Bleep

Shedding a few of the more experimental flourishes of their 1980 self-titled debut, punk reggae collective New Age Steppers pull a stronger focus toward songwriting with Action Battlefield. Vocally led by the inimitable Ari-Up of The Slits, their second LP still contains multitudes of post-punk kitchen sink approaches nestled in among these tighter structures, and conversely, still succeeds in delivering the intoxicating nature of its predecessor, making it a release that is surprisingly accessible for its wayward strangeness.

What’s more, New Age Steppers have found a further spring in their step across the LP. While the mix remains as spacious as all great dub works are, the crackling echo of drums leads into some of the group’s brightest tunes with the upbeat bounce of ‘My Love’ and ‘Problems’, the latter bridging its way into a moodier coda at the record’s end. ‘Nuclear Zulu’ showcases another example of the group’s embrace of dub production techniques, as piano, guitar and a host of unknowable sounds are soaked in all manner of interstellar FX, making for a sprawling and often haunting kind of tone poem to welcome the snaking guitar lines of the blues-y ‘Guiding Star’.

Peeling back the experimental and revealing their more immediate centre, Action Battlefield finds New Age Steppers open up to the potentialities of pop.