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having chanced across these guys before in the previous 15 years 'twas a
nice surprise to have it falling through my letterbox the other week as
it's been blowing the cobwebs and cold out of these damp dark-roomed
wintry days with this warm, sunshiny afternoon brew on the back-porch with
yer buddies or a wander into a bar after your shift of eternal drudgery
and having a cold gin slung across the top to you as effortlessly as this
feelgood flow of skanking blues-bled reggae soulful rockin'. Simply a
cleansing combination of roots music of all kinds, with dub and
reggae at it's centre, they possess the free-flowing spirit of fun found
around E Street a la 'The River' (on the title track especially and 'Keep
It Simple') hooking you up with their pure enjoyment and
capturing, or in fact possessing, the soulful inspirational religiosity of
the most righteous testified reggae (a quite beautiful take on dreary
Dylan's 'I Shall Be Released') with it's militant edge (the
razor straight talking 'International War Criminal', kinda
Steve Earle reefered-up and rankled) and sweet sweet music, delivering a
delightful testimony to Dion on 'Set The Girl Free'. Yep,
unbeliever sat there all incredulous, this Vic Ruggiero chap could give
the dextrous Mr. DiMucci a serious ride if they ever duetted, just check
the similarly sublime 'What Went Wrong' for a dapper display to rival
Dion's early / mid seventies rehab records.
For
someone like me who doesn't listen to a great deal of reggae in general,
the straight ahead dub songs tend to drone a bit, lacking the bounce
inherent in their all encompassing mix of RnB, soul and Rock'n'Roll with a
heart beating, and beaten by, the blues. But as a whole this 'Peculiar'
thing is as fresh and (re)vital(ising) as anything I've received
for a good few weeks, even months. A definite contender, more like a
crusader.
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