I first stumbled upon Club Valley, in the best way you can find a new band: on a drunken night out at the beloved haunt of art school dropouts, EVOL. I was impressed by the two-piece’s raw energy that reminded me of bands like Harlem and Bass Drum of Death.

I was an immediate fan.

Club Valley is a Joburg-based band comprised of Nigel Sibanda (guitar and vocals) and Jason Williams (vocals and drums). They made a killer first impression on the Cape Town scene with a first tour where they played EVOL. So much so that they were booked to open for Alice Phoebe Lou in the beginning of 2023. This is no small feet, and nobody was more surprised than the band.

Since then Club Valley have released Life As You Know It, The Best of Luck And The Worst of Times EP. A beautiful collection of tracks that further built on the sound that got me hooked in the first place. It’s dreamy Post-Punk with a Joburg-twist – they fittingly describe their sound as Jozi Gaze.

I caught up with the band recently after a packed out First Thursday gig at Babbi. The band played some of their unreleased tracks. The band were selling merch and CDs out of the boot of their car. They loaded their gear into the car while scene kids milled around the graffiti’d parking lot. Cape Town has a reputation of being cliquey, but the duo say they’ve been welcomed in the city’s punk and psych scene.

They contribute the openness of the scene to the newness of the bands – many have been around for less than six years. One of those new bands is talk-of-the-town Internet Girl who they’ve recently played gigged with. We’re lucky to be able to see them in Cape Town. Indie music of this complexity is hard to comeby. It’s at the same time interesting sonically and intensely personal. The drowning reverbed guitar excentuating the feeling of alienation in the falsetto vocals in songs like “Untitled” and “Maboneng.”

Club Valley are for fans of Fontaines DC, Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus.
Club Valley’s bandcamp