Tapes

Not what you might think

Is it not too early to release a compilation, a listener might think, looking at a collection with a Foals logo on it. The band is indeed great, playing quality dance rock. But this is a young band. The English outfit have as few as only two studio albums so far, and now they have what, a compilation? It looks like the young musicians intend to, as they say, make money on feelings of the public that fell in love with them already. Yet, there is no reason for indignation. Those more experienced will be quick to understand by the title of the release, Tapes, that what we have here is a new issue from the mixtapes series established by the K7 label. The idea is as original as attractive. It is to give the audience an insight into music preferences of their favorites. The members of Foals were the ones to select tracks for this release. To make it even more winning, it is presented in form of audiocassette (mind the Tapes title), and the set is divided into conventional two sides. The whole thing is decorated with charming cats with cigarettes in their mouth, looking at you from the cover.

Two sides of one tape

Keyboardist Edwin Congreave, commenting on the release of Tapes, gave an almost template statement that this double CD would be something more interesting than just a collection of remixes of a lot of songs from a lot of performers. However, if you give it a thought, this compilation never stood a chance to be really a release of a separate class. Tapes is exactly a collection of elements which are united by something that is hard to distinguish. Sure it is – the set was composed by the while ensemble. But this is where the list of flaws comes to an end. Tapes leaves no doubt that the lads from Foals do not have problems with taste, and the scope of their musical preferences and knowledge is really large. The conventional sides A and B of the conventional tape are indeed different, by the stylistics of the tracks. The former is more intriguing and surprising. It presents a more varied material. The set is opened by Variation from the young talent Nichlas Jaar, and two track away from it is exotic Confusion (Ma Africa). The song was included by Foals vocalist Yannis Philippakis who used to play it on a real tape in the eighties.

Compilations like that should be released

The other side of Tapes looks more respectable, honorable and prestigious. It gathers more famous, mostly danceable, tracks, many of which are more than ten years old. Veteran hits like Paradiso, Give Me Love, or Mushrooms match seamlessly with precious findings on the modern house scene led by the brilliant We Call Love. Foals men did a great job selecting truly worthy stuff to represent various trends. And this is not an easy thing to do, to make that kind of compilations, to pick the best of the best from a tremendous many. The biggest use from Tapes is the desire of listeners to try originals of the presented songs and to get a better of idea of performers who made them. The purpose of such compilations has already proved its value; and there is no doubt Tapes composed by Foals will make the series even better.