Various Artists
Album: The Musicians' Musician
Label: Rash
Tracks: 21
Website: http://rashrecords.co.uk/

This is my first time reviewing a compilation album, so I was a little unsure the best way to approach such a task. I was interested by the idea by the album. It was set up for acts that are not as well established. This particular group of musicians are all friends on social media and thought it would be a fun exercise to simply cover each other's work and see what happens.

We get, as a result, this huge soup of music which strays through many genres in a way but could mostly be described as indie and rock with a hint of jazz and folk. Each track is of course completely separate, so no real umbrella term can be put over the album.

Particular tracks that jump out at me are 'Dancing' by Wim Oudijk (original by The Big I am, because, you know, covering each other). It is a lovely song with great vocals and a fantastic array of background sounds with a variety of stringed instruments and what even sounds like a steady drum thumping later on.

We even get utterly bizarre tracks such as 'Disney Girl' by Pulco, which is one of these spoken songs with some backing vocals that actually singing a chorus. It took me a while to get this track, but once I did I realised it was utterly brilliant and hilarious. I think it is best if I just recommend you find this track, as well as the whole album, because I could never describe it such a way that would do it justice.

All the tracks on the compilation have merit in their own right, and most are just so different from all the previous. We get excellent instrumental tracks in the mix such as 'Doomwatch' by Ian Thistlewaite, which although has a very simple arrangement in theory it does still come across very gripping to the listener.

'Rabbit Fish & Sea Rabbits' by Cult of Wedge is as catchy as the title would suggest, giving us one of the strongest rock vibes of the whole collection, but like many other tracks is quite insane and random. Likewise 'Posh girls of the telly' by Ian Thistlewaite is probably one of the strangest tunes I have heard my entire life, but unlike some of the others which are strange and not even catchy, this one does have fantastic music to back it up with.

Over this collection is worth taking a nosey at. You can download it for free from the above website, although it does ask for donations to a worthy cause. The music is an experience and one that people simply have to make their own minds up over, I can imagine this not being for everyone, but I can also picture many people being very into it and probably understand it!

Paul Rawcliffe