Some Bizzare Artists: Redefining the Prologue 1981-2006

Some Bizzare is the seminal label set up in 1981 by Stevo Pearce. This is an 18-track compilation, celebrating 25 years of the legendary Some Bizarre label that has given us some of the most unique and inventive dance industrial tracks of the past few decades as well as producing.some of the best selling pop music and has helped establish acts that have become million sellers.

About half of the CD is material from the early 80s such as Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The etc but this long-overdue anthology is perhaps more geared towards the revival of Some Bizarre Records in the 21st Century....

Heading this list is the awesome "Crazy" by Dark Poets. 'The Dark Poets' are an electronic breakbeat outfit from the UK. Mixing dark, moody breakbeat with blissed out warped electronica, they are probably most well known in the public domain for their soundtrack work on Alex Chandons 'Cradle of Filth' horror movie 'Cradle of Fear' (As well as the official soundtrack album) and 'Crazy' is the first track to be released by the Dark Poets on the 'Some Bizzare' Label. The track itself can only be described as "Prodigy on acid" or "a bad trip inverse of handbag house" but either the way this is an act not to be messed with. Apparently they've got an album coming out in 2007 on Some Bizarre Records and i personally cannot wait to hear more.

Other great tracks on the CD are Soft Cell's "Memorabilia" - Monkey Farm Frankenstein's Mental Remix which brings the original bang up to date with a slamming new breakbeat mix. And also "Accelerate" by Meka is cut from similar cloth as Soft Cell. MFF - "Just another victim" is another 2006 track which sounds fantastic. More bizarrely is that some of the 80s tracks sound remarkably current - Cabaret Voltaire, Einsturzende Neubauten's and even The The all seem way ahead of their time and showcase the labels amazing diversity.

Some Bizarre has been responsible for some of the most innovative recordings of the era, this eclectic mix of songs shows how important and influential the label has been over the last 25 years. And with artists such as Dark Poets, Mainstream Distortion and Meka etc the label is set to continue to be genre defining into the future. I urge you to buy it now, if only for the awesome Dark Poets track, but the other 17 are worthy of a place in your record collection....

Some Bizarre,in it's heyday, released music by artists as diverse (and brilliant) as Foetus, The The, Marc And The Mambas, Soft Cell, Test Dept and the immortal Einsturzende Neubauten. This compilation includes some highlights from the first 25 years of the label, and most of it is phenomenal. One minor problem for me is the inclusion of a new remix of Soft Cell's Memorabilia (which clearly wasn't going to be a patch on the Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing version). But i'm nitpicking,this is a great introduction to a legendary label.

The reason I own this is because my mate bought it at X in Bolton.After putting it on his car CD player he decided he didn't like it.Reason he got it in the first place is because he had the first 2 Some Bizzare albums.Seems he didn't like the remixes
Whatever he owed me some money so I took this off him.I think I played it once as its not music I need to play often.
The man known as Stevo began by compiling electronic music charts for Sounds in the late 70s-this is what led to the Indie chart.
For what its worth its well done with good sleeve notes and a great sleeve photo.
Of all the people signed to and subsequently licensed from the label the most interesting was The The.
At one time they issued a track by Virginia Astley which is like putting Judy Collins on a punk collection.Probably the only reason was because Anne Stephenson,Audrey Riley and Jocelyn Pook were session musicians for some of SBs acts but Anne Stephenson told me that both she and Virginia Astley detested the man as he wouldn't even pay a session fee.
However the rarest The The single is the one with Virginia Astley's Waiting to fall on the B side only issued as a promo