Soldaatvolk soldiers on

While kids in Europe in the USA are either into ironic indie rock or electro clash, Afrikaans music is for the most part somewhere else.

Cape Town based DJ Donald of Wedding DJ fame is on the while not impressed. To him Afrikaans rock is not cool. The musical style is out-dated and the lyricks, way too serious. Que bands like Fokofpolisiekar.

Afrikaans dance, is for the most part monopolised by bubblegum pop merchants.

While I agree that the musical style of most Afrikaans rock is basic and dated. Fokospoliskar sounds as naive as The Presidents of the United States of America. Basic drums, and simplistic epic guitar riffs characterise their music.

Fokofs lyricks, on the other hand is wonderfully existential if a bit too didactic. Nihilistic, fatalistic and despairing, it expresses the angst of post-Apartheid Afrikaners brilliantly. Nothing I have listened to from the West compares.

And now Mhambi has found another example. Soldaatvolk's (Soldier people) Foto na dans (Picture after a party).

It features a party in an up market house, full of girls with beautiful frocks, which turns into an orgy of drug taking and sex. The singer tries to make sense of all the excess amid the angst - everything is falling apart. There is only place for one person in his coffin he sings. I could only look on while everything is destroyed.

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