Various Artists - Under the Paving Stones: Flowers in the Dustbin Records 2007-2017

The best compilations give you good music.  But more than that, they give you music that is top drawer, varied, and hard to find -- evidence that the curator put thought and elbow grease into the project, and added value by providing something you couldn't easily find elsewhere.  And by those standards, Under The Paving Stones: Flowers in the Dustbin Records 2007-2017 is one of the best compilations.  It is a product of the Glasgow label and multimedia collective Flowers in the Dustbin, which has the modest motto: "Be reasonable - demand genius".  And living up to its motto, FITD over the last decade has discovered wonderful bands and released thrilling music.  Many artists are Scottish, some are English, and the continent is represented as well.  Some of these bands haven't released full albums, and albums released by some of them may be hard to find.  Fortunately, the label is celebrating their first decade by compiling 21 of songs they have released previously, as well as "Is This Disco" by Hitlist Youth, which we featured recently.  The compilation includes three songs of taut post punk from Kick to Kill (who should be kicked for not having managed an album yet). several tracks of surreal indie rock by Mummy Short Arms, two songs by For Abel, including the passionate anthem "For Yorkshire", sweet and upbeat pop by The Deadline Shakes, dreampop from Entheogen, three tracks of some of the best jangle pop/folk rock you've not previously heard by The Echo Session, and many more.  (In fact, The Echo Session is one of my favorite bands to have released fewer than a handful of songs  - what the hell are they doing with all their time, investment banking?.)

Yes, we have featured a number of these releases over the past decade, but we are truly excited to have them available in a single release.  To elaborate on our comment in the first paragraph of this post, this album is one of the essential compilations of this year, perhaps of the decade.














Bandcamp for Under the Paving Stones
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