On The Bone Number 2
On The Bone began life as a regular gig night in Leeds, the idea then came to put together a compilation of local artists, this happened and the compilation sold like hot cakes. So here comes On The Bone 2, same idea, with 19 tracks from local artists in and around West Yorkshire.
On the surface this seems great, I like compilation albums especially when they’re new, it’s exciting to discover new bands and the amount of albums I now own thanks to compilation albums is staggering, they work. But as with all compilation albums there will always be tracks that you want to skip. Unfortunately with On The Bone 2, the ones that I wanted to skip made up most of the 19 tracks on the album.
If I’m trying to be positive about On The Bone I’ll say it’s a uniquely eclectic and diverse collection of unreleased, some old and some up and coming indie, rock acoustic and electronica. I cannot deny that there’s certainly a great deal of variety in musical style here, unfortunately some of the tracks are better than others.
The comp kicks off with ‘This Et Al’, a band which I have come across before but never given much attention, my reasons appear justified on listening. It begins fairly promising and punchy and it’s short so I can bear it, but for me they’re just another indie outfit, nothing special. Following on from this however is the acoustic balladry of Paul Marshall, something completely different, it’s melodic with yearning vocals and pretty guitar arrangements.
As for the rest of the comp there were few tracks I found myself to enjoy, I couldn’t listen to 2 seconds of folkstress Fran Rogers before it had to go, but I’m glad I did as I finally found something I liked. Wintermute comprised of unusual vocals sounding like they actually gave a damn, some great melody and funky guitar.
Skipping a few more and I come across a particularly bad offender, Bilge Pump. Experimental maybe, but the end result was one mass of chaotic discordant noise. Not done well. The same goes for That Fucking Tank, which is nothing more than a repetitive drone
To sum up I found most tracks on this compilation quite simply irritating and bland. I’ve heard bands like these countless times through working in toilet circuit venues myself and there have only been a few that have really stood out. Most of them were in fact irritating and bland. I’d say if you’ve got a real passion for discovering new music before anyone else it would be more beneficial to actually see these bands live. If you can't do that check out their myspace pages, where I’m sure you’ll find about 5 songs for each band. On The Bone is priced at £4.99 and instead of buying it you could get yourself something useful, like a t- shirt from H&M or a sandwich and drink from PRET maybe.