Album Review by EDF
Brand new London based label, House Of Stairs, plan to release music that is challenging, unpredictable and highly eventful. Going by their debut release, this collection features some of the artists who will be releasing albums in the near future and there is no room here for the three-minute pop song. The opening track by Miss Helsinki is approachable enough. The next track is by three-piece fOE who produce a King Crimson lite instrumental TRIANGULATOR. Glaswegians Lapsus Linguae are slightly heaver but still manage to make their track OLESTRA sound dramatic. Then we come across one of the strangest titles on this compilation, the instrumental PHIL COLLINS by the even heavier American Heritage who sounds like they are trying to exorcise the titular demon.
The rest of the album features the paranoid electronic bleeps of Desmotabs and Max Tundra, the chaotic improvisation Guapo, experimental Bordeaux duo Cheval De Frise and Sweep The Leg Johnny from Chicago, the lushful Stars In Battledress, up and coming The Monsoon Bassoon, the back to basics Defeat The Young and the rocking Geiger Counter. All of these artists have their own particular style and what the House Of Stairs label is doing is a very brave thing indeed.
