Various Artists - 'I Can Count Volume 2' (I Can Count) Released 02/07/07

In a bid to emulate the huge success of Volume 1, the people at I Can Count have put together their second compilation, the ingeniously titled ‘Volume 2’. With more organic electro-indie-pop than you could possibly shake a glow stick at, ‘Volume 2’ is bursting with DIY tracks to suit three distinct but overlapping occasions. Whether going out, staying in or getting home in the early hours of the morning, if you like your bedroom crafted cuts, there’s bound to be something here to stimulate the serotonin and rattle through your cranium for hours.

The beauty of ‘Volume 2’ is I Can Count’s prophetic musical vision and staggering ability at picking unparalleled tracks to showcase, from the UK as well as America. Add to that a diverse and constantly changing track-list as well as using artists either signed or otherwise and you have all the characteristics of an almost perfect home made mix tape. From Miss Odd Kidd’s uncompromising, hard edged and dangerously urban synths complete with primitive storytelling on ‘Don’t Be Afraid To Sweat’ to the cinematic soundscapes of 303DIDTHISTOME’s ‘Apostrophe Apostrophe’, it’s highly contagious from the off and as the tracks keep on coming, the infection spreads. The flamboyantly fashioned and addictive narrative of Beauty School Dropout’s ‘Saturday Night’ is possibly the best of the lot and with North Carolina’s Ear PWR and their insistent ‘Turn Out The Lights’ rounding off the selection of floor fillers, things are off to a flying start and its going to be a good night out.

There’s also enough here to keep the party well and truly at home. Hulls Mr Beasley combines shifting fuzzy beats with uplifting refrains a la Calvin Harris on ‘Dyno’ with a vocal somewhat akin to that of Roisin Murphy. Whilst the elaborate and structured karaoke styles employed by Sportsday Megaphone on ‘Less And Less’ lend a refreshing and exposed edge to the harder side of the compilation. As does Revox’s (named after 1950’s Swiss audio equipment) ‘Eighties’, which constantly builds upon and strips away it’s heavy layers of euphoric and dominating synths.