Album: Errol Records Double 10” Compilation

Label: Errol Records

Release Date: August 2002

Web: http://www.errolrecords.co.uk/

Errol Records, former home to Oceansize who have recently signed to Beggars Banquet have put together nine whole tracks on one double 10” release which gives the listener a fair impression of what Errol Records is all about.

As a reviewer there isn’t much else you can do with what is basically a record label sampler other than go through the record track by track and tell you exactly what I think, whether you like it or not. So here we go boys and girls…

The opening two tracks are both by a Canadian band named Hollowphonic, as stated on their press release they do sound eerily similar to their fellow Canadians Godspeed You Black Emperor!. The same slow and spooky pianos playing with the gradual introduction of a variety of sounds, noises and echoes that have made GSYBE! so popular. I do get the feeling that Hollowphonic’s sound is slightly more formulated and seems to lack the passion and beauty of other acts that are part of this genre.

Diefenbach are the next band up and they are far more aggressive. The whole entire song sounds oddly like an extended version of a System Of A Down song, bizarre indeed. The next track ‘A Simple Misunderstanding’ by Grover slips in nicely after the slightly edgier sound Diefenbach, but instead of being a slow and melodic song of great beauty it ends up being rather dull and lacking anything special. John Peel likes them by the way,

The final track on the first 10” is by The Bogart Surprise and doesn’t seem to be drastically different from anything we have heard so far. Actually, I dare say it’s a blend of everything that we’ve heard previously. You already have an idea of what Errol Records are all about already…do I need to go on? I suppose I should.

And so we have the winner of the strangest song title so far, ‘malmoe…my supreme idea of love’ by Giardini di Miro has more of the trademark ‘chill out’ sound that has become so popular on dodgy ‘Ibiza Chill Out’ compilations and literally drowns the aisles of HMV. This is possibly what you’d expect to be on one of those very records, but you don’t have to wear a lime green YSL shirt and shiny shoes to listen to it, surely a bonus?

I’m starting to dislike Errol Records now. I love bands such as GSYBE!, Boards Of Canada, Sigur Ros and M?m as much as the next man, but they do this so much better than anyone on here. The final three tracks by Disoma, Lemko Hall and Cerberus Shoal all plod along without grabbing your attention or making you sit up and take notice, perhaps not what they are designed to do, but it’s no excuse for some of the terrible droning sounds I’m experiencing with the exception of Cerberus Shoal who do actually have a decent idea of what they’re doing and do it well.

I was looking forward to this, it started off well enough with Hollowphonic being the highlight, and everyone should check up on them and give them a listen. However, it went drastically downhill and none of the other songs really did anything for me. It wasn’t awful, for those who like to doze on a Sunday afternoon it may well be perfect, but I don’t relax on a Sunday, the allure of Grandstand and a Channel 5 movie beat listening to this on a Sunday and this just makes Sundays even more dull than they already are.

Richard Collings, 4/10