The Bullfight
The Storm Behind Our Smiles

When perseverance, individuality, passion and creativity combine, you can rise to great heights as a band. From the very beginning, The Bullfight has been able to captivate, to intrigue with their music and, if you listen to the band’s albums one after the other, you will notice how much the band has grown and how from album to album they manage to trigger more and more fascination.
The Bullfight have the capability to not only good at making songs fit in a dark setting, the band always manages to turn their songs into brilliant miniatures that have much more to offer than just being a nice dark song. And the band has managed to do that for twenty years now, more than twenty years even, with their creativity only continuing to grow in all that time.
So it’s nice that The Bullfight is now celebrating their twentieth anniversary with a very fine collector. The title, The Storm Behind Our Smiles, comes from La Chasse’ s 2015 song of the same name, and that was the moment Written In Music decided to follow the band closely. Fascinated by the interplay within the band, fascinated by how the songs are written, fascinated by how the albums sound and, in recent years, simply very impressed by the step the band took with Eggs & Marrowbone where the band focused on the phenomenon of the murder ballad and had it embellished by various artists. As the conclusion back then was, it’s not necessarily in the art that accompanied the album. No, Thomas van der Vliet, writer of most of the songs, already knew how to create a diversity of songs, with very beautiful arrangements. They were always worked out in subtly surprising instrumentation that was just as impressive as the album accompanying art.
And the band continued along that line of including art. For example, Some Divine Gift was again very special in the enclosed nine pieces of art accompanying the songs. Moreover, the collaborations that The Bullfight entered into through time, were very special and something the band can rightly look back on with pride. That indeed goes for Some Divine Gift. Not the least of artists collaborated: David Boulter, Barry Hay, Henry Rollins and also Alex Roeka. And it was with him that the band collaborated on their latest studio album as well which, was at the same time, their writing debut for Thomas, Amen, Demon. Again a beautiful release and it secured the band a spot in our year list for 2024.
It is certainly worth mentioning, the collective that is The Bullfight. The lineup now with Eddie Kuijpers on bass and double bass, André van den Hoek on drums and percussion, Tim Moerkerken on piano and other keys, the violin played by Esther Vroegindeweij and Ludo de Goeje, Conrad Freling on banjo and organ, Daisy Cools on (background) vocals, Nick Verhoeven on vocals and Thomas as multi-instrumentalist has been together for a significant part of time. Thomas and Nick from the beginning, followed by Esther in 2006 and André in 2008, respectively. The rest followed later after that. What you hear when you listen to The Bullfight is also the fabulous interplay and the way the arrangements were made.
Arranging is one thing, yet on an album by The Bullfight you can feel and hear the synergy within the band. And to be able to listen to that on this fine collection, that is a very, very nice way to celebrate the band’s twentieth anniversary. The set shows Nick’s very fine voice, the combination with Daisy’s voice adds an extra dimension to the music. Their voices contrast beautifully. Even the songs she sings alone are clearly marked The Bullfight.
Whether you know the band or not, listening to the three discs is very enjoyable. You are listening to a selection through time and it is nice that these songs were chosen. As if the band wants to say, “If you don’t know us yet, listen to this. Then you’ll get to know us.” And in doing so, a fine build-up has been chosen. On the first CD you will find 17 songs recorded between 2006 and late 2024, a fine selection that for some is largely a feast of recognition (How Do You Do? the band only released last year) with also fine new ones and for others, the uninitiated this release is a path of discovery. Get to know them, The Bullfight, go back in time, step into that time capsule and be surprised. The beautifully constructed and performed music, the lyrics and impressive voices of Nick and Daisy and oh, that refined and always tasteful instrumentation.
The second CD brings us demos and outtakes. That’s how the band’s songs grew. Listen carefully to how the band grew in the construction of songs. Subtlety, you will fijd that the demos and outtakes already hold a lot of attention for the coloring and arrangements of the songs. So nice to hear the growth of the band in these tracks. And that’s when you realize that something else stands out. Vision! That might be the term missing from the first sentence of this review. Apart from perseverance and passion, that vision is also a requirement. And, if you read this interview, you will also see that at the time of Eggs & Marrowbone, they were also looking ahead. Not just another band, The Bullfight, you will soon learn that, even if this is going to be your first introduction to the band.

The third CD offers a chance to hear the band in a live setting. And that completes this collection nicely. Once again we step into the teletime machine and go back to the early years with the band. How subtly does the band play all the time and thus just how strong their atmospheric sound is live? That underlines the class of the band, it underlines the class of the songs and of the musicians and of Nick to bring the songs live in almost perfect harmony. Here you can also hear that The Bullfight have grown over the years, however, they already had early songs that were great to perform live.
Twenty years of The Bullfight, twenty years of constantly new work by a band that continues to surprise and convince. Yes, The Bullfight may well be one of the best kept secrets in the Netherlands. One could wish that more people would get to know the band. A band as original and as good as The Bullfight, that is rare. So why not share that music with more people? This collection is just perfect for that. It’s a very appropriate way to celebrate their twentieth anniversary and an invitation to both the listener who is about to discover the band and, at the same time, a great compilation with nice surprises for the connoisseurs. Excellent collection! Note: if this is your introduction to the band, be sure to seek out the albums. The band’s releases are all very fine gems!
Also, take the opportunity to go see The Bullfight live now. Around this twentieth anniversary and this release, the band is giving some special performances. Needless to say, highly recommended!