Obscure Inspirations #4

Many of my favourite groups have some things in common: An eclectic approach to composition, an inclination to experiment wildly with arrangements and instrument lineups over time, a fondness for percussion and esoteric instruments, a touch of minimalism and even a blurring of the lines between music and visual art where music becomes inspired by art and vice versa. All those elements are present in the Dutch group "The Nits", although the example here is a rather traditional number (and also their greatest hit).

They only had one album released commercially in the US at the end of their heyday in the 1990s, and they never received much recognition outside central Europe although they always stuck to English lyrics. They still exist and tour today, as far as I know.

"The Dutch Mountains", however, never existed; they are buildings, as you hear clearly enough at the very end of this song. It's all a metaphor for the crowded lifestyle of much of the Netherlands, big cities seamlessly connected with their suburbs (or so I think). That's par for the course with the Nits — There's so many interconnected metaphors and references in the lyrics that it can take quite a while to untangle them!