Skafunderz - Négy

Okay so Hungarian ska band. I am excited to listen because I like European ska a bunch. It sounds cool, but I got no clue what they are saying. Maybe I should learn Hungarian. Anyways, they sound good. I can dig stylistic variety, ranging from an upbeat ska-punk feel to a more laid back reggae feel. Some of the tracks are in English, as it turns out. Track four, Patkány, is my favorite. There's a pretty cool remix of it at the end. This album is pretty good; I like it a lot.

Skafunderz

The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot

Two minutes in and holy shit is this Simcity 4? But fo real the chord progression and rhythm from a song on the SC4 soundtrack was undoubtedly influence by the I Robot title track. This sounds like some funky groove, very much similar to Pink Floyd. Then suddenly it sounds like folk. But only for a little bit. Then it's progressive rock again. Track four, dat brass.Even some disco influence. Do like. Pretty good stuff.

The Alan Parsons Project

Fatal Fraud - No Torso

I'm getting a light ska punk vibe from this EP. The first song has quite a heavy sax presence, which I dig. Later on in the EP parts diverge and it gets pretty busy, which I can appreciate, but I'm not really feeling the sound of it right now. The overall sound I'm feeling is a laidback EP with little individual parts and passages that would sound a whole lot better in a more aggressive setting. I'm gonna listen to some other stuff by No Torso and see if I get anything like that out of it. Also, another reason I'll continue listening to this artist in spite of my overall lack of satisfaction is that they were signed on to Asian Man Records, and I like a lot of stuff on that label.

No Torso

Fitz and the Tantrums - Songs for a Break Up Volume 1

I'm really diggin the bari sax on the first track but that is just super bias because I am a bari sax. This sounds like it belongs in the workout montage of one of those movies where the underprivileged black kid becomes a football star on the all-white team. At least the first track does. Oh boy! Further in I'm hearing bari saxes and struck idiophones which are like the greatest combo ever. I'd definitely listen to this album EP again. It sounds kinda like Motown with dreampop thrown in, and it sounds pretty good. 

Fitz and the Tantrums

Time Out - Dave Brubeck Quartet

The first track, Blue Rondo a la Turk, started out sounding like it was gonna be happy but then it turned into the creepy kind of happy like circus music. Its got those jazzy sax interludes so it sounds cool and circus alternating and I like it. I think there's some cool meter changes in there too; the sax sounds 4/4 and the rest sounds triplet or 9/8. This feels like a pretty standard cool jazz album. Each piece seems to have a cool horn lick that's just played over the rhythm section a few times in modulated keys. Its still pretty good, but I'm partial to swing rather than cool jazz and bop and the like.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet

From The Cradle To The Rave - A Nightmare On Wall Street

This is kinda scary. The first track is a weird sample. Next up is a drum & bass diddly with some nasty drums and a ska guitar riff going on. I was doing a bit of reading up on this while listening to it and apparently the artists label themselves as crackrocksteady and riotstep but those sound pretty subgenre of ska to me so I'm gonna tag it as ska and drum and bass. I'm really digging this album. I'd love to see this band live. The dnb with little ska interludes is something really unique, and it's pretty well executed in my opinion. Listening to this album again is a definite thing; it is staying in my library for sure. Its a free download on the label's bandcamp (linked below!!) too, so be sure to give it a listen for no loss on your part.

From The Cradle To The Rave

(a side note on the label)
There's quite a few artists on this label. The label seems pretty dedicated to dnb, punk, and ska fusion (riotstep as they call it) so be sure to check out riottunes if you like this.

In Motion - Wait For Green

Judging from the first track, Next Wave, this is like a college rock/reggae deal. I dunno why but I also get a numetal kind of feely feel. Not really a good feel either. I'm not really feeling this EP. Feels feels feels feels. None of the riffs or lyrics are really standing out and sticking with me. I think if this was on repeat I wouldn't notice because all the songs kind of sound the same.

Wait For Green