Various Artists – "Music For Danny DeVito"

What a brilliant idea! (9/10) This time Mixgalaxy Records made a special compilation for Mr. Danny DeVito. Why? Because nobody have never done this to him before. At least officially. We sorta didn’t know what kind of music he prefers so we’ve set up a tracklist of a wide variety of genres for him to pick from. We decided that making it a private release would be unfair to our listeners so you all are very much welcome to give this record a listen and share it with your friends of course. It’s an easy bet to say that for Mr. DeVito all the names here are new, however for our regular listeners this release is once again a mix of old timers (even including Jacobo – a raggae-dub side project of Sinestesia) and a couple of guest artists which we would like to present. Meet Abel Mariam from San Jose, California, USA who contributed an opening track and meet Russian-Norwegian duo Zunzagi which consists of sound producer Sergei from Tomsk and singer Julia from Oslo. And finally welcome Without Time band form Grodno, Bealrus. So, as you can expect from Mixgalaxy Records it’s a nice one hour set of high quality tracks fluctuating from deep ambient, easy listening and folk-pop to electro-house, breakbeat and even hip-hop. And if by any chance you are an acquaintance of Mr. DeVito – make sure to pass him the link, that will do us all a big favor.

This is a very good compilation of songs by independent artists. It is very diverse stylistically, ranging from various genres of techno and electronica, through hip hop and pop up to rock. So I guess everyone would find here something of interest. Mr. DeVito included.

I liked 10 tracks out of 16, which is not a perfect, but still very very decent, score. While some songs are first class records, there are a few, which are below average for me. However, I'm giving this compilation one additional point for the brilliant surreal concept of making this album as a gift for the great actor Danny DeVito. I love this kind of humor. And this hilarious cover - guys from Mixgalaxy Records totally rule.

I won't elaborate on bad tracks for a change. Let's focus on the good ones this time:

02 - Grosse - Mousy Cheese Song
A funny parody (I hope so ;-) ) of an acoustic rock ballad - vocal line is comprised of "la la la" sang out-of-tune over an acoustic accompaniment.

03 - Cubic - Unded
Another not fully serious recording. Looped kitschy sounding trumpet as a leading tune for some electronica. Funny and catchy.

04 - Zunzagi - Empathy
Classy trip hop / pop. Nothing too original (like the most of trip hop), but very atmospheric and catchy, with nice dreamy vocals and good accompaniment.

06 - Bear and Lampshade - Witch Hunt
Great breakcore. Don't miss this one!

07 - Gipa - Mad Electric Dog
Very good creative techno / electronica.

08 - PiXtar - Space Adventure
Electronica flirting with industrial and synthpop.

11 - YARA - Walk On Clouds
Creative and interesting ambient.

14 - Without Time - Trap
Great rock / post rock. Atmospheric, dreamy, catchy, powerful.

15 - Fedorov Mark - By The Sea
Calm acoustic instrumental rock. Not bad at all.

16 - Waterplea - Spring Reprise
Calm instrumental rock. Nice dreamy atmosphere.

The album has been released by the Mixgalaxy Records netlabel and is available for a direct download as well as at archive.org in mp3 or ogg format. Additionally, it is available on the sonicsquirrel.net website and in the BitTorrent network.