Fuera de Juego EP, Los SudacasCazador, Chile
Rating: 48
By Blanca Méndez
Not that it was ever alive and kicking or anything, but I thought ska died with the last vestiges of Sublime and No Doubt, when Gwen Stefani discovered Japan and pop music and recruited her Harajuku girls. That’s why I was surprised that Chile’s Los Sudacas were brave enough to attempt to resurrect the genre with their EP, Fuera de Juego. However, their effort was not valiant enough because the album sounds like something your high school buddies might have put together for battle of the bands that one time they decided it would be fun to be in a band even though none of them had much musical experience beyond playing the trombone in the school jazz band. Sure, you stood in the front row and cheered them on, but you knew that they wouldn’t win.
“Candidato,” the leading track, though not quite as hard-hitting as was it was no doubt intended to be, is actually quite amusing. There are several chuckle-inducing lines, like “voy a pasearme por tu barrio marginal” and “es muy tercermundista como para pedir mas,” that successfully ridicule the disingenuous politician from whose perspective the song’s story is told. And it’s these insincere politicians who come into power all over the globe and who, along with their ambitions, are the true terrorists, according to Los Sudacas. “Ellos son el terror” points the finger at these world leaders and demands they get on their knees and beg for forgiveness. The problem here, as with the rest of the album, is that these declarations that are meant to sound intimidating end up being more comical than anything.
The surf rock-tinged “Los pobres piden al cielo” had the potential to be a thought-provoking commentary on class and religion, but it failed because of poor execution. Instead of truly delving into the matter and addressing the connection between faith and socio-economic standing, Los Sudacas only scratch at the surface with sweeping statements and quick judgments. The song then becomes nothing more than another feeble attack on religion and people of faith. It’s been done so much that it’s boring.
While Fuera de Juego is cohesive and does a good job of sticking to a theme, it’s just not compelling in the least. It seems like Los Sudacas are trying to make bold political statements about ambition, corruption, organized religion, and government sanctioned violence, but it’s an uninspiring and, frankly, lazy effort. And it’s hard to take a band seriously when they have a stick it to the man attitude with a let’s just smoke out behind the gym ethic.