The Mercurials Tend the Fire

They are in their thirties, meaning they are "too much too young" to have felt the vibrations of the ska revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s live, when The Specials, The Selecter, Madness and the likes of The Beat were electrifying England at a time when social tensions were running high and were getting brass missiles into the charts, hitting all of Europe. Far too young, it goes without saying, to have experienced the initial shakes of the music that would fuel all that was to come: 1960s Jamaican ska and it's later evolutions, bluebeat or rocksteady, from which reggae drew it's essence and fever. They are neither from Kingston nor Brixton, but from Montreuil, Paris suburbs, where you can just about see the twin towers "Les Mercuriales" on the horizon, making their anglicized name an allusion to their dual identity, a French heart with a British soul, with a side of the Caribbean. Their suit-and-tie rude-boys (and girl) look, their perfect mastery of the vocabulary and science of the pioneers of old - and older - in the studio show just that. The Mercurials are proudly raising the torch they have taken up and have something to tell you: this music is as alive, as vibrant and as invigorating as in the early days. In 1980, The Specials were singing "enjoy yourself", 45 years later, the invitation still stands and what a joy it is!