3 out of 5
Label: Asian Man Records
Produced by: Olav Tabatabai (Slow Gherkin, recorded by), Rick Johnson (Mu330, recorded by, mixed by)
Please pardon how patronizing this will sound, but: cute. I mean, I’ll sound like I’m patronizing ska in general, but it has been / remained the genre that’s somewhat stuck in its 80s 2-tone or 90s “skunk” variants for the most part, and that does not exclude groups who know how to revive it freshly or make it new, but nonetheless, I don’t know that I hear things that sound radically of the modern day.
Whilst you judge my clearly undiscerning ears, let’s focus on exactly what this 7″ is, though: two third-wave acts who were primarily active during the 90s, with Mu330 only having reappeared for a digital single in 2017, but otherwise, setting aside members’ side projects, releases under the names “Slow Gherkin” and “Mu330” haven’t graced our shelves for a while, or only periodically in a way that stokes the nostalgia engines.
Such as this 7″.
Slow Gherkin’s side is very standard third-wave fare, down to the “I’m a rowdy teen who never learns my lessons” lyrics, which are… either also nostalgic or just kind of weird, and maybe cringey since there’s now a vape reference in there. But it’s well performed and pleasant, even if its verse-chorus-verse ska-rock keys + horns on the chorus mix is, again, bog-standard stuff.
Mu330 always had a lot more charm to me, primarily thanks to Dan Potthast’s never-ending cache of catchy pop tunes and a preference for leaning into punkier / anarchic moments. The lyrics are of Dan’s goofier lovey dovey stuff, but as ever with that guy, it’s goofy in a clever and fun way, and though I feel like the song starts sounding like The Bricks or Ultra Panic‘s also rather standard ska-rock stuff, it kicks off in that more punky vein that makes me wish we had another few tracks to see where the band could take us.
Kudos to Asian Man for the design on this: the cover is appropriately 90s comix vibed, while the 7″ labels are silly hand-drawn things with ziney liner notes.
