 | | Digital Northerner Volume Two |
Everything starts, excuse the pun, swimmingly with the wonderful Ironweed, who’s immensely addictive Swim Like Whales is a pure chilled slow groover. Sadly, the standard he sets is too high for the majority of the other ten tracks to come close to. Some attempts are better than others. Shmoo’s two offerings, the slinky Opposites Attract and the retro toe-tapper She Machine, point to a promising future as yet not quite realised, while Moth Hi-Fi’s lo-fi Casio meander, Dogs On A Lead, and First Robot View, Worm Is Green’s dubbed out Warp-esque squiggle, are both worthy of greater attention. On the flip though, there are pop horrors stalking the collection. The Future aim for dirty bass-led sexiness and hit sub-standard Goldfrapp, The Clerks make an awful hash of raggedy dance with the frankly sixth form Fifteen Seconds To Fire, and the album reaches its nadir on What Are You Waitin’ For, a song which so misrepresents the actual talents and merits of the usually excellent Earl that you have to wonder how they ever came up with it. So on take two, the Digital Northerner compilation hasn’t been quite as successful, but if they can keep picking up the occasional splendour like Ironweed, they’ll always be worth a second look. |
