List | V/A | 'CatCompilation II' CD 1995

'From Control-Alt-Delete'

Track:	Name:	Artist:	Time:
1.	Closing In	Information Society	7:39
2.	Stranger	L.E.D.	4:04
3.	Listen To Me	Channel 69	4:54
4.	Because	Anything Box	3:08
5.	Pill Box	Seven Red Seven	3:51
6.	Your Love Frustration Mix	Dania	4:01
7.	House Not Made With Hands	Machine In Motion	5:20
8.	Sensational	Division Of Beat	4:07
9.	Annie, Would I Lie To You	Forgiving Iris	4:19
10.	Window	Still	4:32
11.	Tragedy	Cosmicity	3:32
12.	Who's To Blame	Turning Keys	3:59
13.	Strictly Digital	Talent Mafia	3:24
14.	Walk Away	Release	3:56
15.	New Day	Elizabeth	4:31
16.	Liquored Water	Realtime	4:48
	Total		70:05

Comments:

This is the second CatCompilation; you might have guessed it by the title. However, it's quite different from its predecessor, most notably in the level of professionalism present, but also in the fact that it's a commercial album, apart from the first one (which was mostly demos and aimed at the C-A-D Network).

It kicks off with a brilliant new InSoc track; the first AFAIK official release with Kurt only behind the name. So how is it? It's got a very long intro, that's for sure. Once it starts it's very powerful, and a bit more noisy than the usual InSoc. Still, it feels like a natural progression after Peace & Love, Inc. People have called it 'the best song ever' and such, but I think that's stretching it a bit far. It is a very good song, though. I like it a lot. It was later released in a different version on Don't Be Afraid.

It's followed by a more anonymous song, but not bad. It's pretty good, but they tend to repeat the chorus a few too many times. It gets a bit annoying after a while. It's a good synth pop track anyway. A nice touch of darkness. Track 3 is a more mature C69 than the other stuff I've heard by them; it's a deep bassline, and also a bit of dark 'feel' about it. Although smooth, his voice never gets really annoying. A good sign. A good tune.

Even ABox sounds pretty good here; I usually think they're too smooth. Sure, this is smooth, but not in that slightly annoying way they usually sound. Ok, so it's a slow lovesong with lots of strings in the end, but it doesn't feel too fake, as most of the songs in this genre usually do. I kind of like it.

I also like the new 7R7; it seems most of the CAD artists have learned to get a bit 'darker' than before, and this is no exception. Frankly, I'm quite sick of that light, fluffy, nonsense type of stuff. It's nice to hear this is not it. BTW, where are these guys from? His accent is a bit hard to place, almost Spanish sounding.

Apparently, this is Dania from ABox. It sounds nothing like them, though, but a little bit like Madonna's cover of 'Fever', only a lot better. No, I'm no Madonna fan, but it's as close a comparison as I can think of. The thing is that this one is a bit slower, deeper, darker and not as disco-ish, less poppy. Better. It's good. Better than ABox too.

I must say, I'm surprised. This is nothing like the pure nonsense that MIM used to be; at least the songs I've heard by them before. This tune is good, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the sort of religious lyrics, since I'm not a religious man. I guess I don't understand all of it. Apart from that, I'm happy to say that this band has grow up (or so it seems) and now deserves to be noticed.

Track 8 takes us back to the land of smooth, happy, blippy, nonsense pop. It's pretty ok for the genre, with a catchy tune and at least some pretty synthetic sounds; kind of reminds me of Swedish synth pop band Elegant Machinery.

I have absolutely no idea who Forgiving Iris are, who Iris is and why they chose that name, but a friend of mine apparently knows this band. This song is a poppy, catchy tune. Good melody, great sing-a-long potential. Smooth voice, but not annoyingly so. That sampled dist guitar adds a little edge to the song.

Speaking of guitars: there's a lot of acoustic ones on track 10. Slow tune, slightly melancholic. Nice female voice; somehow this reminds me of a b-side by Xymox, and that's not a bad reference at all. I like those slow hip-hop-ish drums as well.

Track 11 is more upbeat, with a touch of that nonsense stuff I mentioned earlier; it doesn't really seem like it's such a tragedy with that kind of music. I suppose this band has been listening a lot to OMD's album 'Sugar Tax' - the voice seems like a tired McCluskey, and the glossy sounds and tune would fit rather nicely into that album as well. Since it's not OMD, it get's a bit of a minus for plagiarizing, intentional or not.

More of the same: here's another broken-heart-song with a clear OMD/Sugar Tax reference, but also a bit of Real Life thrown in. Still, it's a catchy tune, with a very whistleable (is that a word?) chorus melody. It feels a bit slow, though - a few more BPM's wouldn't hurt, but too much more.

This must be a joke, right? This guy's voice is out of tune; it almost sounds as if it's on purpose. The lyrics are really silly, the melody is extremely glossy (and annoyingly catchy), there are some sort of (sampled, no doubt) crowd noise to make it sound like one of those bad British soccer tunes, the sounds are utterly misplaced (especially that over-used orchestra hit). The band name (they could use a little talent), the song name - are they making fun of they genre? If so, I don't get it. I sure hope it's a joke; otherwise I pity this band. Let's hope they grow up. Maybe this song was thrown in just to make all the other songs sound so much better? :-\ (Ok, maybe I'm a bit harsh, they could after all have evolved considerably after making this track.)

Track 14 is a bit funky yet dreamy at the same time. It sounds a bit like the generic American synth pop, but it's pretty good at that. Those echoing blips with ascending filter cutoff go very well with the tune. It's a nice and catchy tune.

The next track is also quite good; its chorus kind of reminds me of Delerium's minor Canada hit Flowers Become Screens, but this one is poppier. It's a pleasing thought to think that the two guys of Delerium would have had an impact on pop music. I don't know if this is the case, but I like the idea :-)

The last track of this album is a slow, moody, piece that kind of reminds me of Dead Can Dance, or perhaps early instrumental Delerium (there we go again!). Not that this is an instrumental track, but the 'feel' is sort of similar in places. It sort of sounds almost medieval. Nice ending of the album.

All in all, it's a lot better than CatComp I - the overall quality is much higher, and many of the bands who appeared on that album seem to have matured to this one. A pity that neither Dissonance nor Violet Arcana from CatComp I appeared on this one, I'd love to hear more from them.

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