UNITED FRUIT may not be a particularly inspired or inspiring name for a band, and ‘Three’ doesn’t exactly do much as a song title, but it’s soaring, fuzzy, post-rock shoegaze that out of nowhere blasts off with drive and balls makes for a magnificent opening to this eclectic and high-calibre compilation. Ok, so I’m here for BLACKLISTERS. I don’t care if people are growing weary of my banging on about how bloody good they are, and ‘King Prick’ encapsulates everything that makes the band great: noisy, aggressive, unpredictable and as subtle as a chainsaw, it’s a short, sharp shot of ugliness that gets right in your face and screams itself hoarse.
EVENT HORSE pick up the screaming US hardcore punk baton and run with it, ramraiding their way through the speakers with the full-throttle ‘faces’, which clocks in at a fraction over two minutes. I’m getting revved up now, and then along come RAM’S POCKET RADIO to put a dampener on things with some melodic piano-led emo pap. Ah well, such is the nature of compilations, and this one is definitely a lot more hit than miss, with the lo-fi indie noir of DAILY LIFE’s ‘Spirit Animal’ bringing things nicely back on track, while at the same time veering off on a whole other tangent.
|
The sparse, dreamy folk of OUR KRYPTON SON and the echo-drenched simplicity of VVOLVES, contrast dramatically with the earlier songs, but sit nicely alongside the tuneful pop GENERAL FIASCO, while the spasmodic jolting hardcore of BATTLE FOR PARIS’ ‘He-Man Womun Haters Club’ is so relentlessly, mercilessly jarring it’s liable to cause whiplash. This is a good thing, of course, and NMEMOTECHNIC’s ‘Shallow Goals’ is a race for the finish line that blends together punk, funk and new-wave disco with a thrash and a dash of Forward Russia and This Et Al for an adrenalized and climactic finale to a thoroughly enjoyable collection of tunes.
Smalltown America Online
|
