On The Bone - On The Bone Compilation: Number One Album Review

On The Bone Compilation: Number One

Album Review

Another day, another compilation of brand new artists from Leeds drops through the letterbox. And grand it is too, not that we would expect anything else.

Indeed Leeds has taken over Manchester’s role as being the north’s most prominent city as far as churning out the best post-millennium new sounds are concerned, and the latest homegrown label to add themselves to an already burgeoning list (Dance To The Radio, Engine Room, Wrath and East Park to name but four) are On The Bone, set up by dynamic duo Tom Goodhand and James Brown and already renowned for putting on shows across the city.

So what is so different about this compilation from the numerous others already sat on the racks in various record emporiums?

In terms of quality, not a lot, as there really is so much on here worth more than a second investigation no matter what your taste may be.

If anything, ‘On The Bone: Number One’ feels like the very first Dance To The Radio collection in that most of the bands on here are probably not that well known outside of the city, but in a few months time you can bet your bottom dollar all that will change.

In amongst the more familiar names of This Et Al and The Lodger we have the Muse-like prosthetics of Mother Vulpine with the engaging ‘We’ll Be Detectives For The Day’, the Sabbath go post-rock strains of It Takes Bridges’ ‘Braggart’ and the rather grandiose, quasi-operatics of The Wild Beasts with their ecliptic ‘Boom!’.

At nineteen tracks for a fiver, there’s very little reason why every home shouldn’t own a copy of this album, which only leaves me to say, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

4/5

Dom Gourlay