As we all look for the perfect gift for loved ones this time of year, the irrepressible UK indie label Perfect Pop Co Op are giving one to all music lovers. Free with the December issue of their magazine, Impulsive Compulsions 01 brings together 13 tracks from six unique bands and seven projects past and present borne from within the Perfect Pop Co Op family; quite simply a baker’s dozen of the best and most mischievous songs and artists you could wish dangling from the stocking on your various speakers.
From start to finish, the album teases and flirts with the imagination as it dances with ears; getting off to a mighty start with Scant Regard. The band is the solo project of London-based guitarist/writer/producer Will Crewdson renowned for his work with the likes of Adam Ant, The Selecter, Johnette Napolitano, Flesh for Lulu, Bow Wow Wow, She Made Me Do It and Rachel Stamp, which he co-founded. Taken from his snare of an album, the wonderful Skipping Over Damaged Area which was released earlier this year, Destroy (We’re Here to) is a salacious flirtation of electro punk/ synth pop intimation; a viral infection which could even have the walking dead dancing to its hook spun, groove strung, guitar driven, funk sprouting machination.
It is a glorious start which sets the tone to the sampler, each track unapologetically individual in sound and character but united in DIY imagination, devilish intent, and sonic goodness as proven immediately by next up Impulsive Compulsions by Pony Virus. The band is the original incarnation of The Scratch and the track a tantalising piece of post punk shoe gaze as haunting as it is infectious. The song is a slice of weird with hues of eighties bands such as The Passage, The Wonder Stuff and Inspiral Carpets; teasing with these somewhat familiar spices in a whole new recipe sounding as fresh now as it did back in the day. The Scratch itself provides its own piece of temptation later in the album’s playlist with Teen Idol, itself a ridiculously magnetic encounter which had us hooked from the first rumbling growl of bass. Currently on hiatus after releasing a quartet of greedily devoured albums, the band’s sound s pure pop/indie punk romping blessed with seventies DIY adventure and inescapable contagion.
Through the sinister dark electronica bred dystopia of Age of Control in a remix by creators Rogue Sector, a track which also haunts ears and thoughts whilst teasing hips to gather momentum with its electronic dissonance, and the wonk pop punk bred Limited Ambition swung through ears by Andreas And The Wolf, temptation and captivation to the album only deepened. Both bands have debut albums in the works and each has been given a rich teaser through their contributions to Impulsive Compulsions.
Andreas And The Wolf also provide the radio show which this album has mutually sprung from with Perfect Pop Co Op, all favourite artists being greedily featured over time, none more so than the following pair of Dislocated Flowers and The Tuesday Club. The first of the pair gives AudioBiological to the parade of aural independence, an invasive psych rock track inciting the body to erupt as it corrupts the senses with its imposing and invigorating instrumental incitement. Unshakeable favourites and friends to The RR, The Tuesday Club simply infested the passions with Too Pure To Live, a slow swing of a creative virus directing hips and imagination like a puppeteer. The band has unleashed numerous gems over the past few years but this track alone shows they are creating not only their finest escapades but some of that fuelling the independent rock scene.
And the goodness just kept coming, just confirming already the thought we had rattling around the brain that this is an essential, indeed must have release. The Venus Overload kept the suggestion bubbling with their encounter Without Doubt, a sixties nurtured psych pop lure echoing the band’s major inspiration, The Velvet Underground, but with its own compelling persona.
Further into the album, the poetic drama and stark atmospheric breath of Sometimes When I Dream simply infested thought and appetite, the dark soundscape from Southdown Laundry Club, a project created by Pete ‘Joyless’ Jones (Department S) and Andrew Trussler (Rogue Sector) as mesmeric as it is chilling.
In its own way, Dead Marchers is just as tenebrific and haunting, the track by Bleeding Soul Angels an inviting smog of psych and dark pop with a raw edge to its contagion while the following Dream boy doin’ well had the body bouncing with its punkabilly stomp. The Bleeed is an offshoot of four members out of The Tuesday Club when it was a seven strong rascal, and features the devious swings of drummer and gentleman Terry Super Cockell, who since its creation has passed away. The band has vowed to return this year and on this scoundrel of a track we for one cannot wait.
The album is finished off by firstly Waiting for the Walls to Come Down from The Dodo. A band made up of Andy Scratch, Steve Filth and John the Bassist, who released one album in 2010 before the side project was put aside, they had the body bouncing like it was on a string with their contribution. Mixing sixties pop and seventies new wave to try and describe its epidemic of temptation, the track is another in a perpetual line of major treats, the last coming with album closer Way it goes. From Reverse Family, a project headed by the reported missing but maybe we know better (wink wink) Dermot Illogical, the band have just completed their 2018 epic task of releasing 365 songs over 365 in weekly EPs, an epic adventure in sound and pleasure we are still catching up on such its size. Way it goes gives all the reasons with its Adam & The Ants-esque, swing spun chicanery for you to go check it out too and the band’s debut album it comes from, My Songs About Life – Mid Crisis.
There are a host of truly great independent labels out there right now and Perfect Pop Co Op stands right there on the frontline and as mentioned all songs and artists have been featured on the Andreas and the Wolf radio show which equally we can only heartily recommend; the album in celebration of one year of their shows and fifty issues of the Perfect Pop Co Op magazine.
The Perfect Pop Co Op Sampler – Impulsive Compulsions 01 is out December 11th free with the new issue of the Perfect Pop Co Op magazine.
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Pete RingMaster 5/12/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The flames of trombonist Ieuan Williams and saxophonist Jon Pryce open up the following Get Off/Get On, lighting the way to another persuasive saunter ridden by the increasingly captivating vocals of Conner. There is a touch of [Spunge] meets King Prawn to the track, a tasty flavouring quickly ignited by the band’s own raucously individual enterprise.
The album opens up with the swiftly addictive Mostly Accidental, electric pulses exploding on impact as it swaggers into view with an almost predacious swing. Instantly electronic suggestion and animation dances and flirts on the senses, thick doomy hues underlining the brewing Westworld-esque imagery conjured in thoughts by the instrumental piece which fully comes alive once Crewdson’s guitar explodes on the imagination.
The seeds to the Friends On Benefits EP arose from the band being one of ten artists commissioned by Fuel Theatre for their Music to Move to project, its aim to create works from bands in union with choreographers which would inspire the general public to dance. Equipped with another pair of toe inciting swingers, also loaded with humour laced and snarling social /political themed lyrics, band and release swiftly set hips to work with the EP’s title track. Brass and rhythms instantly collude in a gentle but forceful sway as guitars within another breath add their sultry hues to the melodic smile of the keys. Alternating their individual vocals over the verses, both Danny and Hanna spark further hunger, the two ladies temptress like within the rousing swagger and shuffle of the song. With a whiff of The Bodysnatchers to it, as well as The Beaubowbelles and The Jellycats, the track is a spellbinding and lingering bounce of a persuasion swiftly matched by its successor.