Scratch Pet Land

On Scratch Pet Land (by Pieter Pan)

"First time I heard the name Scratch Pet Land was when I saw their first (and only?) video, which was recorded at the Carpetland store. Carpetland is for Belgium what Tonton Tapis is for France or Teppich Frick for Germany (Carpetland even owns the latter and recently also bought Wand & Boden). I'm sure you can also translate Scratch Pet Land in the language of your own country. The video showed a nice young man behind a table scratching pieces of carpet from the store in front of him. I always imagined him to be L'homme aux decibels magiques' (that's the fourth track on their first album). The title of the song for the video was 'Square metre fever'. But the Magical decibel guy looked incredibly cool. You can also listen to that track on the first SPL-record, released by Source (yes, from the French band Air).

This is the second SPL-album (Solo Soli iiiii, 2000). On Sonig, of course: label of the German band Mouse on Mars and F.X.Randomiz and Vert and Microstoria and all those other musicians producing fanastic sounds or twisted beats reminiscing on this SPL record. There are twice as much tracks on this new album ( not only Carpetland got bigger ) and the music is even better than on their first release. Still, you'll recognise elements from the first record. No more 'Oiseaux d'appartement' this time, but 'Escargots couleurs!' and bees and a garden... And there's a new version of the Mika hik drum kit! Ah yeah, Mika. Remarkable little girl from Brussels. Speaks two languages from this schizo-town. No one understands this music better than she does. That's why she can easily join the band during live performances. I've seen her doing it. Really. She's the only one who's got the flair to be on this 3 qm stage with the Scratch Pet Brothers and their old Atari Computer, their plastic bee and 'toupimatic toupies', their gameboys and turntables their bongos and jews harp. I can't possibly remember all the instruments. But I do think I remember Mika juggling with an ukulele. If this is your first Scratch Pet Land record, treat it with respect. Because these guys worked hard for their money. They'll never do the same thing twice. For Scratch Pet Land, it's always the first time. They came a long way and walked it all by themselves. Take this record, listen to its unique melodies and discover how exotic things can get in the kingdom of Belgium."

The band Scratch Pet Land founded in 1997 by the Baudoux brothers Laurent and Nicolas is in a long, long break. The brothers are going their own ways and released several records as DJ Elephant Power (Nicolas Baudoux) and Sun OK Papi K.O. (Laurent Baudoux). In between they formed several side projects like the Fan Club Orchestra and the Electrosold Collectif.

Scratch Pet Land

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Scratch Pet Land interviewed by Masayuki Shonai, Japan (2001):

1/when did you start as Scratch Pet Land?
In 1996, we were able to fulfill one of our plans: playing live in a big surface carpet store, just for the accidental custumers. This big store is called "carpet land". This was the first scratch pet land live.

2/What kind of music did you listen to when you were teenager?
The big brother of a friend of me (Laurent) worked in a media center (library for records) He introduced me to experimental music and jazz. I was very much into free jazz. Nicolas and I were living at the country side. We used the garage (when the car was out) to play big instruments like drums and guitars. There was no real structure in our music but we felt good energy. Later we moved to the city and our small appartement was much more suitable for electronic equipement.

3/ How did you release the first LP on Source?
Nicolas Godin from AIR came to Brussels for an intervieuw by an underground fanzine. Back then AIR was still a solo project of his. At this occasion we were introduced. He liked our music and took our tape to Paris.

4/ People really liked your stuff from Source at the time but you guys didn't release after that. Was there any reason ? Any trouble ?
Sorry, we promisse to work faster next time.

5/ How did you meet Mouse on Mars ?
In the winter we sent our record to Jan and in springtime he proposed us to do something for Sonig.

6/ What do you think about releasing from Sonig finally ?
We feel at home. Many things are possible at Sonig. After seeing a Sonig event in Koln (with Vert, Microstoria, Oval and DJ Frank Dommert) we are even more convinced . Sonig is super.

7/ Tell me about your sets when you do live performances.
Most live sets we played this year were with Quentin on guitars, Nicolas and Laurent on electronics. We prepare our music but we always give space for improvisation on stage.
The musical instruments have been changing a lot. We are working on a more stable formulla wright now, to go on the road. ( things should be able to fit in a locker at trainstations )

8/ Is there any concept when you make sounds as scratch pet land ?
Le bonheur. It has to be possible.

9/ How do you make sound? Tell me the process of making tracks.
We use a lot of microphone recordings lately. To make the song ' Crol and Sun ok Papi k.o. crossfader speak' we recorded Nicolas when he was scratching records. There were some little African percution instruments moving with him on his body. There is more in the sound then just the scratching, you can hear bodymoving. We mix into our music a lot of low budget instruments like the super mini sampler a Swiss garage mechanic gave us. But after all there still is a lot of studio manipulation.

10/ How's musical scene of Belgium ?
We are kind of isolated here, I don't really know. There are some projects with good energy.
Everybody works with his own power.

11/ Do you have any artist you have sympathy with recently ?
Of course we have had great contacts with some of the Koeln scene. Jan and Frank we know for quite a while now, but only recently we met Andy and he is great too. He makes us think. Here in Brussels, at the free radio station 'Panik' we met Michael. He is passionated by electro acoustical music and a big fan of Pierre Schaeffer. The way he talks about our music sounds like poetry. At a very young age he was among the Belgian Hip Hop pioneers. (you can find him in a historic book about Belgian HipHop) There also is Claude from DAT Politics. She is a great help for contacts all over the world.

12/ Tell me how you have started Fan Club Orchestra.
Fan Club is a personal project of Laurent that started in 1997. Back then he organised a night of music that was called 'the ending of my brother's records orchestra'. Many DJ's came and brought their turntables. All the turntables were connected to the mixing table of Laurent. Everybody played their favorite endings of records and it was great fun. The next time Laurent decided to have a gameboy orchestra. The game boy camera has a great sequencer inside that also non professional musicians can use. When the fan club plays, often people who have never played before join in. Laurent gives directions about what to play on an overheadprojector. The orchestra is not only about gameboys. People bring stuff they like. Fan club is very much a public happening. All the live sessions were recorded. To compose the Fan Club Orchestra Volume 1 Laurent and Nicolas remixed those recordings in their studio. Volume 1 is only on vinyl at 500 copies. It was not made with a record compagnie, but in cooperation of an art exhibition. It gets distributed through personal contacts.

13/Do you have any more release by fan club orchestra?
We are finishing volume 2 right now. After that we want to come together with Ari Morimoto, one of the most active fan club members. He started his own orchestra after long negotiations when he moved to live in Kobe. ( Fan Club Orchestra Japan) We want to release a record for this orchestra too.

14/Pick up your some favorite records in your life.

don cherry and ed blackwell "mu first part"
dedalus "pezzi inediti '75' -76 +materiali per tre esecutori e nastro magnetico"
boredoms "super ae"
the upsetter "kun fu meet the dragon"
os mutantes "os mutantes"
martial solal "fafasifa"
mouse on mars "instrumentals"
musique centre africaine "ocora 43"
famoudou don moye "sun percusion"
lithops "didot"
hardcore tapes from the 80' compiled by Nicolas
a lot of sun ra stuff
AFX "hangable auto bulb ep"
the x-ecutioners "x-pressions"
cd-rom ina grm "la musique electroacoustique: faire, entendre, connaitre"
...

Extra info : soon you will find more scratch pet land music on Ski-PP compilation ( 2 tracks)
and probably (one track) on the Nanoloop compilation. ( Nanoloop is a new music program designed for Gameboy by a german guy).

Hello Nico. Thanks for those answers. It helps me a lot. but I forgot to ask you one essential question. Why did you put Scratch Pet Land as your unit name? What that name come from?
That is final question.
Thanks again.

best,

SHo

hello Masayuki Shonai !
Yes, scratch pet land is a weird name. It originates from physical contact betwen two musicians and a carpet store.
ciao
Laurent

Scratch Pet Land

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