Francois Van Coke has lived a million musical lives, so it makes sense then that he’s off to space on his fifth album “Die Ruimte”. There’s nothing left for him to do, musically, on earth. I kid, I kid. But not really.
Think about it. The guy starts out making some of the sloppiest, ballsiest punk (New World Inside) and then inadvertently fronts, arguably, the best rock band (Fokofpolisiekar) in the country. That band goes on hiatus and he starts a semi-decent side project (Van Coke Kartel) before being like, fuck it, I wanna go solo and collab with Karen Zoid and become the new Afrikaans poster boy for lekkerness. A judging stint on a national TV show (The Voice) and a string of successful solo shows (Francois En Vriende) later and the guy has built an empire alongside his manager Wynand Myburgh that I’m sure makes a lot of guys out their maaad jealous.
Did I have to outline all of that? Nope. But I did it to explain to you a) just how much people love this oke and b) the power of reinvention. Francois is a very much a familie man now. And while he still wades in the water of rock ‘n’ roll, there’s a softer side to him that’s very prevalent on this album. Case in point, the album’s title-track “Die Ruimte” is dedicated to his children because he regularly tells them, “I love you more than space.” Fokken oulik.
Thematically he’s digging deeper into varying degrees of emotion like youth and nostalgia (“Aande), self-doubt and anger (“Olifant”), with a sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek commentary on social media (“Sad Man”). Also blink and you’ll miss it, but the opening 26 seconds of “Sad Man” is a cute tip of the hat to The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”, one of Franciois’ favourite bands.
From a production perspective, Francois assembled the Afrikaans Avengers in Theo Crous, Rudolph Willemse, Fred den Hartog, Johnny de Ridder, Loki Rothman and Richard Onraet, which basically means the Best Rock SAMA is in the bag, but also ensure a quality listening experience although. And at it’s core that’s what this album is, quality. Tien uit tien.
