I tried to get into this compilation, but for the most part I found the music very derivative or uncompelling. Some of the music got me moving for a bit, but then it seemed to fall into a very repetitive pace and I lost my interest in it. The amazing thing about it is the fact that this happened with almost all the songs. Reconcile's "Victim Girl" grabbed my attention and I started to have very high hopes for the song, but once the vocals came in everything fell apart. The female backing vocals gained back some of my interest, but by then it was all lost. Liquid Playground's "Spasm Through" once again grabbed my interest from the opening notes, and when the vocals entered in my interest was still kept. It was a very danceable number with a nice pop bounce to it. But they over played the high points of the music, and when the beats started to change my interest was quickly lost. The rest of the tracks couldn't even grab me from the opening notes. I listened through to see if something would grab my attention, but nothing ever happened. Yellow #5 almost grabbed me with their rendition of grunge, but it was too generic and lacked excitement to keep me interested. The rest of the tracks on the CD were too heavy rock based, or lacked enough force to continue on with their powerful points. Such was the case for BOQ Trio's "Monsters (demo)," which began with a slower, Arabian sounding "Hotel California" rip off before jumping into some celtic music.

Hapi Skratch believes that if they "continue to put quality product into the public pipeline that it will eventually stand out and be recognized." The producing was done nicely and professionally on all these tracks, which is a plus for them, but as far as the music is concerned it's too generic to be considered "quality." I'll give this CD a D.

Hank Williams: Alone With His Guitar

Happy Fernandez: Happy Fernandez

[Issue Eight // May 1998]