Various Artists
Topo-O-Rama Vol. 1
SCORE: 4 out of 10
In the spirit of the classic Punk-O-Ramas released by Epitaph back in the day, El Topo Records aims to display interesting acts and, along the way, help the artists generate an income in these difficult times. Well… let’s hope that they, at least, succeed in the latter.
I was 12 when I burned my first CD. It featured pieces from Radiohead’s earlier catalogue (by that time I had already purchased Kid A), Crass’ unique sound, Disrupt and Buried Alive’s aggressive intensity, NOFX’s uplifting energy, and Tool’s odd prog-metal. Having never been able to purchase a Punk-O-Rama copy, I decided to, uhm… borrow the concept, so I took a Sharpie and thus christened my creation under the Jorg-O-Rama name. It was dumb, but I endlessly listened to it, enjoying each and every one of those songs with the same passion. There’s a sense of pride and achievement after making a compilation that no one can take away from you, and that not even making the perfect Spotify playlist will ever match.
On a more formal and professional realm, compilations act as a great gateway to new artists and the labels promoting them. However, when not handled correctly, this sampler-based practice can work against the label putting it out. This might be the case for El Topo Records’ latest release that aims to display interesting acts and, along the way, help the artists generate an income in these times in which they cannot perform live. Well… let’s hope that they at least succeed in the latter, since the most interesting part of the whole album is the chorus on one of the last songs; even the cover art is prophetic of how this is going to play out. Props to the illustrator, as he really nailed what it felt like to listen to this.
At 19 tracks, this is a great example of how there is such thing as giving more than you should; this was one of the most taxing listening experiences yet, and I consider myself to be a very patient person; I can sit through Daughters of Darkness without having -or wanting- to take a break. The problem here is that the music is painfully outdated. In a way (and this is not a compliment) it did feel like listening to a Punk-O-Rama compilation, in the sense that it took me back to a simpler time, in which my most crucial decision was to decide if I wanted to pick Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle; however, that’s not what I particularly want to get out of the music I consume, especially if it’s (relatively) new, and especially if this is supposed to be an album that aims to “reactivate the independent scene”. Reactivating it by perpetuating stale sounds? If that’s the case, it might be better to keep it dormant.
None of the bands really have something special to offer, but this is not a statement pointing to a lack of quality, since they’re not bad at all. The songs are well performed and the production suits each song’s style, but they just feel tragically local because of how aesthetically undeveloped and overly-reminiscent of their influences they sound; most of them play your typical punk rock, pop-punk, ska-punk and any other radio-friendly offshoot of punk you can imagine, with no interesting twists; even the bands that deviate from the typical “El Topo sound”, do it without any personality. I’m sure that most of the projects featured here have good albums outside of this endeavor (I wasn’t familiar with Corporate Citizen, but I might check them out later on), but the idea of having them all in a single album proved to be a pretty redundant listen.
Outside of all the tepid punk tracks, Frantic Romantic stand out for their adult alternative-radio sound; Soma Reggae play… well, reggae (their contribution is a live cut which actually sounds quite nice but there’s nothing novel about it); the song “Merol” sounds exactly like you would expect coming from a guy taking a queue from Slash’s fashion sense. Vaqueros Galácticos and Hachiros are the closest this compilation gets to a more modern territory with their alternative, synth-driven and pastel-tinged tracks, but, as much as the curator seemed to aim for an ample chromatic palette, everything is just a not-so-different shade of the same color. To be fair, though, El Topo has been around since 2006 and their taste in music, along with their idea of local talent, is a reflection of that: they’re still married to the notion of rock being the only genre that matters.
The idea behind the compilation is noble and wholesome, but the music cannot take the role of supporting character; it shouldn’t be outshined by the good-intentioned nature of this project. It’s possible to present something that truly showcases the uniqueness of its components while at the same time maintaining a particular mood and aiming for a good cause. Let’s take the Mark Barton’s “The Sunday Experience” compilation album which was released to cover for Mark Barton’s cancer treatment (he unfortunately succumbed to the illness before the album came out, and now, the income is donated for cancer research). Yes, those are not local-level bands, but the point is that the album does display a wide range of projects that go from quirky indie-rock, to psychedelia, to stoner, to fucking Godflesh; it wasn’t just an effort to “document” the same sound coming from different bands.
Topo-O-Rama will no doubt open the nostalgia gates for a lot of people, but the sad thing is that this was not the intended effect; it is just a side-effect from having a lineup in which even the younger artists sound like late-blooming punk-rock acts, and a lot of the bands that already have an established career like 22 Missiles and Hafid (whose sound is more classic-hard-rock-shredding oriented), are just exercising the same dynamics that preceded them by decades. Then again, punk (and classic rock for that matter) has never been one for change, so, that might be one of the redeeming qualities of some of the projects in this album: they have stuck to their roots without any compromise, and with a complete lack of preoccupation for fitting into other molds. That’s and admirable display of authenticity, but when it comes to music, some risks every now and then go a long way.
