Ska is not dead in the eyes of these beholders. Local sextet The Delegates, Montreal ambassadors around North America for many years now, have tightened their grip on their sound cocktail of rock, reggae and punk. Album two on Brooklyn's Bankshot highlights a tight and precise unit, heavy on the horns, call-and-response lead and backing vocals, and a turn-on-a-dime rhythm section. California producer and punk bigwig Mike Trujillo (Osker, Leftover Crack) brings it all home with a solid sonic package.
 

Hour, March 16th 2006

Brendan Murphy

The Delegates are a ska-punk band that have been around Montreal for more than a minute now. Their latest album, The Diary of Hamilton Fish, starts off from a punk base - The Clash, as always, is a nice ideal to look up to - but deftly pogos its dirty self up into some huge trumpet-blaring hits, some reggae influenced slow-burners, and some straight-up pop catchiness. Clearly competent musicians these fun-loving Delegates are. Hell, they do the best cover of The Roots' She Got Me I may have ever heard. A tight, polished release from some locals who deserve more attention. Which was the kind of thing I was going to write in my review of their album until the group's Menno and I had a conversation about DIYing the DIY.