Kickback UK – Persevering with Positivity

There are interesting ways to open an album and then there are interesting ways to open an album. Alienating your band from the entire Scottish nation might be construed as a downright curious opening. Okay, so “We Are Never Going Back to Montrose” with its Garth Marenghi samples and Angus baiting probably isn’t actually going to estrange this band but what is instantly evident is that what follows is quality skacore music that pulverizes the heavy with the danceable.

Kickback UK (the UK part prevents the band from being mistaken for some other band in Addis Abada or likewise) has been around awhile but following line-up changes and the usual unsigned band rigmarole has now decided to drop ‘Persevering With Positivity’, a debut seven-tracker crammed full of jovial ska brass, heavy guitar licks and an immediacy that never goes amiss within the genre.

“Breaking and Entering” and “Don’t Call Us (We Won’t Call You Either)” both follow the ska verse, heavy breakdown, gang vocal chorus draft that belies the bands influences and roots. Closer “Risk It for a Biscuit” even includes a Guitar Hero-esque solo approach that marks the track out as that little more epic. It’s not all beefy rock though. “Foundations” and the aforementioned “…Montrose” are both tracks that have that skankable (is that even a word?) dance floor feel to them. This is fun yet intense all at once.

Perhaps the band may be overdoing it on the pop-culture sample front (there’re six instances of blurb lifted from TV and film). The original output here is strong enough to stand alone from what could be conceived as gimmick material. Saying that, anybody that pastes the “World’s Best B.A. Baracus Quote” into a song deserves super-mega-bonus points. At the end of the day it’s all in the name of fun and, as stated on “All the Wrong Reasons”, that’s exactly what being in a band should be about: fun.

File this right between The JB Conspiracy and Howards Alias, on the same shelf as Chief and Random Hand; it’s ska-punk with heavier roots sprouting out for all to hear. All in all, it’s boldly impressive.

Alex