Various Stench of Muscle

Stench of Muscle is the name of the compilation as well as both the label putting it out as their debut release and the series of Leeds gigs that have played host to the bands contained here, collecting many of the local scene's great and good plus many of those who simply passed through it, leaving nothing behind but a little turd of gratitude that smelled of DIY. Many of these tracks are exclusive to this release and a couple were actually recorded at the shows celebrated here. It's never easy to give a really good overview with compilations but each of these 21 tracks is a winner in their own way, always unified by a desire to do something more interesting than the average bear and also quite often by a skronking wonkiness. You've got the technicolour Devo-isms of Cowtown, the comedy upset-rock of Mucky Sailor with their cover of Luther Vandross's 'Never Too Much' (complete with muffled Irish ramblings), as well as a sub-minute noiseblast from guitar slingin' Chris Sharkey who also pops up on the avant-math-metal of Bilbao Syndrome.. Gay Against You sound like a Commodore Sinclair mounted a Speak and Spell and begat a Fanta-injecting sprog who lives in a disco ball. That Fucking Tank do their usual Ruins-esque thing as brilliantly as ever. 7 Hertz do modernist chamber music that's all tense and lush. Serious Sam Barrett contributes an infuriatingly infectious twangy country stomper. I could go on.. If you want a taste of the real good stuff that goes on around Leeds rather than the rubbish that's pierced the mainstream, look no further - these sisters are doin' it for themselves, not in the desperate hope of catching a whiff of a middle-aged A&R man's sweaty, dangling cock. On CD only and packaged in a lavish and uncharacteristically professional-looking digipak with lovely hand-drawn artwork, this is as diverse and as interesting a grass roots compilation as you're ever likely to hear and album of the week for my penny and pound, rapidly worsening exchange rate be damned!