Various - Brew Records : Volume One

  by Helen Tipping

published: 30 / 1 / 2008

---

Review

Brew Records has only been around since June 2007. Set up by Thomas Bellhouse with community grant funding, the purpose of the label is to record experimental music being produced in Yorkshire. This particular compilation features bands from Leeds, some of whom are better known than others. CDs like this are a really good idea if you want to find out what's about. It gives the listener an opportunity to sample bands, at a reasonable price, and then to go off and find out a bit more about them through MySpace or by going off to see them. There's so much out there on MySpace it can be a bit of a maze, and this does some of the sorting for you. The musical style of the tracks varies. There's indie such as I Concur ; some metal and shouty punk tracks from bands such as Year of the Man, Chickenhawk, who are a bit like the Dead Kennedys or Conflict, and Humanfly who bring in a touch of prog. There's also some quite experimental tracks that sound as though these bands have been influenced by Captain Beefheart or Screaming Jay Hawkins from acts such as Bilge Pump, Cowtown and Mucky Sailor. Jon Gomm, however, sounds very much like a world music act, and I'm sure will be turning up at a few folk festivals this summer. One of the outstanding artists for me were Solus Locus, whose instrumental track, 'We Can Go Home', mixes a stately almost iLiKETRAiNS sound with chill out keyboard music - they describe themselves as post prog electronic, which would normally put me off giving them a listen. Immune impressed me, as I am a fan of old school goth and these seemed to draw some influences from that era. These Monsters with 'Dust and Ivy' brought in a lot of reverb, and sounded as though the vocalist had been recorded singing underwater, I'd like to hear more of them, just to see whether they could do other styles. Glissandro had piano, bass and female vocals from Elly May Irving - this was very melancholic and atmospheric, a bit like Amiina though, which I liked but found a whole album a bit too much in one go - Glissandro may have the same effect. I've seen Cowtown and they are funny - probably better to watch live than to take home and listen to because the interactions between the band members appear to be as important to their act as the music itself. So for only a fiver, this is a pretty good taster of what's coming up in Leeds at the moment. Anyone liking the more experimental side or anyone wanting a change to nu-rave, shouty music would do as well to give this a listen.

Track Listing:-