The release of the first 'On The Bone' compilation certainly highlights some sterling work done by the collective in promoting diverse acts from in and around Leeds during the last year, many of whom are represented among its 19 tracks. Downdime veer a little too close to Placebo territory on 'Easy Go Easy Gone' than their usually pristine songwriting can compensate for, but Samsa make a strong play for Six By Seven's pre-eminence in the realm of overdriven guitar melodrama with 'The Fight'. Relative newcomers Mother Vulpine's 'We'll Be Detectives For The Day' hooks up urgent male-female harmonies to This Et Al's hissing hi-hats and colossal riff structures, while old hand Benjamin Wetherill dabbles further with multi-tracked vocals and odd instrumentation on the predictably stunning English pastoral 'He Rolled Her To The Wall'. It Takes Bridges wring the maximum amount of menace out of a tortured Telecaster and finely-honed rhythm section on 'Braggart', while The Somatics' 'Remote' justifies its bouts of meandering psychedelia with a chorus so uplifting it feels like the whole song is taking off. Fran Rodgers continues to trickle out breathtaking new material with the 'The Protestor', The Acutes use four chords to astonishing, infectious effect on introspective masterpiece 'Man In Me', and The Scaramanga Six betray their wonderful lack of self-consciousness on the jubilant 'I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve'. That Fucking Tank weigh in with the slightly underwhelming 'Lands And Body Cool Off', while Et Al themselves offer 'Free Adam Innocent', presumably too light in tone for inclusion on the claustrophobic 'Baby Machine' LP. The Lodger yet again know exactly when to drop a spinetingling chord change on the bouncy 'Let's Make A Pact', worriedaboutsatan pitch up between skyscraping guitars and stuttering electronics on 'The Butterfly Effect', and Wild Beasts show they have plenty more where 'Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants' came from on fingerclicking gem 'Boom'. Quack Quack provide a feast for the ears with the percussive melodicism of 'Spinach', while Monster Killed By Laser's 'Zombi' features monumental stoner grooves with an appropriate feel of unstoppability to them. As far as the out-of-towners go, 'Consumer Advice' from Smokes Die Younger is a barrelling five-minute competition between indie-pop and post-hardcore in which the only winner is the listener. Fellow Sheffieldians Champion Kickboxer have been to Paris - and let's hope those Frenchies responded with due enthusiasm to the spindly beauty of 'Photo' - while Mickey Charbagz, from Ireland, gives us the wryly-observed electro-folk of 'Fuckability', evoking Red House Painters and Adrian Crowley in equal measure. Wherever you pick this collection up, it won't cost you more than £6 - a bargain, by anyone's reckoning.

Greg Elliott

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