Version City CD

On this compilation, several ska artists collaborate to map the earliest sounds of the style's movement. There is no shortage of ska albums to date, but Version City is an exemplary one. Tracks such as "Motel Room" by Lord Sluggo and "Cocaine" by Lord Sluggo and the Demanders are two cuts in a block of lo-fi, steadily rocking tracks; the two send shivers down one's spine, urging one to play them over and over. Further along in this well-ordered collection is a sub-tropical jubilance from Ua Hele Kakou, Crazy Baldhead, and Gravity as the island and two-tone sounds mix. Also included is a reverb-laden worldbeat/reggae dub from Mutiny, a smoking and horn-fueled "Midnight Version" from Selika with Django. This is an excellent and easy-flowing look at the root sounds of this reggae subgenre and the course of its development. ~ Tom Schulte

The record that started it all, featuring members of Stubborn All-Stars, Skinnerbox, the Slackers, The Pilfers, Bouncing Souls, The Pietasters, The Toasters, Dub Is A Weapon, The Scofflaws and more!This collaboration features a host of New York City's finest, best-known and most productive ska musicians getting busy together, building tracks at Stubborn's Version City Studio. The end result is something entirely new and unique, something that could only happen at Version City. In 1997 the New York City Ska scene exploded with a sound which shook the world. With the success of bands such as Skinnerbox, Stubborn All-Stars, The Toasters, The Scofflaws, Mephiskapheles, The Slackers, and The Insteps, the New York sound made an indelible and global impression on ska music. Stubborn Records' Version City Studio was a hotbed of the creativity which spawned this movement. Members of all of these bands and more collided at impromptu recording sessions and jammed together regularly at Stubborn's Version City parties. The Version City concept fostered a level of interplay and activity which has not been seen in ska since Kingston, Jamaica in the 1960's. The music that came out of this environment ruled the international ska scene in its day and set a benchmark for the present and future of ska, rocksteady and reggae!