Review:
'VARIOUS ARTISTS'
'THE ENGINE ROOM PRESENTS… VOLUME III'
- Label: 'Engine Room Records'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: 'November 20 2006'
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Our Rating:
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THE ENGINE ROOM are one of several outstanding diy promotion teams operating in and around Leeds these days. This third compilation CD testifies to the quality of the artists they have worked with during 2006. The 2005 release seemed unbeatable at the time. But on the evidence of this line-up it looks like the curve might, improbably, still be rising. There’s a clutch of monster headliners, some tidy opening acts and a seriously healthy bunch of rising middle of the bill upstarts who have exciting things to say to a national audience.
The monsters get their marker down first. THIS ET AL opened another Leeds compilation with their searing “Catscan”. But with more brimstone in the fiery mix, Richard Green’s production of their brand new (and not on their album) “Solemn As My Rifle” is an absolute gem. Lands And Body Go Wild" has been out on THAT FUCKING TANK’s latest album for a while now, but it rears up and demolishes THE ENGINE ROOM cage like something from Vickers Engineering. NAPOLEON IIIRD’s supremely complex and slightly disturbing “My Superiority Complex” is another brand new work just for this collection. STATELESS, rising electro melodic trip hop rock prodigies drop their new song “Hurricane” into the mix, and it’s good. “Rebound” is a classic song from what seem to be the last days of the THE SOMATICS. THE SCARAMANGA SIX, offer B-Side magnificence with “Helvetica”, the only song I’ve heard this year about a font family. “Cut me up and remove my face” it starts … maybe not just about typography, then? The rapidly rising Cumbrians WILD BEASTS had their current single play listed on the BBC this week – here they romp through the doo-wop-plus glee of an unsettlingly visceral “Treacle Tin”. IMMUNE’s “Human”, from one of the year’s best beyond-rock albums is just one more great highpoint track.
Mid table contenders are close on the heels of this leading group - maybe hacking some legs away as they charge through to the front – with names that indie/alternative attentives should have spotted in lists and CD racks by now. SHUT YOUR EYES AND YOU'LL BURST INTO FLAMES played a blinder at Leeds Festival this year, and their chopped-up MAKE-UP/GANG OF FOUR disco thing goes on getting better and better with “I Will Meditate And Then I Will Destroy You”. Super-sharp duo THE ACUTES are a little gentler than usual, but still on the money with “Happiness”. VESSELS, parallel with SHUT YOUR EYES AND YOU'LL BURST INTO FLAMES, follow a Leeds Festival triumph with a furiously busy and totally enjoyable thinking-rock tune called “Happy Accident”. CHAMPION KICKBOXER further their oblique mission to mild amusement and clever indie stuff with a madrigal-styled “Get On Up”, of their own composition. Smart four-piece THE BUTTERFLY impress, yet again: their cerebral fusion mashup rock “The Duke” is a cracker.
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FRAN RODGERS’ lovely song “Ave Maria” does wonders in this context, muscling enough space and attention to get her BAEZ-tinged voice and guitar a good hearing (as she does regularly on the Leeds circuit). VATICAN JET show that simple rock needn’t be predictable with a pungent “Yobs”. THE MOTH LANTERN, FAR FROM THE DANCE and POST WAR YEARS do decent indie band work with modest but highly listenable tunes “If You're Losing Me”, “Don't Give It Up” and “Latin Holiday” respectively.
Nice guys, ready to open proceedings with a cheerful approach are welcome on any bill and certainly on this compilation – Liverpool’s TRAMP ATTACK close things with “Two Feet” and Leeds’ THE SMOKESTACKS lurch their way through “Hole In Clothes”, jammed in between WILD BEASTS and IMMUNE –-a tough cleft for anyone to fill.
http://www.myspace.com/the_engine_room
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author: Sam Saunders
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READERS COMMENTS
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Top review Sam - Champion Kickboxer are true innovators, and there is plenty other groups to get excited over in Leeds atm. Such a wide range of stuff on offer in the capital of West Yorkshire these days, it's well worth a visit, as places like the Brudenell and the Faversham always have something worth attending.
I went to the engine room launch for The Somatics single 'Elemental', and T'was a splendid bash.
I thought you should have warned ppl to avoid the Vatican Jet at all costs though. They stir up all the pent-up ag...shortened comments
------------- Author: Mabs
17 December 2006
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THE ENGINE ROOM PRESENTS ... Vol III
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