V/AThis is a compilation from a label based out of sunny San Francisco that features 13 awesome up and coming experimental/noise/progressive bands. The bands included are: The Power Clowns, Jeff Brown Duplex, Wrench In The Works, Apse, Phantasmatrash, My First Step Towards Failure, Get Rad, Superjohnnyrogers, Sabreteeth, Total Shutdown, They And The Children, A Trillion Barnacle Lapse, Ivan + Casey.
The Power Clowns-I'm not 100% sure but I believe Kurt Ballou (Converge, God City Studios) is apart of this noise outfit. They put together the 3 songs that appear on this comp for the score of a film by Ashton Boynton (also in this group) and Fernando Villegas. The songs are devoid of any real instrumentation, it's strictly noise and samples. Not bad, but not really up my alley.
Jeff Brown Duplex-I like how these guys titled their tracks, "Track 6" and "Track 10". These guys are strictly instrumental and bring to mind Dysrhythmia, just not as technical.
Wrench In The Works-One of the bands that really piqued my interest, after hearing their single track, this progressive metalcore band has captured my attention. They take good influences from bands like Converge, Coalesce, etc,. I will be looking to hear more from these guys in the future.
Apse-These guys play really laid back rock that creates a brooding atmosphere. The vocals are clean sung but done really well
Phantasmatrash-The first track "Rubber Ducky" is a brief 1:03 space boy, trip-hip-hop then their second track "Policy Insurgents" is a crazy rocked out song with no hip hop influence whatsoever, so I have no idea what these guys are about.
My First Step Towards Failure- Awesome song title haha, "Lefties Always Have Big...". These guys are hardcore with a nice little rocked out. Their other song "New Rock For Christmas's" is different from their other track, it's a little more on the rocked out side. Good nonetheless.
Superjohnnyrogers-They offer two tracks of noisey, atmospheric stuff. Their first track "Neg Cosmos" is like a intermission between Get Rad and Sabreteeth. Their last track is the outro which sounds like a fucked up version of the merry-go round jingle.
Sabreteeth-Really like these noise rockers, sadly the two tracks on here "Solar Plexus" and "Let This Be A Lesson In Treason", have the worst production quality (though not terrible either) which sucks because these guys are pretty awesome. They have a good knack for song writing and know how to throw some good melody in there.
Total Shutdown-Awesome off the wall grindcore that uses some electronic sampling. Dig it.
They And The Children-They offer the longest, most winding song on this release. It is over 12 minutes and goes through a multitude of style changes. They go from opening fuzz to music typical to melodic metalcore, to a clean passage that builds into a slightly stompy rhythm, to another clean passage with a piano and back again to some rocked out metalcore.. Pretty good.
A Trillion Barnacle Lapse-Some new age Spanish shit, with some pretty slick basslines and well used piano lines. Not bad, not exactly something I'm into though.
Ivan + Casey-Maybe the strangest band of the bunch, these guys have the synthesizer going on full blast with some strange preacher vocals.
Like most compilations, it's the band's job to get a solid recording in place and maybe if the label wants to do it big they master the entire thing to give it a streamlined sound. Well, this is a start up label so they couldn't afford that, so of the 20 tracks only 2 are unmastered. But luckily each band got themselves a solid recording because there aren't any tracks that sound too bad even the ones that weren't mastered.
Not the greatest layout and packaging design in the world but it's sufficient and does its job. The illustration on the front cover is pretty sweet, it's got a drawing/collage of a crazy looking cyborg with a dual background that appears to be half city and half circuitry. Pretty cool stuff. There is no booklet just the insert with the front cover and the credits on the back which includes the information for the bands, where the tracks came from (always a nice touch so people know what album to purchase if they like a particular band), and credits etc,. The back cover is a plain black background with the track listing in white.
Rating: 3.8/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Wrench In The Works-Streets Paved of Gold, Sabreteeth-Let This Be A Lesson In Treason, They And The Children-Layin' Low While The Fuzz Is In Town w/ Route 1
Synopsis: There are actually some awesome bands doing some pretty cool shit here. After hearing so much of the same shit time and time again it's nice to hear a collection of bands that aren't afraid to try something new, to try to step out of the typical framework of what music is supposed to be. I suggest you check out some of the bands, especially the ones in the songs worthy of replay. Check out www.Ratskin.org for information on this release and the bands involved with this comp.