South African rocker and Rolling Stone SA writer/photographer Willim Welsyn recently translated his name to William Welfare for his debut English album after having released five critically acclaimed Afrikaans albums in the past.‘Shunt’ is a spaced-out garage rock album layered with intimate small town secrets, surreal social-snapshots and dark existential romance that captures his immediate urge to make his first record in English before he turns 30. Album opener “4 Cups of Dust” is a tumbling, tom ‘n’ riff roll confession about social claustrophobia - frosted with clean breaks, tremolo-spirals and dirty acoustic guitars. Space rock opera “Elephant Man” draws upon the primitive riff-rage of the 70s, “Fat People” addresses the obesity of our current consumerist culture while “Oh No” mourns our mortality. The album was written and recorded in seven days in Welfare’s small hometown of Ladismith with his’s longtime friend and producer, Jo Ellis, behind the desk. “I snatched [drummer] Kyle Gray from his day job for two days, wrote the riffs and arrangements on the spot and tracked the guitars and drums live in one day. No click track, no bull.”