Various Artists – Future Love Songs
Future Love Songs is a new compilation from the Angular Recording Corporation. The people over at Angular have a great eye for new blood. They launched a few bands in their day Bloc party, The Long Blondes, Art Brut and most recently the Klaxons. Not a bad resume for a label. This compilation was compiled by Joe Daniel and Joe Margettts the labels founders.
First off you get Klaxons
Various Artists – Invader
Kemado Records put this compilation together of some of the best hard rock, metal or psychedelic going at the moment. Kemado is an exciting indie label based in NYC. They are home to such bands as Cheeseburger (yes they are a band and what a name) and such favorites as Dungen and Tarantula A.D.
Included on this compilation are some familiar faces Dungen, The Fucking Champs and Pelican. The track that Pelican contributed “Ran Amber” is a nine minute trippy masterpiece. Current favorites, Wolfmother pops up here with the track “Love Train.” They are certainly one to watch out for as they have an enormous potential. The Sword who is also on Kemado Records supply “Under The Boughs” and you would think they were sons of Black Sabbath, the similarities are uncanny. Big Business is a band that caught my ear. They provide a rare track “As The Day Was Dawning” which is just some big juicy balls out hard rock.
The compilation provides eighteen bands and many tracks have been previously unreleased. For fans of the harder music it is certainly worth your attention to hear some of the finer up and coming bands out there as well. Just for the Wolfmother, Dungen and That Fucking Champs tracks it’s worth the price of admission only.
By John Siwicki
Various Artists – A Brokedown Melody Soundtrack
A Brokedown Melody, a 16mm surfer film released back in 2004, promotes a big-name riddled soundtrack that’s calm, mellow, and quite content being under-the-weather. Jack Johnson, M. Ward, Johnny Osbourne, and Eddie Vedder all lend their musical talents to the flick
Various Artists – Serious Times
Serious Times is a new Reggae compilation released on XL Records. The label best know for White Stripes and Basement Jaxx. This type of release might sound a bit odd. But this is unlike any reggae compilation you will ever hear. The compilation is spread out over two discs. Disc one is a continuous mix done by Federation Sound. The second disc is all the track just unmixed.
Before sliding this disc in, I have never heard of any of these artists besides Morgan Heritage before going into this. The album starts off with Turblence’s “Notorious” which, Radiohead used on their tours recently and even though the song is like two years old, its till damn good. Another stand out is Gyptian’s “Serious Times.” Gyptian has got quite a voice on him. QQ’s “Poverty” which is a ten year old track, but it stands right up there with the rest of this set and doesn’t sound dated at all.
This set is clearly not for everyone. Reggae is an acquired taste. It takes a little while to really warm up to it. Its a hard genre of music to really get yourself submerged in but XL have put together a excellent starting point with this compilation. Hopefully, there will be more.
By John Siwicki