Dance to the Radio Review

Dance to The Radio - Various Artists
(Wwww.dancetotheradio.com)

I must admit sometimes it can be a nightmare reviewing compilation CDs, in particular if you are un-aware of most / all of the artists on it, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of thinking easily, they are all nobodies / hopefuls that are going nowhere.

Thankfully "Dance to The Radio", a new label from Leeds seem to have taken a very different approach to things, although in most cases on this 18 track various artists CD
Sticking to acts that are certainly within the Indie Rock scope, I certainly found some gems on it certainly that are worth investigating in particular the excellent recently interviewed "This Etal" who for this review have submitted one of their
Very best tunes "Catscan" which is almost worth the price of admission alone.

Other tracks of course depends on your other personal musical tastes of course, I must admit there was several tracks on the CD which didn't do much for me, but I know a number of other people who enjoyed for example a number of the artists
In particular the brash "The Luicida Console".

On a personal level for me, other tracks which caught my eye on this compilation CD include "Robochrist" with their version of techno trash which nearly caught me out the first time I heard and the graceful guitar / string led "Napoleon Ilrd which despite the fact it has a title like "You Destroy Music" certainly does nothing of the fact, despite the band's best intentions and the Nick Cave / Tindersticks "The Somatics" who include a yearning 8 minute plus track which builds up the tension
To such a degree it is almost impossible to pull away from the track.

I must admit, this is a CD that will vary owning to your own personal musical tastes, I think I actually enjoyed about half of the CD, but like I said before for every track which I didn't like, I know several people who enjoyed the tracks I didn't.

Either way, this is a CD which is full of young (I guess), hungry bands and artists - all of which are crying out for your attention and if it is a alternative between listening to this and most of the crap that exists in the top 40, I certainly know what I would listen to.

Matt Elliott Review

Matt Elliott - Drinking Songs
(Ididailleurs records)

For those who know me will be aware I have been into Matt Elliott and his music for quite a long period now, to begin with his work with the Bristol Noise Folk duo Flying Saucer Attack around the 1995 territory, which was then followed with his drum and bass excursions with guitar under "Third Eye Foundation" before he finally went solo under his own name "The Mess We Made" in 2003.

"The Mess We Made" was a remarkable album, which is almost cinematic in places which shows Matt often remixing him halfway through a song and using the
Basics for it to often finish off with a completely different song.

"Drinking Songs", Matt's follow up to this on first listens follows a very similar pattern, expect it is more guitar based in pattern on the opening track "C.F.Bundy" with increased use of Matt's vocals, which seem to carry a almost opera flavour to it.

However on repeated listenings to it, different layers seem to come through, which although completely different to his earlier, more wildly experimental early Third
Eye Foundation tracks seem to cover a similar pattern in the way some of the tracks seem to play around almost with your mind.

Take for example, the almost brutal in places near 20 minute finale track "The Maid We Messed" which although starts off with a note played backwards, the track develops slowly with some nice guitar and keyboard works before again some of the notes are played backwards and before you know it, a wicked drum beat seems to kick in from almost now-where and before you know 20 minutes have gone by and it doesn't seem long enough, Which I guess is the way a good pint for me always seems, it always ends too quickly.

Nice work, Matt.

Latest News...

Dear all;

Sorry for the endless lack of notes etc on here recently.

There has been a hell of a lot going on, not good truth be told...

Firstly, I had a minor accident about three weeks ago which has left me with a infected in-grown toe nail and also possibly a fractured toe (Because of the swelling they are still unable to tell which does not please me atall as it has left me
in a awful lot of pain)...

In addition, as I have told some people - I have now left Willow Park Housing Trust and am now currently unemployed at least for the moment.

I did have another part time job lined up to replace this, which was on excellent money truth be told, working for a place called "Community Conferencing" which is a sub branch of Victim Support based over in Heywood, a shitty little town (and this is not having a go at the people who live there) near Rochdale, which is on the out-skirts of Manchester.

I agreed to take this job (which I was told was for to the end of August and may well get carried on after that if funding is increased) and wound down my job at Willow Park HT gradually which they got somebody in to replace me on a full time basics.

This happened for about a month, and I left Willow Park HT on 14/04/05 to carry on with hopefully increased hours at Victim Support.

I walked into my Victim Support job on the Friday and did my normal days work and then got told at 2.45PM, half a hour before that they were terminating my contract on that day as funding had been withdrawn from that post and also that they didn't think I was good enough for the role.

To say I was gobsmacked was a completely understatement.

It is all well and good getting rid of people, but telling somebody half a hour before the end of that day is sheer pathetic, in particular just after I had left Willow Park HT, from which I could have got several more weeks work from if they had told me this before that day.

If anybody has heard the new track "You Know Who are" by Nine Inch Nails from their new album "With Teeth" - You will know exactly what they think of that shit heap of a company.

Otherwise, now I am unemployed for a week or two I think - it leaves me with time to get working again on "Setting Sun" which has been pretty in-active certainly for a good month or so.

I am currently waiting for a interview back from the noise terrorists "V/VM"
but I am going to follow up by e mailing the following people:

Tiger Baby (Cool Electro Pop)

Woman and Children (Dreamy Folk Atomsphersitics)

Blood Sundae (Excellent Goth / Alternative Rock)

Priscilla Hernandez (Independent Spanish Singer - Songwriter - Beauitful Voice)

Of course, I will be keeping my eyes open for more artists - if anybody knows anybody interesting of course - please do not hesistate to contact me on my e-mail address - aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk

Creative wise, through the efforts of a pal, I am thinking about also about
setting up a artist's portofolio which will then replace the existing art work
page on "Setting Sun".

Lastly, since I am getting back to music making again, I am thinking about
up-dating the music page for "Setting Sun" also by up-dating the music pages for my bands...

And I should really be designing pages for Distance and Indecent Sacrifice, two
of my lesser known projects....

Enjoy the reviews as listed below also... There will be other reviews forthcoming as I am downloading lots of nice new music at the moment…