aaamusic | On 02, Oct 2011

Well isn’t this exciting! A compilation of one of Britain’s most exciting record labels with such bright new hopes as Ben Marwood, Frank Turner, Dive Dive, The Justice Force Five, Sucioperro and Chris T-T among a host of others contributing never heard before recordings for about a fiver. A bargain I think you’ll agree. It sounds like an enticing prospect. So it’s a crying shame that this reporter has only listened to about a quarter of it, since the stream he was given had bugs up the proverbial arse and if the song in question did play at all, the resulting song had most likely been slowed down to sound like a nightmare in which everything you held dear in your childhood is systematically blended in front of you. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that wasn’t what the vast majority of the artists were gunning for. Anyway! Might as well make the best out of a bad situation and talk about what I did hear, and what I heard was very, very good.

 

The always marvelous Dave Hause is the first artist out the gate and his Philadelphian Springsteen shtick is on fine form in the rollicking Resolutions, followed by the heavily distorted riffage of Sucioperro’s Chemicals, which is probably what you’d get if Metallica covered Biffy Clyro. Franz Nicolay’s This Is Not A Pipe is the first true standout of the record, a banjo led reflection on wasted youth showcasing Nicolay’s spellbinding voice and knack of turning a repeated phrase into something truly profound, fortunately all of his songs are as good as the one here, and This Is Not A Pipe is a very good starting point.

 

Beyond that we have Frank Turner doing an acoustic version of what is hands down his most affecting song, Redemption, Gameday Regulars showcasing a neat Hot Water Music impression on Smoke Jumpers, and Ben Marwood contributing what could be called by the unimaginative as his answer to Frank Turner’s Photosynthesis, a pean to living ones own life as they want to live it. As huggably cynical as ever, it just goes to show that Marwood’s songwriting is going from strength to strength.

 

And unfortunately, that’s the long and short of what I had to hear, on the plus-side, there were no obvious downpoints, besides not being able to hear the new Justice Force Five song (because show me a man who wouldn’t want to hear a song by a superhero metal band  called Here Comes The Robot and I will show you a liar or a sociopath. Or Both). So the quality on show here is undeniable, just the way it should be for one of the few truly independent record labels left in England.

 

Author: Will Howard