V/A – Interesting Flavours / 2004 Chocolate Firebird / 16 Tracks / http://www.chocolatefireguard.co.uk / [email protected] / Reviewed 17 February 2005

Most times, when I throw a compilation disc in for review, I am completely underwhelmed by the quality of the recording to be found. Not so with “Interesting Flavours”, a disc that is as surprising with as many twists and turns as tracks on the disc. What is really impressive for me is the amount of cohesion that the tracks on “Interesting Flavours” have – the first two tracks; Freddy Fresh's "The Real Pro” and Godessa’s “Social Ills”, use a low-key backing-beat to deliver two completely different cuts. While “The Real Pro” is an instrumental that is restrained and perfectly happy in its own ways, “Social Ills” has a Bow Wow and Lil Romeo-like flow adding urgency to a beat that only a track before was perfectly complacent in its standing. Looking back to Bjork and Portishead for eir vocal delivery, the vocalist of “The Bluefoot Project” uses sweeping vocals to stutter-step and make a similar beat to what has preceded on the disc into a shuffling pop track. Bringing back the instrumental in an impressive way, Spreed’s “Red Light Go” has an analogue to Freddy Fresh.

What increasingly becomes evident by the mid-point of “Interesting Flavours” is nto that this disc is a collection of diverse bands playing diverse styles of music as it is fourteen different acts playing off of some sort of blueprint, all achieving virtually the same thing with their music. Even more so than compilations trying to be a collection of covers for the came band, “Interesting Flavours” is what feels like a complete CD but one artists instead of 16 distinct tracks by 14 artists. It is no surprise then by a track like Jason Sparks’ “Left 2 Live 4”, even the infusion of a jazz horn and video game-esque noises can’t pull the track from the rest of the disc.

While the tracks found on “Interesting Flavours” are not bland, the title given to this disc may be misleading. May I suggest one: “Interesting Flavours (of 14 different brands of licorice)?” The music is always well-down and compelling, but damned if this album doesn’t sound like late-nineties Portishead-esque pop through and through. What comes out as the most innovative sound on this compilation is the rap tracks (Moodphase5ive, Godessa), which still maintain a similar backing-beat to the rest of the CD even if the two acts do infuse their music with an intensity found nowhere else on this disc.

Top Tracks: Moodphase5ive’s “Vital, Kava Kava’s “Tic"

Rating: 5.7/10