Album Review: ME3 – Various artists
This month Medway Eyes celebrate their third anniversary. The collective, which is now a registered charity, started out as an informal organisation supporting Medway’s artists and collaborating with local venues to promote gigs and shows. Each October they’ve celebrated their birthday by releasing an mp3 compilation featuring Medway bands and singers. With previous releases entitled ME1 and ME2 it probably won’t stretch your deductive skills to work out that this latest addition is called ME3, but this year the track count has increased to a massive 47 tracks.
Ranging from Medway’s elder statesmen (The Singing Loins, ex Dentist Bob Collins and Maker), to its young pretenders (Kids Unique, Theatre Royal and The Blissful Mop), ME3 is a superb and comprehensive guide to Medway’s music scene. Most impressive though is the range of music on offer; covering genres as diverse as goth rock (The Love Family), English folk(Los Salvadores), pysch rock (Maker), blues (Stuart Turner), sunny 60s pop (Survivors of Suki) and many more. It’s a little disappointing there’s no synth pop but whatever flavour you like your rock music there should be something here to please your palate.
As with all compilations not every song is a winner, but the majority of them hit the target which makes it tough to pick out highlights. Special mention however must go to Porlie Eidolon and Spindly Killers for ‘You’re Still Mine’ which sounds like the aural equivalent of watching a Dario Argento movie, and Wolfgang Riot who has to be one of the most intense and compelling singers I’ve heard in a long time.
Not only is ME3 An immensely enjoyable album, it’s an important album on several levels it gives exposure to many artists that wouldn’t otherwise be heard, it raises money for Oxjam (you can download it for free but I’d urge you to make a donation – after all you’re getting 47 tracks!) and most importantly it serves to remind people that Medway’s music scene is not only alive and well but creatively firing on all cylinders.
ME3 is available for download from www.medwayeyes.co.uk
