When Bastian's debut "Ready" was released, the word electroclash hadn't yet been invented. These days Bastian isn't the only one who's rocking vintage computers, making electro funk, but when it comes to head to toe songs with exciting solo's and sexy vocals, Bastian is still way ahead.
Bastian a.k.a. Bas Bron makes records on his own in his Amsterdam based studio, only helped by co-producer Gaspard de la Nuit. On stage Bastian is a ten piece live band, which is unique in the dance world where pre-recorded backing tapes and samplers determine the live sound. Last year Bastian gave over sixty live performances with his band.
The debut "Ready" was succesful, the record gave us three singles of which the first one "you've got my love" became an international hit. The video accompanying 'You've got my love' was called the best video of the year by a leading art critic.
"It's all down hill from here" is as much a logical follow up as a great step forward. As always it's still packed with catchy melodies and lyrics you just can't help singing along to. But musically as much as textually Bastian has given a new dimension to his art; as the title already suggests it's not only the bright side of life we hear about. The album starts with a very uplifting jazzy instrumental, but when the album ends with "hopeless" you realize Bastian has got some Blues too, in a manner of speaking that is... Musically Bastian is still influenced by P-Funk (Parliament as well as Prince), keyboard wizardry from artists like Herbie Hancock and even ZZtop's computerboogie.
The Bastian albums are proof of Bron's fine artistry , but he proves to be a man of many talents; with "Comtron" he makes progressive electro , as "Gifted" he experiments with samples and old-school computers and as "Seymour Bits" he raps and funks in yet another style. In 2005 Bastian produced the song 'Watskeburt' for 'De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig' and scored a number 1 hit in the Dutch charts.
