- Only in its third lifecycle, this annual release highlighting the music of women, gender non-conforming and LGBTQIA+ artists in Australia has already well and truly established itself as one of the most anticipated compilations of the year.
The twentytwo-track compilation is unbound by genre constraints, but joined by an ethos that is decidedly punk - so it only follows that there’s plenty here. Opening with <strong>Piss Factory</strong>’s spiky <em>Insufficient Funds</em>, volume three plays host to a diverse range of punk (post and otherwise) from <strong>Bloodletter</strong>, <strong>Synthetics</strong>, <strong>Slag Queen</strong>, and more before allowing <strong>The Pink Tiles</strong> to take up a mantle of hope on <em>State Of The Nation</em> to close out the mammoth compilation.
Though each track feels decidedly individualist, there’s a patina of influences from decades past - a limber offering from <strong>Cat Heaven</strong> mines the best trademarks of the indie rock golden age, while <strong>InfraGhosts</strong> take cues from <strong>Icehouse</strong> on the ultra-slick <em>Phantom Pain</em>.
It doesn’t feel as though inclusions were necessarily chosen for their political nature, but there’s a pervading sense of the personal as political across the release - a daily reality for many of us. On <em>White Lies</em>, <strong>Classic</strong> prove dream-pop doesn’t have to be complacent or complicit, taking white privilege and fragility to task while <strong>Wet Lips</strong> deal out their trademark barbs with feverish glee on <em>Can’t Take It Anymore</em>.
<em>LISTEN Compilation 3</em> is full of delightfully surprising and engaging moments, as it sandwiches <strong>BILES’</strong> discomfiting noisescapes between twitchy, danceable electronica from <strong>Horse Pills</strong> and <strong>Fia Fiell</strong>’s dreamy, twinkling <em>Landing</em>, and marches you -firmly- from the enveloping ambient mystery of <strong>Shoeb Ahmad</strong>’s “<em>silhouette”</em> to staccato indie pop from <strong>Eliza Hull</strong>.
<strong>Public Meltdown</strong>’s <em>Watch Me Watch You</em>, a slinky, delicate RnB slow-burner with disarmingly agile lyrics somehow manages to outstrip the band’s excellent name, a phenomenon which is repeated by <strong>Broccoli Bitch</strong> (lo-fi bedroom pop from LISTEN’s <strong>Chloe Turner</strong>) and <strong>Meme Girls</strong>. <em>LISTEN</em> and LISTEN Record’s philanthropic and socially-engaged ethos is a shining beacon for a music industry that is finally being forced to wrestle with its own demons. Fifty-perccent of profits from the tape are going to Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, and cassette pre-orders are available via Bandcamp now. Not that it needed the extra recommendation.
- Liz Ansley.
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1391161344/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="http://listenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/listen-compilation-3-2">LISTEN Compilation 3 by LISTEN Records</a></iframe>