The Cold Eighties. Destiny drove a Hong Kong concubine into the arms of a wellhung seaman. Together they built a lovenest in the sky above the Ghent sea of bricks. Their first kitten turned out to be a moustached female, that would live by the name of Sarah Yu. It took two more years before a little male, by the name of Boris, was born. At young age, both of them bundeled their musical strenghts and that's how The Hong Kong Dong was born. A band, brainchild to two unpure types with an enormous urge to form a awesome gang! In the summer of 2005 The Hong kong Dong took the stage for the very first time. What started as a duo, became a trio. Dave Willockx became the third member and would turn out to be the banging heart of the gang. Ouch! Together they started terrorising the local clubs with their spiky tunes. In the Year of the Pig (2007 for the occidentals among us) they conquered various tournaments (they won 'Lawijtstrijd, took second place in the 'Oost-Vlaams Rockconcour' and reached the finale of the 2008 'Humo's Rock Rally'). With the Year of the Rat in sight, a fourth member joined the gang. A real Rat: Geoffrey Burton. Armed with many years of experience in other gangs (Bashung, Arno, PJDS, Stéphane Eicher, Raphael, Polar, Absynth Minded,...) he provided The Hong Kong Dong with new weapons to conquer new stages (they played as support act for Digitalism at the Ancienne Belgique and were invited to open the dance at the Radio Soulwax festival at Flanders Expo).

In 2006 Ansatz der Maschine set a new standard for Belgian indietronica with the brilliant album 'The Postman Is A Girl'. Now the much-anticipated follow up is here. 'Painting bad Weather on her Body' illustrates how Ansatz der Maschine has grown. It's Mathijs Bertel's second solo-album, yet it fully integrates the Ansatz live band. The subtle electronics are blended with acoustic violins, saxophones, drums, Rhodes, electric guitars, voices ... The result is a warm, slightly distorted mash up of great song writing, producing and musicianship. Ansatz der Maschine plays live as a four piece band, with visuals. Ansatz der Maschine originally started as an experimental one-off project of soundtechs Mathijs Bertel & Alexander Baert. They joined forces to create a smooth blend of click 'n' cuts and live guitars. Their first recordings were assembled on a demo CD: 'Hide For The Beast'. The innovating tracks got them to win the CJP contest 'Het jong 2004', designed to give young artists some promotion (and a cash prize of 5000 euro!). The media attention this generated resulted in a bunch of live shows and the continuation of what was planned to be a temporary project. Ansatz der Maschine is: Mathijs Bertel - electronics, alto violin, keys; Bram De Vreese - alto sax, guitars; Jan Dhaene - drums, rhodes, moog; Ruben Vercaemer - tenor sax, rhodes, moogn (source ansatzdermaschine.be)