THE SOUNDTRACK TO THE REVOLUTION
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With just about everything that can be done already having been done, the most original vibes for sometime have been coming from bands that mix and mash styles to form fusions of one sort or another. Tarantism have been showing reckless abandon for over a decade with what styles, and indeed what instruments, they throw in the cocktail shaker. Ska, jazz, soul and dub are mixed with a large Celtic whiskey, spiked with a small dose of MDMA for the ravers, then shaken by a punk pogoing down the front. The result is an intoxicating hot mulled spiced special brew that will be familiar to anyone that has listened to music in a field over the last ten years. When trying to please everyone it can be easy to end up pleasing no one, but somehow this bunch manage to serve up a potion that surely would get the most miserable bastards up and stomping. Maybe that is because they are not trying, it just comes naturally to some! A return to the lodge Studio in Northampton to record this means the lo-fi quality that plagued some of the earlier releases is now history and this will sit quite comfortably next to any CD in your collection, although it might leave muddy footprints on the carpet.
The Cosmic Game (ESL Music) 2005
You can tell how highly regarded this Washington DC production duo are by the company they keep, with Perry Farrel, The Flaming Lips and David Byrne pooping in to the studio to show their respects. However, we think it is the collaborators that will gain the most from this, for being associated with one of the coolest little units on the planet at the moment. This laid back down tempo groover of an album takes a psychedelic dub vibe and shoves it through a jazzy trip hop mixer, resulting in an album that is a lounge lizards wet dream. Yet, if you can lift yourself up of the chase lounge long enough to check out the lyrics you will find quite a political edge to this album, with track titles like, ‘Revolution Solution ‘, ‘Amerimacka’, ‘Wires and Watchtowers’ and ‘Warning Shots’. Thought provoking chill out, whatever next?
Ska Me Crazy (Cherry red) 2005
Japan is not really famous for its ska music, but this outfit make it sound as natural as sushi. They have toured with the Skatalites and Dennis Bovel has said he would love to work with them. This is a compilation of the best stuff from their first 10 albums, yes 10, not bad for a band that have only been around since 1989. With plenty of brass and loads of “Hep, Hep, Hep, Hep!” and “Ger it up, ger it up!” this is up-tempo lively skinhead skanking stuff, as opposed to the original Jamaican ska, but that is no bad thing. If you did not look at the cover you would have no way of knowing this recorded anywhere east of Coventry. Looking like a cross between the cast of Resevoir Dogs, The Blues Brothers and a Samurai warrior clan, they are something else live, but with ten of them in the band their ryder must be several crates of sake.
Virtual Vinyl (CRO) 2007
This is spaced out psychedelic freeform techno rock at its very best, like the Ozrics but heavier, full on sonic attack with hints of Hawkwind, but more up to date. Flying through loopholes in the rock time continuum visiting the rave galaxy, the metal planet, the dub space, the punk rock underworld and the psychedelic hyperspace. This album does not stick to any particular blueprint; constantly varying the plan taking you up and down and around like a space shuttle navigating an asteroid storm. And the whole album is available to download for free! Bargain of the century… and safer than drugs! YOU MUST HAVE THIS
