I have founded RudeMaker in 2008. For almost twenty years now I've been very much into ska, rocksteady and reggae scene. Professionally I'm a graphic designer and web developer, so obviously I also run all technical stuff around here. As I am extremely lazy, I do not post here as much as I'd like to, but generally speaking I write news, reviews and show reports with a focus on conteporary bands.
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The Polish ska scene has never been too thriving. You can count the bands regularly releasing new albums on the fingers of one hand. No wonder it’s been already 20 years since the last compilation presenting Polish ska bands was released. SKAsety.PL vol. 1 is the latest attempt to showcase contemporary Polish ska.
I’ve spent the last two weeks embracing summer heat and sweet laziness. Yet, there are some topics that enforce you to write a few words. This time it’s the premiere of not one but two Travelers All Stars singles and it’s definitely worth your full attention.
After almost 20 years, Long Beach Dub Allstars are back with a new record. A self-titled album often means a new opening, sometimes a big change of a band’s sound. Is it the case with this Californian legend known for merging reggae, punk rock, ska, dub, hip-hop, and pretty much everything around?
Many great records have been released this year. Lots of good ska, reggae, even rocksteady. Yet, what Mango Wood created still managed to make a huge impression. Imagine that you put on the record, hear the first sounds, next tunes and suddenly you realize that something is not quite alright, it’s gotta be a mistake, someone has put the wrong record into the sleeve. It was supposed to be fresh stuff from this year, not an early reggae compilation from the 60s. I got conned!
This album’s title kinda sounds as if the Vikings were coming and the only reasonable line of action was to quickly evacuate. There’s something to it as smörgåsbord means Swedish table. In this case, the buffet is all about ska music and relates to a plentiful, all-around set of dishes prepared by The Players Band.
If you were wondering if anyone plays solid ska in Denver, Colorado, I assure you they do. There’s at least one ensemble, which for the second decade makes sure that fans in need of such sounds have their local crew on whose gig they can always count. “Lunchin’ with The Dendrites” is their latest EP, which quite stirred up my perception of the band.
Red Stripes are a 10-piece band from Hong Kong. In March They released their second album. I associate Asian ska primarily with ska-jazz and rather classic kind of playing truthful to Jamaican 60s roots. But here we have music subtly but firmly touched by typical British 2 Tone.
We already know two first songs from upcoming Aquabats album. Both got pretty cool lyrics videos and their sound lets me be quite optimistic about fast aproaching premiere of “Kooky Spooky…In Stereo”.
I’m always very happy when I manage to find on the internet a band I’ve never heard before, and whose sound is way above average. Of course, I am even more surprised it turns out to be a band with more than 10 years of experience. That’s the case with Taapa Groove, who in 2018 released their 4th album – “Punto Negro”.
Today is the premiere of new Neil Martin’s album. You might know him better as Alpheus, a singer specialized in rocksteady music. Will his new piece of work be actually a winner as the title suggests?
Just when I almost forgot about The Aggrolites and their beautiful record from last spring I was suddenly reminded how great it is. What a mood!
Although this movie’s premiere took place almost six years ago, many of you probably didn’t have a chance to actually see it. Tomorrow it’s going to change and Ska Delight will hit the internet.
At last! Finally someone in Poland has put together a group focused exclusively on playing rocksteady music. You can read all about it on RudeMaker – who are the members of Steady Social Club, when will they release their debut and most importantly you’ll hear what all this fuss is about.
These are not easy times for artists, but where there’s a will there’s a way. The Skapones in conditions of “home isolation” managed to record a cool video for their latest single “Dorian’s Going Grey”.
Ghost Town in Italian? I honestly didn’t see that coming while browsing through musical novelties on YouTube yesterday night. Statuto crew couldn’t even suspect how up to date their cover will be on its release day, when they were recording the song in fall.
A week ago, nine years after shooting, “Short Movie About Skanking” had its premiere. What piece of work is that? – you might ask. Collaboration of Polish pioneer of punk rock and reggae, Robert Brylewski and cinema first of all brings to mind “Polskie gówno” (“Polish shit”) from 2014. Meanwhile, around 2010, Robert left his mark on musical and, as it turns out, also cinematic climate of Sosnowiec, city known for its dynamic ska and reggae scene.
One of the best summer ska festivals in Europe, it’s a well known fact. There’s always a great company there, picnic atmosphere till around 3pm and later on lots of great gigs until late night. Two or, if you’re really interested, even three days of great party in ska, rocksteady and reggae rythms. What more could you possibly want? I’ve been there many times and I’ve seen so many Jamaican legends at the Wasserburg castle, I think there’s no other place like that for me. What This Is Ska promoters prepared for this year? Here are my recommendations.
In May I’ve already shared with you my optimistic predictions about new Aggrolites album. Two tracks presented before the premiere allowed me to rub my hands with glee and to prepare my player for some intensive work. The physical record arrived just today, but the truth is I’ve already had it memorized.
This had to happen. Polish Ska legend finally goes into wax. Originally this self-titled album was released as a cassette in 1996. Few years later CD edition followed. Now it lands on vinyl by Oldschool Records and Jimmy Jazz Records celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
NYSJE is kind of like a speeding train which races forward for 25 years now without any decelerations. Occasional exchange of passengers doesn’t have any serious impact on the general direction and definitely not on the great reputation of this ska-jazz torpedo. Last Saturday New Yorkers released “Break Thru”, their first studio longplay for eight years. Is there any break through here?
One of the best bands I got to know during last few years has finally released a record. Even if we’re only talking about a 45, I still consider it a big event. Energy that this band can put into several minutes tune could be envied by quite a few scene’s veterans with many albums on their accounts.
At the very beginning I must confess, that I actually have no clue about musical genre called mento. It doesn’t change the fact that the Los Apartamentos’ debut album is soo good and it raises so much positive emotions in me, that I feel downright obligated to write a few words about it and encourage you to make a closer acquaintance with it.
I’ve been at Riverside Stomp Festival only once and it was 12 years ago. That’s where I’ve seen Derrick Morgan for the first time and if only because of that I have very fond memories of this event. Mainz is not very close to Warsaw, so during all those years I haven’t been able to repeat my visit, but every year I observe line-ups offered by the promoters with true pleasure. This time it’s also interesting.
We like this kind of premieres. Polish reggae producer xRobBlack sends his instrumental to an american label Happy As A Lark. Guys from Chicago say they need a strong soul vocal here and they recruit a legendary falsetto of Renaldo Domino for this project. To make things even more fun they add Lone Ranger’s toasting to the set. And that’s how “Never Thought” song and its alternative version „Think Again!” were born.
Yes, you’re seeing this right. Brooklyn based label known for promoting such fantastic performers as Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones or above all The Frightnrs this time decided to bet on the classic 60s ska sound. Since yesterday you can preorder “Lover Like Me” 7″ vinyl by Leon Dinero and The Inversions.
There aren’t a lot of bands which had such a huge impact on contemporary reggae scene as The Aggrolites. You could say that their 2003 album “Dirty Reggae” was actually a new opening and started a whole wave of bands inspired by dirty funky early reggae sounds. Countless tours all over the world, five next releases and.. 8 years of break. Now they’re back and we’ll be able to judge the quality of this return on June 24th.
It was one of the largest teams on stage of Freedom Sounds Festival 2018. The North East Ska Jazz Orchestra consists of up to twenty people! They have been playing together since 2012, and set themselves a goal to rebuild the Italian ska scene. In March they released a new, self-titled album, which I talked about with the bassist of the band, Roberto Amadeo, last year.
It’s only few days left till 7th edition of Freedom Sounds Festival. We’ve written many times that this is probably our favourite recurring event in ska, rocksteady and reggae rythms. Spring indoors festival in Cologne, Germany has definitely earned this name. We’ve been there three times already and each time it was simply perfect. The bar is set very high but this year’s lineup allows to expect new record results.
California ska-punk band Mad Caddies has a musical gift for the fans for Christmas.
