Various Artists
Tigerbeat6 Inc
(Tigerbeat6)
As with nearly all their releases, this 2CD (which is a celebration of 2 years being a record label) compilation on the Tigerbeat6 label has a lot of sly humor in it. Whether it's the stamp on the packaging proclaiming "Celebrating Two Years Of Life As A Corporate Entity," or any number of the goofy tracks contained within, this is yet another electronic release meant to jab the ribs of those taking the genre too seriously, as well as put out some damn fine music.
While the tone may be slightly joking, the label has gotten a virtual who's-who of electronic musicians to contribute tracks to the release. Granted, you won't see any massive sellers on here, but with people like Max Tundra, Cex, Kid 606, Lesser, and V/VM (as Goodiepal) participating, it's already a pretty impressive roster. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though, as there are well over 40 tracks (44 to be precise) and almost 150 minutes of music, all at a bargain price.
Musically, the monster compilation is all over the place. If you've heard of some of the artists above involved you could probably already anticipate that, but as if just to celebrate the occassion, several artists veer off into crazy other sounds for their contributions. Gamers In Exile start off the whole shebang with a completely goofy, yet excellent little sing-along entitled "I Am A Decent Man" that will have you humming the refrain and making up your own lyrics for the track as you go about your day. Following right on the heels of that track is another delightfully kooky track by Fossil entitled "Kick'SC" that's so simple it sounds like it could have been put together in a matter of minutes, yet still falls in place nicely amongst the other short tracks. Elsewhere on the disc, Lesser offers up a rumbling, chop-suey breakbeat track called "Mensa Dunce Squad" while Lusine ICL offers up the subtle, layered "Shin."
Of course, what would a Tigerbeat6 compilation be without the labels most well-known artists? Kid 606 starts off the second disc with the long track "You Just Don't Understand," which falls somewhere in between his noise terrorist tracks and something that's fairly melodic at the same time. Cex (who just released his new album Oops, I Did It Again) shows up with the hilarious parody track "Furcoat," which moves along with a rinky-dink pop/hip-hop hook and features an MTV music awards parody for the year that "minimal techno blew up." Electric Company offers up the very pretty "Lit Up And Protruding" while Blectum From Blechdom go the opposite route with the angry electro-romp of "Always Frank."
Tons of other artists make great contributions as well, including the squeaky electronics of Daedelus on "Exp," the warm hum of "More Difficult" by Stars As Eyes and the hip-hop cutup of Knifehandchop on "Sun Jammer Is My Favorite Pokemon Trainer." You have to be in sort of a mood to digest the entire 2CD release in one sitting (although the tracks do vary a fair amount, there is still a strange cohesiveness to the entire release), but complaining about too much music is for the most part complaining about too much ice cream. Besides that, most of the tracks on the disc are exclusive to this release, so for the bargain price of 12 dollars, you can discover at least part of what all the fuss is about.
Rating: 7.5
