a room full of tuneful

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Ahhh, the perfect soundtrack to a lazy saturday afternoon, lounging around the living room, just returned from the library with a big batch of graphic novels to happily lose yourself in. From the opening chords of the first track, 'Lay down mega man' by Pedro, you know this CD is a keeper, with it's dreamy horn sample and strings carried away on top of a slow pulsing beat and warm evocative atmospherics. Topo Gigio's 'Locked Out' follows second and does a fine job of transposing us further, freefalling through a felliniesque, almost fairground theme, which leaves your foot tapping and head nodding, while your eyes are glazed over, your mind somewhere else entirely. Tex La Homa, the studio project of one Matt Shaw, unleashes 'Feel Tied Down', a beautiful guitar and bass driven ballad, with Matt's soft vocals blending effortlessly with the subtle yet present electronics. Pedro manages to squeeze in another track here, 'Seven Eight', a wonderfully glitchy beat driven number, threaded with the finest strands of vocal snippets, soaring analog synth lines and fragile piano. Plug Research's Chessie makes a welcome appearance with 'Daylight', starting off like a jangly Stereolab loop played underwater and broadcast through an AM radio, reception becoming clearer until the drums come in and the strings and guitar expand into a full-on indietronica anthem. Empire State ups the ante with a Krush-like zen hip hop rhythm, eerie strings, xylophone and booty shaking bassline in 'The Elements of Wish'. Bronze Age Fox tease us with an all too short acoustic guitar workout 'Real Nudies', while Baikonour with their 'Weather Clicker' start out slow and jazzy, and increase the intensity into a nicely danceable Organ led electronic hybrid, reminiscent of perhaps Red Snapper. Noakes Pressure drops a jazzy hip hop number wth 'Weaves tickling the ivories...'. The mysterious Lucky Pierre, actually Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap, takes us back to 1990 with a dubby slow punching house-like track, reminding me of early Primal Scream or Happy Mondays. Minotaur Shock's 'lady came from Baltic Wharf' has a certain air of melancholy evoked through its looping piano and minimal bass thump, and closing off the compilation is 'Stephanie' by Dreams of Tall Buildings, quite fitting as it sounds like the score to the closing scene of some black and white Hollywood love story where everyone goes home happy. All in all, a startlingly varied and accomplished collection of bedroom musician compositions with a common feel and cohesive sound, and at the bargain price of six british pounds, certainly not one that can be missed.