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Be True to Your School Fortuna POP!

Article written by Ged M - Aug 11, 2008

If you want to know the pains of running an indie label, El Presidente’s sleeve notes about a life in indiepop make amusing and instructive, if occasionally terrifying, reading. For 12 years since FPOP1 slipped out of the pressing plant (with the wrong label), Fortuna POP! has battled cashflow, band managers, band fights, traffic accidents and fickle public taste to compile an admirable roster of frequently brilliant releases. The Fortuna POP! and Track and Field labels have given me more musical pleasure than just about any other labels in the past decade and the POP! legacy is laid out here to see.

If one song sums up the indiepop community that the Fortuna POP! label serves, it’s Comet Gain’s ‘You Can Hide Your Love Forever’. The twist on a classic Orange Juice title, the sense of eternally unrequited longing, those seductively jangly guitars, the lyrics that entice you into singing along with the chorus, are all pure pop signifiers of a sound that has soul. A stone cert lo-fi classic, kids will still be dancing to this one in 2108, albeit at a zero gravity indie night on one of Jupiter’s moons. If El Presidente needed a reason to justify all those nights packing orders, promoting gigs and soothing bruised egos, then FPOP26 must be it. But there’s more, including the joyful sound of Tender Trap’s ‘Oh Katrina’, the dark psychedelic brew cooked up by The Chemistry Experiment, the shronky toy-pop of Bearsuit and Cannonball Jane’s latino hip-hop/ dancepop electro rhythms, which aren’t typically “indie” but keep away the “twee” taunts.

One of the best bands released by the label is The Butterflies of Love, unbelievably unappreciated both in their homeland (probably for coming from Connecticut rather than Brooklyn) and here, despite John Peel applauding on air when he played the earthquake of genius that is 'Rob A Bank'. He was right, the world is wrong and track 11 lets you judge for yourself how right Mr Peel was. Only two songs rate, for me, as: “Jesus! What were you thinking of when you released that, mate!” and that’s a pretty decent strike rate. There are many more sublime moments, including the sunshiny bubblegum pop of Cardiff’s the Loves (the Beach Boyos?) and ‘Talking Backwards’ by Fanfarlo, the only record of theirs that Fortuna Pop were able to release but, hell, what a great one! Add to the mix the Lucksmiths, the Aislers Set and Finlay (a better than I remembered melodic Pixies/ Pavement band) and you have 12 years of concentrated pop goodness in a 25 song package, costing just a fiver. One for the year-end best ofs, I think.

Links:
http://www.fortunapop.com/index.html
http://www.myspace.com/fortunapop

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