My first experience of Diamond Thug was when I booked them for a gig at Cool Runnings in Durban along with Thor Rixon as part of their first nationwide tour about 4 or 5 years ago now. If you’ve been to Cool Runnings, you wouldn’t expect the 2 acts to sell out the place, but we had a packed room and the audience took in sounds which were unfamiliar to Durban at the time, with open hearts. They were new to the game, but they were professional, ambitious and put on a moving performance to an unfamiliar audience. I knew then that I’d be watching them on big festival stages down the road.
A few years later, that became a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy when I booked them for an ambitious music festival called Outland that weirdly enough led to me writing for this site. At that time, I saw a band on the verge of breaking out. The years of touring together were paying off. They were captivating and had the crowd hanging on every note. I found myself floating in a beautiful sea of sound under the stars in the Midlands, with waves of intricate melodies and enchanting vocals crashing over me. It was as clear then as it was the first time I saw them, this was a band who was destined for big things.
Those ‘big things’ have been happening. They’ve recorded in New York thanks to Converse and played at SXSW which is quite the feather in a musician’s cap. They’ve toured Europe and are looking to go back. And even local festivals and promoters are starting to give them premier slots and are being rewarded for it, if the glowing reports of their performance at Lush this year are anything to go by.
It’s on the back of all of this, the years of putting in the hard work on the ground, that Diamond Thug have released their debut album ‘Apastron’. And, well, it’s pretty much a masterpiece. I mean, it’s just an incredibly beautiful album where nothing sounds out of place. Every note, every chord, every beat sounds like it’s meant to be there. Diamond Thug weave elements of pop, electronica, psych and even elements of country with the fullness of sound that reminds me of stadium rock. It’s intricate and deliberate in its execution but provides an easy listening experience on the surface. If you want to dig deeper, there are many layers to peel away on ‘Apastron’.
There’s no doubt in mind now that Diamond Thug are going to be huge. I mean, now that I know that they’ve already racked up over 2 million plays on Spotify, but still. The saying goes that it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. With ‘Apastron’, Diamond Thug might just knock a few years off the adage.
