De Toegift keeps on giving
Two years ago, the band seemingly emerged out of nowhere: De Toegift. And wow. Their self-titled debut album received glowing reviews in national newspapers, and according to 3voor12, they played the best show at Noorderslag 2023. After that, the band from Zeeland took their melancholic music with poetic lyrics to pop venues and festivals all across the Netherlands and Belgium. After such an entrance, you might have expected them to simply continue on the same track with their work. But De Toegift is clearly (and happily) too headstrong for that.
On the most recent album Kleine auto, grote hotwheel, the band experiments with new instrumentation – from the violin to the transverse flute and electronics – and with language itself. In addition to Dutch songs, De Toegift 2.0 has also added a Greek number to their repertoire: Ýparxi, beautifully sung by flutist Carmela Michailidis. Moreover, the band continues to serve up lyrical gems: for example, lyrics about a neurotic quest for a duvet in a 1990s furniture magazine, or about what love can be when you completely surrender yourself to it.