With help from Peach Van Pletzen
Floris Groeneveld is a Gauteng-based musician, also known for his folk-rock music project Kabaal Klankbaan. Floris does not clarify this as a stage name, but rather a band of which he is the only permanent member. He plays a set of diverse musical genres, from acoustic, alternative folk-rock; that varies from indie-pop songs, folky dystopian love songs, bluesy rock ‘n’ roll to songs about robots and video games.
Most of Kabaal Klankbaan’s live performances consist of one guy with an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and stompbox, rocking and rolling and folking in an attempt to ignore genre limitations. His next show might be Afrikaans, English, bilingual, folky, rocky, accompanied or solo. In 2015, Kabaal Klankbaan performed several times as a duo, joined by saxophonist Andre van Coller.
Kabaal Klankbaan released his debut album, Dit wat oorgebly het, in October 2012, closely followed by a standalone, free download single, ‘This town is for lovers’ in November 2012. In 2013, Kabaal Klankbaan launched a new single, ‘Player Two’ that features Adventure Man’s front man and Shortstraw’s piano player Gad de Combes. In 2015, Kabaal Klankbaan launched a second full-length album, Baptism.
The lyrics in his latest single, ‘Robot Girlfriend’, I am building a robot girlfriend/so she would never leave me, kind of reminded me of Yesterday’s Pupil song, ‘Too Tired to Disco’.
The song definitely left a smile on my face, as it is instrumentally strong and tells a good story. Kabaal Klankbaan has the ability to stay fresh and interesting and keep the crowd engaged throughout his live sets. If you have not seen or heard of Kabaal Klankbaan, I urge you to take the time to listen to his latest track and then decide for yourself.
