Tired Of Standing Still

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Hipsters filled with unrequited love take note: if you're looking to make a new mixed CD-R to accompany your anguish, go out and get the 2-CD 'Tired of Standing Still' compilation instead. It showcases a slew of US slowcore and post-rock/electronica bands whose songs would make great backing music to your predicament.

The first disc features the slow-motion emo of bands like The Stratford 4, Western, and Green Jade Villa, creating whorls out of shimmering guitar ambience and drowsy guitar plucking and drumming. Standouts include The Evening's 'Near Death', which opens with guitar work mimicking the sound of a ticking clock and unfolds into a hazy array of guitar sheen and dozy female vocals, and Sappington's 'Velvet', with its bleak guitar and percussion reverberating in a cavernous sound space.

Disc two has more variety when it comes to song structures and instrumentation. While it shares the same emotional content found in the first disc, it also contains more moments of spontaneous verve. Think of it as having little pick-me-ups to keep the mood from getting too dour.

Your Friend, a solo outing by one of the members of Tarentel, uses an echoing guitar and deep electronic rumblings to stir up some Midwestern barrenness on '2021/sill'. Krautrock Zeitgeist comes to the fore in The Ep Sound's epic 'Dymaxion Waves'. Synth colors and rhythmic, tribal pounding generate an atmosphere that capriciously alternates between joyful and sinister. And the electronic bubbles and tones in Brindle Spork's 'Pro Resign' tramp along like an army of peppy ants on the search for sustenance.

'Tired of Standing Still' might have a bipolar feel, but it was a smart choice by Highpoint Lowlife Records for a first release. The emotional ups and downs and the different flavors of sound keep the label from getting pigeonholed at its outset. Plus, it's an enjoyable journey through depression and back - all in one neat, little package.