TURNTABLE LAB

the lab review

To grossly misquote Snoop Dogg, "with so much [terrible music] in the world today, it's kind of hard being [someone who can discern between good and bad while everyone else enjoys mash-up and reggaeton just a little too much]." So what do you do when you and your friends are the last bastion of taste? Why, you start a music blog, of course. Then after it gets blown up (NY Times/MTV holla!), you put out a comp of your favorite up-and-coming releases for the masses. That labor of love is expressed perfectly on this CD, the first comp of unreleased tracks from the excellent blog music.for-robots.com (think Turntablelab but almost exclusively new music). Featuring 19 tracks of exclusive remixes and generally unheard artists like Vice darlings DFA79(1) and Peaches disciples Avenue D(2), the comp covers every genre from super melodic synth-pop (Stratageme(3)) to indie hiphop (APSCi feat. Mr Lif(4)) to DIY emo swansongs (David Brusie(5)). This is how I maintain an awareness of what's out there without actually having to go out there: I let the good people at MFR find it first.

reviewed by the Woodman 10/28/2005