Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: David Usma & The Siderens, Joe Yorke & Stand High Patrol!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

The incredible new single Malé Vol​.​1: Oscuridad (7" vinyl picture sleeve single/digital, Canana Records, 2021; found in the US via Jump Up Records) from Colombia's David Usma & The Siderens is part of a trilogy of releases exploring Usma's process of "healing his wounds" through music (Malé is a woman's name, so draw your own conclusions as to what this is all about). He's accomplished this by composing and recording three sets of songs that essentially go through a compressed version of the stages of grief: Darkness, Catharsis, and Rebirth. The first stage Malé Vol​.​1: Oscuridad (Darkness) features two killer skinhead reggae instrumentals: "Hell Moon" sports an otherworldly ice rink organ carrying a melody that's both beautiful and slightly unsettling, while the sprightly "Darkness" has dubby sections and majestic bursts of brass. I'm sorry for Usma's suffering, but he's making some great music while he's in the process of working it all out.

Joe Yorke & Stand High Patrol's magnificent and haunting new single "Quicksand" b/w "Quicksand Dub" (7" vinyl single/digital, Stand High Records, 2021) is about hidden, lonely suffering and bravely trying to bottle up all the feelings instead of embracing and releasing them (and reminds me of the awful time I had adjusting to boarding school life as a desperately homesick 11 year-old). With an understated but effective rocksteady riddim written by Stand High Patrol's Pupajim (the dub is by SHP's MacGyver) and lyrics by Yorke's frequent collaborator/producer Eeyun Purkins (of The Co-operators--read my review of their latest album Beating the Doldrums here), Yorke's incredible falsetto is brimming with empathy as he sings:

Hey brother, I hope you're doing fine
I know you've been having such a rough old time
When the door is closed and the monsters creep in
You're in the quicksand, feels like you're sinking

Back at school they taught you “boys don’t cry”
The tide is up inside, but no tears fall from your eyes
Brother you know that being big and tough
Means letting the tears flow when times get rough
Rough and tough

It's good advice for everyone to heed (delivered within a terrific song). Highly recommended.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: The Cascadians and Crazy Baldhead featuring Maddie Ruthless!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

The Cascadians' super Windows Down (Digital, self-released, 2020) came out at the end of last year and was lost in my holiday craziness, so forgive this tardy write-up. The Cascadians have a striking and compelling sound going in Meg Nye's powerful, emotive soul singing that floats over the band's sharp '60s-style ska and rocksteady. The sultry lead and standout track "Windows Down" is about someone so knock-out gorgeous and magnetic that you'd be happy to sell your soul (and your grandma's, too) just to be in their presence: "I got the windows down/I'm driving my girl around town/I got the windows down/She said that she'd long to go dancing by now/How could I turn her down?/Oh, that girl is so cool...No one's even watching the band/They're under her spell, watching her dance...I got the windows down/I'm driving my girl back home right now...Her eyes say everything without making a sound/How can I turn her down?" It'll resonate deeply if you've ever had the good/bad luck to be in the singer's shoes. Ever get annoyed by how people talk over and ignore bands while they're playing? "Rudy Come Lately" is a somewhat subtle but increasingly pointed and frustrated jab--complete with all of crowd noise competing with the sounds coming from The Cascadians--at the people there solely for the scene ('cause it's cool, right?) and not the music and bands ("Rudy come lately/Rudy smoking a bud...But Rudy never come home...")--and "Old School" is a boss, dubby instrumental. Things then shift gears for a terrific, jazzy cover of Smokey Robinson's "Quiet Storm," and "Discover Me," a catchy AM-pop-soul-ska tune that's a "Tears of a Clown" plea for someone to see and love the person beneath the persona. And there are three great dubs--a more reggae take on "Quiet Storm," a mega-deconstructed "Old School," and the stellar "Two Face Dub," which I don't think is a version of anything on this album (and has these snippets of vocals: "Rude boy smashing up the town...My freedom is almost gone...No, I don't wanna go...I want another beer"). Highly recommended.

I'm slowly going broke keeping up with all of the extraordinarily good singles--thick as dinner plates--that are being issued these days from Happy People Records. (To be fair, the cost of the singles isn't this issue, it's the overseas shipping that's killing me.) The latest 45 to grace my mailbox and turntable features two killer productions from Crazy Baldhead (full disclosure: I actually pre-ordered a copy directly from Agent Jay and only paid domestic shipping!). The moody but deadly cool and defiant "Take a Lick" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2021) features The Far East's Maddie Ruthless fiercely challenging the wicked who are tormenting her brother and sister and other good people to "take a lick [hit]...but we come down for more/More than you bargained for..." Her siren song-like vocals unwind over Crazy Baldhead's loping, King Kong-earth-shaking riddim that's bound to knock some plaster loose from your walls and ceiling if you play this loud. Its version "Take a Dub" is even heavier and ready-made for aspiring deejays' use. (Also, make sure to check out my review of The Far East's awesome Lover's rock EP New York is for Lovers; and my write ups of other Happy People Records singles from Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16, Joe Yorke and The Eastonian Singers, Perkie and The Co-Operators, Roger Rivas, Pama International, The Caroloregians, The Dreamlets, Carroll Thompson, Flying Vipers, Kitma, and more TK, as my pre-orders are fulfilled!)

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Duff Review: The Co-operators & Friends: "Beating the Doldrums"

Waggle Dance Records
Digital, 2020
LP, 2021

(Review by Steve Shafer)

As I sit here typing out my review of The Co-operators & Friends Beating the Doldrums, I worry that I won't do this phenomenal and beautifully crafted album justice. Not only have ace musician/producer Eeyun Purkins and his crew of exceptional collaborating singers and players created a collection of stellar ska and roots reggae songs, they've managed to adroitly articulate all of the injustice, absurdity, violence, oppression, suffering, and dread that many people experience while simply trying to get by in this day and age. The Co-operators & Friends' Beating the Doldrums delivers relatable glimpses into everyday lives that are sharply and unfussily portrayed--and, at times, are almost poetic in their imagery. And the music is highly melodic, always memorable, and absolutely magnificent. 

A common thread in many of these songs is the challenge of trying to survive in the big city. The majestic reggae track "Gentrification" is both celebration of the vibrant multicultural communities that thrive in less-wealthy urban neighborhoods (expressed through the fantastic diversity of food, like Joe Stummer's "Bhindi Bhagee") and staunch defense against greedy real estate developers intent on destroying it all just to line their pockets. (It's so catchy that I woke up this morning with this track running though my head.)

Down on the city’s street
I can hear the distant beat
Of the soundsystem
Rocking the bass and drum

Cramped from the tower blocks
Down to the squats and shops
Buy Ackee caliloo
Bhaji, Dahl and samosa, too

Rich in culture and community
Next door neighbours like family
And I loved it that way
Before the money men came to play

Gentrification (Invasion, invasion)
Gentrification (Invasion invasion)

You talk with scorn uptown
About how things are going down
You talk about our streets in fear
Dangerous 'cos you're not welcome here

You come to take life blood
From the place you call the hood
You're sending in the law
Looking for papers, drugs and more

Joe Yorke's transcendent falsetto on this tracks and others is something to behold and, as I've previously noted in another review, similar in calibre to The Congos and Junior Murvin. 

The urgent ska cut "Sleepwalkers" conveys how urban life can be bleak and soul-crushing (and suggests that escaping to the country may be the only salvation); Kitma delicately sings, "Even when the sun shines, it's raining/So we stay here in the cage, and fire, dazing/And the smoke clouds up my face/I'll sleepwalk back to bed/And dream about the right way/I've got to out of this place." In the mournful "Agony," Lintang sings about how she is left despondent and almost paralyzed by how our system of living has failed so many people in myriad ways: "Agony, agony got me front, left, and sideways...everything seems broken." "Concrete, Steel and Stone" (released as a single on Happy People Records--read my review of it) features Perkie's gorgeous vocals (delivered quite gently, as she's bearing bad tidings that we know in our hearts are true), which float over a brisk ska beat and express profound sorrow and regret that we live the way we do--out of synch with nature and the world around us, in a prison of our own making (that may be turning into a tomb): "Cars cross fibres, thread veins, sew layers, vessels of busy brains/We don't always notice our chains/So, we don't make change/We stick to the root we feel most comfortable in/But is this your skin?" Lives are off-kilter or becoming increasingly untenable.

But not all is unbearable. 

The bright Spanish-language "Florecer" (to thrive or flourish) sung by Elio AM sounds like something that could have come off The Clash's Sandinista (which I've been listening to a lot, since it was just the 40th anniversary of its release), and the sprightly ska of "Pocket Change" (are you down on your luck and asking for some or is it all you have to get by on?) features some great guitar and keyboard solos. And there's the righteous reggae cut "The Thief & The Liar," about a reckoning for corrupt politicians, who ignore their responsibility to serving the public good at their own peril. Perkie's delivery is fantastically laid-back and confident--world-weary, but determined to set things right.

We could spend our time waiting for them to save us
It's like wasting your days waiting for the bus
The first one doesn't come, and the second one's too late
So, it's best to walk your own way and seal your own fate...

...Bring another log for the fire
And throw on the Thief and the Liar

Can you feel the flames burning?
Bet you wish you weren't a politician
You call us criminals, but you're the crooks that throw the book for all the liberties that you took
You dig your own grave, hard and dogged Thief
The wolves are hungry, looking for something to eat
And they're coming for you, live or dead
It's all on your own head, you made your own bed...

Joe Yorke sings about the casual violence encountered on nighttime transport after the pubs close down is given--in a gently parodic fashion--Homeric epic poem status in the delightful "War on the Nightbus" (shades of "War ina Babylon"):

It was night then and the moon was low
Im was on the night bus moving so slow
Packed in like sardines, tight we were tight
Somebody tell me please did the city sleep that night?

Down in St Paul’s they were dancing til the morning
But on the top deck they started warring
They a shout and they push and push come to shove
Down the stairs he fell, crashing down from above

War, war, war on the night bus
Ism and schism, they fight and they fuss

He was loud and his mouth ran so fast
He stayed on the bus and I saw it sprint past
But he didn’t stay long, the eviction came firm
After he tumbled down the stairs he landed on the curb
I saw a look of shock glimmer in his eyes
As the fists and the kicks silenced his cries
He had it coming I have to say
But I just can’t take the conflict these days

It's brilliant.

For all the longing to flee the concrete jungle, life in the country is not necessarily idyllic. In the gorgeous "High on the Mountain," Beanie sings about someone who couldn't make the escape with her--the loss she feels even in such an awe-inspiring place: "Oh, I wonder if you ever think of me/Or if time's blown your memory/As I listen to the breeze blow gently through the trees..." In the beautiful, dream-like track "Turnpike Town" with vocals by Joe Yorke, this hidden, semi-mythical spot in the countryside may not be the hoped for Zion: "You might get chased by a pack of dogs/Or you might just be fine, who knows?...You could say that it's a refuge from Babylon's cruel embrace/But we all know liberty lives in a long forgotten place." Perhaps it's best to seek a balance between city and country life?

There are no answers offered in Beating the Doldrums. Yet the emotions and many of the experiences expressed in these songs are shared by everyone--and The Co-operators & Friends' music that expresses all of these hopes, fears, and blues, is in a language that unites us, can be a companion that sustains us in our darkest hours, and has the potential to save us from ourselves. 

The Co-operators & Friends Beating the Doldrums is, hands down, one of the best records I've heard in recent memory.

Duff Guide to Ska: Year of Reviews 2020

(Apologies to John "Teflon" Sims)

Despite the fact that 2020 has been a truly awful year for humanity, one small silver lining is that it turned out to be a pretty great year for recorded ska music. As proof, I offer the links below to all of the fantastic singles, EPs, albums, books, and films I managed to review over the past year (and I still have a good number of releases still to write up, and will be adding them here over the next few weeks as they become available). Thanks to everyone who's followed The Duff Guide to Ska over the past year, and picked up a copy of my book The Duff Guide to 2 Tone (I'm working on a new Duff Guide tome in 2021). I wish everyone Happy Holidays and hope we all have a better year in 2021. Stay safe out there. -- Steve Shafer 

Los Aggrios: "Alcohol" b/w "Manten La Fe" (7" vinyl single/digital, Steady Beat Recordings, 2020)

Laurel Aitken: En Español (LP reissue, Liquidator Music, 2019)

The Archives: Carry Me Home: A Reggae Tribute to Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson (2xLP/CD, Montserrat House, 2020)

The Attractors: Love Bombs (LP/CD/cassette, Jump Up Records, 2020)

The Bakesys: "Rainy Day Dub" (Digital single, Do the Dog Music, 2020)

The Bakesys: "Rich Boy Rude Boy" (Digital single, Do the Dog Music, 2020)

Erin Bardwell: Interval (CD/digital, Pop-A-Top Records, 2020)

The Bartenders: "Tańcz I Klaszcz" b/w "Cebron" (7" vinyl single, Bad Look Records, 2020)

The Big Sound: "Have Mercy" b/w "Jerk Chicken Dub" (7" vinyl single, Smack It Flat, 2020)

The Bionic Rats: Alive in Dublin (Digital, self-released, 2020)

The Blackstones and The Officinalis: "Change of Plan" b/w The Officinalis "Santantonio Special" (7" vinyl single/digital, Aloe Vera Records, 2020)

Eric Blowtorch and the Bodyguards: "Mercy" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

Eric Blowtorch and the Bodyguards: "Take You Away" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

Dennis Bovell Dub Band: "Get Up Stand Up" (featuring I-Roy) b/w "Stand Tall" and "Versatile Violin" (featuring Johnny T) b/w "Dangerous" (Digital singles, Old School, 2020)

Brixton Sounds: "Sonidos de Brixton" b/w "Me Perdi" (7" vinyl single/digital, Steady Beat Recordings, 2020)

Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" b/w "Version" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

The Caroloregians: "From the Congo Square" b/w "You Got to Be a Man" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

Rhoda Dakar and The Dub Pistols: "Stand Together" (7" vinyl single/digital, Sunday Best Recordings, 2020)

The Dendrites: Lunchin' with The Dendrites (CD EP/digital, self-released, 2020)

Detroit Riddim Crew: "Fight for Your Rights" b/w "Fallen Down" (7" vinyl single/digital, Abbey Productions, 2020)

Detroit Riddim Crew/The Skapones: "Do Something" b/w "The Girl Inside" (7" vinyl single/digital, 2020)

Detroit Riddim Crew and Friends: Detroit Riddim Crew and Friends (LP/digital, Abbey Productions/Jump Up Records, 2019)

Dr. Ring Ding: The Remedy (LP, Jump Up Records, 2020)

The Dreamlets: "Sunny" b/w "My Heart is Crying" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

The Equators: "Nice to Be Nice" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

The Far East: New York Is For Lovers (12" vinyl EP/digital, Names You Can Trust, 2020)

Flying Vipers: Cuttings (LP/cassette/digital, Music A.D.D./Jump Up Records, 2020)

Flying Vipers: Dub Fader Cuts (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

Flying Vipers: "Nervous Breakdub (Pandemic Version)" b/w "PMA Calling" (Digital single , Music A.D.D., 2020)

Flying Vipers: "Two Twenties Clash" (Digital single, Music ADD Records, 2020)

The Georgetown Orbits: "The Ska-Jazz Single" (Digital single, self-released 2020) 

Girls Go Ska: "Quédate" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

The Go-Go's: The Go-Go's (Documentary film, Polygram Entertainment, 2020)

Vin Gordon: Way Over Yonder (LP reissue, Studio 16, 2020)

Green Torrejas: "Green Torrejas" b/w "The Prisoners" (7" vinyl single, Canana Records, 2020)

Jah Jazz Orchestra: Introducing Jah Jazz Orchestra (LP/CD/digital, Brixton Records, 2020)

The Juks: Way Back (LP/digital, J-Beat Records, 2020)

King Kong 4: Punch It! (LP, Jump Up Records, 2020)

The Lions: "The Loser" (7" vinyl single/digital, Names You Can Trust, 2020)

Madness: Before We Was We: Madness by Madness (book, Virgin Books, 2019)

The Man on the Bridge: Million Miles Away (CD/digital, Pop-A-Top Records, 2020)

Mato: "Also sprach Zarathustra" b/w "Maiden Voyage" (7" vinyl single, Stix Records, 2020)

Me, Mom, and Morgentaler: "Racist Friend" b/w "Racist Friend 2020 Dubmatix Dub" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

Mento Buru: East Bakersfield Christmas (Digital EP, self-released, 2020)

The New Normal Collaboration: Quarantined on Easy Street (LP/digital, self-released, 2020)

Night Owls: "Gossip" b/w "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get" (7" vinyl single, F-Spot Records, 2020)

No Sports: Stay Rude, Stay Rebel (7" vinyl EP reissue, Black Butcher Classics/Mad Butcher Records, 2020)

Pama International: "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)" b/w "Feel Like Jumping" (7" heavyweight vinyl, Happy People Records, 2020)

Park Rangers: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" b/w "Summer Madness" (7" vinyl single, Parktone Records, 2020) 

Perkie and The Co-operators: "Concrete, Steel and Stone" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

Lee Perry: Black Ark Days: Play On Mr. Music (CD/LP, Rock A Shacka, 2020)

The Players Band: SKAMÖRGÅSBORD (CD/LP/digital, self-released, 2020)

Prince Buster: Africa - Islam - Revolution (CD, Earth Sound Records, 2019)

Prince Buster: Roll On Charles Street (CD/2xLP, Rocka Shaka, 2020)

Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin: "Black Rabbit" b/w "Black Rabbit Dub" (7" vinyl single/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2020)

Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin: Disco Deception (7" vinyl EP/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2020)

Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin: "Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)" (Digital single, Evergreen Recordings, 2020)

Prince Fatty featuring Shniece Mcmenamin and Horseman: "The Model" b/w "The Model Dub" (7" vinyl single/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2020)

The Prizefighters: "The Prizefighter Beat" b/w "A Fistful of Credits" (Digital, self-released, 2020)

Pyrotechnist: Fire Crackers (LP, Badasonic Records, 2020)

Danny Rebel and the KGB: For Babylon's Head (Digital EP, self-released, and lathe cut single, Revolution Vintage; both 2020)

The Red Stripes: The Live Sessions (Digital, Mod Sounds Records, 2020)

The Red Stripes: Made in Hong Kong (CD/LP/digital, Mod Sound Records, 2020)

Victor Rice: Drink (LP, Easy Star Records, 2020)

Roger Rivas: "Heavier Rock" b/w "Cold Damage" (7" vinyl single, Happy People Records, 2020)

Rocker T with Maddie Ruthless/Banda Rebel: "Fiyah Pan Racism" b/w "You've Got to Learn" (7" vinyl single/digital, Channel Tubes, 2020)

Max Romeo: Revelation Time (CD/LP reissue, VP Records/17 North Parade, 2020)

Rudebeard: "20-20" (Digital single, F&J Records, 2020)

Rudebeard: As You Walk Away (Digital EP, F&J Records, 2020)

Rudebeard: Disgrace (Digital EP, F&J Records, 2020)

Rude Boy George: Lies and Alibis (Digital, self-released, 2020)

Sir Jay & the Skatanauts featuring Lorraine: "Joy to the World" (Digital single, Tip-A-Top Records, 2020)

The Ska Contenders: "What Does It Take" b/w "Siempre Conmigo" (7" vinyl single, Canana Records, 2020)

Ska Jazz Messengers: Introspección (LP/digital, Liquidator Music, 2020)

The Skapones: "Rude Boy Rude Girl" b/w "Skapones A Go Go (Live)" (7" vinyl single/CD single/digital, Cosa Nostra Records, 2020)

Smiley and The Underclass: The Way to the Bomb (Vinyl EP/digital, Timeless Records, 2020)

Some Ska Band: "American Dublines" b/w "Forty Dubs" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

The Soul Sauce meets Kim Yulhee: "(Who Knows) Swallow Knows" b/w "Swallow Dub" (Digital single, Eastern Standard Sounds, 2020)

The Specials: "Gangsters ('Clangsters' Dub)" b/w "Too Much Too Young (Piano Instrumental)" and "Why (Dub)" (10" vinyl EP, 2 Tone/Chrysalis Records, 2020)

Steady Social Club: Take One (LP/digital, self-released, 2020)

Stop the Presses: "Dub the Presses" b/w "Hugo Dub" (Digital, self-released and lathe cut single, Revolution Vintage; both 2020)

Carroll Thompson: "Feel the Magic" b/w "Feel the Magic Instrumental" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra: Skapara's Intro (LP reissue, Great Tracks/Sony Music Direct, 2019)

Top Shotta Band featuring Screechy Dan: Spread Love (LP, Liquidator Music, 2020)

The Upsetters featuring Vin Gordon: Musical Bones (LP reissue, Studio 16, 2020)

The Uptones: Get Out of My Way (CD, Liberation Hall Records, 2020)

Various Artists: 007 Licensed to Ska: James Bond and Other Film Soundtracks and TV Themes (5x7" vinyl single box set, Soul Jazz Records, 2020)

Various Artists: 2 Tone: The Albums (8xCD box set, 2 Tone/Chrysalis Records, 2020)

Various Artists: 415 Records: Still Disturbing the Peace (CD, Liberation Hall Records, 2020)

Various Artists: Blue Beat Is Back in Town: The Sixty Year Celebration Album (LP, Blue Beat Records, 2020)

Various Artists: Mashin' Up the Nation (LP, Razorbeat Records/Harvard Square Records, 1989)

Various Artists: Scorcha! Skins, Suedes and Styles from the Street, 1967-1973 (10x7" singles, Trojan Records/BMG, 2020)

Various Artists: Ska Against Racism (2xLP/digital, Bad Time Records, 2020)

Various Artists: This Is Jamaica Ska (LP/CD reissue, Rock A Shacka/Studio One, 2020)

Western Standard Time Orchestra: "Bedouin Ska" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

Western Standard Time Orchestra: "Tunnel Vision" (Digital single, self-released, 2020)

Joe Yorke and The Eastonian Singers/Eeyun Perkins: "Judgement Tree" b/w "Drayman's Special" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020)

Kim Yul-hee and The Soul Sauce: "(Who Knows) Swallow Knows" b/w "Swallow Dub" (Digital single, Eastern Standard Sounds, 2020)

Zen Baseballbat: You Won't Get Paid (CD EP/digital, self-released, 2020); "Place Like This" (digital single, self-released, 2020)

Duff Guide to Ska Bullet Points: The Big Sound "Have Mercy" b/w "Jerk Chicken Dub" and Roger Rivas "Heavier Rock" b/w "Cold Damage"

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

• The Big Sound was a terrific rocksteady and reggae band out of LA and San Diego that formed in 2002--a particularly rough period for ska (and its related styles), when the genre wasn't exactly dead in the US, but had gone way back underground after the music industry had wrung what it could out of the ska scene in the late '90s (the band was popular on the West Coast, but I don't remember hearing about them on the other side of the continent back then). The Big Sound released their debut album Stand So Tall in 2004, and had intended to issue a follow-up in 2005, which was recorded but never put out, since the band called it a day in 2006. Flash forward almost 15 years and members of The Big Sound have finally decided to release two fantastic tracks from their unreleased sophomore album, "Have Mercy" b/w "Jerk Chicken Dub" (7" blue vinyl picture sleeve single, Smack It Flat, 2020). "Have Mercy" is a wonderfully bright and infectious rocksteady cut with lovely harmonizing (Hepcat fans will love it, and on a related and more somber note, the single is dedicated to the late Hepcat bassist David Fuentes, a friend of the band who died in 2007): "Run, come in the sun, sit with I/No more fighting and no more fuss/Come sit down with I, it's just us/We'd not argue any more/Come sit down with me, near the shore" (check out its cool music video--with Super 8 footage from 2005!). "Jerk Chicken Dub" is a great, breezy reggae instrumental mixed by Victor Rice, and featuring Boogie Jones' jazzy sax playing. Word is that this limited edition single is meant to whet fans' appetites in advance of the release of The Big Sound's second album. Here's hoping that comes to pass (and that the band does some reunion shows whenever that's possible again).

• Many a ska and reggae fan is going to go broke trying to keep up with the ongoing series of extraordinary vinyl singles that Happy People Records has been issuing this year (see my recent reviews of sides from Joe Yorke & The Estonian Singers, Dreamlets, Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16, Perkie & The Co-operators, and Pama International). One of the latest is from organist Roger Rivas (The Aggrolites, Night Owls, and The Bullets) featuring two incredible cuts (both from his 2014 debut album for Jump Up Records, Autumn Breeze): "Heavier Rock" b/w "Cold Damage" (7" vinyl single, Happy People Records, 2020). Rivas channels the funky early reggae of Jackie Mittoo in the devastatingly good "Heavier Rock," while the rootsier and dreader "Cold Damage," with its Far East-sounding melodica lines, is an amazing homage to Augustus Pablo. Happy People just announced the pre-order of yet another Roger Rivas single--this one sporting two rocksteady tracks from his sophomore album Last Goodbye. So, be prepared to keep on breaking into your dwindling piggy bank to keep sating your ska/rocksteady/reggae obsession...

Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Perkie and The Co-operators "Concrete, Steel and Stone"

Happy People Records
Black or grey vinyl single/digital
2020

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Perkie and The Co-operators' phenomenal trad ska single "Concrete, Steel, and Stone" is being released as a preview of their forthcoming second album Beating the Doldrums, which is due for release in early 2021 on producer/musician Eeyun Purkins' Waggle Dance Records. 

According to the band, the record this cut comes from is, "a concept album of sorts discussing the turmoil and struggles of life under the current system and the journey to escape its confinements." In this regard, "Concrete, Steel, and Stone" seems to be a great choice of a single, as it sharply illustrates The Co-operators' thesis. 

"Concrete, Steel, and Stone" is a song of great beauty and sadness; an earworm that you'll welcome taking up residence in your brain. Perkie's gorgeous vocals (delivered quite gently, as she's bearing bad tidings that we know in our hearts are true) float over a brisk ska beat and express profound sorrow and regret that we live the way we do--out of synch with nature and the world around us, in a prison of our own making (that may be turning into a tomb).

The song's lyrics are worth quoting in full, as one may not be able to make out the verses--and they're worth noting:

"Cars cross fibres, thread veins, sew layers, vessels of busy brains
We don't always notice our chains
So, we don't make change
We stick to the root we feel most comfortable in
But is this your skin?

They built a body out of concrete, steel, and stone
And then they called it our home
They built a body out of concrete, steel, and stone
But now I wanna go home

Noise and lights
Make noise and fight
Who chooses who's worthy or scorned?
Who chooses to be born
Into a life of mourning?
Who's willing to climb the hill to see the morning sun rise
Open your eyes

They built a body out of concrete, steel, and stone
And then they called it our home
They built a body out of concrete, steel, and stone
But now I wanna go home"

Anyone paying close attention will have noticed that another recent Happy People Records 45 came from Eeyun Purkins and The Co-operators--Joe Yorke and The Eastonian Singers' sensational roots reggae single "Judgement Tree" (which I reviewed here). If you like top-notch ska and reggae sounds, they've got the goods!

Duff Guide to Ska Bullet Points: Prince Fatty and Shniece McMenamin, Joe Yorke and The Eastonian Singers

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

• Inspired by a request from a TV/film/game music licenser for a reggae take on a '60 Free Love-era tune (that he didn't have at the time), Prince Fatty took up the idea and decided to cover Grace Slick's classic 1967 psychedelic rock cut recorded with Jefferson Airplane "White Rabbit"--but renamed as "Black Rabbit" (7" vinyl picture sleeve single/digital, Evergreen Recordings, 2020). With lyrics drawn from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and music influenced by Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain and Ravel's Bolero, "White Rabbit" was about "following your curiosity" and expanding one's mind through hallucinogenic drugs--as well as calling out the hypocrisy of parents who willingly read their children stories filled with pretty explicit drug use (like Carroll's), but then condemned their kids' drug experimentation as they approached adulthood. (The opening lyric, "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small," makes me think of the red pill/blue pill sequence in The Matrix.) The minor-key grandiosity of the original lends itself quite well to Prince Fatty's spaghetti Western reggae-like setting, and Shniece McMenamin's superb, commanding vocals are the perfect guide for a vividly surreal trip like this. I'm not much of a fan of the original--which takes itself far too seriously, actually--but Prince Fatty's version goes down quite well. 

• On Joe Yorke and The Eastonian Singers' sensational roots reggae single "Judgement Tree" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020), a Revelation Time of sorts has come and punishment has been meted out. Employing the Biblical symbolism of fruit bearing trees as representations of good and evil (see Matthew 7:16-20: Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."), this track paints a hell on earth that might be dispelled if the righteous singer can vanquish the emblem of evil that has defiled the land (and unfairly condemned him): "When I arise/The black sun shines/No birds sing for me...After all the wrong you've done/Doomsday's here before tomorrow comes/And the branches rot beneath your feet/You run to the rock and it will be melted/You run to the sea, it will be boiling/The tree is so big and broad/Though this axe, it may be small/Well, I'll still cut you down/You will fall...Judgement's cast its shadow over me." Yorke's fantastic falsetto is appropriately otherworldly (and reminiscent of The Congos, Junior Murvin, etc.), and Eeyun Perkins' (Waggle Dance Records) production and dub ("Drayman's Special") are wonderfully executed. "Judgement Tree's" lyrics are haunting and grim--and a positive outcome may not be fated--but the riddim's mighty seductive, indeed. (This cut and Yorke's other Happy People single "Tonight" come from The Co-operator's 2019 album Rhythms from the Kitchen Sink.)

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