Andra's music is bigger than the sand of the Namib Desert

'A Sound or Something More' alternate rock album review.

I want you to listen.

I’m sharing love for the music of a Namibian lass who often bases herself in Pretoria, South Africa. I communicated with her, briefly, maybe in 2008, when I struggled in the struggling music industry of Durban.

I'd just heard her coffee grind voice and wanted her on a compilation I was making. I don't recall what happened, but all that matters is that it never happened... and I began the dark journey away from music into political activism.

However, music remains my joy and escape. Like an Eighties movie nerd, making compilations for myself and friends is my biggest hobby. But with the pressure I've been under for years, I haven't loved enough.

A SOUND OR SOMETHING MORE

I wasn't meant to see anyone early in 2019. I'd left Durban, South Africa for Swakopmund, Namibia, a small desert town 360km east of the capital.

My goal was to whistleblow corruption through a book called, 'Same Shit, Different Government'. I meant to be anonymous and work hard. But my accommodation wi-fi wasn't working, so I spent the first month writing in coffee shops and restaurants, chewing words like chutney and fat.

I became a March regular at The Village Cafe, home of the best meat pie and gravy smiles. Above the counter, where I'd pay my bill, were Andra Cillier's three albums. I asked which was the best. Ananda Snyman, the manageress, said try the latest. I opted to buy the digital edition on Bandcamp.

In Swakopmund, caught between the seemingly endless desert and seemingly endless Atlantic ocean; between sand and water, between seasons, and between my isolation and extinction, I became acute to small pleasures.

But it wouldn't be fair to call Andra small. Early one morning, in the fog before the sun, her music made me fly.... and I unexpectedly wrote this. She calls the album 'A Sound or Something More'. I'm telling you that it's more...

Listen to the full ‘A Sound or Something More’ on Bandcamp. Love it. Buy it. Help rock music escape Africa.

The politicians blocked my book but I will always remember Namibia.