Various Artists – Speedy Wunderground Vol 5 review

The idea of compilations has long been a thing, going back beyond Lenny Kaye’s garage obscurity packed Nuggets released in 1972. Whilst it’s been mostly usurped by technology since, the seperate concept of the record label as a marker to identify with has never really gone away, despite the blurring of what is and is not truly ‘independent’.

The era of simply buying everything released on the likes of Factory, 4AD and Creation may be gone, but super producer Dan Carey – he of Wet Leg, Squid and Fontaines D.C. fame – has in Speedy Wunderground spent the last decade building the reputation of an outfit he founded from the environs of his East London studio.

Volume five of their various artists edition features work that straddles the lockdown divide; Lazarus Kane for instance whose contribution Narcissus is one of the highlights has already left the scene. But in the likes of Joyeria, PVA and the label’s current champions The Lounge Society there’s more than enough forward motion to make Carey’s mission one that’s easy to believe in.

You can read a full review here.