Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

The ska revival in the USA Christian music scene has mirrored an underground revival in ska music in the mainstream scene over there. To British ears, it may seem strange that once more the sounds of The Specials and those other 2 Tone acts from the late '70s are finding a new audience amongst American teens tired of grungey rock! Although bands like The Insyderz and The Supertones have managed to create quite a reasonable profile, there are plenty of other bands bubbling under and this N-Soul compilation brings the best together, although this is occasionally tenuo-us! This actually brought back weird flashbacks of the British 'Shots In the Dark' comp from the early '80s! So let me just rave about my faves!! The Skadaddles' furious "Unsaid" is a good example of a chunky rhythm and plenty of horns. This, it has to be said, is also the glory of the wonderfully named Big Dog Small Fence who manage to create a bit of a Nutty Boy feel for "Finite". Solomon's Porch and The Israelites have adopted a more '60s ska feel for their songs and chosen to not add in a little grungey rock into the mix and their songs stand out for that. Some things are just curiously quirky and therefore worth a mention! Sideshow Cafe do a fast paced ska cover of an old Don Francisco song - "Praise The Lord" - and boy it works! Great fun too. Talking of fun, the Zion Mennonite Youth Group serve up a happy song called "Servin"' with most of the group contributing vocals at some stage! Weird but it works! I'd be very surprised if new Word signees Skypark would be happy that "Wax Tadpole" from the indie album they are trying to forget has turned up on here! Like all indie comps, this one has mixed production values, some crackin' tracks and surprisingly few turkeys! Whether the porkpie hat will ever make a comeback amongst Christian music lovers over here is another thing! Nostalgic 2-Tone lovers should snap this up!

From CR54:
N-Soul's non-dance music label weighs in here with an intriguing compilation of ska groups. Some of the bands here have been signed, the seriously successful Insyderz, the Dingees (now with BEC) while the Skadaddles have been signed by Eclectica themselves. Not surprisingly, they turn in some of the best cuts here, though there's plenty more skanking delights on offer here by bands who are unlikely to be giving up their day jobs in the foreseeable future. So let's hear it for, among them, the Philibusters from Illinois, the Newmans from Arizona, the Zion Mennonite Youth Group from Pennsylvania or PAX from California. Sometimes the songs are in your face gospel ("Praise The Lord"), sometimes cretinous teen anthems ("Girls...I Like Them"), sometimes the riffing brass sections are tight and punchy, sometimes laughably shambolic, but there's so much neo-Two Tone fun here that if you're keen to find out why our American cousins are crazy about those ska rhythms, this is one to investigate.
7 squares
Tony Cummings

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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