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There’s a wonderful scene in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s record shop-set novel ‘High Fidelity’ where John Cusack takes the audience through the excruciatingly detailed art of creating the perfect mix tape to woo a potential mate. “Like breaking up, it’s hard to do, and takes ages longer than it might seem,” he begins. “You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.” There are lots of rules. Even if you don’t subscribe to Hornby’s vision, mixing a tape, or latterly a CD, is/was an intensely personal experience – much more so for the mixer than the recipient. This is why my heart sank when I read the blurb of this release, a low priced celebration of uber-hip indie label Wichita’s seventh year in existence. “N.B,” it says in tiny letters at the bottom of the promo. “Compiled alphabetically; please listen using shuffle/ random play mode.”
Eh? Call me old-fashioned, but I want some love, care and good old hand-wringing going into my compilations. Important decisions like ‘which epic number do we use at number four’ and ‘slow, then fast, then…ooo…medium…’ need to be made in its process, not just relying on a completely arbitrary mechanically-designated tracklisting for entertainment. “With new advances in technology…” the accompanying press release states, “the blah blah blah… alphabetical… blah blah… no official ‘correct’ running order… blah.” So, to recap, Wichita have basically lobbed 14 of their favourite new tracks onto a CD-R and pushed it out, not thinking about structure because their employees are too busy propping up bars the world over scouting for new talent. Which, judging by the content of this compilation, they seem to do rather well.
The opener (and I’m going that, whatever you say, Wichita) is a Dave P & Adam Sparkle remix of Bloc Party’s ‘Hunting for Witches’, and is easily the worst thing on here. Dull, pointless and dated – all it adds is a silly Underworld-style rave backing to an already pretty danceable track – and is easily surpassed by the robotic Japanese remix of Peter Bjorn And John’s ‘Let's Call It Off’, which is a shoo-in for the soundtrack of ‘Lost in Translation 2’ should they decide to make it.
Elsewhere, Euros Childs’ funereal ‘Outside my Window’ struggles for ‘emotive’ and only manages ‘narcoleptic’. Much better is the absolutely charming ‘We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives’ by Los Campesinos! – which, while being a little twee, is cuter than a roomful of Belle and Sebastian enthusiasts clutching koala bears. The label’s sensitive side is shown too on the almost-instrumental Espers, which sounds in the most part like a cut from the Braveheart soundtrack, and a spin off from their singer, Meg Baird, whose meandering acoustic strum ‘Riverhouse in Tinicum’ will appeal only to rabid Nick Drake fans. While this is all well and good, an excellent compilation should make you sit up and take notice – and noisy brutes Les Savy Fav’s ‘Raging In The Plague Ages’, an exclusive sampler of the Brooklyn legend’s forthcoming ‘Let’s Stay Friends’ album, is a gloriously tuneful racket - a little like Pavement’s noisiest moments ¬– and one that could teach post-punk pretenders like, well, Bloc Party a thing or two. Similarly The Crib’s joyous ‘Girls Like Mystery’, an ode to never having girls fancy you, is perfect compilation fodder – catchy, bouncy and crap with girls.
But it’s left to the very final track (or the third, or the fifth, or whatever your iTunes decides on) for something really NEW – the wonderful Americana of singer Marc Bianchi’s XOXO Panda, whose taster of a new record, ‘The New Kid Revival’ sounds like Phil Spector making sweet music with Ryan Adams. With this, and much of the other material here, the Wichita staff have conclusively proved they have better taste in music than you. Now, all they need to do is learn to make a proper mix tape. There are lots of rules.
