A Helicopter disaster scenario: In room 2, a sweet middle-aged jazz combo practices. In room 3, five adolescent metalheads about three years away from complete deafness. The wall between 2 and 3 is unfortunately not 100% soundproof… I’d like to save them with another studio, but we’re full. Howeeeeeever… Weak Moves is in 13 and they are willing to trade; Max: “Aaaah, we play louder!” Catastrophe averted.
Weak Moves are long time Heli regulars. I spoke to Jespfur about the project that began with guitar riffs he had kept on the shelf for a few years. He gathered around him a motley crew of musicians to carry out this work, consisting of Jacco Troost on lead guitar and effects (“he always has twenty bags on his back. If anyone needs to get a car, it’s him”), Jeremy Peters on bass and Max Harms on drums. Helicopter became their base of operations, from where they are now steadily conquering the scene.
Although Weak Moves began as an alias of Jespfur, the band has grown into a close-knit collaboration. The members have diverse musical backgrounds, but somehow it works. It’s a rough band, but roughness can’t hide the fact that these are sensitive guys. This is confirmed when I ask Jespfur about the idea behind the music; “We’re basically an inner-release organization. I write introspective lyrics. Information that you don’t actually get until you hit your head hard. If I share that with you, maybe you won’t have to bump your head.”
“Our strength is in live shows. That’s where all those deeply hidden things come out. The other day someone in the front row was crying, next to that someone was laughing and the rest were dancing.”
Last year, the album Geodesic was released. The we-don’t-give-a-f**k attitude the band cultivates is betrayed by a carefully considered use of musical violence and space. Geodesic opens with a vast, soaring, melancholy soundscape, but soon the tidal wave breaks and you are dragged into a dark valley by leaden rock riffs. In subsequent tracks, the pace quickens, different time signatures come into play, but each time that heavy hammer of angst comes down again.
The song Zaldem begins as a dreamy Indie track and accelerates almost imperceptibly until it explodes into a cacophony of blastbeat, guitar abuse and, of course, the fine art of yodeling, only to fall apart hallucinatingly. Jespfur: ‘Someone called that song a middle finger to the Amsterdam Indie scene the other day’. I myself thought it was mostly very funny.
Weak Moves is busy, if I may judge from what regularly sounds right through the walls here. When I ask what is in store for us, Jespfur says “we are specializing in the roller coaster industry.” Perhaps you do understand what he means. Jespfur recently released Pedestrians of Bright Silence (2024), for which he also rehearsed with a different lineup at the Heli. Solo Jaspfur is more avant-garde than we are used to even from Weak Moves, and with that he is now garnering recognition. He is going on an international tour in the near futurue, and that seems to be only the beginning. I’d say, keep an eye on them, Weak Moves ánd Jespfur.