We’ve all been hearing this twaddle about how the likes of have-a-go enthusiasts like The Ordinary Boys, Hard-Fi and The Dead 60s have been trying to kickstart this mythical ‘summer of Ska’ in recent times and personally it’s given this writer the best laugh he’s had since Mark. E. Smith said sacking one of his guitarists was akin to “the triangle player in Phil Collins’ band leaving.” Hur Hur.
However, thanks to London’s THE DUALERS, this hack may just have to indulge in a little of ye olde hat-eating, because – if we really must be subjected to this ‘summer of Ska’ – please let it be these cheeky chappies who do the soundtracking. Y’see The Dualers were brought up on the streets of Notting Hill and Brixton with a Father who helped bring the sound of Jamaica and sound systems to London in the late ‘60s and the real authentic sounds of Ska as it should be (to these ears any rate) are of the variety they are currently leaking into the lower end of the charts, mostly through old-fashioned methods like being out there gigging six to seven nights a week and actually caring about their music beyond whatever direction the NME tells us to go this week.
Their recent single “Don’t Go” gave us some idea what the album would be like with its’ sunny immediacy and a chorus so catchy it might well have been crafted from barbed wire. Unsurprisingly, its’ parent album, “The Melting Pot” (yes, the title refers to cultural cross-pollination) is chock full of such positivity and an enviable quota of memorably bonzer Ska-pop tunes.
Opener “Money” wafts past like a particularly lovely summer breeze and makes it clear that much of what follows will be easy, melodic and instantly addictive and so it proves, with ensuing tunes like “Stole The Show” and their dynamite cover of The Blues Busters’ “Won’t Let You Go” whacking you with choruses that sound like they could have been with you forever, yet still seem ridiculously fresh and the band vamping it up in fine style on the daft, Hammer Horror fun of “Jack The Ripper”, which really could have made it on to The Specials’ debut album.
|
Elsewhere, they pay heartfelt to both their Jamaican roots and London upbringing on tunes like “Wake Up”, “What A Result” and the great “Kiss On The Lips.” There’s more than an ounce or two of sweetest Marley in the slow’n’easy “Wake Up” (even down to the “Three Little Birds” organ), while the vocals on “What A Result” are seriously Mockney and “Kiss On The Lips” is niggly Ska-pop straight from the heart of Brixton and is the Cranstoun’s tribute to the streets of their town akin to Madness’s great “A Day On The Town”, but with some extra whirlwind romance lobbed in. Tremendous.
Of course The Dualers are sensible enough to allow a little shade in as well, and the moving “Urban Spirit” shows they can pull off hard-time ballads as well as sunsplash pop and the near-instrumental closer “Last Call For Freetown” is an all-too tangible tribute to the Cranstoun’s Mum who was forced to leave West Africa for London at the age of nine. It’s affecting, but gently euphoric all the same and – like the rest of this consistent debut – ensures the message is positivity first, even in the face of the most adverse circumstances.
Nonetheless, surely The Dualers’ whole oeuvre is encapsulated by the glowing immediacy of “Take A Trip” when the reggae sunsplash vibe is punctuated by gorgeously lazy, Rico Rodrigues-style trombone and The Cranstouns’ urging us to lie down in “sunshine, with a rum and coke in your hand/ on the jukebox ska and reggae as you lay in the sand” where – with a simple couplet – they conjure up the best way to experience the glorious experience that is “The Melting Pot.” Now pass the sunblock and shut up: I want to drift away for a while.
|
