Urlaubshits

London based label Thisisnotanexit has been steadily gaining ground over the last few years with its genre-defying collection of releases, and have finally gotten round to releasing a proper label compilation. TINAE has been compared in the past to Italians Do It Better, most well known for its high class nu-disco acts, and it would be easy to describe the material they release as being in the same vein, but most of the music they release is something else entirely, often treading the edges of the surreal, whether it be the otherwordly kosmiche of Brain Machine, the codeine soaked disco of Night Plane, or Detachments‘ minimal wave inspired post-punk. Label head Simon A. Carr has stated that his biggest influences in terms of running a label are Factory Records, Output and Mute, and it’s very much in the musical style of these labels that TINAE can best be compared, particularly in the industrial edge of its darkest acts.

The compilation is split into two discs, the first being a collection of unmixed tracks, split between established TINAE artists and others which have not previously released material on the label. Having previously untested artists on the compilation is something that easily could have backfired, but the quality of the less established acts really shines through. Whether it’s Panda City Band’s surreal take on disco, or Pink Stallone’s Italians Do It Better style italo, everything here that is new just feels right. TINAE cohort Moscow (who has provided remixes for Detachments and They Came From The Stars) offers up an original track, “Boson”, built around a thick arpeggio and crisp drum machine beats, bringing to mind a primordial take on acid house. It’s a fantastic solo effort which more than proves his worth outside of the remixes he has produced, and further serves to carve out a unique sound for himself. Probably the standout track however, is Young Monday’s “Zaire”, a perfect 3-minute hypnagogic synthpop gem which effortlessly manages to contain several genres into one package, in much the same way as, and with as much skill as the more established Weird Tapes, whose inclusion here may be enough to tempt many people (for those who don’t know he also goes by the name Memory Tapes).

The second disc, a continuous mix by Carr, is just as vital as disc one. What could have been simply an afterthought demonstrates the effectiveness of TINAE’s output in terms of the dance floor. The mix is predominantly made up of remixes, but the choice of producers on offer show the care that goes into ensuring quality productions which are a good match for the dark, analog rich sound of TINAE’s artists. I’ve heard some really quite shoddy mixes that have accompanied similar label compilations, something that is often down to the difficulty of having to work with a very fixed set of materials, but thankfully the mix on offer here doesn’t suffer those issues. It follows a smooth upward trajectory, beginning with Chateau Flight’s’s 100bpm balearic re-fix of Spectral Empire’s “Innerfearance” and the sublime Prins Thomas remix of Hatchback’s “White Diamond, then moving its way through the up-tempo acid-heavy Joakim remix of Naum Gabo’s “Pictur”, the quite massive Serge Santiago remix of They Came From The Stars‘ “Moon Song” and the similarly huge King of Town remix of Detachments’ “Circles”, which features a bassline which sounds like it was recorded in an aircraft hangar. The mix only really loses some cohesion towards the end when it has to move in quite quick succession from Parallels‘ superb Madonna aping synthpop, to Professor Genius’ balearic rhythms, finishing with the Happy Mondays-esque Mungolian Jetset remix of “Moon Song”. But in honesty this is a minor criticism, especially when the music is quite so good. Carr has recently said that he has had trouble recording a mix recently because of his tendency towards perfectionism, but if he can create such an impressive mix out of such limited source material, then I really don’t think he has much to worry about.

Manifesto #1 more than lives up to its name; it offers a concise statement of TINAE’s sound up to now, and hints nicely at future avenues of sonic terrorism. If you’ve never heard of them, then shame on you. If you want to put things right, then I could do no better than recommend this compilation.

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Download:> Young Monday – Zaire

Manifesto #1 is out now on Thisisnotanexit

Buy it on CD from the Thisisnotanexit Webstore