Real Farmer: Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right

Real Farmer – Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right

(Strap Originals)

DL available here

May 1 2026

A feisty record full of hooks and social anger and also one where Groningen’s Real Farmer stretch their sonic portfolio with some enticing changes in sound and approach.

Change, and decay in all around I see… Well, yes and no. The world – and Groningen’s Real Farmer – are certainly changing, but the notion of decay is not something that should be associated with the band. Their second long player, Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right, is an interesting and exhilarating record that stretches previously unseen muscles. The message that Real Farmer spits out on this record is a constant, and unified one and sympathetic to many of us: social and political anger, environmentalism, human rights. That’s as it always has been with a band who have the anarchist symbol in their logo. But this messaging sits alongside some intriguing transformations in sound and approach. What a few spins reveals is like a re-run of the trope used in films since time immemorial, where we see the substance in one test tube poured into another.

Real Farmer made their name by blasting their way around the Dutch provinces, channelling a sonic tradition of hard rocking garage music that cocks a snook at the fashionistas in the country’s western urban belt. And those wanting to hear the passionate racket Real Farmer have made their name with will have plenty to enjoy here; some of the cuts are fabulous, daredevil numbers that really deserve to be played, and enjoyed, loud. Opening cut Missing Link charges into the listener’s consciousness without a by-your-leave; the buzzing guitars suddenly drop in the first of what will be many stop-start changes of tone and tempo heard on this record. They build and explode at intervals: an addictive trick. Heart Out starts off as a classic high octane rock number that – thanks to Jeroen Klootsema’s ‘Blank Generation’ snarl – swings from the light fittings in terms of attitude. The clang and jangle of the guitar line sketched out by Peter van der Ploeg again drops away suddenly, only to return at speed, like someone who has realised they left their keys in the lock. Thrilling stuff.

The record has a lot of power – conjured up, in direct or oblique ways, by the rhythm section of drummer Leon Harms and bassist Marit Meinema. The pair deliver some striking and potent rhythms that add insight and hinterland to fidgety numbers like Sob Story and The Mass, or the wonderfully off-its-head number System, which, just like Kraftwerk I, ends with an explosion; the only way to stop it. Harm’s precision thumping on I.D.K.T.S. gives a great backdrop for Van der Ploeg and Klootsema’s fantasies to take shape. These changes of mood, with the chops and drops in texture – the reverb of the guitar literally winding the song down at the end – take place in front of what feels like an impenetrable iron wall set up by Harms.

Hopefully you will realise that there is a lot going on with Two Wrongs… And, stick in there, as the last two tracks are fantastic; the penultimate number, Run by Animals, is possibly the best number on the record. Bassist Marrit Meinema’s cool, slightly distant vocal line, has something of the late great Mary Hansen and guides a playful track that has a palpably melancholy side to it. Talking of Hansen, there is also something of that zenlike Stereolab-style groove at play, that the skips in the beat only accentuate. It’s a number that has real promise. Then we get Judas, which, at six minutes, is the record’s longest track, and obviously feels it has to fill those minutes… We get shades of what went previously with Run By Animals and a drop (why wouldn’t we), but this time shaded very pleasantly with some guitar harmonics. Hollers of “Judas” heralds a slow build towards a theatrical ending with synth and supporting chorus. It’s a surprise throughout. Like this album.

More about Real Farmer can be found here.
Strap Original’s site is here.
All words by Richard Foster. More writing by Richard can be found at his author’s archive.