This record came out on Record Store Day in 2013, but I didn't buy a copy until over a year later. I can't remember why it was that I didn't buy a copy in 2013, but it would have been for one of three reasons: Banquet hadn't got any copies in stock; it was in stock but all gone by the time I got into the shop; or I simply forgot to pick up a copy. Given how much stock Banquet get in, it's likely not the first reason and I know what I'm like, so it's quite likely the last.
The main reason I was keen to get a copy was that my friend Matt's band, Among Brothers, was on the compilation and I really like their music. Their EP Homes is the only thing of theirs I have mp3s of, but still gets pretty heavy rotation. The other nine songs were mostly bands I hadn't heard of, or only knew the names because Matt knew them (particularly in the cases of Samoans and Without Maps). At the time I thought I was fairly in touch with a lot of what was going on in the British music scene, but this compilation is proof that I really wasn't - or at least the scenes I knew about were existing in entirely non-overlapping circles with these bands. I'd moved out of Cardiff a few years before this compilation and, I assume, before a lot of these bands had their Cardiff connections, so I moved away assuming the punk scene was all there was.
The compilation is ten songs from ten bands who made up the first ten releases on Jen Long's label, Kissability. It open with one of the weaker songs in my opinion - DZ Deathrays' The Mess Up which doesn't do as much as I keep thinking it's going to. Cut Ribbons compare themselves to Deftones, which nearly comes through in the guitars, but Mew is a much more obvious comparison in my mind. It's nice and I imagine they'd be good to watch live. The Among Brothers song, Keep, is unmistakably them, but sounds quite different - as ever, they fit a lot into a short song. It lacks any central theme to hold it together, which was also my criticism of the 7" they released. They're followed by Without Maps, whose math-rock is much more to my liking, and reminds me of a lot of bands I've enjoyed over the years, including Grown Ups, a band Matt got me into. Thumpers close the record out nicely with Velveteen - apparently they released an album on Sub Pop, which is pretty impressive.
Anyway, a year after RSD13 this record did find it's way into my collection. I was in Manchester to see Neutral Milk Hotel with my friend Aled and went record shopping during the day. Piccadilly Records (a great record shop with some really interesting stock) still had at least one copy in their shelves, and had been sat there for over a year. I was pleased to finally add it my collection, so included it in the armful of records I was buying that day (as an added bonus, it was reduced to £5). The sleeve is numbered (#22/100) and has what I think might be an actual lipstick kiss in the corner. The insert looks like it was supposed to chopped about an inch shorter in each direction, or it's possibly intentional that all the print/layout stuff is left around the edge. It didn't come with a download code, so it's not had very many plays at all, which is a shame. I'm not sure I would have become a huge fan of any of the bands had I listened to the songs many more times, but it would have been nice to feel more in touch with a clearly active part of the UK music scene.
Format: 12" white label, insert, numbered 22/100
Tracks: 10
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Piccadilly Records, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: None
