Essay · Music & AI
The Algorithm Has No Ear for the Griot
How AI's Western DNA is failing African creators, and why we need to stop pretending it isn't.
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A blog that seeks out the frayed edges of society, and isn't afraid to colour outside the lines.
Album reviews · Interviews · Essays on freedom, the body, art and tolerance
Album reviewsAll 5 reviews →
Latest review · Orchestra Baobab
On 'Made in Senegal,' Orchestra Baobab Prove the Old Tree Is Still Growing
★★★★½
As good as 'Specialist in All Styles,' and in places better. The old tree is still growing.
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Pabllo Vittar
Lost in Lust
★★½
Twenty-nine minutes of slick, forgettable club pop. Over before your dinner arrives.
15 October 2026
Alabama Shakes
I Must Be Dreaming
★★★★
A gorgeous comeback with a sound makeover, and Shawn Everett's production is the star.
14 October 2026
Kodaline
We Were Only Young
★★★★½
The Dublin band's final album turns a familiar formula into a farewell that sounds like closure.
13 October 2026
The Beatles
Rubber Soul (2026 Mix)
★★★★½
Giles Martin's new mix finally sounds like the band that made it.
2 October 2026
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EssaysAll 4 essays →
Essay · Society · English & Dutch
Lane Four
On nudity, burkinis and a tolerance that only runs one way.
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Essay · Privacy
The Cloakroom Problem
On data breaches, worthless records and the companies that never pay for losing them.
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Essay · Poetry · English & Dutch
The Dike and the Flood
Miet Kerbusch left two poems that belong in world literature. A rereading of ‘De Dijk’ and ‘Voodo Child’.
Read the essay →ElsewherePartners
About Rafelrand
Rafelrand is Dutch for the frayed edge of a piece of cloth, the place where the neat hem gives way. That is where things happen: where society loses its tidy seam, where people live, think and write outside what is considered normal. Rafelrand seeks out those places: forgotten poets, the naked body, the questions we would rather not ask, and music from every corner of the world.
Not to shock, but to look. Honestly, at ourselves too.
Written by music journalist Jan Vranken, forty years of interviews from Jan Akkerman to Youssou N'Dour.
More about Jan →