Tales Of A Kitchen Porter is a Tribute to Cleaners From Venus and that bands underground genius Martin Newell put together by Dandy Boy Records, this tribute has been home recorded by the bands involved, in the spirit of the original cassettes.
The A-Side opens with Yea Ming & The Rumours version of Night Starvation that they treat as the sort of cool indie pop for drunken adventures, Yea-Ming has certainly been struggling to end that Night Starvation she's been suffering from.
The Secret Dreams Of A Kitchen Porter are re-interpreted by Julian Never into a Paisley pop epiphany, of the dreams that kitchen Porter has, of leaving the sink full of dishes and really living his dreams.
Chime School jangle there way through Mercury Girl as if they are in retrograde love with the sound of indie wallflowers of 1985, no matter how much they lust after her, she'll need to see past their fey anoraks, the guitars go from jangly to searing and back again.
Felicity is a song of lust and regret that The Dates cover in cymbal heavy drumming and sparkling guitar shards, making clear just how much they worship Felicity and would love to share some mint cake with her.
Victoria Grey is tackled by Sob Stories who play redolent down at heel bruised indie for an idol they really want to be with but will forever be denied the chance to be with. Or is it really about wars fought over the supply of Victoria Grey tea leaves.
The a-side closes with a tribute to Clara Bow by Flowertown who use minimal bongos and synth with boy girl vocals expressing joy at the wonders of Clara Bow, while also sounding mysterious enough to hint at the darker side of her life.
The B-side opens with Jangling Man by Nic Hessler that does what it says in the title and jangles along nicely as the deep historical tale takes us back to the 1381 while throwing up all sorts of dark imagery.
Corridors Of Dreams is re-interpreted by Whitney's Playland who turn this into an almost medieval jangling tune with an air of Tracey Thorne and the Marine Girls about it.
Golden Age Saturdays is Smile Too Much's contribution that feels like they have been to one too many cool late 80's indie clubs and the vocal harmonies of the male and female vocals twist around each other as the guitars get fuzzier like the room is filled with hazy smoke.
Time In Vain allows Mister Baby to cover it in reverb somewhere on the Opal spectrum of laid-back hazy psychedelia as they watch Time float by in vain.
The album closes with Drowning Butterflies by The Smashing Times who play this as slow and sparse as they can get away with, its emotionally effective as they try to flee the small-town terraced estate worries.
The first song on the a-side of the bonus 7" single is He's Going Out With Marilyn by Inflatable Men who get to the heart of this bitter twisted song of rejection in a cool psyche garage way.
I Can't Stop Holding On by Sleepworld has a dreamy feeling of love and awareness of how special it is to have you sleeping beside them.
The B-side of the bonus 7" single opens with Owen Adair Kelley's version of A Personal Issue one so worrying that Owen needed to employ not only what sounds like a drum machine, but he's also got some strings to make us feel properly guilty, for what happened at the barricades at all those protests so long ago.
Rhymies by Gamma Ray Blue brings the bonus single to its conclusion with some glistening synth pop that Lauren Matsui's vocals work perfectly for, on what sounds like it should be in a mix with Yazoo's Situation.
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