Original Evergreen have meshed their hip- hop sounds with a bit of jungle and a bit of jazz for their new album, writes Greg Bowes
The dopest hip-hop crew in the country are back – and this time they’ve recruited a few friends from further afield, culturally and musically, for an ambitious take on electro-African rap. Those brash boys from the Original Evergreen are meting out another slice of pungent plastic. And it’s a gem. Light it up.
Burn the Evidence (no prizes for guessing what the evidence is) on Sony is the Evergreen’s second excursion onto CD. The first, a celebration of sensimillia and summer called Puff the Magick caused quite a stink last year with all its references to the herb. Despite that, it still gets the occassional afternoon airing on 5FM.
They haven’t toned down their adoration of marijuana in the least for their latest (check Relegalize It), but have coupled it with some fierce and funny social observations. Musically they’re miles ahead, open-mindedly incorporating elements of jazz and jungle, then tilting the whole with a homegrown spin (and some homegrown something else too, I’m sure).
The eight tracks are the result of a one- day recording session. The mass of live material was pared down by ex-Kalahari Surfer and producer Warrick Sony, whose innovative use of studio tools and effects lend the project a captivating electronic sheen. Other contributors include Surfers collaborator Lesego Rampolokeng, whose austere tones grace Kidstuff (that’s the one that goes, quite sensibly, “Don’t be silly/ put that condom on your willy” and “you’ve gotta get protection/ for your erection”), and Urban Creeper Brendan Jury, who contributes keyboards and vocals. But it’s jazz man McCoy Mrubata’s saxophone that almost steals the show. And, according to bassist Sebastian Voigt, he just came into the studio, completely unprepared, and blew for a couple of hours.
“Other than McCoy, all of the musicians we worked with are twigged onto electronic music,” says Voigt, “and what the Evergreens are about is fusing this with live stuff.”
Indeed, on stage they make optimal use of staple electronic instruments like turntables and samplers. For a gig at the Abelarde Sanction a couple of months ago, their line-up was reduced to the trio of rapper Brendan le Roux, Voigt on bass guitar and Gaston Goliath, who ran drum patterns off his sampler. That same rhythm engine powers this ambitious extended play single -the duo indulging in some tight and highly acrobatic interchanges with Goliath’s kit augmented by some well-chosen rhythm samples. The rough jungle loops that plough into the stadium rap la Beastie Boys (Eighties incarnation) on the title track are a particularly blinding example.
Le Roux’s rap is a loose bunch of wacky wordplay, showy nonchalance, hilarious anecdotes and rhymes that I’m tempted to call socially conscious. Suggest this to him, though, and he’ll say it was all a mistake. “That would be just jumping on the bandwagon. We’re not into making statements. We’re into making funky tracks.” Socially unconscious, then. But who needs a message when you’ve got a good groove?
As with their previous EP, the band make use of promotional gimmicks. Last time round it was rolling-papers, this time it’s a tasty fortune cookie. The message reads, somewhat unsurprisingly, “Burn the Evidence”.
Overall, the stunningly packaged disc is a great example of the fruitful hybrids that can arise when players from different disciplines and backgrounds come together. The Evergreens are not going imitate their hip-hop counterparts in the United States and rap about guns’n’girls in their Ferraris, getting their egos off. The Evergreens’ preferred mode of transport is undoubtedly a taxi. Or a scooter. It’s “Hip-Hop African Jive” like the track Jazz Groove says.
So don’t come with your wannabe majut (bad stuff). This is the real shit. Can you deal?
The Original Evergreen perform at 206 on Friday November 28 and on December 3 and 16, as well as at Oppikoppi on December 30 and 31.