Comp reviews — is there anything worse? In my experience I’ve found it’s basically impossible to write about a compilation as one would a normal release. Discussion of album flow is out, and with each artist only getting one track, there’s never really any chance to develop an atmosphere or mood before it’s changed by the next band. And even more so when it’s two discs. All you can ever do is list the bands involved and say, “Oh, this is good, this isn’t good.” So what the fuck?

Well, Falling Down II — put together and released in a 2CD digipak by the good people at France’s Falling Down ‘zine — have obviously donated a lot of time and a lot of love to put together this sequel to their first comp, and they’ve gathered an impressive roster of acts, and I guess if nothing else, we’re here in honor of that. Beginning disc one with Across Tundras and ending disc two with Mumakil, Falling Down II does somehow manage to keep an ear toward flow from one band to the next, as demonstrated in exemplary fashion when Kongh’s “Thunders Collide” bleed into Latvian ambient post-hardcore outfit Tesa’s “Untitled.”

Which disc you prefer is going to depend on the bands involved, so we should get the list out of the way:

Disc One
1. Across Tundras, “Final Breath over Venom Falls”
2. Icos, “Februari”
3. White Hills, “Heads on Fire”
4. Ocoai, “La Main Electrique”
5. Farflung, “R-Complex”
6. Impure Wilhelmina, “Cold Fever”
7. Time to Burn, “Elena Djinn”
8. Gnaw Their Tongues, “We Breath Hate and Spit Fire from Our Mouths”
9. The Poisoned Glass, “Silent Vigil”
10. Kalvria, “.N”
11. U.S.Christmas, “Lazarus (Live)”
12. Kingdom, “Ruina. Where Men Go to Die”
13. Kalkh-In(Joy) Erode, “Xwck”

Disc Two
1. Kongh, “Thunders Collide”
2. Tesa, “Untitled”
3. Omega Massif, “Am Abgrund”
4. Kodiak, “By the Sea”
5. When Icarus Falls, “Nyx”
6. The Ocean, “Asslickers, Inc.”
7. Kehlvin, “Who by Fire”
8. Jucifer, “Marianas”
9. Ufomammut, “Astrodronaut”
10. God is an Astronaut, “Shining Trough”
11. ???????, “Mirage”
12. Taint, “Black Rain (Live)”
13. Mumakil, “Dawn of Slugs”

Plenty of recognizable names in the bunch (more importantly, a chance to discover some bands previously unheard), and all but Taint, Kehlvin, God is an Astronaut, and U.S. Christmas are either unreleased songs or alternate versions, so Falling Down II delivers plenty of rare material for collectors of fans the international cast of acts involved. For my taste, the droning plod of the second disc is what’s currently doing it, but three days ago I’d have said the opposite, so at least we know there’s something in Falling Down II that sparks repeat listens.

The run is limited to 1,000 copies and for sale on a MySpace page dedicated to the compilation, so if you want to check it out, there’s no excuse for not doing so. Basically this is less a review than an extended version of “Hey, this exists,” but in a world where labels and whoever else put out compilations thrown together at the last minute with no regard for the overall listening experience, something with this much thought and effort is worthy of recognition, however you may feel about comps in general. Whether you’re into it to satisfy the completist impulse and get that Ufomammut track or whether you just have to hear what a song called “Asslickers, Inc.” sounds like as done by The Ocean (a little like Meshuggah, but then it goes into this crazy clean vocal part), you’re bound to find Falling Down II an enticing subject for investigation.

Falling Down Compilation on MySpace

Tags: Falling Down, France, Kongh, Ufomammut

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 10:06 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.