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Ska-Line A Round Up of The Global Ska Scene 7th June 2021

  • Writer: Mr P
    Mr P
  • Jun 8, 2021
  • 4 min read

Updated: Jun 8, 2021

A bit late this week - midweek edition!


Let's kick off with BDR stalwarts The Bakesys. This band has quite the heritage from Bakesys Midday Joggers (a fun play on the Dexys monicker) circa 1991 through The Bakesys and More Bakesys... the thing that stands out is that every release has a different sound. 2019s Golden Slices of Brown Toast gave us an indication of their new direction featuring samples and some top mixing integrating advertising and soundbites to some top skanking soundtracks.



And so their latest release Sentences I'd Like To Hear The End Of is... impossible to pigeon hole. A fantastic concept - taking key events in recent history and using footage of news reports to introduce each song. Be it stomping with Neil Armstrong or not catching Cassius Clay you are for a dubby, offbeat, electronica, trip hoppy rollercoaster ride of a treat. If you are of a certain age and remember the moon landings, Lee Harvey Oswald, Profumo you will find a certain nostalgia mixed in these modern rhythms. A little younger? It will lead you down a rabbit hole and you will experience BASS! The production is immense and the integrity of the Buttondownmobile is tested by the woofers working overtime!

You Are Leaving The American Sector has been receiving airtime from all over the world - check it out below:


This album should be on the history syllabus for research and downright funkiness.


Ghost Tones from Connecticut have their debut EP - Strange Terrain - out now. 5 solid tracks in the vein of Slackers and Mango Wood. At times hard edged and at others quite lo-fi and back to basics. A cracking debut. Very much looking forward to seeing what these guys do next.


Oh man! NEW BRUCE LEE BAND EP Division In The Heartland is out now on Asian Man Records.


The walls are bouncing people! This 5 track EP is ridiculously good! From first to last this up tempo skanker is designed to MAKE - YOU - MOVE! Say Goodbye to Yesterday gets the party started with a thumping bass drum and a more traditional sound than we are used to from TBLB. You Said You Hated Impressions picks the pace up with a more familiar sound. The title track we heard in March and it sounds even better on revisiting...

비 엘 티 (BLT) is a full on ska punker and it rounds off nicely with You're Melting Faster as the World Just Stops and Stares. Just brilliant.


New music that we are bouncing to this week comes courtesy of Salome Fur with a new album entitled Scatter Lights coming out in the next few weeks. A superb modern rocksteady fuelled album from Germany. The album drops 25th June, but listen out for a tune or two next week... The single Willst Du mit mir gehen? releases June 11th. A really enjoyable listen.

Travelers All Stars have a beautiful new tune (surely it's album time fellas) Love In The Stars - another keyboard driven masterpiece. Careful - the video pulls at the heart strings.



The Taj Motel Trio dropped a new single - Sink Or Swim. A great balance of punky ska from these dudes.


The NPCs have been proper busy and dropped a tune that I know you're gonna love but we are sworn to secrecy! Check out their media pages from 8th June. We have it on repeat at Button Down Towers! It's worth the wait.

Will edit this post on Wednesday...

WEDNESDAY UPDATE - ALL RIGHT! The cat's out of the bag and the tune is.... We're All Dudes (originally by Less Than Jake) - check the video:

This release features no less than... 57 BANDS! Oh my gosh! That's insane check them right here:

"Pick It Up! - Ska in the 90s" http://www.Facebook.com/skamovie

Housebound Ska Collective https://www.facebook.com/houseboundska

Victims of Circumstance https://www.Facebook.com/vocska

Outstanding!

Not only that, but all proceeds got to The Trevor Project - find out more at https://www.thetrevorproject.org/


A truly impressive feat of engineering and collaboration to produce the big sound that we love by the NPCs. You know this will be on next week's Featured This Week!


New awesome Rancid cover album to celebrate the anniversary of Out Come The Wolves entitled And Out Come The Lawsuits with top contributions from Matamoska and Link 80.


A new EP by Back To The Planet 'War Cry' Three fantastic dubby tunes in aid of the Palistine Children's Relief Fund. So good to hear this crew back again


This week's Featured This week session includes

The Travelers All Stars single

Back To The Planet (YES! They're back!)

The Taj Motel Trio single

A track from The Bruce Lee Band EP

Another track from The Bakesys album (that's the 3rd one!)

The NPCs (Actually this is one of their fantastic covers building up to a 40th anniversary later in the week)

Intergalactic Brasstronauts new single to be released on the outstanding Happy People Records

The Matamoska track from the Out Come The Lawsuits album

...and finally a beautiful piece of Lover's rock from the fantastically talented 𝓛𝓲𝓵𝔂 𝓐𝔂𝓮𝓻𝓼 with one of the hardest working people in the ska world today Brad Turner CAF Studios. Such a great combination of skills they had to produce something specials didn't they!


STOP PRESS

Just arrived is the new 6 track ska-punk EP by Yorkshire's DeadBeat At Dawn. Gonna lot these guys wreck the speakers before letting you know more about this!




Check out our Bandcamp collection at https://bandcamp.com/buttondownradio


Check out the best of this year's ska vids at - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmpaxFQpPPFyuFitZ2sjNGhGiYooA-Pen




Twitter - @buttondown_5446


And whatever you do... KEEP SKANKING and listening to Button Down Radio


Mr P


June 2021



The Bakesys Ghost Tones The Bruce Lee Band

 
 
 

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