Simple

Belgian guitarist, bassist, and mixing/mastering whiz Pierre Vervloesem wanted to keep things uncomplicated with this electric avant jazz-rock quartet — hence the band moniker, Simple, is a one-word manifesto of sorts — but sometimes the best-laid plans can be at least momentarily sidetracked by circumstances. In the case of Simple, Vervloesem chose three bandmates who would be ideally suited to his group’s purpose, as he has described it, ”…to be on stage with my friends and perform my debilitating music as seriously as possible.” The leader decided to forgo guitar in favor of cranking out a forceful low end on electric bass, joined by saxophonist Bruno Vansina, like Vervloesem a member of Peter Vermeersch’s avant big band Flat Earth Society and also leader of his own Bruno Vansina Quartet and Vansina Orchestra (and a member of Vervloesem’s “normal group plus four saxophones” Caca as well); drummer Didier Fontaine, an ex-member of A Group and longtime Vervloesem collaborator, heard on such albums as Fiasco (1996, Carbon 7) and Chef-d'Oeuvre (1999, Viakra) as well as P.V. Presents discs SSSHHHTTTT by the Claude Zac Ensemble and Grotesque by Codswallop (both 2010, Off); and keyboardist Joris Caluwaerts, a Codswallop member whom Vervloesem first met during the recording of Akattemets (2008, Petrol) by singer/songwriter Wannes Cappelle’s Flemish indie outfit Het Zesde Metaal (the Sixth Metal). As for the previously referenced frustrating complication cluttering up the band’s path (perhaps just a “First World problem,” really), it arrived when Vervloesem assembled Simple in the studio to record compositions he had penned for the group’s debut album and the foursome got busy putting the music to tape…or rather, this being the 21st century, to digital files. Or so they thought. As it happened, something went terribly amiss amidst the bits and bytes, and (shades of Miriodor’s “Manguer de Masters” on 2001′s Mekano), the files were simply deleted. No amount of advanced data retrieval steps could remedy the situation, and the crestfallen quartet was left with only one option: record the album all over again. Caluwaerts offered up his own Finster studio for this purpose, and the group gave it another shot, recording such punchy, tuneful yet skewed Vervloesem numbers as “Belgian Triumphalism,” “Domestic Daredevil,” and “One of These Doris Day” with Caluwaerts in the engineer’s chair. This time, the results were saved, mixed by Vervloesem back at his Studio Fiasco, and released as the appropriately titled Undeletable in June 2014 as the eighth album in the Off label’s P.V. Presents series. Problem surmounted — and who knows, maybe they even played with greater focus during session number two (in any case, a truly energized album was the result). ~ Dave Lynch