Bleep

Organised by the good folk at Hackney’s The Gun pub, Gun Aid is a compilation of pleasingly whacked-out electronics experiments where proceeds from the sales will go to the Hackney Quest charity. Well-known names (Nitzer Ebb, Daniel Avery) jostle with underground champions here, and one can also find alternate monikers for artists such as Ivan Smagghe and Quinn Whalley among Gun Aid’s tracklist.

The generosity of spirit behind this charity compilation extends to a bumper tracklisting. Across 14 cuts here the listener is treated to a whole array of weird, wonderful compositions. Many of these jams come from the borderlands between dance music and experimental electronics - slow-motion minimal-wave, wiry EBM, syrupy synth-funk and industrial beat voyages can all be found throughout Gun Aid.

One also finds a handful of tracks on Gun Aid which stick close to club principles. New Future’s ‘Bon Voyage’, for instance, is a potent breakbeat electro joint, a ‘Glock Down Edit’ of Roisin Murphy’s ‘My Advice’ locks into a Chicago house swing, and Richard Sen’s ‘Red Breast For Dustin’ is a trippy Balearic techno adventure. Then there are the moments where the beats pare back - I.C.A.R.’s weightless dream-pop ballad ‘Come Round The Gun’, for instance - and outliers like Soul Revivers’ ska joint ‘Well Street Rock’. It all comes together in a brilliantly strange and oddly euphoric whole.

A sprawling collection of leftfield club jams, electronics experiments and the odd ska tune, The Gun pub’s Gun Aid is a delightfully eclectic compilation - and all for a good cause, too.