Description
PRE ORDER 4th DECEMBER 2026 – RELEASED ON VINYL FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME – LP WITH INSERT – MASTERED FOR VINYL BY UWE TEICHERT
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BELGIUM
Order from Sugar Pie records Antwerp – email jan@sugarpierecords.be
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Classic record from Craig Ward, Mauro Pawlowski, Rudy Trouve & Bert Lenarts. Vocals from Craig, Rudy and Mauro!
1 The Microcosmic Orbit 0:09
2 Meet The Love Substitutes 2:00
3 Death Folk Sailor 6:05
4 Like If You Had Any Clue At All 2:37
5 Lower The Masterfader 0:52
6 Open 2:58
7 More Than The Sun Part One 2:28
8 Disconnected 10:33
9 The Medicine Palace 2:38
10 Hey! Did You See Me Coming? 4:44
11 Flatzone 3:58
12 Summer Of Mars, Deuxième Tableau 5:23
13 Hey, This Is What We Do For A Living 0:41
14 More Than The Sun Part Two 2:59
15 Shanty
THE LOVE SUBSTITUTES – MEET THE LOVE SUBSTITUTES WHILE THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE and MORE SONGS ABOUT HANGOVERS AND SAILORS
THREE SUCCESSIVE dEUS GUITARISTS. FOUR EXTRAORDINARY MUSICIANS. TWO SEMINAL BELGIAN ALBUMS — ON VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIME via Jezus Factory Records as part of the label’s 20 Year Anniversary Celebrations — 27 November 2026
There is an obvious way of introducing The Love Substitutes.
Rudy Trouvé. Craig Ward. Mauro Pawlowski. Bert Lenaerts.
Four musicians from one of the richest and most eccentric corners of the Belgian underground, bringing together decades of experience across dEUS, Kiss My Jazz, Evil Superstars, Dead Man Ray, Gore Slut, iH8 Camera, A Clean Kitchen Is A Happy Kitchen and a bewildering network of solo projects, collaborations and experimental groups.
There is, of course, an obvious dEUS connection.
Rudy Trouvé was the original guitarist in dEUS. Craig Ward subsequently replaced Rudy. Mauro Pawlowski later replaced Craig.
Bert Lenaerts was soundman for The Smashing Pumpkins. Amongst other things.
Three musicians who successively occupied the same guitar position in Belgium’s biggest alternative band eventually found themselves in the same band.
By the time The Love Substitutes came together, Rudy, Craig and Mauro had already established extraordinary and highly individual careers of their own. They had crossed paths repeatedly within Antwerp’s remarkably fertile musical underground, including through Kiss My Jazz, long before The Love Substitutes brought them together in the same four-piece in 2004.
Another important part of the equation is that Rudy, Craig and Mauro all contribute vocals across the band’s music. There is no single frontman, no dominant songwriting personality and no fixed musical template. The three voices bring three distinct approaches to melody, lyrics and songwriting, adding enormously to the variety running through both albums. At the time the band described themselves as “Death folk artwank.”
MEET THE LOVE SUBSTITUTES WHILE THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE (2004) The first Love Substitutes album is often remembered for its noise, improvisation and sheer unruliness and being recorded in a day and a half. There are primitive riffs, abrasive guitar experiments, psychedelic excursions, extended improvisations and moments where it sounds as if the whole recording studio might collapse in on itself but wrapped inside this there are moments of dishevelled pop perfection such as Death Folk Sailor, Open and Shanty.
MORE SONGS ABOUT HANGOVERS AND SAILORS (2006) The second album is far more considered and fully embraces the bands’ Fairport Convention side. There is still noise and experimentation, but alongside it are elements of folk, psychedelic rock, crooked pop, singer-songwriter music and a more developed appreciation of melody and arrangement. For the first record, the band had relatively few prepared songs and a huge amount of improvisation. For the second, they arrived with around twenty loose ideas that became songs like Bangladesh Fashions, Someone Like You and A Modern Band Needs It’s Sleep.
Both albums have been mastered specifically for vinyl by Uwe Teichert (Public Enemy, dEUS, Placebo) – he mastered the first time round and the same people who did the CD layouts for both albums were happy to do the vinyl – such is the love for this music 20 years later.
And 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Jezus Factory Records – a label that formed as a by product of the promotion of The Love Substitutes in the UK. The friendship and partnership with these guys and their projects remains to this day. Craig moved back to his native Scotland and carried on with various projects, a 3rd album was recorded but shelved and the band/Rudy moved into the all star improv band iH8 Camera who play regularly to this day. Mauro just released a yacht rock solo album to acclaim in Belgium.
So there is something wonderfully circular about releasing these two albums now.
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