I've come to realize that, in general, the more I know about a genre, the less I like the Soul Jazz comps that cover it - the big exception is their jazz comps, but it goes like: latin comp = FRIED GOLD; samba comp = GOLD THAT IS LESS FRIED BUT MORE GOLD and I recognize that a lot of these artists are big names but I've never heard the songs before so it's all good; reggae comp = pretty good but also too obvious in places; tropicalia comp - uh wait why'd you put x but not y? still okay I guess; post-punk comp = oh my god this is so banal I knew this shit when I was thirteen uh really? up yr game, poseurs

which makes me think that if I were Jamaican I'd find the reggae comps just as laughable as the post-punk ones, or Brazilian the samba and tropicalia or Chicana the salsa and stuff.

The first Dynamite! comp is probably four stars, the second three but there's still just some stuff that's really gobsmackingly obvious - "Funky Kingston?" "Ring the Alarm?" the latter's among the best things ever, obvs, but who the heck doesn't have those tracks a.) memorized backwards and b.) on like five other comps? Maybe this was groundbreaking in the late-90s but nah, it doesn't cut the mustard today. And then the third one, which I haven't heard yet, has "Sleng Teng," "Bam Bam" and "Uptown Top Ranking" in the first seven tracks! Maybe the rest is obscure and brilliant, but that really puts me off the label on the whole, and they have my favorite v/a comp ever and of all time.


Changing gears, Sven Libaek's Boney is fine 70s soundtrack stuff, really enjoyable, but simultaneously unremarkable.

Duo (London) by Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker is just so fucking boring - except for the one bit where they throw caution to the wind and Parker starts delivering the oscillating circular-breathing neon electric eel wiggles that made Conic Sections the most rewarding solo saxophone album ever and Brax keeps right up and it's orgasmic... and then they go back to being boring. Almost worth the price of admission just for that moment but not quite.

The Welsh Rare Beat comp is a classic example of "you wouldn't be listening to this if this were recorded in English by Americans or the English" and you're right I wouldn't be and actually I don't want to listen to it Welsh, either, to be honest.

Will Guthrie's Rose Coded is definitely not possessed of the same maniacal literally-industrial percussive bent as his me-lauded Sticks, Stones & Breaking Bones - there's a lot of things being hit but it's just clattering and abortively atmospheric rather than heavier than two separate gorillas and on the title track there are even noises other than things being hit or thrown. Actually I shouldn't have said "abortively atmospheric" because the b-side's actually got some real ritual ambient vibes going on, as these solo percussion recitals tend to and those dying kazoo shrieks give it some real dark underbelly - imagine the last parts of "Aumgn" recorded by Han Bennink rather than Jaki Liebezeit. So maybe it's got the atmosphere of the preparations for a magickal abortion, to make sure the spirit of the fetus doesn't take revenge on the non-mother. Yeah, cool. Not that fetuses have spirits, but still. Way cool. If both sides had sounded like the b, this could... wow, sky'd be the limit for a rating.