Philophobia Music in Yorkshire has provided us with a mine of new tracks to sift through with Under The Bus Station Clock, the label’s second annual collection of music from Wakefield area bands.
Launched two years ago the label is a small operation run by Rob Dee to promote some of the fine music from the area. He explains: “The label is run and owned by myself. Financed in parts by those goodold fellows at Mastercard. We don’t tend to use pluggers or pr guys. We do our own distribution to shops too. There are a few people who work on an irregular regular basis as we tend to use the same producers as not only are they amazing, they are our friends.”
Across the 20 tracks are some of the label’s key artists who are already getting national radio attention and festival dates, such as Runaround Kids and Imp as well as others that Rob feels the wider world ought to hear.
Under The Bus Station Clock
There’s a lot to digest; some excellent new bands such as The Bambinos, some unusual quirky ones like Junior Swimsuit and many, many that clearly have listened to a lot of Pavement, such as Imp.
What is perhaps most pleasing is the absence of anything truly bland on it, there’s an edge to most of the tracks and overall it is free of the usual twee-indie pop fodder that dominates far too much of indie music.
The stand out for me by a mile is ‘When theWeather’s Wrong’ by The Bambinos. I’ve had to email Rob to check whether their male lead singer Jay had been replaced by a female vocalist, so high was his falsetto. He assures me: “It is indeed the same vocalist. I must admit the falsetto took me by surprise, didn’t know he had it in him.” Not only is the production among the slickest, it sounds punchy and is the catchiest on the album, full of new wave influences.
Others of note are tracks by The Spills and (the unusually named and slightly Yo Le Tengo-esque) St Gregory Orange.
Salvage My Dream’s track ‘Cost of Living’ is another highlight starting off like a Kyma Dawson acoustic poetry rant and turning into something altogether darker and shouty. Like Los Campesinos or Chumbawamba. It’s an inventive track and my second favourite behind The Bambinos.
The album is available to download on a pay as much or as little as you like basis. It also exists in CD form for the criminally low price of £2, although just 100 copies exist so get your order in early.
For more details about ordering Under the Bus Station Clock click here.
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8/10
by Joe Lepper
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