The renowned Dutch band The EX doesn't really need any further certification (including mine!) to demonstrate their skills on stage, but this extensive collection of some gigs they played at the Bimhuis, the notorious and appreciated jazz club in A'dam and undoubtedly one of the leading jazz club in the world, which collected some highlights they made over 25 years of performances which shaked the ground and spitted wise euphoria and positive vibrations in the likewise vibrant Dutch capital. Their amazing amalgamation of punk, jazz, afro (particularly Mulatu Astatke-like declension of Ethiopian jazz) and Eastern Europe folk music could disprove the idea according to which post-punk is just a sort of unuseful appendix of the nihilistic mood (for all those idiots who keep on match nihilism to punk...) and got grabbed during their most congenial dimension, the live stage, and include the almost legendary first gig they held in June 1991, which featured guests like comedian Herr Seele, Wolter Wierbos, Han Bennink and Ab Baars, three nights where they performed with the Ethiopian saxophonist Getachew Mekuria, who also performed with The Ex in his native country, two gigs of the 33 1/3 Festival - I really enjoyed the session "24 Problems" they made together with Brass Unbound -, ICP Jubilee, the October Meeting, the Ex Orkest - the four tracks of The Ex declension of orchestral music, which opens the second cd of this collection, are really super! -, a New Year's Eve party and a concert for children! The release includes a booklet where you're going to find some photos of those performances, some posters and an interesting article by Dutch journalist Peter Bruyin, who stressed the value of this release and the importance of The Ex's idea of music, which is going to provide further musical fruits as highlighted in the final part of his words.