For those of you who don't know, Hellcat Records is owned by Tim Armstrong (aka Lint) of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame. With that in mind, it's not surprising that the bands chosen for his label cover the eclectic range which has increasingly become part of the Rancid repertoire. the Dropkick Murphys, for example, are a good representation of the blue- collar punk dynamic which has followed Armstrong throughout his career, yet other bands pay homage to his longstanding affections for Jamaican music.

David Hillyard and the Rocksteady Seven are probably the purest example of the latter that I've heard from Hellcat. In the liner notes, Hillyard makes clear his own personal "love affair" with ska, rocksteady, and reggae, citing all these genres as the reason he became involved with music in the first place. Playtime may be Hillyard's first recorded album-– he refers to it as "something I have wanted to do all my life." Perhaps one of the reasons he hasn't recorded before is because he dreads modern tendencies to tamper with live performance. To avoid such sonic corruption, he assures us the album was recorded in "a live spontaneous setting."

As a means of further offering these relaxing musical sensations in their best possible light, Hillyard has assembled a veritable all- star class of familiar underground talent. Players have been recruited from such notable bands as the Slackers, Mephiskapheles, and Hepcat. Gifted musicians from NYC's reputable jazz scene have also been incorporated into the mix. The result is clean, proficient, authentic, and highly listenable. The majority of the material is instrumental, though silky smooth vocal performances periodically grace the skanking rhythms.

Not being comfortably familiar with this style of music or its derivatives, I'm reluctant to say more about the album. But even though what Hillyard and his ultra- talented crew have produced may never function as more than background music in my life, there are easily foreseeable situations where the frolicsome sounds will fit the atmosphere oh so perfectly.

-Kevin Ruggeri