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December 1, 2024


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See Spot
Is There Any Love In Your Ska? (Landera Records/909-864-7218)

By: Alex Steininger

See Spot serves up traditional ska with a bite on their latest release, "Is There Any Love In Your Ska?" on Landera Records. Fourteen tracks, for a combined total of forty-five minutes, feed you soulful ska again and again.

The CD starts off with "Last Dance." A strong horn section, light drums, the ska guitar, bass lines that pull everything together, and vocals loaded with soul make your body move to the music. Track two serves up more of the goods with "No Not Me." The guitar will get your feet moving, while the horns will fill your body with so much love that you won't want the song to end. Add to that drums and bass that keep everything strong, and vocals that add the extra touch. "Heart and Soul," is a story about love gone bad. But there's no bad feelings here. Everyone is happy and dancing to the music. Even the lyrics aren't filled with anger, just regret. "I was so blind/I could not see/that the girl was not right for me" shows that they don't have any bad feelings, just sorry that they couldn't see the future. And who isn't? But with a beat like they put to the music, you won't be thinking about the future. You'll just be enjoying the present. The title track starts out with some keyboards that will get your body relaxed and ready to move. Then the horns come in with some very calm beats, and soon the rest of the band joins in. Then someone comes on and softly speaks some words. The rest of the song goes the instrumental route. Combining a brilliant college of horn melodies with the classic ska guitar, and smooth drum and bass beats you get a feeling of warmth throughout your body. "Tell There Was You," is full of soothing vocals that blend with the horns nicely. Then another voice comes in, and the vocals aren't as nice anymore. It sounds like a mess. It soon goes back to the one person vocals, and all is well again. The CD ends with "Jubalation." The bass at the starting adds some nice flavor to it, and then the song cruises into it's standard setting. Horns that warm your soul, a guitar that gets your feet moving, and the bass and drums holding everything nicely.

See Spot delivers some nice, clean traditional ska that is sure to please any purist. And to make it even more tempting to buy the CD, it has a limited run of 1,000. If your into traditional ska, give this record a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised. An A- effort on the bands part.

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