On 14 February Amsterdam band Dorpsstraat 3 will release their long-awaited debut album Staal op Staal via Geertruida. Dorpsstraat 3 started in 2021 out of the urge to make music in a different way than they did before. The band consisting of Merlijn Breedland (vocals, synth, bass guitar, guitar, saz, cello, banjo), Marco van Outerstersterp (piano, synth, vocals), Stijn van de Ridder (guitar, melodica), Finn Meulenbeld (bass guitar, vocals) and Juen Schütt (percussion), had previously played in (punk) bands and wanted to change course. After the EPs Bijgeloof in De Lage Landen and Op On On Unbevaren Wateren, the band takes the familiar elements on Staal op Staal and broadens the boundaries of these. The base of gritty drum computers with synths drowned in reverb and distorted vocals still characterises the sound of Dorpsstraat 3.
Lyrically, Staal on Staal takes a step away from the divine and the gritty and seeks its origins closer to everyday people. Although the setting of Staal op Staal is fictional, many loose elements were plucked from real life and placed in the setting of the album to see how they would interact. All the characters populating the world of Staal op Staal live in a run-down factory village that has been living behind its heyday for a few decades. In this fictional village you will find introverts who experience the world only from the comfort of their own homes (Door het Raam), the artist on the verge of madness find themselves (Dans met Ons), and one of those remaining who does still make a living in the industry (Staal op Staal). Over the 40 minutes the album takes, they deliver their most focused work textually while compositionally taking the space to expand their horizons.
Watch the single Die Wonen Niet Hier below.