Afrikaans rock is back baby! And it’s being revived by a handful of hugely talented musicians. You’ll have certainly seen them play shows in various projects but putting together the members of Die See under one roof and getting them to record their third album and play rock music was a genius idea.
For those of you not in the know, Die See is an atmospheric rock band from Pretoria, South Africa. Comprising of Jason Hinch (drums), Henry Ferreira (vocals and guitar), Dylan Graham (lead guitar), and Jaco Mans (bass guitar) their new album Staal Tarentaal is a bluesy esoteric ode to good rock music.
It’s difficult to define what style Staal Tarentaal is. Because it eloquently morphs between deep moody basslines like on the track “Roes in Vrede”, to full on blues rock on “Zondag”. Interestingly the album follows a pattern, with songs speeding up and slowing down as the album progresses. The perfect example of this is the transition between “Alles Gaan Verby” and “Gif Op Die Horizon”. The first being a short almost acoustic interlude, gentle and soothing, into the second being a full on atmospheric rock narrative.
The band isn’t scared to explore the musicality in their instruments either. “Goeie Hemel, Liewe Hel” plays on the juxtaposition of acoustic versus electric distorted guitar beautifully, a true testament that the musicians know what just they are doing and the art of cowriting songs together.
Feature pic supplied by artist
