We want to welcome you to our next event! For the February edition of our ‘Tiny Room Records presents’ series we’ll be in De Groeverij in Houten again.
On the bill is Ilsha, our favorite choral folk group. They don’t perform much, but when they do it’s always delightful, intimate and special.
Support act is Tenrec, Combo Qazam’s Arno Breuer on kalimba. He left quite the impression with this side act on Podiumdorst last year, so we wanted to see/experience this again.
It’s showtime! This year we’ll be hosting a little bit fewer concerts than in 2022. We aim for one each month. The January and February concerts both take place in De Groeverij, a beautiful, cosy and very welcoming record store in Houten. So let’s talk about the first one! On Saturday 21st of January (next week) our German friend Boo Hoo comes over from Frankfurt for just one show.
Boo also manages Lousy Moon Records, the label that worked with us on both Toby Goodshank‘s record as well as Gaman, the latest World of Dust album. His music is melancholy & uplifting at the same time, with stories that are captivating, quirky and beautiful. He tells stories over quiet folk strummings – standing out in the singer/songwriter genre by being so damn good. Boo is also a funny and reliable friend that we can’t wait to see (play) again. We hope you will be there with us to celebrate live music like you did last year.
Support act is Sterre, a local young woman with a steel-string guitar. We saw her play covers of the Cranberries, Elliott Smith and The Smiths, but when playing a song of her own, she struck us with trueness, personality and talent. There should be more room for beginning and developing artists to explore and experiment, so let’s do it.
In my show overview post of December last year, I read that I was hopeful about 2022 without having reasons for that at the moment. There was still a lockdown and it didn’t seem things would go back to normal anytime soon. But it did, in a way. Venues opened up, bands were eager to participate in the rat race again but the whole landscape was different. Promoters were gone, venues closed, people had to find other jobs…
I had the feeling I had to hop on the train, sometimes leaving me feel stressed, misunderstood, rushed. But I did my best to make live music happen again, together with my friends. And a lot of things worked out, so I am super grateful for that and I don’t want to complain about having too much success or good things going on – that doesn’t make sense.
So how this year turned out… Tiny Room Booking booked, organized or hosted 76 concerts this year. Mainly for our own roster (Combo Qazam, The World of Dust, Toby Goodshank, Ilsha, Caspar Milquetoast). Very glad to see these artists play again. Then there was the Podiumdorst series in the Vechtclub. 16 evenings of cool, new, underground music, nice little gatherings of a DIY-minded music-loving community in Utrecht. Perfect celebrations of the exact thing we missed the past few covid-years.
New year
In the new year I hope I have the strength to hop OFF the train once in a while. I don’t know if it’s long covid or has to do with other things, but I need to recover one or two days after every event, and with so many shows there is no time for that. My plan up until summer is to organize 1 show every month. The shows for January and February will take place in De Groeverij in Houten, the subsequent ones in Studio Patrick. More news about that soon! There will be more World of Dust and Combo Qazam shows too, but also weeks of rest. See you all in the new year, with a different show overview at the end of the year.
– Stefan
(In the photo you see me playing a show with Combo Qazam in Wroclaw, Poland. Photo by poomackuszukam. And this show was booked by Yugofuturism )
We are so proud of what we released in 2022! Vinyl and CDs, eight releases that make the world a little bit more beautiful. A big shout out to all those musicians that wanted to “work” with us on their releases and put their faith in Tiny Room. We had a blast putting things together, promoting what we could, distributing and selling these awesome records and CDs all over the world.
It started early in January with Truth Jump Fall, the 10 Year Anniversary vinyl reissue of the Toby Goodshank album (regularly spun in the Tiny Room HQ the past 10 years). In March, the first of two Moonchy & Tobias albums was released. Golem, like the December release Wild Eye, took on weirder and groovier territories – making both CDs unmissable for Moonchy & Tobias collectors, and in art rock collections in general.
Logout also had two releases: the great and super limited 10” Instrumentals (sold out in a wink) and the accessible Greek pop album Ponemela. This guy keeps evolving and improving, we are so happy to have these albums in our catalogue. Just before summer, the first Caspar Milquetoast EP (you can also call it a short album) was released on CD. We’ll Have Tea was put together by the 21-year old Amani Mohed from The Hague, with a little help from label boss Stefan Breuer. This is an enormous talent who has a lot of more in the pipeline. This is only the beginning.
After Summer, we put a lot of focus on the latest World of Dust record, Gaman. This acoustic folk album had been years in the making and it’s definitely one of the more warm & soothing records that came out on Tiny Room Records. People seem to love it. A month later, the second album by Utrecht post-punk band Combo Qazam came out, called Ghost Interior. Darker, heavier and with more depth, the band proved they are on a winning streak Charlie Sheen would be proud of.
Let’s celebrate these albums by listening to them, streaming them, buying physical copies, sending the artists some nice words, sending the music through to a friend, etc. EVERYTHING HELPS.
In 2023, we’re taking a small break from releasing new music. Probably until August. We need it. There is some beautiful stuff lined up for the fall though, don’t worry. Cheers y’all!
Out now! Wild Eye by Moonchy & Tobias. The last release of the year. Enjoy this mix of ethereal, nocturnal pieces and unnerving tribal bedrock. Get it on CD on our Bandcamp page, or stream it on your preferred streaming platform.
De Subjectivisten: “they immerse you in a sound that comes from a parallel universe and is simply unique” Here Comes The Flood: “Wild Eye offers a different perspective for anyone who wants to look beyond the safe routes and explore new ways to enjoy music”
We are proud to release the second album by Combo Qazam today! On Ghost Interior, the Utrecht-based post-punk/krautrock/math rock band pursues the suffering of being human. It’s out on 12″ vinyl with another mind-blowing sleeve (made by Carolin Kastner). Only 100 of these waxy friends were being made, so get it while you can:
Platomania: “a masterpiece” WoNo Magazine: “Combo Qazam takes me along some new roads. highways, byways and dirt tracks. The trip is nice and well worth it, surprises and all.” Here Comes The Flood: “they are blessed with seemingly limitless ideas to work within self-imposed boundaries” Luminous Dash: “Revision brings rhythmic simplicity in combination with surprising, noisy excesses and on Repeater and Hydra they actually make us dance to their cheerful, infectious math rhythms”
Tonight, Combo Qazam celebrates this release with an evening of underground music in ACU, Utrecht. Also playing are Tonsils from Belgium, and the new Tiny Room revelation Caspar Milquetoast. After tonight, the band plays more shows in The Netherlands. Be sure to check them out.
Utrecht based post-punk/krautrock/math rock outfit Combo Qazam just released a new single. It’s the first song off their new album Ghost Interior, to be released on Tiny Room Records next week (October 21, 2022). See the video made by bass player Ab al Tamimi here:
With their single Crisis, Combo Qazam explores a new human force that can live and love alongside the unstoppable development of technology. A power that forms a meaningful social structure, supported by AI in its most vulnerable strength.
Logout‘s sixth album Ponemela is out now! On the album you will find nine songs that are like indoor photos, arranged in order of brightness. The songs operate between happiness and sorrow. It’s about getting used to pain and being okay about it. The entire album is sung in Greek again and it’s a beautiful slice of dreampop greatness.
The new album by The World of Dust, called Gaman, is finally out today! Gaman is basically a 100% acoustic, warm and soothing, elaborated indie folk record. Listen to it on all streaming platforms. You can also get the LP/CD on our Bandcamp page. Thank you!
Gaman is the 8th album by Dutch experimental folk artist The World of Dust. The title is Japanese for ‘enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity’ – Stefan Breuer covers weighty topics through a personal lens while in a 100% acoustic, slowcore setting. Thus, the album’s eleven songs address the struggles of a young father and artist in the midst of a climate, economic ánd health crisis. Breuer explores these ideas through a mixture of wit and melancholy. Guitars, wind instruments, harmonium and percussion provide an intimate musical ecosystem in which Breuer’s baritone thrives.
Reviews
The press has certainly been very positive too so far:
Luminous Dash: “Gaman sounds very universal and deserves the necessary attention outside our national borders” Gonzo (circus): “A perfect balance between his small songs and elaborate arrangements with an eye for the smallest detail. One of the best records that fans of Red House Painters or I am Oak can pick up this year.” Here Comes The Flood: “superb slowcore that digs deep” Proglog Afterglow: “an album that encourages you to reflect but also to dream away”
The album will be released on LP and CD by Tiny Room Records (Netherlands) and Lousy Moon Records (Germany), and on CD by Moorworks (Japan). It makes it undeniably his most elaborated album to date.
The World of Dust – Gaman (webcover)
About the artist
The World of Dust is Dutch artist, musician, and manager of Tiny Room Records, Stefan Breuer. With this project he represents a shadowy universe of forlorn beauty, a lo-fi bedroom pop experiment shrouded in elemental imagery and laden with ennui. Influenced by artists such as Mount Eerie and Sparklehorse, The World of Dust is intimate and wistful, mining a similarly rich emotive seam to Norwegian slowcore legends The White Birch.
)
