A happenstance of happy skanks and scrapes from this Hellcat debut, which, like The Aggrolites earlier this year, eschews any ska-punk street slanted skate park schisms and instead spits out a cross cultural compound of heavy rolling rocksteady and light footed soul-Staxed inflected rhythms. Happily, this organically osmotic outpouring is from the heart and not solely slowly emerging from some self-indulgent, right on hemp haze. The vocalising has the soft, socially sensitive aspect of Ben Harper and songs such as ‘For The First Time’ and the exquisite ‘I’m No Different’ float on old time rhythm ‘n’ blues soul revues featuring Rosco Gordon’s ‘No More Doggin’ and Etta James midnight brass jamboree’s full of sorrow and hope, and a sublimely natural soulfulness that you don’t learn in no sermon. Harmonies that drift by like a gentle summer breeze in a wheat-field, as on ‘Gone’, recall vocal groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops while jazzy flamenco flames burn down smoothly on ‘The Test’ in a blaze of ragtime ska glory. An album full of feel and feet moving treasures this is roots that cause such tremors the weight slopes off your shoulders and you’re supplanted serenely up to some pastoral scene straight outta Constable amid crucibles of incandescent coolness. __________________________________________________

- Stu Gibson