On Saturday 21 of November 2009, I put on my dancing shoes and headed out to The Assembly to catch New Holland for the final show of their Exploded Views album launch tour of the year. The tour, organised through Red Fox Bookings, spanned over October and November, including cities and venues such as: the Mystic Boer, Bloemfontein; Back 2 Basix, Johannesburg; Tings ‘n Times, Pretoria; Klein Lebertas Stellenbosch; and finally The Assembly, Cape town. This was a band I had never seen live before, and after listening to their new album prior to the show, I was excited to see what they would offer a live audience.
Frontman TeeJay Terblanche was already working with drummer Odendaal Esterhuyse when he approached Gerdus Oosthuizen (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Ryno Buckle (bass guitar, backing vocals) to form a band. Soon after their formation they received the opportunity to be part of the Avontoer line up in December 2007.
New Holland recorded their debut album, 01, in March 2008 at Sunset Studios located on the Wechmarchof Estate in the Banhoek Valley just outside Stellenbosch. Working with recording engineer Jürgen von Wechmar, 01 was received with open arms by fans around South Africa which have grown significantly in numbers since the bands first appearance in 2007. Exploded Views was recorded at Terblanche’s recording studio, CoffeeStainedVinyl (where he also produced Ashtray Electrics debut album Bonjour) and produced by internationally acclaimed recording engineer Neal Snyman best known for his work at Butterfly Studios, London, with artists such as Tom Jones, David Bowie, Boy George and Crowded house.
The Assembly is famous for its consistency in quality entertainment. And the show I attended on Saturday was no different. New Holland walked out onto stage to the deafening screams of adoring fans. With a high power energetic opening the band set off the show with Uhuru from their debut album and followed with their two singles Shine, and Something to Believe in. The set was composed well and I felt embarrassed by the fact that I didn’t know as many of the words as the crowd did. The energy provided on stage by the band, was matched by their audience.
Performance wise, the band was tight; they played well and definitely made the last show of their album tour the biggest. With Miller on their list of sponsors, New Holland was able to deliver a high quality show, adding their own production visual effects to the already impressive Assembly lighting rig. I was however concerned by the quality of the sound that night. The performance on stage called for a sound that was bigger than what was produced live. I expected to be hearing stadium drums that vibrated my bones and guitars and voice that filled the hall. The backing track was inconsistent with the overall mix, specifically in the percussion section. This would not have been an issue, if the band did not have a sampled introduction to their set. When they began playing their instruments, the change in levels from the backing track to live was so vastly different that the transition was jarring and I took a few seconds to recover and get used to the live drum kit. This technical flaw in the show was persistent throughout and did not seem to bother the engineers involved.
I believe that the area where New Holland excels is the manner in which they have gone about their business in their music career thus far. In the space of two years they have produced and released two albums of a very high standard. They have played numerous, highly publicised festivals, including Oppikopi 2009 and Ramfest 2009 and are on the line up for Earthdance 2009. I believe that their marketing, coupled with their enthusiasm and passion for music, will only see them further. New Holland is one of those bands enriching the quality of local music and I expect to see and hear some big things from them in 2010.
