Andy B And The World – The First One (Pookout)

A few years ago well-known ska musician and producer Andy Baker was talking about an ambitious plan he had of touring the world, hooking up with local ska bands and getting them to contribute to the biggest collaborative album imaginable. Skip forward to the start of 2020 and we all know what happened to the world. Andy has had to scale down the ambitious scope of the original project as world events have obviously stopped him from travelling. What they haven't done though, is limit what can be done remotely by musicians working from home and so the idea has continued to flourish, with more than 170 members of 145 bands taking part. These aren't small bands either. Acts as established as Reel Big Fish, Hayseed Dixie, RX Bandits, Less Than Jake, The Toasters, Random Hand, Jaya The Cat and Faintest Idea rub shoulders with lesser lights from around the world and even a few names that I'd assumed had been consigned to musical history. Drawing in this many musicians has meant that the music that comes out the far end has got many, many influences on it from across the musical spectrum, and it's to his credit that Andy has managed to end up with it sounding like they're one band. There are times you can hear the multi-layering of musicians playing the same riff but bringing their own feel to it which gives an amazing depth to the tracks – Watch Your Back, for example, has an incredible 21 musicians on it, 15 of whom are the brass section alone… The work that has gone into making it sound like a tight and structured band is incredible. Heavily influenced by the 2-Tone sound, but with a brighter and more contemporary sound, it's quite ‘poppy' in places, angry in others, but at no time does it feel staid. The music has been reinvigorated, not just by the involvement of this many musicians with a wide and varied musical heritage, but also by the imagination of Mr Baker when it comes to bringing it all together and making it fit, something he has done with much greater ability than I suspect he actually realised when he came up with the idea.

Currently available in three formats: double LP format with a matching 12in booklet from pookoutrecords.co.uk, digital download only, and digital download with the album booklet from andybandtheworld.bandcamp. com and streaming from all the usual services.