Sewer Election - What Love Am I Supposed To Show You?
Koeff - Offter
Skin Area - Post-Raw
Mnem - Syphilitic Solar Surge
Jarl - Envägskommunikation
Moljebka Pvlse - Cora
Institut - Choose
Government Alpha - Dimple
Sharon's Last Party - Cocktail Pussycat
Treriksröset - Eating Tarmac
Irm - Like Hearts
Ochu - Uhmghnn - Trådarna Som Tyglar Samvetets Svets
Martin Bladh - Safe As Me
Irgun Z'wai Leumi - Telefunkeln
Barrikad - I Don't
Blod - Heartbreaker

My wife thinks I’m a moron. Fair do’s. I think she’s a flabby arsed nagging old bitch. I just haven’t had the balls to tell her that to her face. She doesn’t understand why I need to have so many compilations in my music collection. I’ve tried explaining to her that within the different genres so popular within the spectrum of our beloved music scene that compilations are there for collectors of labels / artists and for discovering or even re-discovering new / old acts which we may or may not have heard of before. A taster in other words. Old saggy arse, with varicose veins in her thighs resembling the road map of Great Britain it, disagreed of course. She always gets the last fucking word in. Cow.

"Sweetness Will Overcome" is a compilation from the Segerhuva label from Sweden which have released some intriguing recordings from Blod, Jarl, Government Alpha and Shin Area to name but a few. On "Sweetness Will Overcome" these artists are all present along with 12 other well known and relatively unknown acts.

Hitting the brick wall: The majority of the recordings on this CD are of the extreme / power noise electronics type and as such can be a chore to get through. Maybe I’m getting too old for this type of music, having followed Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend and Merzbow etc from the very beginning, but I find the majority of pure noise recordings not as stimulating as I used to. That’s not to say I’ve started collecting Perry Como or Doris fucking Day CDs yet. If I ever admit to such a crime please come round and put me out of my misery. The problem is you don’t need to be an Einstein to make a noise record. Any idiot with an IQ of 3 and the proper instruments / equipment could probably make such a recording in a day. In fact they probably already have somewhere. I defy anyone to tell me they can listen to high frequency noise on a daily basis and enjoy it. If anyone admits to such they are probably driving a truck and listening to the voices in their heads telling them to rape and kill hitchhikers.

Breaking through unscathed: Of course there are always artists who have the talent to try something different and destroy this mould and thankfully this compilation features many of them. The tracks by Skin Area, Jarl, Institut, IRM, Martin Bladh, Irgun Z’Wai Leumi and Barrikad are diverse enough for these ears to actually faintly enjoy the raucous din they made. The standout track, and one which is worth shelling out on this compilation alone for, is the totally freaky and fucked up track by Sharon’s Last Party. This is probably down to the fact that the sub bossanova beats are so far removed from the efforts of the other protagonists that it stands out like an uninvited piss ridden tramp at the Oscars ceremony.

A mixed bag then overall but with enough saving graces to at least warrant your investigation if the whole noise scene is your thing.

ANM