Uit die baard van die boland is gebore ’n ondier. Vier jong mans het besluit om liewer saam geraas te maak. Die resultaat was katastrofies. ’n Harige blinkoog monster het wankelend oor die strate begin loop en saggies skree. Benags het hy in skaduwees en die donker hoeke van feeste en Straatbyeenkomste geremoer. Die musiek was regte Afrikaans en dus eerlik rou. Dit was nie te sag nie, en nie te hard nie. Dit was die hartklop van ’n dier.

Alternative Afrikaans band from Cape Town, South Africa.

Hillsong Worship exists to serve the global Church and equip believers everywhere with songs of Holy Spirit power that exalt and glorify the Name of Jesus, build the Church and fuel revival on the earth. With songs such as “What a Beautiful Name,” “Cornerstone,” “Mighty To Save,” “This I Believe (The Creed)” and “Who You Say I Am,” Hillsong Worships catalogue is sung by an estimated 50 million people worldwide each week. Featuring worship leaders and songwriters such as Brooke Ligertwood, Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan, Joel Houston, Taya Gaukrodger, Aodhan King, David Ware and more, Hillsong Worship is committed to continuing its legacy of writing and leading songs that - by God’s grace - impact both individual devotion and congregational worship for the glory of God.

To understand what makes Rend Collective so unique and special among worship artists, you have to go back—way back. Some 1500 years ago, the Irish missionary St. Brendan sailed from the Irish coast without maps or any clue where he was headed. “The only thing he knew was that God had called him,” says bandleader and drummer Gareth Gilkeson. And so Brendan chose to “go”: a bold act of faith that not only echoes the album title As Family We Go, but also speaks volumes about the songs.

It also tells you a lot about Rend Collective, a Northern Irish band that has ventured from its native land at the beckoning of an invisible hand. And they’re doing it differently than most other artists before them, living and working—singing and sharing the laundry duties—as a tight-knit family. It’s just the foundation to foster faith and community through music, and forms the heart and strength behind their latest effort.

And my, how this musical family has grown. This young, freewheeling band has seen so much recent success: from opening for the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Kari Jobe, to landing Christian radio hits such as the revival hymn, “Build Your Kingdom Here.”

The next logical step, then, was to hunker down in their private studio and work at a brisk, breathtaking pace—cutting the eleven tracks on As Family We Go in two weeks. As Gilkeson puts it: “There wasn’t much time for sleep—just going for it.”

In this case, sleep deprivation yielded divine inspiration. Then again, how many bands brave a family pilgrimage the way Rend Collective does? Or proudly present themselves as examples of a self-styled genre, “celebration music”?

Though that describes the sound on the new disc—a joyful mélange of foot-stomping acoustic grooves and full-on pop pockets worthy of U2—it only hints at the spiritual thread that pulls everything together.

“We want to make music that is journey music,” says singer Chris Llewellyn. “We notice that sometimes music is seen as the end goal, that a worship encounter is having a music experience. But that’s not really it; it should be the soundtrack to mission: community living, the soundtrack to a meaningful worship experience.”

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