I’m going to start off by saying that Bloed, Sweet & Trane is by far my favourite Van Coke Kartel album to date.

I have this stupid habit off wanting too much out of an album. I like when it makes me feel something on the inside, a feeling of satisfaction or victory in a way, it must tell a story I can relate to and it must make me want to come back for more. I’ve had Bloed, Sweet & Trane in the second slot of the CD-Shuttle in my car since I bought it on Saturday playing it on repeat and before that I listened to it about 50 times on Deezer.com, so I think that it goes without saying that I got  everything I wanted out of it that I wanted.

I’m a rocker by heart and head banging comes with the territory and becomes sort of second nature in a way. When I listened to the album the first few times, I actually felt as if I wanted to listen to the lyrics for a change and not only head bang to every song and awesome album artwork!. I’ll make it simple and call it best of both worlds.

Van Coke Kartel has established themselves as one of the frontrunners of the South African rock scene over the last few years, with both English and Afrikaans fans hanging to the lips of front man Francois van Coke in every song. As a huge Fokofpolisiekar fan I latched onto the VCK bandwagon as soon as they came on the scene. Their innovative sound and live performances, help from front man and Afrikaans Rock legend, Francois van Coke, that act out of Bellville, Cape Town, has produced some of the best rock, not only music wise, but as a live act as well, that I’ve seen, locally and internationally,  in quite a while. This album proves my point once again. With the help from Springbok Nude Girls Guitarist, Theo Crous, the producing of the album turned out to be quite spectacular.

The  album fills a hole in your musical neediness that you never knew was there. When you look at the quality. dept  and producing of the music, the album is awesome! If you are a big fan of the band I can almost guarantee that you would enjoy the album. The very, very, very slight touch of pop brings a new dimension to the sound and works surprisingly well, giving the fact that I absolutely hate Pop music.

When I bought the album from Look ‘n Listen, the guy that helped me said, “You’ll be disappointed, they’ve gone all pop.” I’m not in the least disappointed with this album and would recommend it to anyone. A friend of mine said as we pulled into Arcade Empire for the album launch on Saturday, “Die is Van Coke Kartel se ‘Monoloog in Stereo’.” If you listen to the album you would hear that the sound has been toned down on the hard, raw rock sound but the quality has certainly improved.

Kudos to the guys from Van Coke Kartel on a great album. Lyrically and musically the band has matured after the first 2 albums and came to a climax with Bloed, Sweet & Trane.

I’ll end off by saying that you don’t really know how much you need this album in your collection until you have it. It’s just that good!

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