(from beat-sketching, July '03) / home / reviews index

Various - Snakebite City Eleven (Bluefire Music LP)
There have been Snakebite City compilations for as long as I have been interested in music, the really indie equivalent of those 'Shine' albums that used 'indie' as a byword for Britpop. Shine, like Britpop, shines no more. Now Snakebite City brings us the electro edition! Previously host to luminaries like Seafood, the Crocketts and Drugstore, this album continues the trend of featuring throwaway tracks from bands you've heard already, and exclusives from bands you won't want to hear again.

Listening to Snakebite City all the way through is like being hit round the head with a massive chocolate bar. It's not that it's just one style of music (although these sorts of themed albums ARE normally a bad idea), but too many cheap synths and robot voices, not so much from the kids who grew up listening to the Kraftwerk and the David Bowie, or even the Ladytron, but who were weaned on Eighties pop. Carmel Morris puts Laurie Anderson in a tiny cage with They Might Be Giants, one-time quality Britpop act David Devant & His Spirit Wife turn in an odd lounge number, and Schmoof gain points for a novelty electro cover, complete with emotionless girl vocals, of 'Sweet Child O' Mine'. Their own song is awful. Coming out on top are Scarlet Soho with their 80s Mansun stylings, 'Delay/Decay/Attack' from Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia, and the chaotic Sunnyvale Noise Sub Element. With more bands like this Snakebite City wouldn't leave such a bitter taste, though it could be fine in small doses…
I know people who would like it. Maybe you're one of them.

Bluefire Music, PO Box 16, Aldershot, GU12 5XY. www.bluefiremusic.co.uk