Various Artists - Gigsmart: The Compilation Returns

Doctor J

This double CD package is made up entirely of unsigned Irish bands and solo artists. It is arranged into a sort of Saturday night/Sunday morning format, disc one being largley more electric band based and disc two featuring a largely acoustic based collection. Both discs contain 17 tracks, 34 separate groups in total.

Kicking off disc one is Victim by Obsolete. This track is a slow burner, building gradually towards a full and powerful cescendo over the course of its six minute duration. As first tracks go, it's not exactly the all-guns-blazing effort you'd expect but is definitley one of the strongest songs on the album and starts things of in really excellent fashion. Uptempo efforts by Moesley and Mo'Fro follow and then Those Damn Junky Deejays mellow things out nicely with Something Temporarily. After the healthy funk romp that is Work It by Apollo Creed another very strong track by Nassau follows, and it's just as well it's a good tune, it plays twice on my CD for some reason. Other personal highlights from disc one are I Like Ducks? Know and Just A Word's N.I. Hip Hop which is refreshingly different but excellent quality in its own right.

Ginseng start proceedings on disc two with Where No One Knows. Again it's a strong opener full of big guitars and bigger choruses. Ciara Allen's sparse and entirely acoustic The Last Song overcomes it's basic recording and promises greater things for the future. These two tunes nicely illustrate the diversity of songs on the second disc, with notably outstanding efforts through the course of the disc by Pier 19 and Nearly Dead Jim in the shape of Family Tree and But I Still... repectively.

It's not all smiles and sunshine. As these tracks are all self-financed and self produced, some tracks sound lack a certain sheen in comparison to others on the collection. At times, the music is inventive and fresh and at other times, the occasional track seems rather over-influenced at the expense of the band's identity. Let's just say, for example, that Muse fans should find plenty to interest them in the offerings of Lost and Skylight, though the quality is clearly there and potential to develop into something really special is evident in both bands. Also, the inclusion of the Nassau track twice shouldn't have happened, though this is a minor gripe. Overall this is a compilation high on quality and there really is something for everyone, from the grandiose soundscapes of Tony Fitzpatrick to the downtuned metal onslaught of Kinetic through the atmospheric and dark world of Eugene Brosnan and almost everything inbetween.

As an introduction to what is going on in the world of independant Irish music you will struggle to find anything which encompasses the breadth and scope of Gigsmart: The Compilation Returns yet still retains a consistantly high quality over the course of the 140 minutes and 34 tracks. Definitely worth picking up and spending some time with.

4/5