African Music News: Bittereinders Jaco Van Der Merwe releases podcast that details the trios final festival show (2024)

As a diehard soutie there are two Afrikaans bands that captured my linguistic heart and mind. The first one was Fokofpolisiekar (Hunter is a lyrical genius, we know this) and the second was electro-rap trio Bittereinder, so when the trio announced in April that they would be calling it a day fourteen years later, the pang was real, although not necessarily that unexpected.

In a brilliantly-worded retirement post, that I can only assume was penned by wordsmith Jaco van der Merwe, the trio explain why now is the time to call it. He’s one of my favourite South Africa creatives, I’ve always paid close attention to all of his projects and creative endeavours, so when he Whatsapped me to let me know that he’d released the fifth episode of his podcast Emergence with Jaco van der Merwe, little did he know that I already had it on my “to stream” hit list because I’m a loyal follower.

He’s averaging two episodes a year for this podcast, so to say this episode has been a long time coming is a gross understatement.

Anyway, the podcast blurb goes like this: After 14 years of banging out conscious Afrikaans electro-rap, Bittereinder has hung up the gloves. I took my Zoom H1 recorder along to the final festival show of this band which has been such a foundational part of my life as an artist and thinker. I recorded my thoughts on the way to the show, and after the show, and you can also hear a hotel-room set-list-figuring-out-session, as well as some clips from the live show itself, recorded from within the audience.

Eyes peeled for that final Bittereinder show that’s happening “sometime before the end of 2023”.