Bombskare - The Black & White Album (2025)

Edgy 21st Century Ska Made in Scotland from Grrrrrders! Like many of my generation, I discovered Ska music via Two Tone and The Specials etc. way back when; and subsequently did a ‘deep dive’ back into the genre’s history … buying up loads of old CD’s … and also via a Fanzine called Do The Dog, I discovered a thriving sub culture around the world and Scotland still producing a zillion exciting hybrids of the format.

Nearly everyone on the scene are fabulous live; but very few can transfer the ‘excitement and edge’ of their stage shows into the studio … Bombskare are one of the very few who’s recorded output stands shoulder to shoulder with the household names from the 80’s.

By Ska standards, opening track I Superman is almost epic! It’s a thrill a minute as they take on life, love and The Stranglers on a bouncy and very, very danceable tune.

The mood drops somewhat for Privileged Man; but that’s mostly has they channel their anger at the Class struggle into a very punchy set of lyrics that could easily have come from the Specials second album.

One of the joys of Bombskare is that their clever arrangements seamlessly transfer from the studio to the stage or vice-versa which makes them stand head and shoulders above their contempories in a very crowded market place; check out The Feelings Gone, Mr Popularity and/or Your Call to hear a band at the top of their game and not sounding quite like anyone else in the crowd.

It’s never easy to write a good (powerful) politically nuanced song; but these lads and lasses drop musical time bombs like their name suggests; You Will Not Regret This, Stranger To Reason and the exceptional Thoughts and Prayers all bare deeper inspection than the funky beats make you feel on first hearing them.

BLACK AND WHITE is a really special album, as it’s all ‘killer – no filler’ which is a rarity for a lot of Ska albums released this century; which brings me to a bunch of songs that all of which could and surely deserve radio airplay; the tongue in cheek 21st Century Ska Superstars will either start or close any future gigs; Mr Popularity and the ever so pogolicious Turned Out Wrong which follow each other sound like two chapters of the same story to me and certainly deserve your attention.

That’s about it my friends; if you liked The Specials, Madness and The Beat etc in your youth; you can re-live those heady days by buying a copy of BLACK AND WHITE !