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?
Do you sometimes order a record without first hearing it? Without knowing even one song? Steady Social Club’s album was the first in a very long time that I purchased without hearing a single second of it.
Have you ever wondered what do producers do after the last musician leaves their studio in the evening? Well, they just take all their toys – microphones, tape machines, echoes, reverbs, mixers, and any other retro junk and play with it the whole night long. They do dub!
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.
I like to listen to bands from warmer countries in the summer. I imagine beach concerts and tropical drinks with umbrella straws. In Poland the heat is already lurking around the corner, we are slowly coming out of lockdown, and only live music will be missing in this puzzle, at least for some time. Fortunately, there’s an album coming to the rescue and although it came out in January, it will be good to listen to in our part of the world right now.
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?
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.
Kalles Kaviar recorded a new album. Will it be as big as its title suggests? Check it out for yourselves.
Italian trio The Uppertones released a new album. This time the gentlemen took some hits from the 1950s and recorded them again in their characteristic style.
“Skapara tōjō”, the first TSPO long-play, with one of the band’s earliest hits, “Monster Rock”, was issued in 1990 by Epic Records. And on the occasion of the jubilee, the Japanese have prepared a special release for their fans.
Are you ready for “Trouble”? German band Johnny Reggae Rub Foundation has released a new album and it’s a proper dose of urban ska.
The music industry is still a very masculine world. That is why on International Women’s Day we recommend you several contemporary bands, in which women play an important role.
Every time I see the slogan “stay rude stay rebel” somewhere, I hear the No Sports song in my head. At the beginning of the year, Mad Butcher Records reissued their EP and debut album on vinyl.
The history of this album is very charming. Here is an American living temporarily in London. One day she finally enters the record store, which she passes by every day on her way home. And because it was not a completely random store, after passing the threshold the American finds herself in a completely different world.
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?
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.
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.
One of the best American ska-punk bands returns with a new album. Yesterday, Reel Big Fish released the first LP of brand new material in 6 years.
In the middle of Russia, behind Ural mountains, actually almost on border between Europe and Asia, lays a fourth biggest city of the country, Yekaterinburg. Looking at its location, it’s not so hard to think out, that temperatures below 40 degrees Celsius below zero are nothing surprising to anyone there. But that’s exactly the place, where one of most meaningful russian bands playing music originating from sunny Jamaica was formed. I’m talking about Lollypop Lorry here, and there’s a very good reason to mention them right now. Yesterday they’ve released a brand new album titled “Ural Station”.
Masons Arms from Cologne published their new video today. “Wunderbar” promotes group’s third album.
This year, the German band Yellow Cap celebrates its 20th anniversary. On 30 November, the band’s jubilee album will be released by one of the most famous European ska label, Pork Pie.
British 2-tone icons The Specials have announced their first album of original material in two decades. The band will release the new LP called Encore on February 1st, 2019 via UMC/Island.
Encore will be the band’s first album of new material since 1998’s Guilty ‘Til Proved Innocent!. The lineup for the band on the Encore is Lynval Golding, Terry Hall and Horace Panter, along with drummer Kenrick Rowe and guitarist Steve Cradock. It’s the first time that founding members Panter, Golding and Hall have recorded together since 1981’s UK number one single Ghost Town.
It’s the release you don’t want to miss. Junior Thomas aka Thomas McDowall was born in Minneapolis. After moving to California, with help of musician and producer Brian Dixon he formed a 10-men band The Volcanos and devoted himself to recording beautiful, melodic tunes refering to the golden era of rocksteady. In effect in 2005 an absolutely perfect album “Beware” was created. After three years guys went with the punch and on October 18th “Rockstone” came out.
Swedish ska band The Statement will release a new single entitled ”The Backseat Driver” in exactly 1 month. A follow-up on the EP ”Checking In” (2017) and a taste of the forthcoming album (scheduled for 2019).
