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Indietracks: An Indiepop Compilation Make Do And Mend

Article written by Paul M - Jul 30, 2008

Indietracks

Indietracks is a festival held in late July in the lovely Derbyshire countryside and this comp features the majority of the bands who performed this year. 'Indie-pop', as a label, covers a number of different types of music but most of it has origins in the 80s with acts inspired by the Postcard bands, the Smiths or the Sarah label. While the bands may be shunned by NME and XFM, it's thriving as a scene with countless labels, club-nights and webblogs devoted to it over here and in North America, and seemingly the norm in Scandinavia, where an almost endless procession of musicians are happy to wear 'C86' or 'twee' as a badge of honour.

The biggest names here are the tried and trusted treasures, Darren Hayman (with his Secondary Modern) and Ballboy but there are plenty of other joys from the less famous names; Emily by Allo Darlin' is singalong quirky folk, Clusterf*ck by Manhatten Love Suicides is a mighty blast of Velvets scuzz and Airport Girl offer the aptly named balladry of Tenderness. There's the odd moment of shouty post punk (the Kabeedies and Shrag) and plenty of saccharine coated moistness (the Smittens and the Foster Kids and many more) but the best moments come in a purple patch of variety midway through CD2 with a run of latin rhythms (Red Pony Clock), melancholic majesty (Rosie Taylor Project), spikey quirk (Mono Taxi), catchy electro (Dirty Fingernails) and a samba sizzler (Voluntary Butler Scheme).

In fact to be honest it'd be simpler to name the bad stuff which considering there are forty five tracks on here, takes some going. But I won't and if this isn't the compilation of the year, I'll eat my anorak.

Links:
http://www.indietracks.co.uk
http://www.makedoandmendrecords.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/indietracks