Smalts

Smalts bandmembers participated in Dutch electronic band Minny Pops. It adds a fascinating dimension to their sound. As one of the first Dutch bands signed to Factory Records alongside Joy Division and New Order, Minny Pops helped define the electronic music landscape of the early 1980s. Their innovative use of drum machines and synthesizers, particularly the Mini Pops drum machine that gave them their name, established new possibilities for electronic music production. This experimental heritage now feeds into Smalts' modern versioning approach, creating a unique bridge between mechanical precision and organic reinterpretation.

They use acoustic-, electronic- and ethnic instruments such as flamenco guitar, krar sitar, masenqo, gamelan, and synthesizers. They play new wave-, idie-, world- and alternative rock songs.

All poems in their songs are from English-, American-, Dutch- and Russian origin. They are their foundation of realism, surrealism and absurdism. Smalts uses texts from Allen Ginsberg, surrealist texts from Louis Lehmann, and religious poems from Emily Dickinson.

Smalts wraps text with music. They mix genres and use different playing styles.

Smalts allows the music to frame a poem and sometimes to contradict it. "We present the listener an alternative way to experience texts of poets. Poems are no longer an autonomous artistic expressions, but absorbed in a container they tell a new story together with music. It is like an exhibition in which paintings by great masters can be admired. As individual pieces they have proven their place in art history and have their own message. In an exhibition shown in conjunction with works from other artists, they are part of what the exhibitionmaker wants to tell the viewer"