UK ska punk and regional genre mashes

[originally posted May 10th 2023 on cohost

Most of the conversation about the current ska punk scene is centered around the scene in the US, but many of my favourite ska punk bands are from the UK and I had a sense for a while that UK ska punk had a particular sound that sets it apart from bands in the US, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly it is.

Mostly just as a joke, yesterday, I tweeted "whats going on in the UK that makes you so good at making ska punk", and I actually got into a bit of an exchange with Common Sense Kid (who dropped one of my favourite albums of the year so far about 6 weeks ago), and he pointed out how the influences from outside genres are different in the UK, and that particularly dub reggea is heavily intertwined with the ska scene in the UK.

"I think it's just the inclusion of other genres that aren't as popular state side which gives it a more unique sound. You can go as far back as capdown for that. With ska core, dub, hiphop and even occasional drum n bass sample.
It's also on the heavier side.
[...]
The dub reggae scene is big here but it's more intertwined with ska. For example Skints, Dub Pistols, Gentleman's Dub Club. So a lot of fans of ska punk here like that as well.
There used to be drum n bass DJ sets after local punk shows I went to back in the day also"

- Common Sense Kid on twitter, May 10th 2023. Links to tweets: [x]; [x]

I've had a sense of dub influence being the reason why this in particular tickles my brain so nicely, but to have someone knowledgable actually confirm this, particularly cause many of the bands I like most prominently feature electronics, like Common Sense Kid himself, Sonic Boom Six or Popes of Chillitown. Even those that aren't explicitly electronic definitely have a strong sense of dub influence, like King Prawn or Imperial Leisure, or even hardcore bands like Roshambo or Capdown. Even if you can't explicitly pick out any obvious elements of sounds of British styles of electronic music, some more subtle elements like rhythm, flow, or sonic texture probably still seeps into the sound of many of these bands.

There's definitely exceptions, for example I would argue Call Me Malcolm's and Millie Manders' sounds fit in better with the US bands, and they're both absolutely still bands I hold in extremely high regard, and so do I many bands from the US that have absolutely nothing in common with the UK sound.

I feel like the typical US ska sound is much more influenced by pop punk and power pop, which is closer to the typical third wave 90s ska sound most people are probably familiar with, with bands like Kill Lincoln, Catbite, We are on the Union or Less Than Jake. Bands that are more experimental with influences draw either upon jazz or funk (e.g. Fishbone, Mephiskapheles, Crazy 8s) or various styles of Latin American music like mariachi or cumbia (Young Costello, Matamoska, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Hans Gruber and the Die Hards, I guess Streetlight Manifesto as well?). I'm not very good with identifying genres outside of rock and punk, so apologies if I got some things wrong.

Ultimately this is all a matter of taste and what sound I'm looking for at any given moment, Young Costello and Streetlight Manifesto are some of my favourite bands for example, but the dub-infused UK ska punk definitely does a lot for me and it's very notable to me now that this sound is not really present in US bands.

I don't know where I'm going with this I just think it's very interesting to think of regional influences of other genres, even within a genre that's already a fusion of two pretty specific genres that you would think would have it's own, very particular niche, but no, there's so many sub niches and cross-polination in surrounding culture and it's awesome