If there is a band more astute at mixing and merging genres than Fishbone, then I want them rounded up and put on display in one of the bigger Hard Rock cafes immediately. Since 1979, this Los Angeles sonic institution has been redefining the sonic landscapes of ska, punk and funk, metal, reggae, and soul and through those genres, and morfe besides, creating a signature sound and live delivery that is powerful and poignant, explosive and energized, music with something to say and a way of saying it like none other.
Twenty years have passed since their last full album, 2006’s Still Stuck in Your Throat but Stockholm Syndrome proves that they have lost neither their musical acumen, originality, nor their willingness to challenge the injustices that they see around them, as singles such as “Racist Piece of Shit,” a denouncement of Donald Trump, and the George Clinton enhanced “Last Call in America” clearly demonstrate.
But it is an album with all manner of sonic creations, “Dog Eat Dog” is a big beat, stomping mix of rock and slightly psych-soul sounds smoothing the edges, there are mad and marvellous arrays with “Gelato The Clown,” a slightly unhinged, jazz-jive groover and “Hellhounds on my Trail” feels like the intoxicating echo of a small club in 1980 Coventry. UK as punk and ska came together to create the British two-tone sound. But whatever sound they are making, they are always speaking brutal truth to the powers-that-be!
And so, in a whirlwind of buoyant brass and punk energy, ska grooves, and funk euphoria, they lyrically lay waste to a country that they see enthralled by its own populist, political captors, and do so in no uncertain terms. Stockholm Syndrome indeed.
