Even though Jamaican genres like ska, rocksteady, reggae and dub are beginning to take hold in the former Eastern bloc, Mother Russia is still lagging behind. Lollypop Lorry, an eight-piece band from Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the the Ural Federal District, was founded in 2008 and with this aptly titled 'Ural Station' presents a new long player.
In the tracklist a balanced mix of instrumental songs and vocal tracks, own compositions interspersed with adaptations of, among others, 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes', a 1948 jazz standard pianist and arranger Jerome 'Jerry' Braininin composed for the soundtrack of the film 'Night Has A Thousand Eyes', 'Moose The Mooche', a bebop song by saxophonist Charlie Parker, 'Lujon' (also known as 'Slow Hot Wind'), a 1961 composition by composer, arranger and pianist Heny Mancini, and finally Skatalites classic 'Garden Of Love', written by Don Drummond. Definitely noteworthy is 'Colombus 1503', Lollypop Lorry uptempo ska version of Duke Pearson's slow paced 'Prairie Dog'.
Perhaps less obvious are 'Supernova', a cover of the song of the same name by Russian funk and soul band Funky Bizness Gang, 'L'Air', a reinterpretation of 'Ce Matin-là' by the French duo Air, or 'Brown Baby', written by songwriters and producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff and immortalized by Billy Paul.
The vocal contributions were provided by Svetlana Eremeeva, who can be heard in 'Moscow Ska Festival', an ode to the festival of the same name that was organized in the Russian capital in 2015 and 2016, the aforementioned 'Supernova', and the very successful 'Cats On The Roof', and Tenor Youthman also makes an appearance in 'Chant', a song sounding like a forgotten Jamaican roots gem from the nineteen seventies and immediately one of our absolute favorites from the tracklist.
Catchy Caribbean vibes from the heart of the Ural!