Rude girls grito! Far from home perhaps, but so, so worth mentioning for tropical vibes of rock steady and ska in a fashion proportionately youโll find hard to come by around these parts, itโs my beloved all-girl-bar-one Mexican ska band, Girls Go Ska with a bran-new album Frente al Mar. Girls and ska, whatโs not to like?!
From the off, the title track simply melts, mellowly, and builds in tempo, but is never overdramatic; โcoolโ is the operative word; fresco! If Iโve put them on a pedestal before, theyโve now put another couple of pedestals atop it. Often steady paced for the genre, it proves ska, while upbeat doesnโt have to be full of macho-bravura skinheads, or a frenzied rancour attack against dogmatic tyranny itโs often misperceived here through the eightiesโ second-generation Two-Tone scene, and within the dominate contemporary ska-punk internationally. Iโve made this point in the past when penning a more general piece about ska and reggae in South America, in which Girls Go Ska were featured.
Frente al Mar is breezy, bright and fun, light-hearted and beguiling. It roots the genre to its original Jamaican ethos, as a carefree dance music. Though, thereโs a large chunk of assumption with those observations, as my Spanish isnโt up to scratch, so my presumption rests on the design, the album name, which translates to the seaside, basically, and mood of the vocals; if theyโre singing about anything other than romantic themes and enjoying oneself dancing on a tropical beach, like making political statement, it certainly doesnโt sound that way! You just have to enjoy the professionality and untroubled vibe this album breezes in your direction, itโs gorgeous, and it absolutely skanks!
Packaged femininely in loud pink and decorated with cute shลjo manga, rather than our typecast black and white chequered trade identity with Walt Jabsco splashed all over, Frente al Mar provides an alternative to norm, but is no way attributes the โfairer sex,โ rather riot grrrl kick-ass in tenet, gender-neutral in sound. Not that punk comes into play; throughout itโs steadfast traditional ska sound, one should credit Studio One rather than Two-Tone, or even Reel Big Fish for, thereโs also sprinklings of Latino sound traditional to Mexico, of ranchera, norteรฑo and their contemporary offshoots, but are subtle and likely naturally occurring.
Imagine, if your English mind will adapt, Gloria Estefan performing ska, and youโre nearer to the mark than The Specials. But no, eight sublimely flowing tunes is what you get, a sun-kissed blessing on the ear, in the style of brass-based rock steady and good olโ ska. While pukka boys, Death of Guitar Pop are currently returning the welcomed Nutty-Boys-esque frivolous and fairground ska home for lads, further afield, here comes the girls.
Meanwhile here in my hometown of Devizes, the newly opened rum bar, The Muck & Dundar has been a roaring success, proving a taste of the tropical is welcomed, ergo, taken out of its context and origins, Frente al Mar would make the perfect soundtrack to it. Me? I’m smitten, with a little crush!
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