the vinyl reissue of In His Own Words on French label Danger Records.

Starting out as Disorder, which had more of a punk influence, the band veered in a more new direction that owed to Joy Division and UK post-punk.

We sent some questions to the band's vocalist, guitarist and synth player Riks Ozinga to find out more.

Noisey: The band struck the right balance between technology and synths and live drumming. What was the inspiration behind the band?

Riks Ozinga: We were inspired by many styles of music, old and new. Pre-war blues, rock, rockabilly, ska, punk, new wave, funk, ambient, African, classical. And we always liked bands with energy and catchy songs like The Beatles, Kinks, Bowie, Ramones, Specials, Joy Division, XTC, Talking Heads. But also lesser known bands like Clock DVA, Section 25, Shriekback, Gang of Four, Cocteau Twins. When we started with Disorder in 1980 we had a lot of ideas but we could hardly play our instruments. The punk scene however made it possible for us to begin a band and do are own artwork. When we got better on our instruments our music evolved as well. After Disorder split up in 1982 Marcel and I bought a drum computer and continued making music as a duo. That's mainly where the transparent sound comes from. The lyrics have always been very important for us. In a clear and open song structure the singing gets more room.

What was the Dutch punk and new waves scenes like at the time?

At the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s there were hundreds of new bands in the Netherlands. Not only pure punk and new wave, but rockabilly, ska, and new metal as well. A lot of bands mingled these styles. Like the new English bands, almost every Dutch band had a ska or reggae song. The economy was in crisis and the unemployment amongst the youth was enormous. DIY was the credo. A lot of young artists were active in the left wing and squatting movement. Smoking cannabis was just as normal as drinking beer, which obviously influenced the playing and writing.

It was hard for bands to play in the traditional venues. So we did a lot of gigs in places like small youth centers and squatted buildings. Most of the punk bands couldn't play for more than 30 or 40 minutes. So if your band was booked for a gig you asked befriended bands to join in. No wonder that a lot of musicians hopped from to band to band or were in more than one band those days. The most interesting bands in Holland I thought were The Ex, The Rondo's and our friends from Coïtus Int. Most influential in and around Utrecht were The Lullabies, they were the godfathers of the Utreg Punx.

The drums on "Dance" sound so tough, basic and great! What was the recording like?

We recorded in a small studio that was part of a music store. We'd bought a simple Roland CR 5000 drum computer and Roland SH 101 keyboard. It was the first song I wrote on keyboard. Live we amplified the drum box via a big Marshall bass amplifier, and in the studio we asked the engineer to create that same sound. We added a small snare drum to get a lively accent. We had no producer, we knew very well how we wanted our music to sound. All songs on IHOW were recorded live on a 4-track and mixed in one day, we only added some percussion and the choir on "All Heroe". The punky approach! We couldn't repair anything so you can still everything that went wrong during the recording.

In His Own Words has long been out of print. Have you been approached much over the years to repress it?

We recorded In His Own Words to use as a demo. After a good review we made another 150 copies, that we sold by mail order and at concerts. Record labels weren't interested and we didn't have the money to release it on vinyl ourselves. Much to our surprise we discovered three years ago that several people published our music on YouTube. Two years ago Boris Dzaneck got back to life again, and on our Facebook page we got a lot requests to reissue IHOW on vinyl. We are very glad this dream finally became true. We also had several requests to reissue our first cassette from 1982. That probably will happen sometime next year, I hope.

In recent years minimal synth and punk bands using synth have made a come back. Are you familiar with many of these bands?

I know a lot of the bands that have made a comeback. For me the most interesting ones keep working on new music and are not just reproducing their old stuff in a sloppy way. After In His Own Words Boris Dzaneck went on experimenting with different styles. Some fans of the older songs dislike the newer stuff, but for us as a band it is what keeps making music interesting. I think it's very boring repeating the same old songs and song structures again and again. It's a challenge for us to bring together the songs from a period of more than 30 years on stage, but I think it works out fine. At the moment we are working on new songs which are again sounding a lot different than the older stuff.

'In His Own Words' is available now through Danger Records.