As someone who has dreamed for some time of putting together a compilation of bands I respect/admire/nerd-out on, I have much appreciation for the work that Yann and Thibaut have put into the three (so far) Falling Down releases. The French duo have managed each time out to corral artists and bands from across a range of genres and acquired material unavailable anywhere else into a series that’s become everything that’s best about the Various Artists section: Something special that’s separate from the regular discography, that’s maybe a little more under the radar for most fans, but that those who seek it out can treasure for as long as the band is around and longer.

And being a fan of the CD format, the four-disc Endless Edition of Falling Down IIV, with its gorgeous psychedelic artwork contained in a metal tin, is a welcome arrival. It’s already been reviewed, so I’ll spare the full list, but with audio and video contributions from Pelican, Ufomammut, Julie Christmas, Aiden Baker, Across Tundras, Mars Red Sky/Year of No Light and much more, Yann and Thibaut have been able to craft a tracklist that has a genuine album-style progression despite a range of artists, styles and varying productions. More than a ton of unreleased material from a wide variety of acts, it’s a solid listen.

I’d go on, but you get the fucking point, and the bottom line is they’re people who do good work, who were kind enough to send me one of these monster things, and I wanted to help spread the word some more than just a review. If you decide to click down and read the interview, please know that they’re native French speakers translating into English, so if you’re an English reader, some of the phrases might be awkward or whatever. As that kind of thing periodically results in awesomeness, I left as much of what Yann and Thibaut had to say alone, because it comes through clearly that they take the process very seriously and I think that’s what it’s all about.

Full Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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I know I’ve bitched plenty of times about reviewing compilations and other “various artists” releases. The complaints are always the same: There’s never enough space to get into any real discussion of the comp’s aesthetic value or what it might be trying to accomplish, so you either end up being like “this sucks” flat out without backing up your position or basically writing an advertisement for what it contains, or there are jumps in the flow of the tracklist, or production differences, or it’s just a pain in the ass to try and weed through however many bands might be involved to find the artists you’re either (A:) already interested in when you start out or (B:) interested in hearing more of but can’t because it’s one song apiece and then onto the next thing. Not that comps don’t do any good. They’ve provided me with much collector’s joy over the years, and they’re always a cool way to encounter a new band for the first time – “Oh, where’d you hear those guys?” “They were on this comp I got,” and so forth. The third and latest installment in the France-based Falling Down series of compilations is Falling Down IIV, and what it lacks in Roman numerological prowess, it more than makes up in sheer volume. And that’s volume both of loudness and scope, for the record. Falling Down IIV furthers the mission statement of delivering previously unreleased material (exclusively) from killer heavy bands across the world, and it does so for an astounding amount of time. On the two discs of the standard version of the release – give me a minute and we’ll get to the “Endless Edition” – there are 20 bands with 10 tracks on each disc, and each disc is over 70 minutes long. So, sure, you get Ethereal Riffian clocking in at over 11 minutes on “Rise of Spiritu (March of Sheol)” while Aiden Baker of Nadja’s “Instrumental B” doesn’t hit four, but however it’s broken up, it’s overwhelming. Not only that, but if you were fortunate enough to get a copy of the limited, aforementioned and reportedly long gone “Endless Edition” of Falling Down IIV, which comes in a metal tin, the 140 minutes-plus of the standard version arrives complemented by a bonus disc (mostly but not all unreleased tracks) that’s another 74 minutes of material and a DVD that features videos by present comp participants Julie Christmas, Year of No Light, Ethereal Riffian, Ocoai and more, as well as veterans like Ufomammut and Jucifer. Pretty much, if you’ve got a night to kill, the “Endless Edition” is more than happy to live up to its name.

One aspect Falling Down IIV has working in its favor over its predecessor (review here) is diversity. Falling Down IIV starts its first disc – pressing play is like taking a deep breath before you dive underwater – with the surprisingly funky “This is This” by Hopewell. The New York psych rockers give initial impression some bounce, but things soon space out in a marquee collaboration between Mars Red Sky and Year of No Light for the track “Green Rune White Totem,” rife with contemplative drones and periodic bursts of wah-drench psychedelia. Highlights are manifold and varied. Ocoai throw in a live track, but The Flying Eyes’ “Apollo Creed” is one of Falling Down IIV’s most hypnotic inclusions. Some of the cuts are less memorable than others – Vanessa Van Basten starts “Got to Say” rough before fully revealing the breadth of the song’s post-rock influence, while Dyskinesia and the black metal of Planning for Burial’s “Friendship” are overwhelmed by what’s surrounding. That’s particularly true in the case of Planning for Burial, who have the unfortunate task of leading into a one-two punch of Aiden Baker’s droning and the characteristic arthouse fodder of Julie Christmas, whose “little girl” voice has gotten no less grating since the last Made Out of Babies album, The Ruiner, dropped in 2008, but who still arrives at a chorus with a mastery that is undeniable and which was writ large across her 2010 solo outing, The Bad Wife, from the sessions of which her “Scalps” presumably comes. For her recognizability, she’s a standout, but the song works as well, and as The Winchester Club give and extended outro to the first half of the compilation with “Burn it all Down (Pt. 1),” disc two enters the picture with a lot to live up to. It does so by shifting the stylistic base somewhat to more blackened territory. Black Sun – fitting they’d actually be the least black metal of the three – stumble with the aptly-named semi-screamo “Syntax Error,” but Rorcal and Terra Tenebrosa and Monarch! each emit a different kind of malevolent darkness, whether it’s the slowed down molasses metal of the latter (one of several excellent showings by a native French band) or Terra Tenebrosa’s cerebral-but-still dirty tonality. By the time Monarch! are finished, the transition into the minimalist atmospherics of Syndrome is relatively smooth, and the darkness present gets a new but no less fitting form.

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Much continued respect to the French ‘zine Falling Down and the good people behind the compilation series of the same name. The 2010 installment (review here) brought unreleased tracks from the likes of Ufomammut, White Hills and Across Tundras, and the follow-up, Falling Down IIV, expands on the already successful formula, incorporating exclusive collaborations like that between Year of No Light/Mars Red Sky along with previously unheard material from bands like The Flying Eyes, Monarch, Julie Christmas and Mouth of the Architect, among two discs’ worth of others.

What it lacks in proper Roman numerology, it more than makes up for in the diversity of its lineup. The full tracklist can be seen at Falling Down‘s website, and as it just so happens, Falling Down IIV is out as of today, April 30. If you caught the news of its release last year, then you know it’s been a while coming, but hopefully you got to order one of the limited-to-108-copies metal-box Endless Edition (pictured above), which features an extra disc of material from Pelican, Ahkmed, Hotel Wrecking City Traders, Alunah and others, as well as a DVD of performances from AmenRa, Ufomammut, Ethereal Riffian, and more, as well as the original comp itself, which boasts 20 bands from 11 different countries around the world. No small shakes, and I can’t imagine what a pain in the ass it must have been to put together.

In that spirit of diversity and cultural breadth, I’m fortunate enough today to honor the release of Falling Down IIV by streaming a track from the previously On the Radar-ized Ayahuasca Dark Trip, which features members living in Peru, Brazil, the Netherlands and the US. A compilation in and of themselves, the song they’ve donated to the cause is called “Manantial,” and it’s a ritualistic exploration of oozing lysergic psychedelia, subtle but moving all the while. You’ll find it on the player below followed by the release announcement for Falling Down IIV and a couple links.

Please enjoy:

[mp3player width=460 height=120 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=falling-down-iiv.xml]

Falling Down IIV is available for purchase now from the ‘zine’s BigCartel store. The Endless Edition copies sold out on preorder, but the 2CD digipak is still available and limited to 1,000 copies. Full tracklist is posted there or on the comp’s info page, and a YouTube trailer has also been posted. Here’s the release announcement, posted to a Thee Facebooks event page earlier today:

Today is the day. We’re very thrilled to announce that our third volume is now officially released.

We’ve worked really hard everyday since one more year. This new volume contains a lot of amazing bands: we’re really proud to release their new previously-unpublished tracks. We’re still students, and we invested all our money in this volume. We wanted to try to create something unique made by music lovers for music lovers.

If you can, please, support us, this is the perfect moment. You can buy your copy on our BigCartel page. Your help would be truly appreciated.

If you can’t for any reason, please, help us to spread the word to your friends. Do we really need it? Absolutely.

Thanks to all the people who support us since several years! Thanks a lot for your interest!

A little while back, I reviewed the Falling Down II various artists collection put out by the French ‘zine of the same name. I’ve made my opinions on reviewing comps well known over the course of however long it’s been at this point, but Falling Down II was noteworthy because it was almost exclusively previously unreleased material from bands like Ufomammut, White Hills and U.S. Christmas, and the news came in the other day that the next installment, Falling Down IIV, is being prepared.

Mathematically, the Roman numeral still works out to three, so it’s right even though it’s wrong (you’d usually see it as III and not IIV, which is two before five: three via a longer route), but more important than being a stickler for accurate portrayal of ancient numbering systems is the list of bands involved. Still tentative as far as some artists are concerned, but the folks behind the comp sent over a list of who’s already on board and it looks like it’s going to be another win. Here are the names, followed by a trailer from the YouTubes:

The first confirmed bands are:

Mouth of the Architect (US)
Karma to Burn (US)
Julie Christmas (US)
Terra Tenebrosa (SWE)
Year of No Light/Mars Red Sky (Special Collaboration – FR)
Hopewell (US)
Rosetta (US)
Black Sun (SCO)
Ahkmed (AUS)
Vanessa Van Basten (IT)
Sendelica (UK)
Ayahuasca Dark Trip (PER)
Ocoai (US)
The Winchester Club (UK)
Planning for Burial (US)
Vespero (RUS)
Rorcal (CH)
Ethereal Riffian (UKR)

Available in 2012, all the tracks will be unpublished. Only unpublished tracks: this is our main priority.

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:

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