Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Mike Whelan
I was cynical as soon as I opened this one. Fair enough, everyone knows label samplers only exist to make punters buy more albums, but that Deep Elm print an order form on the inlay makes the process seem a little manufactured. Or is it that I’m just a miserable sod who shouldn’t spend so much time thinking about such small things and should just get on with the review? This compilation features 16 Deep Elm artists and 19 tracks taken from various albums. Rather than go through them all it’s probably best to summarise both the best and the worst on offer.
Red Animal War open proceedings with “Jambalaya,’ taken from their new album, and also contribute “77′ from their split with Slowride. Both are fine examples of their math-Fugazi influenced rock. Red Animal War will surely go onto big things and these tracks only enforce this. Brandtson and The Appleseed Cast also get two tracks each, and while Brandtsons “The Rookie Year’ and AC’s “Reaction,’ taken from recent albums, are both quality tracks, their other efforts are simply fillers.
Some bands contribute merely token efforts. Benton Falls and Desert City Soundtrack both sound good, but play the sort of emo-by-numbers that might get tiresome over a whole album. Elsewhere Camber and Lewis impress with “Devil You Know’ and “Feet On The Ground’ respectively, both are good examples of these bands’ newer works. Logh and Planes Mistaken For Stars also chip in with a decent track each and in turn demonstrate the two opposite ends of the Deep Elm spectrum of sound.
Overall about half of the tacks on this sampler are very good, while the remainder aren’t as inspiring. I had already heard the majority of songs on the album and only Last Days Of April and Seven Storey have convinced me to further my interest in them, but I doubt that I’ll be using the handy cut-out order form.