Various Acts - 'Decade: Ten Years Of...' (Fierce Panda)
4/5
By: Toby L
Fierce Panda. You'd have thought a skyward-aiming label that's since proven itself monumental over and over, and over, would have selected a more... well... impressive name?
No, that'd have been the obvious route. And, wait a sec - when was FP ever 'skyward-aiming'?
The brainchild of Brit journalist Simon Williams, the humble launch of indie-label Fierce Panda in 1994 was both the product of good timing and, again, good timing. A burgeoning scene - 'Britpop' t'was christened - an age of fleetingly popular start-up, schmindie bands, and Williams was in his element. Yet, whereas others would have buckled under the association to a scene which soon collapsed under its own barrage of cocaine and twisted ethics, Fierce Panda has since proven itself the true, sole, risk-taking, influential trend-prompter. Want proof? Here's ten years of it.
Yes, Williams is a modern-day hero. Aside from merely unearthing the first records from Ash, Supergrass, The Bluetones and Placebo - each of these the opening tracks on 'Decade', the label's retrospective of choice and past single-successes - Fierce Panda has verified itself a pedigree breeding-ground for the discerning innovators of our time. So, via a consistent ear-to-the-ground and penchant for 'the next massive thing', we get Coldplay's sumptuous, Buckley-enlaced 'Brothers & Sisters', The Music's 'Take The Long Road & Walk It', and The Polyphonic Spree's 'Soldier Girl', prompting as much a state of muso-delirium as a vivid, confounded respect for the cauldron of delights herein.
Coupled with newer hopes Winnebago Deal with their zombie-punk anthem 'Manhunt', Keane with their sweeping, inevitable-future-re-release 'This Is The Last Time', and obscure, early efforts from Idlewild - the frantic pop-punk of 'Chandelier' - and Bright Eyes (a scratchy, murky 'Arienette'), this is alt-heaven in its purest, most untouched, holy form.
A mercurial legacy, a vision second to no other, Williams' greatest challenge yet is to continue the legend. From all heard to date, no, we can't envisage this being a problem.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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