Various Artists: Under The Bridge 2

Various Artists: Under The Bridge 2

(Skep Wax Records)

LP / CD / Download

Released 5th April

Preorder here

A second compilation from Skep Wax Records featuring reunited groups and songwriters who had once recorded for cult label Sarah Records.

Under The Bridge 2 follows on from the 2022 compilation which Louder Than War called, “A quintessential collection for any Sarah fans and collectors. More than that, it is an eminently listenable collection of great songs for the unacquainted from Stockport to Stornaway” (read the full review here) The second volume is bigger and more expansive than the first, a double vinyl, containing twenty brand new tracks from intense, dark chamber pop to dense shoegaze to out-and-out indie-pop. 

There are many familiar names for Indie loving fans such as Even As We Speak, The Orchids and Secret Shine, bands whose line-ups have remained mostly unchanged since the 1990’s sitting alongside ‘new’ acts The Gentle Spring (a new project by Michael Hiscock of The Field Mice); Vetchinsky Settings (a collaboration between James Hackett of The Orchids and Mark Tranmer of St Christopher and GNAC); and Mystic Village (which features new songs by Robert Cooksey of The Sea Urchins). The set also includes a couple of established bands, Action Painting! and The Hit Parade who didn’t make the first compilation.

The majority of the tracks are exclusive to this set and unreleased. These include the first new track from Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey in their guise of The Catenary Wires since 2021, the cinematic Alone Tonight; Jetstream Pony, featuring Beth Arzy, formerly of Aberdeen along with Shaun Charman of Wedding Present fame (yes I know not a Sarah band, feature with a brand new fizzbomb of a track Look Alive! whilst GNAC deliver a haunting instrumental, Double Ninth. 

Of the album, label boss, the aforementioned Rob Pursey, says “It was exciting to be reunited with the bands we’d shared a label with back in the 1990s. It’s even more exciting to hear how the bands have evolved: they all seem to get stronger with the passing years”. It’s not just exciting for the label, as Rob adds, “I was talking with Julian Henry last week and he was telling me how amazing it was to record the Hit Parade contribution with the three original members in the same room that they recorded their original stuff”.   

Having listened to the album several times over the last couple of months I have found something new standing out on each listen. With a potpourri of styles throughout it dispels any myth that ‘Indie’ is just guys and gals with guitars. Under The Bridge 2 showcases the continuing creativity of a very special group of musicians from across the globe with a bond who’ve never rested on their laurels.

With 20 tracks in just under 70 minutes, there are several highlights, the opening track from Gentle Spring, Dodge The Rain, reminds me of Mojave 3 in the way that Hiscock’s vocals intertwine with Emilie Guillaumots. Action Painting!’s Just Who Are The Cockleshell Heroes? is more traditional guitar lead ‘indie’ whereas Australia’s Leaf Mosaic deliver The Branch Line, which at times sounds like a New Order demo from the mid-80s and has the best Peter Hook bass line that the Salfordian has never played.

Amongst the other tracks you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d heard 14 Iced Bears frontman Robert Sekula’s Pamela before, it’s a well-trodden tale of ‘boy wanting girl’. It’s possibly my favourite track on the album but then there are The Orchids, a band who’ve sounded ahead of their time with A Final Love Song and Secret Shine’s blissful slice of dream-pop, Captivate This Broken Love which will have you turning the dial up to 11. 

It’s fitting that Under The Bridge and this sequel exist as they offer a contemporary soundtrack to Jane Duffus’s superb book These Things Happen, especially as many of the records and compilations released on Sarah Records have long since been deleted; at a time when the reputation and mystique of the label continues to grow. A new generation of listeners is just discovering the label that bucked the trend, ignored standard music industry rules and released some of the best pop music of the 1980s and 1990s.

Leaving (almost) the last word to Rob Pursey, “The artists’ shared history means they have a shared aesthetic, even a shared ethos – they all believe that the future is more important than the past. They are as independent and as uncompromising as ever, but they are still uncynical and still excited about what Pop Music can be.”

With this compilation, the label and artists contributing have created something which I would argue is a step up from the ‘original’ rather than just ‘another compilation’. Not only is it bigger they take the Sarah aesthetic to the next level, rather than just having ‘bridges’ in the booklet, they now also have contemporary snaps of the performers pictured with their favourite/local bridges. A little thing, maybe disposable, but something that reinforces the worldwide coverage of this set, from Paris to London, Glasgow to Hamburg, California to Cardiff and Brisbane to Bristol.

Under The Bridge 2 is a triumph and will be a welcome addition to any music lover’s collection.

To celebrate the release of the album there are several events lined up with artists featured on the release performing live.

5th April – Online Listening Party, 8pm: RSVP HERE
6th April | Sheffield, The Shakespeare: 14 Iced Bears/The Gentle Spring/Wandering Summer. Tickets available HERE
7th April | London, The Lexington: The Gentle Spring/Mystic Village/The Hit Parade (Julian solo). Tickets available HERE
14th June | Bristol, The Louisiana: Secret Shine/Jetstream Pony/Soundwire.
Tickets Available HERE

The album is available to preorder on Bandcamp

All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him on X (Twitter) as @iainkey