Various Acts - 'Rough Trade Shops: Counter Culture 3' (Mute)
4/5
By: Toby L
Smell, go on - take a great big sniff. It's the righteous pong of fashion, where the beautiful people waltz through the streets of E1 in their sky-high stilettos and waving scarves, smiling to no-one and queuing up in the dole-queue the next morning. AKA Rough Trade Shops' latest compilation.
Oh, but we still love it - a double-CD so implausibly, shockingly trendy we want to submit ourselves to the Great Cocaine-Wizard in the sky, ruler of Shoreditch, and be done with it.
But amongst the thrills, spills and chills to be encompassed in the fashion-rock scene of the past twelve months, are moments of sheer, dripping artistic grandeur - many facets of each featured diligently and lovingly on 'Counter Culture 3'. The dual-disc set couldn't be any more eclectic if it tried (even if gratuitously); from the introspective, low-key Iron & Wine to the incomprehensible beats-fusions of Matmos; from the beautiful innocence of Swedish troubadours The Concretes to the crooning boy-wonder Richard Hawley; from the NYC ragged abruptness of Joy Zipper to the haunting Postal Service... it's an all-encumbered, alt treasure. And that's just CD1.
The second one, however, is abrasion epitomised. Sultry duo The Kills blues-rock their way through the mould with their pummelling, testimonial 'F**k The People', Detroit wedding-singer look-alikes and garage-popsters The Dirtbombs growl and purr with their racing 'My Love For You', while the frenzied angst of The Gossip and wiry, burly tautness of The Fiery Furnaces' deranged, Beefheart-psychedelia provide a healthy female contingent in the otherwise testosterone-driven realms. Erase Errata similarly make a case for the latter circle, with their rapt 'The White Horse Is Bucking', prior to sexy, electro-bi-anthem 'I U She' from Peaches. Homegrown male-innovators, meanwhile, The Futureheads and Dizzee Rascal demonstrate the spirit of punk in two varying forms, and thus score the highlights (the first - grappling, shaky, perky pop ideals in 'net-only tune, 'A To B'; the second - aggreso angst-rap).
It's a collection you'd be empty without. Just be warned: on occasion, you may need to dress up to the part in order to match the soundtrack. Bloody East London.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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