Skanking at a fine clip, Set It Proper is righteously rudeboy whilst adding an Afro lick to the group’s inherently Ska-dancehall flavour, something which has forged favour with 1000’s of fans in Cape Town.
Consisting of nine diverse parts, the Rudimentals’ youngest member is 22, its oldest has been playing pro for 25 years and the band also consists of a former SA skateboarding champ, musician-philosophers and a fat horn section featuring UCT School of Music Masters.
Based on this diversity it is clear that the extroverted and talented individuals of The Rudimentals let it all hang tight – youth blends with experience into a fiery surge of sound associated with an uninhibited, universal appeal.
Ska is the fundamental predecessor of reggae with a trashy up-beat (made famous by Desmond Decker in the 50’s and re-discovered by the likes of Madness in the 80’s) and with its infectious beats has remained a resurgent music genre to this day.
The bizness of skank: Self-financed by the group, Set It Proper is produced by Rudimentals’ trombonist, dreadlocked Ross Macdonald (22) a music genius who has been on stage since age 12 and acquired his Masters in Music at UCT last year.
As such, Set It Proper is both raucously rudeboy as well as musically refined with airy, spacey dub sitting alongside radio-friendly Ska-pop, a flash of reggae and jive hybrid which, at the risk of labeling, has been fashioned into a form of Afro-ska.
The first music video from Set It Proper is Wear A Hat and is set for national television upon release of the album.
About playing Live: “We have a passion for playing live. It’s serious fun on stage as we have no idea what’s going to happen next. Every performance is completely different to the previous one in the way we tackle a set. We hate nothing except staleness”, says lead singer Teboes.