SKANKt
Thieves Operate In This Area (SKANKt)
SKANKt are a six-piece ska band. If certain sections of the music media are to be believed, however, you’d be lucky to find six people who are even interested in ska music nowadays, let alone that they should find each other and play in a band! Ska music after all, is dead.
Bollocks!
I know that for some people, ‘miserablist’ music floats their boat, perhaps taking solace from the thought that the performer is having a worse time of it than them. However, I am willing to bet that the vast majority listen to music for FUN. To make them smile, dance and sing. And this album fits the bill.
Coming from Cheltenham, Skankt would seem to be following along the path blazed several years ago by the likes of geographical neighbours [Spunge.] However, the county of Gloucestershire is where the similarity ends. Whereas the latter band were – and still are – great exponents of glib, ‘fad’ ska produced for prepubescent crowds around the UK, Skankt I feel grant more than a passing nod to first and second-wave ska rather than the usually favoured third generation.
Whilst the saxophone can appear inspired by early Madness (check out current single ‘The Cruise’) the sax, trumpet and bass combination is as tight and smooth as The Slackers. And yet, the guitar and occasional slight dub-sound could have been produced by ska-core heavyweights, Capdown! And though the sadly missed Adequate Seven were more of a funk / punk band than ska, there is a resemblance peeking from behind the curtains of ‘Thirty Five Ten.’
Now – nobody can tell me that any two of the previously mentioned bands sound alike. So, isn’t it pretty clever for Skankt to blend all this together and pour out an effervescent cocktail that they can brand as their own?
SKANKt – THE THINKING MAN’S SKA BAND!
(Personal note: if anyone listens to this album, please check out track # 9 – ‘Something Like A Fatal Attraction’ – and confirm the similarity in the verses, especially so immediately after the guitar solo towards the end, to America’s ‘Horse With No Name.’ Honest! The words of the Seventies classic fit perfectly – try it!!)
Colin Jackson
