The Wildlife Album

There’s enough 1970s-style rock and roll on this wildly eclectic album to boot it firmly out of the folk category. But with the likes of Andy Irvine, Martin Hayes, Cara Dillon and Bert Jansch on board as well, who’s to argue? Besides, it’s a good cause. With all profits going to the Ulster Wildlife Trust and the WWF, this labour of love by music journo Colin Harper is – amazingly – the first wildlife charity recording since the Beatles gave ‘Across The Universe’ to No One’s Gonna Change Our World back in 1969.

There’s enough 1970s-style rock and roll on this wildly eclectic album to boot it firmly out of the folk category. But with the likes of Andy Irvine, Martin Hayes, Cara Dillon and Bert Jansch on board as well, who’s to argue? Besides, it’s a good cause. With all profits going to the Ulster Wildlife Trust and the WWF, this labour of love by music journo Colin Harper is – amazingly – the first wildlife charity recording since the Beatles gave ‘Across The Universe’ to No One’s Gonna Change Our World back in 1969. 18 of the 21 tracks were either specifically recorded for this project or previously unreleased; highlights include Duffy Power’s jaunty ‘Sweet Again’ and a beautiful guitar duet called ‘The Master Of Silence’, featuring American folkie Brooks Williams and Harper himself. The Wildlife Album is available for purchase on www.thewildlifealbum.com.

Criminally under-rated psychedelic songwriter gets to the tribute album treatment

2010-06-29

Probably the best collection of songs from bands you’ve probably never heard of you’re ever going to hear

2010-06-15

Charity album is full of thrills and spills

2010-06-14

More hits than misses on the charity compilation covers album

2009-06-11

Making more out of less, the fundamentals of the Irish music scene are still sound.

2008-11-17

The Northern Rock scene is showcased to superb effect in this Gary Lightbody-approved compilation.

2008-05-07

If ever a cause needed highlighting, it’s the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, which in the recent words of Goal’s John O’Shea "the international community has all but abandoned".

2007-07-23

A taster for the latest Camping compilation, EP 1 captures the edgy atmosphere of a three-day warehouse party in Berlin. Ben Klock’s ‘Similar Colours’ is a dark, jacking acid track, while Ellen Allien’s take on Safety Scissors’ ‘Where Is Germany’ juxtaposes menacing, brooding riffs with a shuffling groove that Kompakt would kill for.

2007-04-30

Ceol ’07 is the third instalment of an annual compilation, created as part of Seachtain Na Gaeilge, which collects native-language tracks from contemporary Irish pop/rock groups.

2007-02-26

The debut on Magda’s new label defies expectations. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the infectious chords and squelchy bass of Konrad Black’s ‘Coma Couch Surfing’, was the latest Clone release, and Troy Pierce’s ‘The Day After Yesterday’ surprises again with an old school Chicago jam.

2006-10-02

Rogues Gallery, can be roughly – if fancifully – described as a Hallowe’en masqued ball staged on a decrepit ghost galleon. Featuring a cast of hundreds arrayed over two albums and 43 tunes, it’s an unruly assembly whose various belchings, bilgings and bemoanings lurch in tone and timbre from the bawdy to the doleful.

2006-09-13

James Holden and Milky Globe (aka Lo boss Jon Tye) team up for a synapse-frying excursion on ‘Sun Spots’ that starts like Seefeel, before mutating into deadly Aphex-inspired off-kilter electro-oddness – fractured beats, pulsing sub-bass and drifting melodies. Tye and Nathan Fake’s dubstep-inspired ‘Lava Flow’ is even better, sucking you into an acid-flecked netherworld before making you cry with haunting reversed melodies and really scary FX washes. Top.

2006-09-05

You can set your watch by Front End Synthetics and their smorgasbord of diverse electronica.

2006-01-18

Unplugging the amplifiers brings out the gentler, more vulnerable side of any band. Acoustic 05 offers an unprecedented expose of these moments, drawing from an impressive pool of A-list artists. From monumental names such as Oasis, Snow Patrol, Paul Weller, Damien Rice and Stereophonics to up-and-coming favourites like Brendan Benspon, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Josh Ritter, Ray Lamontage and Bright Eyes, there's something for anyone who appreciates the subtle beauty of turning the music down.

2005-08-11

Sixteen stone-cold dancehall classics from the last decade. Tracks from the likes of Shabba, Super Cat, Junior Reid, Mad Lion and – of course – Chaka Demus and Pliers make this the best ’90s dancehall album in the world ever.

2005-04-04

With any collection of this sort, some tracks don’t work as well as others. However, there are so many highlights here that it seems churlish to focus on the few that don’t work.

2005-04-05

Like our friends in the North, DJ Hell and Gigolos haven’t gone away, you know. On the latest annual Gigolos compilation, the German label keeps up with the changing times and features Tiefschwarz’s body-house rocker ‘Blow’, Play Paul’s electro-pop ‘Love Song’ and the psy-disco of Emperor Machine’s mix of Psychonauts.

2005-03-30

When he’s not off partying with Sven Vath or DJing for three days in a row, Richie Hawtin runs the Minus label and its latest compilation runs the full gamut of the techno spectrum, from his own skeletal ‘Circles’ to Mathew Jonson’s full-blooded bass track, ‘Rainforest’.

2005-03-29

From the '70s porn image on the cover to Comtron's pervy contributions, there's no doubt that Black Label have hit on a strain of electro that's high in the sleaze stakes.

2005-03-22

Maybe the title should read 'electronic disco', as the best tracks on this compilation have nothing to do with filtered disco.

2005-03-15

This new compilation makes nods to both mainstream approval and Novamute's cult status.

2005-03-14

Free party types Spiral Tribe – they were behind the legendary 1992 Castlemorton rave - deliver a compilation as well as a DVD documenting their travels. If you’re into going apeshit to industrial techno and psychedelic trance in a disused factory in Slovakia, then this is for you. If not, avoid it.

2005-03-04

It’s another year, so that means another compilation from the ever-reliable NRK. Musically, it’s the same deep, flowing techy house as ever, with contributions from Miguel Migs, David Alvarado and Nick Holder and a mix CD from Hipp-E.

2005-03-03

Tonight’s noisily chatty office-party crowd are certainly excited about something, but it may or may not be Life After Modelling. They should be, though: the Lifers’ short set is a compact bang-zap of straight-as-a-die Noughties post-punk, leavened by dreamlike, hand-holdey boy-girl harmonies.

2005-02-18

Taking the ‘concept’ compilation to a new level of daftness is ‘We Can…’, which sees 70s funk and soul legends like Tina Turner, Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder take on The Beatles’ back catalogue. Times must be tough over at Harmless.

2005-02-16

Mad German techno woman Ellen Alien’s Bpitch label is often as much of a miss as a hit, but this compilation has more highlights than lowlights. Kiki, Sascha Funke and Paul Kalkbrenner, as well as Mode Selektor in more accessible mode, all contribute to this fine compilation.

2005-02-07

Old dub reggae bands don’t retire, they just transform themselves into DJs and mix compilations like ‘Beatz & Bobz’. Dreadzone deliver exactly what you’d expect from a typical breaks set, although the ravey ‘High Noon’ by Tom Real and Renegade Sound Wave’s bass rumble are the undoubted highlights.

2005-02-04

Compiled and mixed by Joe Ransom – no, we’ve never heard of him either – this mix features some breaks, some hip-hop a dash of house and electro and, as a grand finale, Dynamite’s tale of woe about working in the music business, ‘Industry’.

2005-02-04

The fare from acts like Chiara Browne & The Rose Ponies, Q, Earthquake Hair, Wally Page and Sonny Condell is excellent.

2005-01-31

The surprise huge success of last year’s EBTTRT album proved that, despite the continuing bootleg craze, there’s still a market for the gentle cover version, and that people are prepared to dig in their pockets for charity records.

2004-12-15

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