Duff Guide to Ska Bullet Points: The Bartenders "Tańcz I Klaszcz" b/w "Cebron" and Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16 "Love Will Tear Us Apart" b/w "Version"

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

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   While The Bartenders' songs on their sensational new 45 "Tańcz I Klaszcz" ("Dance and Clap") b/w "Cebron" ("Onion") (Vinyl single, Bad Look Records, 2020) are sung in Polish--which might be a perceived barrier for some non-Polish speakers--their music is in the unmistakably universal (and accessible) language of ska. "Tańcz I Klaszcz" is a driving, Motown-like ska track that sure delivers on what's promised (commanded?) in the title/chorus (I wish I knew what was being sung about in the verses--it sure sounds like there's drama and heartbreak in there). In contrast, "Cebron" is a lovely and slightly mysterious jazzy ska cut with a great horn riff. This single is very much worth tracking down--be sure to keep The Bartenders on your radar.

On a side note, this year The Bartenders also released a tribute album to a fantastic all-female, pop, big-beat, and ska Polish group called Alibabki that was founded in 1963 and performed up through the late-'80s. Of note to Duff Guide to Ska readers, in 1965 they released the Jamajca Ska EP, which contained pop-ska originals (like "Echo Ska") and covers ("Wash Wash Ska," a version of Byron Lee, Keith Lyn, and Ken Lazarus' "Jamaica Ska"), and clearly had a big impact on The Bartenders. More recently, Alibabki released a postcard Flexi ska single backed The Bartenders called "Już Nie Twist."

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   Joy Division's Ian Curtis was such an enormous fan of reggae that his bandmates, who formed New Order after Curtis' death by suicide in 1980, covered Curtis' favorite reggae track--Keith Hudson's "Turn the Heater On"--during their 1982 John Peel session for the BBC's Radio One (the EP of this session is very much worth obtaining). In fact, there's a lyric in Curtis' most iconic Joy Division track "Love Will Tear Us Apart" ("Why is the bedroom so cold?/You've turned away on your side...") that was no doubt inspired by Hudson's song ("Turn the heater on...Tonight/For I feel so cold at night/With you by my side will be all I need"). With this Ian Curtis--Keith Hudson connection in mind, it makes sense that a few reggae covers of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" already have been recorded (by Jäh Division and Italee), though Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16's is the best I've heard by far. Originally released on the 2018 Scotch Bonnet compilation Puffer's Choice, Volume II, Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16's killer roots reggae version of "Love..."--with echoey, almost jungle-sounding percussion that honors the original and gives what could have become too much of a dirge some life--is now available as a single with an exclusive dub mix on the B-side (Vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2020). This version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" checks all of the right boxes and then some for anyone who loves both their post-punk and roots reggae like I do.
  

Duff Review: The Dreamlets "Sunny" b/w "My Heart is Crying"!

Happy People Records
Pink or black vinyl single/digital
2020

(Review by Steve Shafer)

I've been hearing about the brilliant Japanese rocksteady female vocal trio The Dreamlets for ages, but have found it quite difficult to acquire any of their music, even though they've been releasing singles and EPs since 1996. Either the record is out of print or commanding astronomical prices on Discogs. And, apart from their 2001 Ready Rocksteady Go EP on Germany's Brutus Records and  2003 "My Boy Lollipop" single on Gaz's Rockin' Records, The Dreamlets haven't released anything else outside of Japan--until now. Sean Flowerdew's Happy People Records is issuing a limited-edition single featuring two choice cuts from The Dreamlet's back catalogue: "Sunny," which appeared on their 2004 Moon Beat 45 and "My Heart is Crying," the B-side to their "Destiny" 2004 Moon Beat single. "Sunny" is a gorgeously sad version of Bobby Hebb's 1966 soul-jazz hit, written in response to both national and personal tragedy--JFK's assassination and the fatal stabbing of Hebb's older brother Harold. Yet, instead of being knee-capped by loss and grief, Hebb finds strength and inspiration in their memory: "Sunny, yesterday, oh, my life was filled with rain/Sunny, you smiled at me and really, really eased the pain/Now the dark days are done, and the bright days are here/My Sunny, one shines so sincere/Sunny one so true, I love you." "My Heart Is Crying" is (from what I can tell) an incredible original vintage-style rocksteady track full of intense longing and desire. This one's a bit pricey if you're outside of the UK, but worth every cent and more.

Also of note, Happy People Records is issuing two other very intriguing singles--The Loving Paupers' "And the Piano's Playing" b/w "Enemy of History" (both from their superb debut LP Lines) and Capitol 1212 featuring Earl 16 covering Joy Division's "Love with Tear Us Apart" b/w "Dub Will Tear Us Apart" (the incredible vocal cut is from the 2018 Scotch Bonnet comp Puffer's Choice, Volume 2, while the dub is exclusive to this single). All of these singles will go quickly.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Prince Fatty Presenting Monkey Jhayam "The Rolê of Monkey Man"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Prince Fatty Presenting Monkey Jhayam The Rolê of Monkey Man (digital/LP, Delicious Vinyl Island, 2018): I knew next to nothing about this LP when I mail ordered it after finding out that limited copies were available through Prince Fatty's Bandcamp page. But it didn't matter--his recent, left field collaborations with Nostalgia 77 and Dele Sosimi and The Last Poets, in addition to just about every other release in his catalogue, have been consistently excellent, so why would this collaboration with Monkey Jhayam--one of Brazil's top reggae artists, who sings/toasts in Portuguese and has a terrific, laid-back delivery--be any different? As The Rolê of Monkey Man is slated to be the first of several Fatty/Jhayam albums for Delicious Vinyl, this record is consciously pitched to introduce him to an audience beyond Brazil's borders (and succeeds). So, it follows that Fatty employs almost a dozen classic/evergreen riddims and choice covers for Jhayam to toast over/augment, and utilizes a host of ace guest artists (Horseman, Earl 16, and Tippa Irie), many of whom are well known to the PF crowd/have appeared on his productions (and are a good contrast to Monkey Jhayam's chill style). The album kicks off with "Rolê" ("Scroll"), which versions Jackie Mittoo and the Soul Vendors' "Hot Milk" riddim (also used decades ago for two of my all-time favorite tracks: Yellowman and Fathead's "I Can't Stand It" and Carlton Livingston's "100 Weight of Collie Weed"). Other riddims/covers heard here include "Mãe da Lua" ("Mother of the Moon")/"Everybody Love the Sunshine" (with Omar Lye-Fook and Fatlip--of The Pharcyde), which is another great take on this 1976 Roy Ayers jazz-funk-soul gem that Fatty, Omar, and Fatlip released as a single for last year's Record Store Day; John Holt's "Police in Helicopter"; Dub Specialist's "Dub Creation"/Dennis Brown's "Created by the Father" on "Eles Não Sabem" ("They Don't Know"); Smoke City's 1997 trip-hop hit  "Underwater Love" (featuring a fantastic Nina Miranda--she co-wrote and sang on the original track--who reminds one very much of Hollie Cook); Gwen McCrae's 1974 funk-soul b-side "90% of Me is You" (with a completely phenomenal Shniece McMenamin); an incredible funky reggae take on James Brown's "Soul Power" for "Soul Powah" (also with McMenamin); as well as a few other riddims I know are in there, but can't quite identify without investing major time figuring them out. In sum, another winning Prince Fatty production!

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Dennis Bovell, Daytoner, JonnyGo Figure, Prince Fatty and Earl 16

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Even though I saw "Babylon" weeks ago at its ridiculously long-delayed US premiere at BAM (the film was originally released in the UK in 1980, but not shown in America, presumably because its black protagonists sometimes respond to racial oppression/abuse from white people/institutions with violence), images and scenes from the movie continue to haunt me. While its plot is fairly straightforward ("Babylon" follows a group of working class black friends/musicians who run a sound system and are subjected to racist abuse from just about everyone--bosses, neighbors, and the police), it has a stark realism to it--between being shot on location in run-down Brixton (often in difficult-to-film low-lighting conditions, but somehow always maintaining visual crispness and its warm and vivid color tones); the depiction of the ubiquitous societal/institutional racism freely expressed toward black Britons circa '79/'80; great, funny dialogue (with lots of Jamaican slang--which was subtitled); and the spot-on, relaxed performances by all involved, it could almost be a documentary. And, of course, the film's hard-to-find soundtrack is outstanding (with Yabby U, I-Roy, Cassandra, Aswad, Vin Gordon, Michael Rose, Dennis Bovell, and more; also, the film's protagonist Blue is played by Aswad's Brinsley Forde and a rival sound system DJ is Jah Shaka). Before I caught the film, I tracked down a German copy of Babylon in decent shape that wasn't too costly. Side two, in particular is stellar and happens to contain the two Aswad and three Dennis Bovell cuts. But the official Babylon OST (vinyl LP, Chrysalis Records, 1980) doesn't contain all of Bovell's music for the film. So, in conjunction with the US premiere/release of the movie, Dennis Bovell issued the nine-track digital album Babylon: The Original Score (Old School, 2019) containing the entire score he wrote and recorded for this soundtrack (including six songs that did not appear on the 1980 Chrysalis LP). It goes without saying that all of these tracks are excellent and heard in snippets in the film (Bovell is a master of catchy melody and mixes/shifts between musical genres with ease), but I'm particularly grateful to have the ska cut "Runnin' Away" (featured during the dance scene at Lovers' engagement party in the church hall and sounding like one of the '50s rock/rhythm and blues-influenced tracks Laurel Aitken would have released in the early '60s); the funky, strutting "School Skanking" (check out that harmonica!); and the righteous roots reggae of "Living in Babylon" (a clear-eyed recounting of the brutal challenges of being black and poor in racist Ingland). Needless to say, this album is essential and absolutely deserving of being issued on vinyl someday (please!).

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Daytoner's terrific versions of Marcia Griffiths' "Feel Like Jumping" and Phyllis Dillon's "Perfidia," which they've retitled "Perfidious" (7" vinyl single, Friday's Funky 45/Cabin Pressure, 2019); I found a copy at Rock and Soul in Manhattan) inject just the right amount of early '90s hip hop/De La Soul-like beats and samples so as to give these ska and rocksteady classics new life. And they're sure to draw new fans to the dance floor without alienating the ska faithful.

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Brooklyn-based reggae singer/DJ JonnyGo Figure (who's also a member of Megative and has collaborated with The Frightnrs and Full Watts Band) has released an excellent EP of early '80s sounding roots reggae and dancehall (that one could imagine being issued on Greensleeves, circa 1982) called Crucial Showcase (12" vinyl/digital, Bent Backs Records, 2019). On the Yellowman-ish "Vinyl Lover," JonnyGo Figure speaks to his real-life obsession with records and how that came to be ("Mi love vinyl and mi play it fe fun/Mi love vinyl and I never have a gun"). The rootsy "Natty Take Over" is about discovering and embracing Rastafarianism ("Mr. Babylon to move over/This a Natty Dreadlocks take over/When I was a boy they used to say I'd amount to nothing/But now I'm a man they're starting to see that I am something/Look out, look out, Natty taking over..."). He's ready to join with his peers to fighting for a more equal and just society in "Revolutionary Youth": "I tell ya, stand up! Stand up!/Strap up on de Armagideon boot/The time now, we have to recruit/Come on, we chant it, chant it/Come on and let we seek de truth/If you ready, let me see you salute/I'm a revolutionist...Time to start a revolution, boy/'Cause that's the only solution, boy." And knowledge of one's own mortality looms large in "Jam It Up"--there's an expiration date on all of us, so it's best to live a righteous life full of joy in His music: "One day I'll die, no matter what me say/You know, say papa Jah, he the only way I say, so/Come on let me play a Jah Jah music/Let me jam it up..." There's much to ponder while grooving to JonnyGo Figure's seriously good music.

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Released for Record Store Day 2019, Prince Fatty and Earl 16's "Be Thankful for What You've Got" b/w "Be Thankful Dub" (7" vinyl single, Evergreen Records, 2019) is a cover of William DeVaughn's 1974 smash soul hit, which was also covered by Bunny Clarke in 1974, Winston Curtis in 1984, Massive Attack in 1993, as well as sampled by numerous hip hop artists. The song's brilliant lyrics have been perennially popular for their depiction of aspirational cool in the face of deprivation (and, no doubt, for evoking a particular era--I remember seeing this exact model of Cadillac in the Bronx in the '70s):

Just be thankful for what you've got
You may not have a great big Cadillac
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin' the scene
With a gangsta lean
Gangsta whitewalls
TV antennas in the back

You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall
Just be thankful for what you've got

This spectacular version features a bright and brisk reggae beat (plus a few laser effects) that contrasts wonderfully with Earl 16's beautiful but bittersweet vocals about proudly hanging tough in tough times. The harmonizing on the chorus is incredible, lightly conveying the sadness/loss in all that could have been if things only worked out another way. Apparently, the reason Prince Fatty and Earl 16 decided to record it was because they discovered it was a favorite of both of theirs--and it shows in this gorgeously constructed track and its fantastic companion dub.

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