Those who mourn the passing of the third wave ska revival (killed in its infancy by the swing-dance craze that tore through the American pop music scene in the mid-'90s, leaving nothing but nu-metal in its wake) will remember New York's Stubborn Records/Version City scene with special affection. When it seemed like every record label was signing barely competent 17-year-old ska bands and half of those bands were playing a half-baked fusion of ska and punk, groups like
the Stubborn All Stars,
the Slackers, and
Skinnerbox were buckling down in
Jeff "King Django" Baker's Version City studio and churning out rich, sweet, smoky reggae, ska, and rocksteady grooves that drew deeply on Jamaican roots and culture without succumbing to the temptation of slavish imitation. Version City went dormant for a while, but it's back with a new batch of New York reggae and rocksteady, this time released on the Asian Man label, and the sound is as hot as ever. Several of the usual suspects are still around -- studio headman
King Django appears on this compilation at the head of several ensembles and delivers both highly credible old-school toasting on "Jammyland Bag" and an even more exciting ska-klezmer fusion on "L'Khayim," as well as some pretty compelling punk-rap-reggae on "Voodoo Altar." Other high points on the program come courtesy of the Speakeasies, whose brilliant "Top Ranking" is a new rocksteady tune that would have made
Lloyd Daley proud, and a lovely little piece of 1950s R&B by
Lord Sledge's Soul Shakers that is only distantly related to reggae but offers just under three minutes of pure audio bliss anyway. On the downside are a mediocre acoustic number by the Inducers and a collaboration between
Skinnerbox and
Jack Ruby Jr. that should have been spectacular and is instead only quite good. Highly recommended overall.