VA - Pals Vol 4 (2018)

To celebrate five years of releasing new wave-inspired, left-of-centre goodness, Madrid’s Play Pal Music has put together this celebratory compilation of previously unheard treats from the label’s growing roster of artists. As you’d expect, the tone is dark, druggy and psychedelic from the word go, with Rambal Cochet’s hallucinatory, slo-mo opener “Dark Caravan” neatly signposting what’s to come. There are of course plenty less intense moments scattered throughout the compilation – see the tasty tracks by Did Virgo and Amevicious, Vereno and Club Bizarre, for starters – but a low-slung, heavyweight jam is never far away. To our ears, the best examples come from Curses (the wonky disco-punk of “More Cherry Pie”), Theus Mago (the Motorik throb of “Low Cost Interstellar Drive”) and Nozz (grandiose soundtrack Italo throb-job “Clock”).