It’s always very complicated to give ska-rock a new, different packaging which provides a minimal progressive boost: it is in fact, just as reggae (which legend says it’s given origin to, after a hot Jamaican summer that persuaded musicians to slow down the rhythm), a quite rigid genre in its basic structures. Which certainly play with variations, no doubt, but almost always with minimal modifications only. Anyways, it’s often simpler to limit oneself to a plain reproposal of the same patterns than to fool around too much trying to come up with something new. And this is in fact the greatest dilemma of many bands: great shape, banal contents. Anyways let’s move on, we’re not here to lecture on the history of music genres... Berlin’s ArEt, Emergenza’s top band of the month, decisively go way over plain ska, and to define them a ska-band, respecting all the ska-bands out there, is certainly very restrictive. For example, let''s take ArEt’s “The Sea”, a cute march that follows the standards mentioned above, with accelerations and sudden brakes with the classic Jamaican off-beat, this Berlin quartet incorporates in its own songs a very refined funky beat (check out “The Legend of The Walking Boat”, it’s irresistible), together with a tenor-like voice (often overacted) that flirts with a burlesque attitude that to say the truth I don’t dislike, specially in this context. And this it couldn’t lack (but this however has become a European trend): their songs passed through an elementary electronic implant, that tastes very ‘80s and polishes the rhythm to perfection, and this in general ska-rock bands don’t do. Going through their previous productions, in their last homonymous record “ArEt”, it is in fact very clear that they like to exploit the “mixing” attitude: “Dub Cactus” is a small electronic gem, it hypnotized me to the point that my mouse automatically continued to click on play several times. “Chaque Vie...” instead is a soft, sweet ballad in French. “Tv tree” is a rock ride (a quite obvious element which should not to be ignored by whoever wants to do ska in a decorous manner) with a really perfect winds section. Which demonstrates that the band (listen to “Lass uns feiern”) knows how to move in different territories, among them the classic rock ballad. Anyways, this Berlin quintet for sure won’t write a new chapter in the “Book of Worldwide Stylistic Innovation”(?) but no doubt about it, it’s placed a good step above the average. OK let’s not exaggerate: they take and impulse and stand on the tips of toes. This, judging by the way they work with this hostile and over-abused genre, covering it up and often letting it go whenever it’s necessary (and therefore very often), trying different approaches and handling them all with the same compositional ability, inserting “melodic traps” along the way and demonstrating us all that ska is just a choice for them. But above all they prove to master all the pop tools available, from the melodies to the electronic incursions, from the singing to the renovation of the ska-patterns to, as mentioned before, their absolute abandonment to a blessed, florid but above all intelligent eclecticism. The result, based on what I listened to, is a nice and welcoming power ska, comparable only to a slice of warm toast with honey the morning after a devastating rave party which has wrecked down your nerves.