Skalinka is an upcoming fusion ska and global pop band from Germany, founded in 2007. Skalinka is pulsating life energy turned into music: in sixteen years of band history and over 200 concerts, the group has developed its intense live performance. With an unmistakable style that transcends genres, Skalinka sweeps the audience into a frenzy that seduces it to dance. A virtuoso piano, a wild and energetic brass section, a driving rhythm section and multilingual vocals – for their charming, intoxicating and absolutely danceable sound, the group received the Creole World Music Award Bremen & Lower Saxony and has been touring all over Germany ever since.
Skalinka’s third studio album beyond bars has become a concept album without ever being intended as such. All the songs are – to varying degrees – about liberation and overcoming constraints, conventions and boundaries, be it longed for, experienced or even regretted in retrospect. The lyrics are entirely the result of processing everyday themes and thoughts, dealing with them associatively rather than with concrete situations or stories. They are complemented by a musical style that conveys positive energy, playfulness and a refusal to be pinned down stylistically. The mixture of the most diverse genres, from reggae and ska to swing and indie pop to Balkan brass music, even with the one or other element of classical music, forms a symbiosis that breaks every resistance to dance and disregards artificial boundaries.
The different nuances of Skalinka’s music can be experienced in the three single releases accompanied by music videos. The chorus of the single House on Fire appears to be a call for drastic life changes where one loses one’s shackles, but in the context of the song as a whole, this becomes a superfluous call for something that will inevitably happen over time anyway. In the Wake expresses the desire for change in a fast tempo in an almost naively optimistic way. Finally, 25 Reasons is a mix of acoustic and electronic swing vibes with a crisp horn section, catchy melodies and a lyrical wink that turns against suffocating pessimism and cynicism
