• Various

    3... 2... 1... A Rocket Girl Compilation

    Almost a decade on from the first Rocket Girl compilation, this luxuriously-packaged double CD/download showcases the sonic esprit de corps of label founder Vinita Joshi – a twenty-seven track treasure-trove, brimming with the label's most recent aural acquisitions. Launched in 1997, Rocket Girl has established itself as one of the UK's premier independent labels and, while the music Joshi releases spans a variety of genres (everything from spacerock, to baroque pop, to plinky-plonky electronica), the one constant is Joshi's unwavering ear for beauty.

    CD1 comprises fifteen of the finest cuts from the most recent Rocket Girl roster – a cocktail which marries cult heavyweights (Lilys, Robin Guthrie, Television Personalities) with new blood (A Place to Bury Strangers, The Brothers Movement). The result is a family of tracks which parade their beauty in a variety of stereophonic plumages: from the elegant electronica of Brooklyn's Project Skyward, to the blistering, blissful barrage of noise of Japan's aM.

    A pitch-perfect companion, CD2 presents new, exclusive tracks from an array of Rocket Girl champions, past and present. Psychedelphia stalwarts Asteroid #4 rub shoulders with the reverb-laden lullabies of Lemon's Chair and Serena Maneesh while, elsewhere, All in the Golden Afternoon and A Shoreline Dream locks horns with synth maestro Ulrich Schnauss, in a pair of gossamer-light, melody-heavy collaborations.

    Sharing is at the heart of the Rocket Girl ethic – as well as releasing records, Joshi runs a long-standing mail order company, launching an ever-expanding array of records into the atmosphere, for the joy of sharing the music she loves.

    What with today's blind-eyed acceptance of ever-more disposable music formats (and musicians), Rocket Girl feels at once far-removed from other labels, and yet – at the same time – familiar and inviting: a label you can believe in. And, likewise, 'A Rocket Girl Compilation' is an album to cherish – from the opening, offbeat groove of Lily’s 'A Diana's Diana', to the final bubbles and horns of Fuxa, the record acts as both a time capsule celebrating the last ten years of Rocket Girl, as well as a launch-pad, poised to fire another ten-plus years of stellar music into any willing eardrum.

    Tracklisting

    1. A Diana's Diana- Lilys
    2. Tattoo - Peter Daltrey
    3. Blooth - Serena Maneesh
    4. Frozen Twilight - God Is An Astronaut
    5. Rocket Girl - Kennedy Green
    6. In The Glow - Asteroid #4
    7. Dressed For Rain - The Sleeping Years
    8. Cold Water - Pieter Nooten
    9. London - A Shoreline Dream with Ulrich Schnauss
    10. No.6 - Sam Kills Two
    11. I've God Them - aM
    12. Nowhere - Elika (Project Skyward remix)
    13. I Know I'll See You - A Place to Bury Strangers
    14. Dream - The Azusa Plane
    15. Broken Heart - Robin Guthrie
    16. Love Never Dies A Natural Death - Robin Guthrie
    17. The Long Goodbye - All in the Golden Afternoon with Ulrich Schnauss
    18. Blue - Pieter Nooten
    19. Standing Still - The Brothers Movement
    20. Maybe Next Time - The Pragmatic
    21. Bubbles and Flugelhorn - Fuxa
    22. Memories Just Wash Away - Project Skyward
    23. In The Distance Fading (The Echelon Effect remix) - God is An Astronaut
    24. Setting Sun - Howling Bells (Ulrich Schnauss) remix
    25. Just Out of Reach - A Place to Bury Strangers
    26. You're My Yoko - Television Personalities
    27. Swallowtail - Lemon's Chair

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