Here's something very very special, a one off disc that i made myself!, yes the history of this disc is that i used to buy second-hand 'Various Artists' discs, and then find just one tremendous song on it, and not liking the studio album that the track came from, what to do?, well make your own compilation disc!, i would buy CD singles also, in the end all the tracks i liked added up to a full discs worth, that's when i recorded my own disc, culled from 19 different discs, this is truly the cream of songs that i couldn't do without, most of the Artists are unknown, except one or two, also i had to design some artwork for the thing, and a couple of pieces of card from cereal boxes were ideal, and i had some transfers to rub on, i decided to call it 'Happy Buzzer' as the two words were in the track listing, in retrospect i would have called it 'Buzzer Freak' now, but i'm in love with this album, i termed it 'Volume One' because there was going to be a second volume, but it never materialized, it's an eclectic mix of off the beaten track and off beat stuff, of course the theme is it's all Bands rather than Soloists, the whole thing works together so beautifully.
I put this disc together in 1998, the visuals are brilliant, each letter on the front cover is written over haphazardly with a colour marker, it gives it a nice rainbow feel, the track listing on the back has tightly spaced letters, divided up by the track listing in a circle, the whole thing just feels great, but the music is out of this world.
So on this listen, the tracks i liked the most were 1, 4-5, 7-8 & 11, and here's a synopsis of each of these tracks,
1 Flyscreen - Choppersquad - The opening track, i purposely put this as the opener, a short pithy Punk song, i take it it's about a 'gang' of young kids on their bikes, the drums have that sharp smack to them, there's a wonderful sneer to the whole song, best line, 'we stopped to throw some bricks in the canal'.
4 Slowburn - Flesh And Bone - A nice Grungy track, the opening attack of guitars and drums are great, after that it's a soupy mix, including the vocals, it never lets up to the end, i like the shout of 'yeah' at the end of the first chorus [1:13], after a slight let up, the drums really hit hard [2:27+], the vocalist is almost shouting, love it, best lyric is right at the end 'we're just flesh and bone', almost sarcastically spoken.
5 Uncle Violet - Crushed Velvet - A real druggy song, these guys sound like they were high when they recorded it, very Psychedelic indeed, about making drugs out of mushrooms!, weird instrumentation and timings, a good tune is pushed aside for the gain of sheer monotony, the vocalist is so 'who the hell cares anyway', the bit i love the most is the chorus, 'ooohh ooohh ooohh - nana nana nar', and each of these keeps coming back louder and louder, 'ooohh ooohh ARGHH - nana nana NAAR!', there's an extended sort of guitar jam in which takes it to the outro.
7 Rusty - Ceiling - More lyrical than most, a lazy beat on the drums, but it's that hard thud in the background which makes the track, almost as if the drummer couldn't care less, strong American accent, developing into anger at moments, nice use of crunchy guitars, the ending is inspired, half a verse [4:01+].
8 Campfire Girls - Homework - A nice twang on the bass guitar as an intro, but when the song gets going with riffing guitars [0:09+] it's a great moment, there's a nice guitar jam in the middle, that's gets stronger and stronger [1:49-2:08].
11 Stigmata A Go Go - Riotkeeper - Another really strong lyrical track, a fairly trebly recorded track, but it's got a nice riff throughout from the high guitar, with muffled vocals, which tend to growl angry in the chorus, there's an extended instrumental interlude in the middle [1:35-2:05], where the guitar and drums show off their wares, and at the end there's a nice instrumental jam [3:08-3:52].
1 Flyscreen - Choppersquad - The opening track, i purposely put this as the opener, a short pithy Punk song, i take it it's about a 'gang' of young kids on their bikes, the drums have that sharp smack to them, there's a wonderful sneer to the whole song, best line, 'we stopped to throw some bricks in the canal'.
4 Slowburn - Flesh And Bone - A nice Grungy track, the opening attack of guitars and drums are great, after that it's a soupy mix, including the vocals, it never lets up to the end, i like the shout of 'yeah' at the end of the first chorus [1:13], after a slight let up, the drums really hit hard [2:27+], the vocalist is almost shouting, love it, best lyric is right at the end 'we're just flesh and bone', almost sarcastically spoken.
5 Uncle Violet - Crushed Velvet - A real druggy song, these guys sound like they were high when they recorded it, very Psychedelic indeed, about making drugs out of mushrooms!, weird instrumentation and timings, a good tune is pushed aside for the gain of sheer monotony, the vocalist is so 'who the hell cares anyway', the bit i love the most is the chorus, 'ooohh ooohh ooohh - nana nana nar', and each of these keeps coming back louder and louder, 'ooohh ooohh ARGHH - nana nana NAAR!', there's an extended sort of guitar jam in which takes it to the outro.
7 Rusty - Ceiling - More lyrical than most, a lazy beat on the drums, but it's that hard thud in the background which makes the track, almost as if the drummer couldn't care less, strong American accent, developing into anger at moments, nice use of crunchy guitars, the ending is inspired, half a verse [4:01+].
8 Campfire Girls - Homework - A nice twang on the bass guitar as an intro, but when the song gets going with riffing guitars [0:09+] it's a great moment, there's a nice guitar jam in the middle, that's gets stronger and stronger [1:49-2:08].
11 Stigmata A Go Go - Riotkeeper - Another really strong lyrical track, a fairly trebly recorded track, but it's got a nice riff throughout from the high guitar, with muffled vocals, which tend to growl angry in the chorus, there's an extended instrumental interlude in the middle [1:35-2:05], where the guitar and drums show off their wares, and at the end there's a nice instrumental jam [3:08-3:52].
