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"Can Buy Me Love IV"
With 2 CDs and around 57 tracks, there's a lot of bang for the buck here, so long as various forms of electronic noodling is a plus, and thematic cohesion is something to stay away from.
The only real consistency on this compilation is the electronic nature of the tracks. Putting the spazcore video game techno of Alien Hand's "The One and Only Time You Touch the Boys of Malin" on the same disc as the restrained ambient pad synths of Subsonika's "Bitch" is an odd proposition, but curator Mixomatosis decided to do just that. As someone whose taste in electronic music as a whole ranges from "it's ok" to "I love it" depending on the subgenre, I had a similar perspective on this disc. But honestly, it works better than I expected in most situations. For example, I would never consider myself to be a big fan of gabber (the late '90s techno variant where 909 drum machines are used like Mac-10s), but Peter Z & Lispent's "Jagtvej 69 (Tribute)" is exactly that, and I caught myself enjoying it.
Although it admittedly runs the gamut of styles, one glance at artists such as Stuntcock and Mr. Cunt makes me inclined to believe that the next Iannis Xenaxis is most likely NOT hiding amongst these tracks, but as a whole, it functions as a great corollary to the more scatological end of the grindcore spectrum. But with a greater variety in style….as a fan of that stuff as well, I know even I would be hard pressed to discern Anal Cunt from Agoraphobic Nosebleed in many contexts, but that's not as much of a difficulty here.
Some of the contributions are purely comical in nature, such as the aforementioned Mr. Cunt's mushmouthed yelling over faux porno groans and cheap Casio presets. Again, definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but as someone who tries to find humor in everything, I welcome such shenanigans. Admittedly, not everything over such a wide span of artists is going to be in everyone's spectrum of taste, and I must say that the intentionally cheesy General MIDI sound of Patrick May's various contributions did not do much for me, nor did Iivix's "Modern Love is So Romantic," which was too simplistic house techno in its sound. I was personally most intrigued with the slower paced moodier works like Datarapist's "Roadcones," and the esoteric ones like the glitch sputter of Hertodyne's "Uncivilized," which I caught myself returning to multiple times.
By its very nature it can be an alienating listen due to the massive variety of mostly unknown artists on here, and the compilation is quick to jump from subgenre to subgenre, so those who consider themselves to be, say, only fans of drum 'n bass will probably hate more than they like on here. More open-minded listeners, however, will appreciate the veritable variety platter that is Can Buy Me Love IV as a way to check out new artists without having to click through tedious Myspace pages or rely on friends with specious taste in music.
samples:
- Subsonika - "Bitch"
- Stuntcock - "The Casual Acquaintance Remix"
- Datarapist - "Roadcones"
