Rapper of the West-Flemish hiphopcrew <#8217;t Hof van Commerce who one day got a guitar in hand and suddenly turned into a sort of singer-songwriter, as he says himself a musical crossing between <#8220;Urbanus and Ween<#8221;.


The MC in question was Filip Cauwelier, aka Flip Kowlier (or <#8220;Levrancier<#8221;), who had already given proof that he had something more to offer than rhyming in the dialect of West-Flanders, by playing the bass in the formation My Velma (the band that Jan Leyers founded after the demise of Leyers, Michiels < Soulsister).


After the second Hof van Commerce album he (and the rest of the band - e.g. 4T4<#8217;s <#8220;Atomic<#8221;) craved for something else, and more precisely a solo-adventure <#8220;Because I<#8217;m kinda lazy, thing dragged on for quite a while though. One day, however, I drove to a music shop and bought me a microphone stand and a 4-trackrecorder and started writing songs. These were quite close to the things of <#8216;t Hof: lots of rap, lots of beats. I<#8217;ve stil got these at home, I can do something with them later. But the real spark came when i was offered an acoustisc guitar after one of the last gigs of <#8216;t Hof by a girl <#8230; It was just a nice girl who happened to have some guitars at home she didn<#8217;t play on anymore. I first wanted to buy it of her, but she didn<#8217;t want anything else than me taking her to a gig of <#8216;t Hof. OK I said, that<#8217;s a deal. It was then and with that guitar that I started to write popsongs.<#8221;. So, the song <#8220;Gele Stylo<#8221; on the second Hof Van Commerce-cd <#8220;.herman<#8221; got a sequel.

A band was put together, with as the drummer Joost van den Broeck (who played with Flip Kowlier in his early days in the West-Flemish crossover band <#8220;The Prophets of Finance<#8221;, and later drummed with De Mens, My Velma, Riguelle < Hautekiet or de Laatste Show-band), bass-player Pieter van Buyten (see also Marianne Debaene, the 2000-incarnation of punk-band The Kids, and the country-outfit Chitlin<#8217; Fooks) and keyboard player Peter Lesage (Moiano, Krewcial, Magik Ballet Ensemble, Atomic <#8230;). With a few demo<#8217;s, they also stirred the intrest of producer Wouter van Belle (see eg. Axelle Red, Dead Man Ray, Gorki <#8230;) and Dead Man Ray drummer Karel de Backer, who got involved in it. The name of the band eventually became simply <#8220;Flip Kowlier<#8221;, after <#8220;De Barabassen<#8221; and <#8220;Bernard < Edwyn<#8221; didn<#8217;t pass the test.


The plan was to release a full-cd in September 2000, but to all kind of circumstances, it took till September of the year after for these plans to materialize. A first time Flip Kowlier introduced himself to the audience through a gig in the Ancienne Belgique opening for Laïs (spring 2001), and by spreading an MP3 of the folkpop song <#8220;Kwestie van Organisatie<#8221; (with the <#8220;wist je da in bad zitt<#8217;n schreien een vorme van besparing is<#8221; line - did you know that crying in bath is a way of saving). Just before the summer, he released a first single, the angry <#8220;Welgemeende<#8221;. Especially this 2nd song - despite the very incomprehensible lyrics for anyone not born in Izegem - became a breakthrough - on modest scale - through the anger and energy that shined from this <#8220;sincere fuck you<#8221; (it was even dubbed a <#8220;West-Flemish Nirvana<#8221;).


In September 2001 then came the longawaited CD, with the self-mocking title <#8220;Ocharme Ik<#8221; (translated that would be <#8220;Oh poor me<#8221;), with an number of melancholic popsongs and some firmer tracks. <#8220;I know what atmosphere the album had to have when we started recording. It had to sound like a gig in a small pub, withouth minding a creaking amp or so. The CD has to give you the feeling that we<#8217;re playing right next to you.<#8221; As Peter van Dyck wrote in Knack : <#8220;For some, who know Kowlier only as the rapper Levrancier, the folky popsingle Kwestie van Organisatie will have come as a complete suprise. But the mixture of folkrock, bossanova, punk, country, gypsy music, reggae and Tom Waits on the full-cd Ocharme Ik will surprise them even more. The young lad demonstrates what born artist he really is<#8221;. Good to know also is that there<#8217;s finally a lyrics-sheet included in the album, so that people from outside the Westhoek can also get a glimpse about what the heck he<#8217;s singing.

Members :
- Flip Kowlier (gitaar, zang)
- Karel de Backer / Joost van den Broeck (drums)
- Peter Lesage (keyboards)
- Pieter Van Buyten (bas)

Album reviews

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