Neil Sandilands shows that there is still plenty to explore in Afrikaans folk music with his latest album Sangoma Sandilands & Jou Pa se Posse.
“Woestynroos” opens proceedings and gives the impression that the album is going to tread the well-worn paths of tradition, the mournful slide-guitar opening setting us up for the familiar and expected. So it might come as a bit of a surprise when, halfway through “Frikkie Se Tema,” an electric guitar that had been lurking in the shadows bursts in with a solo that harks back to the glory days of guitar-rock.
Later on the intro to “Dipper Se Dittie” sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in a Joe Satriani track while the tender “O Moeder” swells into a cacophonous farewell. “Liedjie Vir Miekie” offers a little glimpse at some kind of conventionality but the song has an inherently manic nature that keeps the dreaded comfort zone at bay.
Sangoma Sandilands & Jou Pa se Posse finds its success in the way Neil Sandilands takes traditional conventions and mashes them up with more contemporary ways of thinking about music, creating a sound that is simultaneously familiar and exciting.
