Wat het van ons geword? — The Decline of Fokofpolisiekar

A few years back, this thought would never have crossed my mind. I rated the 5 piece from Belville as the best Afrikaans music act ever, as well as one of the best in the world. Musically they were brilliant, lyrically unrivaled.

Rewind to 2006, I had been a die hard fan of the band for two years and considered Swanesang to be a masterpiece. I couldn’t get enough of them at this stage, constantly shouting their lyrics at live performances or whenever else I listened to them. Lyrically they were extremely relevant; Voices for the massed youth of post-Apartheid South Africa. Hell, if the world was Afrikaans they would have been The Beatles.

The band went on hiatus in 2007 to focus on three different side projects, Van Coke Kartel (Inspiration for the title), aKing and Die Heuwels Fantasties. Whilst I enjoyed these side projects and believed each had great potential, none came close to the brilliance that was Fokofpolisiekar. In 2008, Polisiekar released the Antibiotika EP, four tracks that promised brilliance for a third studio album that would hopefully follow shortly.

Fast forward to 2013 and since the release of Antibiotika, despite many gigs in between, the band has only written two new songs. Dagdronk, released on the 2012 VanFokKingTasties compilation, and “Duime in die Hol”, an unreleased track performed at this year’s OppiKoppi festival. (Coincidentally, the bands 10 year anniversary performance).

Now, whilst still putting on an amazing live show, the lyrical genius seems to have disappeared from the band. Dagdronk does not sound anything like the type of thing these guys would write, when compared to ALL their previous work. Now while I don’t have a problem with bands experimenting with new sounds, it seems like Fokof have nothing left to say. The lyrics to Dagdronk might be amusing for drunk students, but it lacks any form of depth, any sort of the angsty brilliance that one has come to expect from Fokofpolisiekar.

The other currently untitled new song, (I will refer to it as “Duime in die Hol” — an actual line from the song) is simply pathetic and whilst it is fun to joke around about it, it’s a shame that myself and other Fokofpolisiekar fans find it so pathetic that we can only laugh about it. The lyrics in the chorus are devoid of any meaning, seeming more like something Die Antwoord would write than ink from the pen of Mr. Kennedy.

And then there is also the title to the new live DVD. I can understand the link to the title of the documentary about the band, but surely they could have decided on something better. The chosen title is in bad taste and indicative of the lack of creativity flowing from the band.

It is extremely sad that the band has fallen into decline like this. Musically the band still plays each instrument really well and Francois’ vocals have definitely improved as he has gotten older, but lyrically the two new songs are not worthy of the Fokofpolisiekar track list. Perhaps the focus has shifted entirely to their side projects and writing new material for Fokofpolisiekar is a rush job with no real thought process going into the lyrics or perhaps the members really have nothing left to say, no anger left to spit into our faces, no insecurities and self doubt left to proclaim.

All I know is, I don’t want them to release a third album if this is the standard to be expected. If that is to be the case, we would all need to “Forgive them for they suck k*k”