THE SKAPONES
‘NORTHERN GODS’
(Cosa Nostra Records)
8/10
The Skapones resume their rise up the 2-Tone-infused ladder with their brand new and imperious ‘Northern Gods’ release. The semi-instrumental opening cut ‘Don’t Be Late’ pushes all the right knee-bending buttons, while ‘Real Gangster Time’ has a lounge lizard resonance that spills backstreet hooch on the Ska Mafia’s boss Spatz. Next up is a laid-back melancholy tune, ‘You Can’t Let Go’, whereas ‘Assainans Creed’ is armed with a classic head-bobbing riff, tight skin beat and atmospheric horns. The skanking continues on a skip-a-long ‘Caged’ but not so much on the miners’ strike poetry that is ‘The Rother’, which lays bare the scars from Thatcher’s (the paedo hiding-slag) most brutalist hour.
The laid-back summer vibe on ‘Actions Speak Louder Than Words’ is married with a hint of Northern sarcasm, and the title track, ‘Northern Gods’, kicks back against the north of Watford Gap’s real enemy, Westminster. There is more than a hint of Terry Hall meets John Cooper Clarke on ‘Secret Conversations’ before the toe-tapping pair of ‘Cos She’s Privilaged’ and ‘The Puppet Master’. The Skapones obviously have things to get off their chest, and mixing politics with danceable Ska is an old but beautiful concoction. Finally, ‘Before The War’ and the Red Stripe calling ‘Eyes Of A Child’ wrap up a maturer, more measured slice of North East Ska courtesy of the ever-flourshing, Skapones.
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