Still Flyin’: A Party in Motion

Still Flyin'
A Party in Motion
Ernest Jenning
2010-07-27

Still Flyin’s new four-song EP is leaner, more ‘electronic’, and a lot less likely to spur use of the word ‘ska’ than their previous album, Never Gonna Touch the Ground. At first, A Party in Motion is an apt title. That’s always been their essential sound. Opening track “Bull Riff” gets right into a groove. Closer “Higher Than Five” builds into just as danceable a track.

At the same time, there’s a melancholy feeling to this party. It continually feels like they’re capturing a state of being in-between, trying to figure out where they are and where they’re headed, starting with the mysterious question in “Bull Riff”: “What is this? / I slipped into a bull riff”. The words in “Strength” have a lot to do with figuring out what matters, trying “to do what is important and stop whatever’s not”. In a way, that seems a question for our time. Both “Neu Idea” (which starts “No idea where we are going”) and the eight-minute surfing song “Higher Than Five” find them wondering what’s next. The thing is, as a band it sounds like they’ve found it, like they’re moving forward, hesitantly or not, in a new direction.

RATING 6 / 10