Dutch singer/songwriter Joost Visser is a key figure on the European lo-fi scene, having played and recorded with like-minded figures like James McNew's one-man-band project Dump (with whom he recorded in the mid-'90s) and Chris Knox. Visser first became visible as leader of the '80s band De Artsen, whose first album, Conny Waves With a Shell, was the first release on the cultishly adored Dutch indie Brinkman Records. Visser left De Artsen in 1991 (the rest of the group, including Joost's brother Peter Visser, installed De Artsen roadie Carole van Dijk as their new lead singer and changed their name to Bettie Serveert) and began making solo recordings and playing shows throughout Europe and the U.S. Three years worth of off-and-on home recordings were finally released on Brinkman in 1994 as Partners in Hair. A growing friendship with McNew led to Visser's appearance on several Dump releases and the hour-long video compilation Dump and Joost Visser: The Makers of Smooth Music, featuring several live performances by both artists, both solo and together. Visser went underground ( or more precisely, further underground ) in the late '90s, making no public appearances and releasing no recordings, until his version of "It's Halloween" appeared on 2001's Better Than the Beatles: A Tribute to the Shaggs.