Various Acts - 'Estuary English' (Memphis Industries)
4/5
By: Toby L
Quietly beavering away for nigh-on five years, Memphis Industries is the kind of 'dance' label you're instantly bound to warm to - none of that BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, big-fish-small-fish-cardboard-box malarkey - and, instead, fully-formed songs from fully-formed musicians and genuine talent, not a receding guy behind a mound of noisy equipment in sight.
So here's the inevitable, 'Right - about time we pay for that snooker-table' cash-in compilation: 17 parts/songs the perfect, idyllic record. All tracks with a unity and obedience to structure and form a 'song' as refreshingly compulsive and exciting as a contemporary rock 'n' roll record.
And, OK, it won't make you actually dance - maybe prompt a light, proverbial wiggle if you're lucky - but the substance-driven samples of latest signing The Go! Team or Blue States' acoustic-stirring 'Elios Therepia' collectively creates an immediate and trip-out treasure trove of textured, blanketing marvellousness. The moodier, piano-based Broadway Project especially excel on their classy, classic, antidote to a sore head, 'Femme Fatale', meanwhile, and The Soulsavers continue in such a fashion later down the path, providing an undercurrent of soundtrack-worthy tones and layers that can move and confound the loosest of interests.
Later on, the Gorky's-on-acid Jukeboxer and mysteriously hypnotic J. Xaverre and The Squire Of Somerton may tread the fine line between the ridiculous and wonderful, but, seeing as many of their label-counterparts do, it fits - and never does it prove a chore, each and every piece wonderfully segueing into the next as snugly as though it were born to, revealing a consistency and discernment in Memphis I's output that if half of their competitors were to employ, would result in a far more harmonious and fascinating industry. But it's this uniqueness and stand-alone stance that holds the company in such fine stead; five years down the line, they can probably guarantee a similarly extravagant display of artists-you-really-should-love. Not many others could promise so much, that's for sure.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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