/mu/ - The Best Of /mu/ Volume 2
Before the shills of the early ‘20 decade got together to network and help one another grow as artists, the shills of mid ’10 developed a poor reputation for the /mu/ board by consistently circle-jerking and disapprovingly spamming the board. Before that, though, shills were admirably quite supportive of one another and networked unlike any community since. Following their mildy creative and somewhat-amusing debut The Best Of /mu/ Volume 1, the shills cemented their irrelevancy with the monotonous follow-up The Best Of /mu/ Volume 2. Upon listening through their second effort, it should be evident why they never made one again.
The album opens like a Harold Budd suite with Rekapper’s Tripcrop, a song that barely differentiates itself from the canon of fourth-world ambient. Unfortunately, gone are the smooth transitions that made the first The Best Of /mu/ album stand out – the album takes an abrupt swan dive into the quite entertaining Building a New House for Skrillex. Perhaps the best song on the album, Building a New House experiments with foley and construction sounds in a meaningful way, creatively sculpting a menacing and alluring soundscape. Following is A Problem Like Maria’s Eviction Notice, the poor man’s Solex. Thankfully the female vocalist is quite charming, as is the alluring-yet-repetitive instrumentation. Sadly, the creativity ends there. Collaptic’s <3 & Luck is an incredibly boring Caribou replica. Kingtommen’s Based is an abhorrent Andy Stott-like vapourware demo, both underproduced and underdeveloped. Flying Batteries’s Tonight attempts to sound radio-friendly, though it lack of polish. Snailhead’s The Photographs contains quite a lot of personality for a punk song, but it’s 1-minute and evidently forgettable. New Motive Power returns with Breathe, though unlike the thoroughly enjoyable Christine from Volume 1, Breathe lazily relies on pop conventions and sounds cheesy in comparison. For some reason, the album returns to boring electronic filler with .\\BOOMGLITCH’s Nobody.
Half way through the album are a couple of standouts. Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack’s track Underground Alive is a significant improvement over their previous entry. The sense of progression and blend of genres are admirable. Somnitone’s Juvenilia is also quite admirable, which features one classy saxophone amidst a cold soundscape. The song relies on Eastern aesthetics, just like Charnel House from Volume 1, though in a much more tasteful and elegant manner. Furthermore, the Kate Bush-like backing vocals are quite pleasant. Perhaps it’s because these two tracks are surrounded by bland rubbish that they stand out.
As if the first half of the compilation (preceeding these two tracks) wasn’t bland enough, the second half outdoes itself. The vapourware train was clearly starting to gain traction in this era, as there are plenty of boring vapourware moments on Spoonty’s Mukakami. Mascara Hera’s Phaethon is admirably expressive, only marred by its severely disappointing percussion. Mattir’s You Trusted Me and Musik Herzeigen’s Boy are both enjoyable highlights from the second half of the compilation – no complaints here. Unfortunately, the last four tracks are severely underwhelming. The Sifters’s Goodbye Waves is a generic radio-wannabe. Qualia’s Light Pillars is so poorly produced it makes Wagon Lord’s original mastering of Jove’s Cove sound like the Dark Side of the Moon. Amanita’s Home? is very standard for an emo track; while the artist has a lot of passion and energy, the track’s position in the tracklisting is crippling. The album ends with the boring and obnoxiously long Barren Earth by Caves of Glass.
Whereas The Best Of /mu/ Volume 1 was passable as an entry, and included a wide variety of genres, The Best Of /mu/ Volume 2 compiled the most generic songs /mu/ had to offer in 2012. Either the curator was completely different, or just stopped caring. Nevertheless, there are certainly some good artists on this compilation worth listening to - though scout them out individually.
Below Average
Listen to it here:
/mu/ - The Best Of /mu/ Volume 2
