Review – “The Box & The Beautiful” Compilation CD
on Aristotles Box/Chatterbox/Phantom
through MGM Distribuiton
Compilation CDs have
always been the best way for up-and-coming artists to get their music into the
faces of more people than they would by just releasing their own demos and CDs.
In the middle of this year Aristotle’s
Box put one of these together which featured not only up-and-coming bands,
but more established artists and called it “The Box & The Beautiful”.
14 tracks is what you
get here on The Box and they’re as varied as any Hot Hits XXIV or Summer Tracks
Volume 88 compile that the bigger labels flog on the weekend video shows. From
the high-rotation punk of Nancy Vandal to 90s funk-rock of The Impossibles, unlike those bigger-name compilations, there’s
not a dog among “The Box & The Beautiful”. Stand-out tracks include the opener Visiting Hours from Peabody,
Something Urban’s Home Now, Phlegm Man from Kinetic Playground (Adelaide’s Apostrophe
in so many ways!), Meaneither with Elmo, and Skulker’s Potential for Success.
Aristotle’s Box, Chatterbox, Phantom
and MGM have a rarity on their hands, being a compilation CD that would fit in
almost any CD collection, and would be a must-have for the punter looking for
that which I found on this record: a song from a number of bands that I have
been following for a while but have never been able to find anything by them. «««««