Rock music would appear to be in a right mess at the moment if you
were to look no further than the constitution of this country’s
stock media. Insipid to its core when filtered through the brain-colon
of the standard Mercury-nominated tosh, you might be wondering where
the danger went in rock n’ roll, the fire, the fuck–offness.
If you’re a true believer you have to dig a little deeper to
get to the treasure. That’s hardly news, but it’s not often
that someone does the work for you and releases a lovely compilation
that captures that essence rare. London-based organisation Loud Women
have done just that with their self-titled first volume of exciting
rock n’ roll from the underground of the UK music scene, proving
it to be far more rewarding than the scorched-earth ground floor.
It's all here. There’s confrontation and dissonance from Petrol
Girls’ ‘Touch Me Again’ (the title refrain followed
by “.. and I’ll fucking kill you”), air-guitar-instigation
from Dolls with ‘Audrey’, engine-revving vibes with I-Destroy’s
eponymous trasher, and funny and observational alternative rock of
Wimmins Institute ‘Nando’s’ (“Going on a date
with my man Orlando/ Maybe he’ll take me to the isle of Fernando/
But hey what a treat, we’re going to Nando’s…Textbook!”).
Not left wanting at the end of the CD’s 21 tracks, it's an achievement
amongst compilations in not leaving the listener feeling bloated in
the ear-canals. That's because there's no padding here, every track
is a winner. In fact you will leave feeling awesome, safe in the knowledge
that all profit from this excellent comp goes to Women’s Aid,
a charity working to end violence against women and children. The
bar is set high for Volume Two!
