Mek’Dr’Dr, the minimalist post-punk duo from Brussels, made up of Mien Heyvaert (vocals, bass) and Sara De Wit (vocals, percussion), easily takes the award for the most inventive band at FME this year. Not to mention, their name is just so damn fun to attempt to pronounce – mik der der, MEK DUR DUR, Mek Dr.? As we approached the secret show on a balmy early afternoon, hungover eyes and crusty perceptions clouded by the sun, Mek’Dr’Dr’s music, whimsical and full of life, reverberated off the city walls. The flemish duo was playing tracks from their debut album, No Safer Place Than a Toilet Seat.
The vocals echoed, almost Björkish in the vocal harmonies between De Wit and Heyvaert, consisting of a bouncing bass, percussive instruments and objects (literally anything, such as a shovel, pieces of wood, chimes, or a Fisher-Price xylophone) and an old drum machine that sometimes decided to cut out.
The whole Mek’Dr’Dr vibe is quite experimental, especially due to the wide assortment of percussive objects De Wit switches between. At times, the duo sounded like dolphins, reminding me of the B-52s, and at other times it transcended genre, but again, it was always so full of life and for lack of a better word, fun. For the final song, De Wit blew into a beer and vodka bottle in rhythm with the drum machine and bass. It was the perfect ending to the ingenious set.
