You're probably familiar with the annoying phrase, "Well, you haven't had it the way I cook it." It's typically employed in a feeble attempt to get you to consume something you avowedly despise. I despise ska -- but I hadn't had it the way David Hillyard cooks it. Properly speaking, Hillyard and his Rocksteady Seven don't play ska -- they merely absorb it into their seething mass of bossa nova, 1940s swing (not that modern bollocks), Latin jazz and rocksteady. The results are utterly brilliant: palpable N'awlins jazz on "Sidney's March" and "Sidney's Ghost" (respectably, disc opener and closer), gently Latinized skank on "The Fool", a reggaefied take on "Norwegian Wood", dense dub on "Peace" -- even lounge ska on the delectable "Skavez". Imagine Joey Altruda sans the pervasive air of self-parody and you'll have a pretty good idea of what sort of magic is being made here. Hillyard wisely recruited his Seven from the cream of the ska and jazz crops (Skavooie, Mephiskapheles, the Mingus Big Band) -- these guys are musicians, not a bunch of kids cashing in on a fleeting trend. I'll happily file Playtime with my jazz discs, and thank Hellcat for bucking the trend and releasing -- if you'll pardon me while I force the opening metaphor to the breaking point -- a truly substantive, filling and above all, tasty disc.