Various Artists – 古式 Records Compilations – Hangin’ With Our Waifus [2012; 古式 Records]

Presenting its songs in alphabetical order of their creators, this compilation throws together noise, breakcore, illbient, grind, and more, with little linking the tracks beyond a freeness of compositional style and an almost confrontational counter-cultural attitude. Ranging from clear echoing tones to thick-clustered lo-fi buzz bursts, the compilation appears to have given its contributors entirely free rein on their direction, though that’s likely for the best. There also seems to be little more to the title than the release being issued on Valentine’s Day, with the relatively few anime samples for the genre further cutting off any sense of the claimed “2D Goddess” dedication. Weird for the sake of weirdness, but there are some good tracks lurking in its recesses.

Various Artists – Basic Replay [2007; Basic Replay]

With this compilation, the Basic Replay record label provides a thorough overview of the reggae tunes they’d reissued, mingling relatively big names like Chuck Turner and White Mice with lesser-knowns and under-repped greats. Dabs of dub and dancehall rhythms drift up and pass on through the sixteen tracks, keeping up an easy flow of style through the variety of acts and attitudes. With virtually all of the inclusions culled from the late ‘80s, there is some similarity of production quality from track to track, but they all come through with clear and full-bodied tones thanks to some careful remastering. A very solid collection, making it even more of a shame that the label’s reissue efforts ended the same year as its release.

Velvet Acid Christ – Greatest Hits [2016; Metropolis]

With selections ranging back to 1999′s Fun with Knives album (skipping past the group’s first seven years of output), this ‘best of’ compilation features some of Velvet Acid Christ’s singles alongside new remixes and a few more recent/obscure picks. The group’s characteristic mix of EBM synths, dark beats, hissing vocal treatment, and handfuls of samples from films and video games fills the collection, and though it’s not quite a direct chronology, the track order does trace a general path from older to newer material, which helps highlight the shift in style from manically cartoonish energy to more reserved brooding.

As it covers almost two decades of the band’s history, it’s perhaps not the outright shifts in style which are notable as much as the refinement of retained qualities along the way. The drum machine percussion, for instance, is practically the same in terms of song-writing through the years, but the cleaning up of its sonics and lining against the other rhythms attains audible improvement, while the meshing of textures and improved balancing of the volume dynamics also stand out with their rising polish through the track-list. A little too broad in scope to give listeners a clear idea of VAC’s most common MO, but as a cross-cut of their more commercially successful years, it does its job well.

Various Artists – The Best of Disney, Volume Two [1978; Disneyland]

In this second and final installment of the Best of Disney compilation series, the selections come from live-action and animated films (plus one track, “Disco Mouse”, from the New Mickey Mouse Club TV series), with little flow or linkage between the picked tracks. The audio quality is better than that of the first in the series, though there’s still a bit of fuzziness at times, and for the most part, the performances come off quite well. Mary Poppins and Pinocchio each get two inclusions, and aside from So Dear to My Heart, the rest of the sources are well-exposed entries in Disney’s catalog. A decent compilation, but the seemingly careless grab-bag nature stains it with a sense of pointlessness.