Louder Than The Crowd, Various Artists
There's been a hell of a lot of publicity about this new compilation so chances are you've already heard about it. I'll spare you the history of the thing, only to say that 'Louder Than The Crowd' consists of 41 tracks from the UK "underground" (their words not mine) as a snapshot of what is going on in the world of the indie label. Sounds like a great idea in theory, but including the likes of Spunge kind of ruins the thing. But still, there are many tracks worthy of being a part of history.
Gut Records have done a good job in making sure there is plenty of variety with punk, ska, hardcore and metal, as well as everything else in between, all present and correct. It does what it sets out to do reasonably well over two cds, for the unitiated music fan fingering through the compilation section of their local chain music store, this may leap out as a potential buy. After all, there's some Capdown, Jerry-Built, Fireapple Red, Funeral For A Friend and Farse to keep them happy. On closer inspection tracks from The Copperpot Journals, Hondo Maclean and Beecher stand out too. If you hadn't already heard of these bands, there's now plenty of reason to go out and do some further investigative work.
So job done then? Well not quite. In trying to encapsulate "the sound of the underground" (copyright Girls Aloud 2003), Gut have been extremely naive and played safe. There are too many bands here with success already having had videos on music TV or large spots in music magazines. SikTh and Winnebago Deal have been promoted by Kerrang, Spunge are hardly a new act and Fallen To have had several videos on MTV2. Indeed some of the songs themselves also seem strange choices - X is greater than Y and Aerogramme are certainly not my thing, but then there's always an element of that with a sampler.
While I must give credit to Gut for trying to capture the sound of 2003 they haven't really delved into the murky depths that they could have done to make this a real snapshot of what life is like without TV and radio promotion. Replace Capdown with NoComply for instance, a band arguably just as good who have fought their nuts off to get where they are now. An example using a band that I personally like, but I think you get the picture. Gut have merely scratched the surface with this compilation - it's a little trite to call some of these bands "the underground rock scene." Another faux pas is the emphasis the press release makes about these bands doing it all themselves. I can count quite a few who have booking agents and managers who do certain things for them. There's nothing wrong with that I hasten to add, but it doesn't quite fit in with the compilation's ethos.
'Louder Than The Crowd' is a good stab at bringing some small bands to the forefront of the music buying public but it doesn't go far enough in bringing great bands out from the crowd. Too many on here are already getting help from outside sources to make a career for themselves, a follow-up will be one to keep an eye on.
www.louderthanthecrowd.com
Paul
