Artist: The Ska Vengers
Album: Debut LP
Label: EMI
Release Date: 30 Dec 2012
Songs: 11
Noteworthy: My Conversation & When don’t you do it right
There is something incredibly sexy about lead singer, Samara Chopra, and her red lips. She starts singing and you just stop moving. There are no two ways about it. Clad in interesting clothes, she and the rest of The Ska Vengers manage to intrigue and maintain it.
The hit the music scene with a bang in 2009 and gained popularity due to the lack of danceable live music that wasn’t EDM. They are currently prominent performers around the country, having performed at Blue Frog in Delhi and Opus in Bangalore. Delhi-based, the band is known to like The Clash, King Tubby and Fela Kuti, drawing inspiration to create their unique ‘Ska Ska’ rhythms with dub, punk and rap to create a new flavour of music that is highly danceable.
Apart from being featured on VH1 who created unique animation to go with the bands tunes, the bank gained a large following through the once popular Ska! Ska! Ska! Evening at Q’BA in Delhi. The bank has a very curious old-meets-new vibe to their music that can get the laziest member of a crowd grooving. Following the release of Rude Boy Skank on the Stupid Ditties IV Compilation Album come a smile-worthy series of songs on their LP.
Coming to the individual tracks, the slow moving numbers take you back to a black-and-white era that reminisces gangsters and sleek suits. I personally love When don’t you do it right which from first chord took me back to an era that is one of my ultimate favourites. Another enjoyable Jamaican number is My Conversation that would be most impressive live. Another nice simple number is Mr Big Stuff, a number that will see you finding yourself a partner.
Unfortunately there are a few disappointments. Bam Intifada doesn’t catch you quite how some of the other songs do. There is a little repetition to some of the tracks though. Gunshot and The boy that radiates that charm have similar music lines underneath that makes you feel like you are listening to the same song again. Even Vampire starts the same way, though picks up a nice rhythm a few beats in. And it doesn’t hurt that the lyrics of this number are too quirky to ignore.
Ska! Ska! Ska! Ska! Ska!
Ska!
Skavenger Photo courtesy: Parikhit Pal
