The Duff Guide to Ska: 2018 Year-End Roundup, Part 2

Editor's note: I'm still playing catch-up with several 2018 releases that I didn't get a chance to review before December 31...

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Napoleon Solo Open Channel D (LP, Jump Up Records/Pork Pie, 2018): This terrific Danish band formed in the wake of 2 Tone and was a vital part of brilliant late '80s UK/Euro ska scene (The Trojans, Laurel Aitken, Bad Manners, Potato 5, The Loafers, The Deltones, The Busters, The Frits, and more). Anyone familiar with and a fan of Napoleon Solo's previous releases (their essential How To Steal the World EP was produced by Buster Bloodvessel and their great soul-ska debut album Shot! was released on Buster's short-lived Blue Beat Records) will definitely want to pick up their new one, as they've only gotten better with time. Open Channel D is packed with powerhouse, hook-filled 2 Tone tracks--two of the best ones are proper studio recordings of demos from 1984 that only recently saw the light of day on Jump Up's Early Recordings: First Demos 1984/1984 (proving that a great song in 1984 is still a great song in 2018!). Top cuts include the cocky, I-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-think mission statement in "All I Need" ("I want to live my life/Just the way that I do/I want to get my kicks/Until I'm black and blue/I don't say my life's complete/But it's all I need"); desperately seeking human contact and a cure for intense loneliness via a telephone chat line (anyone remember those from the 1980s?) in "0059" ("Somebody talk, somebody answer me/Somebody please make me feel alive"); and the ecstatic feeling of being head over heels in love and wanting everyone to know how how good you have it in the swaggering "See Her." Even though it was written when they were young pups back in '84, the upbeat but bittersweet "Nobody Told Me" contains the hard-won wisdom of the middle-aged that only comes through living your own life (that often doesn't work anywhere near where you anticipated): "Nobody told me life is like this/Always saying goodbye/Nobody told me life is like this/Always wondering why/Well, you start somewhere and you'll end somewhere/And in between you just go/Nobody told me life's like this/But now I know." It's a "Once in a Lifetime" for the ska set.

The Trojans Top Hits (CD, Gaz's Rockin' Records/Cadiz Music, 2018): This 18-track compilation offers a completely stellar overview of The Trojans' extensive catalogue. (For some key background info on amazing The Trojans and their fearless leader Gaz Mayall, see The Duff Guide to Ska review of the book "Gaz's Rockin' Blues: The First 30 Years.") Top Hits contains songs from 1987 (their first single "Ringo") through 2013 (their most recent LP, Smash It) released on seven Trojans albums, plus several 45 and 12" singles--and there is extraordinary high-quality control throughout (actually, when I was looking over all of their releases, I kept spying many additional tracks that should have been included here; this easily could have been a double or triple album). Guest musicians on some of these tracks include Gaz's friend Prince Buster, Rico Rodriguez, Jennie Bellestar (on one of my favorite songs "Mixed Feelings"), and Zoe Devlin Love. Gaz provides extensive liner notes (that are focused mainly on all of the musicians that comprised the three iterations of the band). If you're not acquainted with The Trojans' sound, its traditional '60s ska mixed with heavy doses of reggae, Japanese, and Celtic music (and the lyrics of theirs songs are often very eco-minded). All in all, this is a fantastic intro to/survey of this exceptional band.

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Make sure to read The Duff Guide to Ska: 2018 Year-End Roundup, Part 1!

And there will be several more 2018 releases reviewed in Part 3 TK!

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Duff Review: Crabs Corporation "The Many Faces of The Crabs Corporation" EP!

Jump Up Records
2013
Red or white 10" vinyl EP

(Review by Steve Shafer)

The Crabs Corporation needs no introduction if you've been following the international ska scene and been smart enough to pick up one of their three fine 45s on Record Kicks: the King Hammond-produced "Bring Down the Birds (Flying High Mix)"; "Let It Go" b/w "Reggae Power" with Jennie Matthias and Dave Barker; or their recent "Day After Day" track with Susan Cadogan (they also do a cool reggae cover of The Clash's "Ghetto Defendant" on Golden Singles Records' jaw-dropping amazing The Clash Goes Jamaican compilation, which we'll be reviewing soon).

The latest release from this stellar Argentinian band is the six-track vinyl EP The Many Faces of The Crabs Corporation, which is an fitting title, since they like to mix up their soulful, organ-centric skinhead reggae sound with elements of 60s R'n'B/funk and 80s acid jazz (exemplified here on the vigorous instrumental workouts "The Sort," "Breakdown," and "Do It!"). Ska and reggae fans should go crazy for the standout track "Hush It!," featuring one of my favorite singers, the magnificent Jennie "Bellestar" Matthias.  The song's about someone struggling with haters who just won't let a past dispute go: "On my knees/I'm begging please/For someone to listen to this story/You can never make amends/They'll make ya a criminal/until the very end/You hush it/You hush it up/Shut it/You're told to shut your mouth/Why don't you listen to the truth/When you're presented with the groove?/What does it take to make you see?/Why are you disputing me?...You refuse to give in/and the scars you left behind run so deep/Call the doctor/I'm feeling bad/Was it my fault?/Am I the one to blame?" On paper, it looks like this is an angry, bitter song, but it's very upbeat and defiant--a great cut (check out a sample of "Hush It!" in the video below)!

As for the other straight-up early reggae cuts on The Many Faces of..., "The Hard Mod Beat" is actually a peppy Dave and Ansel Collins-type instrumental with various spoken exhortations running on top ("The hard mod beat is reggae!" and "From 1969 to the end of times, is coming from the past, but is going to the future..."); while "Le Secrete" is a repurposed/versioned Jackie Mittoo cut (the fantastically slow-burning "Drum Song") mashed up with a Serge Gainsbourg-ish voiceover. Ignorant American that I am, I wish my French was much better, so I knew what exactly what was being said. But it all sounds deliciously lewd and illicit...

Duff Review: The Crabs Corporation featuring Jennie Matthias and Dave Barker - "Let It Go" b/w "Reggae Power"

Record Kicks
2009
Available as a vinyl single or digital download

On their fantastic debut single, Argentina's musical powerhouse The Crabs Corporation serve up two slices of ska heaven with some help from Dave Barker and Jennie Matthias. Maybe it's Jennie Matthias' strong association with the New Wave era (she was in the Stiff Records act The Belle Stars and that band had connections to The Bodysnatchers and The Deltones; she's also made recent guest appearances on two Skaville UK albums and is currently in her own ska/reggae band, 1-Stop-Experience), but the crazy infectious "Let It Go" (where Jennie urges an ex to stop obsessing over what went wrong and move on: "Save yourself for someone else/It's much better for your health/Be much kinder to yourself/You've got to let it go") sounds like something that 2 Tone would have released in its heyday (though the occasional dubby effects and exhortations from Dave Barker might make one imagine that Lee "Scratch" Perry had somehow intercepted the master tapes on the way to the pressing plant!). Despite being called "Reggae Power," the flipside is a jazzy, vintage ska instrumental (with a brief dub melodica interlude), but the sentiment is all the same: this music will compel you to move your feet!

The Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

Duff Review: Skaville UK "Decadent"

Moon Ska World
2008

When Skaville UK's terrific second album opens with a fake radio broadcast of the the band doing their best New Romantic imitation of Martin Fry and ABC (posing as the band Leather Arcade doing "The Policy of Love," natch), you probably wouldn't be too surprised to find that Decadent (a word play on the excesses, musical and otherwise, of the glorious 80s) revels in skinny tie power-pop, day-glo new wave, and jagged post-punk music. Having said all that, Decadent is most definitely a ska record--we're just not necessarily on Orange Street anymore (more like Bleeker and Bowery).

"The Alternate," hands down my favorite song on the album, features the incredible Rhoda Dakar on a cut that sounds like an awesome mash-up of Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army with Echo and the Bunnymen (you've just got to hear it to realize how well they pull this off--give "The Alternate" a listen on Rhoda's MySpace page). "It's a Me, Me, Me Society" is Missing Persons meets Rebel Yell-era Billy Idol and features the great line "You're laundromatic/you clean your past so well." On these tracks and few others, you can almost picture Nicky Welsh, all smiles, as he borrowed bits and pieces of the musical language of the new wave era--the handclaps and background vocal harmonizing of The Cars for this song or a synthesizer riff plucked from Heaven 17 there--when he went about writing this album, but the songs are so well constructed that they completely sidestep parody or imitation and stand solidly on their own as fun and catchy original tunes.

Other highlights on Decadent include the hard-rocking, I've just realized too late what an a-hole I am "Bad Man"; "She's Mad About the 80s" ("Once she heard the Thompson Twins/she never was the same"); "The Inappropriate One," a song for that "special" person in our lives who both thrills and appalls us with the outrageous things they do and say; and the sweet, laid-back ska gem "One Way Street," which is about pining after someone who probably won't reciprocate your feelings, and was co-written and sung beautifully by Jennie Matthias (ex-Bellestars, who has interesting new ska/latin/reggae group with Lee Thompson and Dave Barker called The Dance Brigade).

Having been a teenager in the early to mid 80--and as a huge fan of new wave music in all of its permutations--I really dig Decadent, but not for any cliched nostalgic reasons like new wave was the soundtrack of my youth or they just don't make 'em like they used to rubbish. It's more like the soul-pleasing satisfaction that comes from hearing musical sub-genres being recombined, reinvented, and rejuvenated by very talented musicians in a manner that seems so natural and simple that an Acme light bulb should click on over your head the moment you hear it (as in "why didn't I think of that?)--except that its not (you need crazy mad skills and inspiration, obviously).

But, perhaps the biggest reason the blending of new wave and ska works so well on Decadent is that the distance between 2-Tone and the host of other non-mainstream musical styles that were huddled under the new wave umbrella in the 80s (punk rock, synthpop, electropop, early hip hop, Mod, power pop, New Romantic, etc.) just isn't that far. All of these underground/alternative music scenes spawned some amazing acts and stunningly good music that made (and continues to make) one hell of a good mix tape (if you were in NYC in the 1980s when WLIR was in full force, you know what I mean). That's what it boils down to: good music is good music, no matter its sub-category or hyphenation, and Skaville UK know how to make it in spades.

Grade: A-/B+

Skaville UK: "1973"

Moon Ska World (www.moonskaworld.com)
2008

Despite the title track singer's nostalgia for the sounds of his youth—as a Brit of a certain age and class (“I wish it was 1973/I Roy, U Roy, Byron Lee, Al Capone, and Lee Perry on the stereo”)—the music found on this impressive disk is firmly rooted in late 70s, 2-Tone-era ska. And what else would you expect from these gifted musicians—most of whom were the musical muscle behind Bad Manners in the 80s (original Bad Manners guitarist and keyboardist Louis Alphonso and Martin Stewart, who co-wrote such hits as "Lip Up Fatty," "Special Brew," "Lorraine," and "Walking in the Sunshine") and early 90s (Nicky Welsh, composer of “Skinhead Love Affair,” “Since You’ve Gone Away,” and “Skaville UK,” plus he won a Grammy for his work on Lee Scratch Perry’s Jamaican ET record—who knew—and co-wrote many of the songs on the Selecter's quite good Cruel Britannia album)? As one might suspect, 1973 is Top of the Pops ska: catchy songs and spot-on professional performances, all produced with a high-gloss sheen. There is a lot to like here.

Stand-out tracks include “Outta My Head,” with (ex-Belle Stars) Jennie Matthais’ wonderfully husky guest vocals; the surf-ska instrumental “Third Floor Room Six”; the title track; the horn-driven “Devils Daughter”; and the dubby “Martin’s Magic Box." Skaville UK also turn in some terrific covers. Their version of Prince Buster’s “Hard Man Fe Dead” is one of the best I’ve ever heard—smoothing out the original’s choppy edges and injecting some Munsters-y surf-rock and ghoulish humor. Two Bad Manners (!) songs are reprised on 1973. “Memory Train,” one of my favorite cuts from Return of the Ugly (Bad Manners’ 1989 triumphant return to form, just in time for the kick-off of the third wave of ska), is less Buffalo Ska and more Nite Klub sofisticated here—and, dare I say, is better than the original (sorry, Fatty!). “Suicide” from Loonee Tunes is also given a fresh revival here (though don’t do it, kids!).

Sad to say that Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers)—who sounds better than ever—is on two of the lyrically dodgier tracks, “Brixton Cat” (chorus: “I’m a Brixton Cat/How about that?/How about that/I’m a Brixton Cat”) and “0900-LUV,” which is about—sigh—phone sex (and she co-wrote it!). (Note to self—must check out Dakar’s new album, Cleaning in Another Woman’s Kitchen, and hope that she treats herself better.)

While many of the songs on 1973 concern the past and some sort of loss—of love or youth (see “So Long Ago,” “When We Were Young,” “Memory Train,” and “1973”)—and are tinged with regret, you don’t have to be middle-aged to relate. If the lyrics don’t move you, the music certainly will. 1973 is a place you’ll wanna go. (B+/A-)

If you like 1973, do yourself a favor and check out:

Busters’ All Stars’ Skinhead Luv Affair
Bad Manners’ Return of the Ugly and Fat Sounds
King Hammond’s Blow Your Mind
The Selecter's Cruel Britannia