Booze & Glory – The Reggae Sessions Vol. 2. 12″ EP (Pirates Press Records)

Here’s another good release, recently released by Pirates Press Records. I was pleasantly surprised when this vinyl arrived at Thoughts Words Action headquarters. Since 2009, Booze & Glory paved their path to punk stardom, and their music is widely known to the international streetpunk crowd. There’s more than a good reason for their success. In less than a decade, Booze & Glory released a tremendous amount of outstanding full-length releases, extended plays, singles and appeared ona several international various artist compilations. Their hard work paid off with an impressive fanbase, rarely seen in punk rock circles. Recently, this British-Polish streetpunk group unleashed an installment of reggae songs called The Reggae Sessions Vol. 2. That’s more than a good reason to write a couple of more words about it.

The Reggae Sessions Vol. 2. comes after a very successful, critically acclaimed first installment of the reggae sessions. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to hear the first edition, but I will have to check it out right after this one. Judging by the visual appearance, this release looks like most of a modern reggae/dub vinyl record, so you’ll probably immediately grab it in the record store if you’re profoundly into the beforementioned genres. The front cover included a widely known Trojan sign, trumpets, palms, and sun rays all around. The giant Booze & Glory logo shines bright at the top, while the album title is at the bottom. The back contains the tracklist and regular information about the record label. This particular release comes without inlay because these are reggae versions of their recent hits. Also, I have to admit that this yellow piss with black galaxy vinyl looks mindblowing.

Booze & Glory edited, rearranged, adapted their recent hits, and recorded them to suit reggae sonic aesthetics. I have to admit these sessions turned out surprisingly well, and I bet all these tunes would pass as potential hits on renowned reggae radio stations. It’s mind-boggling how streetpunk music sounds when you play with the arrangements and structures of the songs. Each version is soothing, cheerful, danceable, and unquestionably different from the original versions, which is quite good, in my opinion. There are a couple of guests appearances on these sessions by Polish punk rock musicians/groups such as Karolina Duszkiewicz of CF98, Skankan, and Zbeer. I had to admit that I solely enjoyed Karolina’s vocal performance at Blood From The Stone, which is probably the best track on these reggae sessions if you ask me. Still, that doesn’t mean the other tunes are not worth your attention. Quite the contrary, you’ll get instantly hooked once you listen to it, and you’ll probably spin this vinyl record over and over again.

The Reggae Sessions Vol. 2 on blood red with black galaxy and yellow piss with black galaxy variant. Each variant is limited to 1000 copies. Head over to Pirates Press Records for more information about ordering.