Various Artists: F*>K Dance, Let’s Art – Sounds From A New American Underground

F*>K Dance, Let’s Art – Sounds From A New American Underground
One of my favorite compilations of all time is Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The ’80s Underground. The compilation is filled with awesome 80s alternative tracks by bands like R.E.M. and The Replacements. When I first heard about F*>K Dance, Let’s Art – Sounds From A New American Underground, I thought “this sounds awesome, it will be like the 2000s equivalent of Left of the Dial“, sadly I was wrong.
F*>K Dance, Let’s Art seems like it should have been curated by Pitchfork. The album features such Pitchfork-hyped bands as Animal Collective, Beat in Heaven, Crystal Castles, and HEALTH just to name a few.
There are a couple of bands that the compilation was able to introduce me to with varying degrees of success. Baghdaddy gets the opening slot on the compilation. The Brooklyn band has not been covered by Pitchfork (yet), but their track “Hot Shit (Creep Remix)” seems like it will be right up Pitchfork’s ally. The track sounds like Animal Collective doing a chillwave remix of Fol Chen. Despite my description and my dislike for Animal Collective, the song is one of the better tracks on the album.
Another non-Pitchfork covered band on the compilation is Hideous Men. The group’s track “Tangled” kind of sounds like Knobody remixing an M.I.A. cover of a Memory Tapes track. This track unfortunately did little to move me.
The last track I’ll highlight by a non-Pitchfork covered band is Slava‘s “Anything”. The track is much less chillwave than most of the selections on F*>K Dance, Let’s Art, instead “Anything” is a psychedelic-dance tune. The track is starts off with a Michael Jackson “Billie Jean”-esque synth-bass line before breaking into odd repeatedly sampled dialog pieces over dance beats. The track feels a little maniacal but it works to break up the monotony of chillwave after chillwave tune.
In the end, the biggest question F*>K Dance, Let’s Art left me with was “who is this compilation made for?”. With the exception of four or five of the 18 tracks, they have all been featured on Pitchfork. So while not exposing listeners to a whole host of new bands and not featuring many unreleased or rare remixes on the album, the album seems to be aimed at the wannabe hipsters; people who want to be hipsters but do not have time to read blogs…which means they are probably not reading this review.
Rating: 3.9/10
MP3: Baghdaddy “Hot Shit (Creep Remix)”
Buy: iTunes or Insound!