Up Your Ears Volume 3
Various Artists
Grover
Here’s a look at what’s going on in the international ska scene, in a great, budget-priced compilation from Germany’s top ska and reggae label, Grover. Even at what you’d have to pay for an import copy of this disc, Up Your Ears Volume 3 provides enough material not available in the states to make its purchase worthwhile – only tracks from the late, lamented Edna’s Goldfish and Skoidats, the apparently reviving (hooray!) Adjusters, and one of the tracks from the seminal Dr. Ring-Ding & the Senior Allstars have been released in the US, to my knowledge. New treats come from the likes of England’s the Hotknives (with the 2 Tone-y masterpiece “Rules of the Game”), Germany’s Ngobo Ngobo (with the similarly infectious “I’m On TV”), and Spain’s Malarians (with the sultry Latin ska of “Disparallo”). Acts better-known to American ears include the Stubborn All-Stars (with “Nutz Die Chancen,” an auf Deutsch version of last year’s “Take Your Chances”), Jamaican legends Laurel Aitken, Lord Tanamo, Rico, and Derek Morgan, and the aforementioned Dr. Ring-Ding and the Senior Allstars (with three tracks – the previously released “Long Time Music,” a ska version of “Ram Di Dance,” and the Ring-Ding-less Senior Allstars instrumental jam, “Sniff”). All in all, a nice picture of the ska scene around the world, circa: now. Recommended!
Grover Records, PO Box 3072, 48016 M•nster, Germany, Fax (49) 251-4848 940
