Album reviews are in a way, pretty straightforward – unless they’re compilations, when you have by some unwritten rule to mention every band individually.
For a 7″ split single you’d imagine you’d be safe. However, the 12 tunes on The Littlest Album – which by its nature means that every tune has to fall on or around the 1 minute mark – we are in that territory again.
This is the fourth incarnation of the compilation, which started out around 10 years ago and which has seen the likes of Magnetic North Pole, The Plimptons and My Legendary Girlfriend involved in the releasing or what is a remarkable document of the Scottish indie underground at any one time.
Like the ‘curators’ – this time, Colin’s Godson – there are pretty much 12 new acts every release, though as time elapses bands evolve and some musicians may well end up on a later volume under a different guise.
Anyway, all that said, the best thing we can do is sum up each tune – and in keeping with the ethos of the release itself, in succinct, lightning-fast fashion.
The Plimptons – Animals: Volume 4 is actually in danger of peaking too early as this could be the best tune on the single. Hovering betwen the Buzzcocks and Sham 69, it somehow crams in a couple of verses and choruses and even a wonky farfisa solo, and all in under a minute.
Eddy and the T-Bolts – A Minute to Win It – A band I know nothing about, but my interest is piqued by their tale of lovelorn loss in a country stylee. Top marks for getting the ‘minute’ theme in as well.
Colin’s Godson – Garry Bushell’s Ostentatious Beard: A celebration of daftness with a hook-ridden tune plus a guitar solo chucked as well.
Gums! – A Glasgow Summer: Sounding like Aidan Moffat considering doo-wop, the whole thing unexpectedly kicks into life with a singalong chorus.
Thee Moths – Happy Divers: A survivor of the first release with Magnetic North Pole, Alex Botten has been making a lot of noise-based music with his new incarnation, but this is a real find – a nicely-produced ethereal kind of atmospherics which ends all too soon.
The Murderburgers – Valentine’s Day 2009: Buzzsaw punk which in its own way also has me interested to see if they’re as good over three minutes as opposed to, er, 42 seconds (they must have been playing too fast).
The Owsley Sunshine – Start the Fans Please: Another band who are usually more comfortable doing regular three minute songs, but although the ending once again comes a bit too soon, this is a lovely bit of psychedelic pop.
Sweeney Straddles the Sun – Where To Now?: This chap’s album was well reviewed on itm? already and little wonder, the eclectic nature of that release – compressing a tune into a minute is an art he’s very adept and experienced at – means that it’s no surprise that this is a highlight of what’s a high quality release.
The Paraffins – Backwater: Crazy, and largely indescribable – kind of 8-bit pop with screaming. Probably not completely representative of the band’s more straightforward electro sound.
How to Swim – A Condensed History of Rock (Berkeley’s Folly): Another band used to making strange music and very capable of compressing many ideas into 60 seconds. The main point of note is that with at least a dozen band members, even getting them all to play their part never mind the usual complex arrangement, is a triumph in itself.
Atomgevitter – 4298 Thrash Attack: Ah, the perfect genre, thrash metal (or whatever it is). To be honest, a minute might be a stretch for a style often one sixtieth of that length. Still perfectly listenable, which isn’t always the case with such types of ‘fringe’ music.
Pulsar – Booty Rap Band: This clocks in at 33 seconds but still manages to combine electro, country and some genre I can’t even start to identify.
In summary, the best compilation album you will hear all year – ok, I think the reviews always say that. It’s got the tunes, it acts as a handy sampler for a dozen bands you may want to investigate further, and there’s the sheer novelty value. In all, you’ll never spend a more fun-packed 12 minutes. Well, until volume 5…
LA5 is launched at Nice’n’Sleazy in Glasgow on Saturday 8th October.