Ruts DC - Animal Now

Final post of the year and yes, it is a beauty. Traditionally this is time to reflect, to reminisce over past glories and defeats sipping a wee dram with family and friends. I was looking for something that embraced those qualities of hedonistic past glories, along with deafening defeats that would later be viewed in a different light, with a deeper respect for all that has passed within the grooves of a slab of black vinyl and a cardboard protective sleeve, knowing that everything is going to be put right with one final play.

Slange Var

The original Ruts were a big name on the late seventies music scene.

Not only did they score a number of genuine hit records but almost alone out of the second wave UK punk bands, they were also acclaimed by critics at the time. Signed to a major label and benefiting from a big budget production, the bands mastery of reggae was better than any other punk band while staples such as ‘Babylon’s Burning’ and ‘Staring At The Rude Boys’ were anything but punk by numbers. The Ruts sole album, ‘The Crack’, is a classic while later songs such as ‘West One’ and the moving ‘Love In Vain’ show how this great band could have progressed if tragedy hadn’t been waiting around the corner with the death of charismatic but troubled singer Malcolm Owen.

So what is the D.C?

The remaining Ruts, Segs Jennings, Dave Ruffy and Paul Fox with the addition of sax player Gary Barnacle felt that they had to continue with their mission. To differentiate between incarnations, they added the initials D.C (Da.Capo) – a musical term for back to the beginning, but the success of The Ruts eluded them and their recorded output remains largely forgotten. Many people at the time found it hard to give credit to the ‘The Ruts’ without Malcolm Owen and maybe it was a mistake not to make a clean break from the past but at its best, Ruts D.C’s music sounds like the natural progression for the band. Debut single ‘Different View’ is an excellent follow up to the final Owen era single ‘West One’, while the album ‘Animal Now’ also contains many fine moments such as ‘Mirror Smashed’, ‘Dangerous Minds’ and the extended, superior take of ‘Different View’. After two albums ‘Animal Now’ and later ‘Rhythm Collision Volume 1’ with legendary dub producer “Mad Professor” they parted ways to follow their own musical paths.

Ripped, with a whole bunch of extra’s in all its reptilian glory to MP3 @ 320kbps

Ruts DC: Animal Now

A1.  Smashed Mirror

A2.  Dangerous Minds

A3.  Slow Down

A4.  Despondency

A5.  Different View

B1.  No Time To Kill

B2.  Fools

B3.  Walk Or Run

B4.  Parasites