v/a "It's a Trap Reader's Companion Volume One" compilation CD
[It's a Trap]
This is a diverse collection of Scandinavian bands from the It's a Trap webzine/record label, which specifically focuses on that same locale, of course. Represented are a variety of bands, most of which hail from Sweden, covering everything from rather aggressive indie rock to singer/songwriter folk type stuff, with a few acts venturing towards hipster-ish garage rock or new wave sounds, though honestly the bulk of these artists are all quite talented. Most of the songs are rather dark and somber (often "emo" without being "emo", if that makes sense), and as a compilation it plays through very fluidly considering. On the more rocked out side, a killer unreleased track from KVLR (Sweden) makes an appearance with a little bit more laidback melody than expected; Fun (Finland) offers up one of the louder and more frantic tracks with a great sense of rhythm; WE (Norway) rocks out with no bullshit, lots of little leads, handclaps, etc.; Filled (Sweden) drops a rawly recorded demo track, Thirdimension (Sweden) adds a more experimental twist with some resonant piano and percussion backing acoustic guitars and soft vocals for a piece that would likely please the Radiohead/Coldplay type of crowd; while Swedish closer Koma drops "One of Us Must Hang", which tops five minutes and opens with by far the heaviest and most ominous chord progression herein with thick walls of distorted guitars and lots of subtle melodies led by a really cleanly delivered vocal performance (singing), later building into a droning and repetitive passage with orchestral synths and massive layers of pounding drums... fucking awesome. Kristofer Åström (Sweden) offers the first of the "folky" tracks, an excellent piece called "The Wild", with nothing but acoustic guitar and male/female vocal harmonies. José González (Sweden) comes later with "Crosses" - another superbly written minimal piece made up of acoustic guitar and vocals; then Jim Stärk (Norway) adds some horns, keys, and a rhythm section that lend a "pop music" sort of aesthetic to his songwriting; and Sweden's the Carpet People take a slightly bleaker approach with distant percussive hits resonating behind open guitar lines and a really textured vocal performance. Of coruse there are some unexpected twists: Finnish act Desert Planet's "Return of the Ninja Droids" is an intriguing composition that sounds identical to classic video game music (if it's an entirely original composition then I'm highly impressed by its accuracy); another Swedish act called Waver offers one of the more "radio friendly" sort of compositions, still rather dark but definitely accessible; while CDOASS (Sweden) drops a really quirky track that blends 80's styled new wave with a strangely angular attack that sounds nothing like anything else herein. Also worth mentioning is the fact that all of these songs sound very good. Sure, they almost all appear on proper releases, but nonetheless, there's not one selection herein that suffers from inadequate sound quality - another point that makes a huge impact on how strongly this set of tunes plays through from start to finish. The CD comes in a nice looking gatefold digipack with abstract artwork and a few decorative icons using clean, simple text for the tracklist/credits. It's pretty minimal but gets the job done with detailed information on where each band is from and what releases the selected tracks appear on. Selling for the extremely reasonable price of $6 US/$8 world it comes off more as a sampler than a compilation in some ways, but regardless, it's well worth checking out. I've been introduced to some amazing music through this CD and will absolutely be tracking down more from some of these artists as a result, and that's exactly what a compilation should achieve. Very fucking well done... I'm quite thankful that this showed up in my mailbox. (8/10)
Running time - 62:18, Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: KVLR, Fun, Kristofer Åström, José González, Thirdimension, Koma]
It\'s a Trap - http://www.itsatrap.com

This review has been displayed 2714 times.