Going Ballistic

The Ballistic Brothers made a handful of laid back, jazzy, electronic, street albums in the 1990s. I sometimes wish they’d toughen up at bit, dig deeper into Ashley Beedle’s reggae and Rocky and Diesel’s house backgrounds, but there’s some good stuff in the back catalogue. London Hooligan Soul from 1995 has the very ace ska tribute song Peckings, which appeared here well over a year ago. The album also has highly entertaining sleeve notes romantically detailing ‘London hooligan soul’ life- bunking school, casual clothing (Fila, Lacoste, Lois, Tachini), Blair Peach, soul weekenders, Studio One, the Tory government, The Jam, Phuture, East Grinsted, Bognor, poll tax riots- ‘a thousand stories of promised lands and meccas’. This song closed the album.

Uschi’s Lament

The Ballistic Brothers ‘Peckings’

The Ballistic Brothers were a post-Acid House supergroup of sorts, made up of Ashley Beedle, Rocky and Diesel, and Nuphonics David Hill, specialising in ‘jazz influenced, down-tempo, funky electronica music’ (quote from Wiki, doesn’t sound too appealing put like that does it?).

This is Peckings, tribute a London reggae record shop. The track is a blast, sounding like it could have come out of Jamaica’s Studio 1 in the late 60s rather than Shepherd’s Bush in the mid 1990s. Proper skanking action.

Peckings.mp3