Kicking Against... Nuggets From The Irish Overground

Compilations that attempt to document a so-called ‘scene’, however tenuous or dubious, are always swimming in dangerous waters. Kicking Against... triumphs where others falter, strictly because the only barometer for inclusion is sheer quality. Great thought and care have gone into every detail – from the packaging and the cover art right down to the spot-on track sequencing. Put simply, Kicking Against... is a tremendous riot of music, visuals and wholesome great fun.

There is no need to convince most readers of the merits of David Kitt, The Frames, Goodtime, John, The Redneck Manifesto, Decal, The Jimmy Cake or Creative Controle contributing nothing short of their best work, from ‘You Know Want I To Know’ to ‘Bloodrush’ to ‘The Dillon Family Dancers’ to ‘This Used to Be the Future’. Exclusive material from the Frames (‘Tomorrow’s Too Long’), Jape (‘I Spend Too Much Time At Conferences’) and The Last Post (a Kittser duet entitled ‘Only Thing That Eases The Pain’) means this is a very special exercise in compilation curatorship.

Central to the Kicking Against... project is an enhanced CD boasting excellent biographies of each act and two of the finest audio-visual moments ever made for the benefit of eyes and ears everywhere. D.A.D.D.Y.’s classic clips for Warlords of Pez’s ‘Padre Pio’ and Creative Controle’s ‘Bloodrush’ are benchmarks of Irish video making, now captured for your repeated viewing pleasure.

My only petty criticisms would be one or two omissions, which is fine by me as long as volume two shows up soon.