It’s a mammoth undertaking, featuring 106 “(mostly) original (mostly) unreleased”  tracks from 106 different artists, a number chosen to mark the 106 years since the British Government’s 1917 Balfour Declaration. Obviously, that’s too many artists to list, but rest assured it contains a ton of good stuff, including acts we have featured in the past, such as Swim Camp, Tuxis Giant, Kitchen, Greg Mendez, Bummer Camp, Shunkan and more.

You can only get access to the music by making a direct donation to the PCRF via the donation page. Once you’ve done that, email or DM a screenshot of the donation to Bee Side Cassettes (beesidecassettes@gmail.com) to be sent a download.

Due to overwhelming demand from both artists and donators, Bee Side Cassettes have decided to work on a second compilation, For Gaza Vol. 2. This one will comprise of 75 tracks, symbolising the 75 years since the start of The Nakba, the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by Israeli settlers during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

For more information and the full tracklist, visit the Bee Side Cassettes Bandcamp page.

Cover art by Nicole Rifkin

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The variation extends to the moods and themes of the songs too. Other Days is a record about the “ups and downs of daily life as a young adult in the current age of technology,” Cardiello tells The Seed in a Q&A, “dealing with social media, having friends living near and far, being constantly reminded of things happening elsewhere.” The result is a record that allows the joyous and the difficult to exist side by side, the celebratory energy bubbling to the surface no matter what.

After the taut, LVL UP style opener of ‘Afternoon’, ‘Thunderstorm’ arrives with bendy elastic guitar like bright strokes of synaesthesiac colour, before thumping percussion adds an air of magnitude and negative space. It’s a good introduction to the Wrinkles aesthetic, an upbeat and unpredictable combination of manic energy and moments of sweeping grandeur. The chorus is the case-in-point, the Fang Island-esque buoyancy supporting Cardiello as he channels his inner Spencer Krug, nearly-wailing lines about an unexpected and inexplicable connection to a distant land via the internet.

“There was a thunderstorm, I wanted to be part of it,
I went into the basement and banged on the drums,
there was a scene that I found on the internet,
I wanted to be part of it but didn’t know how”

Operating at a slower pace (at least initially), ‘Shores’ is built on a repetitive synth line that sounds like it could soundtrack the seafloor level of some retro platformer. Eventually the track blossoms into something equally anxious and earnest, at times accelerating into helter skelter motion before grinding back to a near-halt. It follows the record’s thematic blueprint, traversing the peaks and troughs of contemporary existence, exploring how sometimes the future can be as uncertain as sand at the bottom of the murkiest waters.

As you can probably tell from those descriptions, Wrinkles are not content to slip into a familiar groove. Every track on the record hums and pulses with its own unique energy, and it’s a testament to the band that the result is such a cohesive whole. Described as a “high energy rocker with frenetic guitar lines and punchy syncopation,” ‘Some Days’ see Cardiello wander into a new vocal landscape, a shouty delivery that the band refer to as “David Byrne-esque,” adding to the kind of twitchy, yelpy rhythm that jolts into expressive drawn-out sections.

‘Total Control’ spits and stomps behind squealing guitar before morphing into something almost anthemic, while closer ‘Black Jeans’ skitters and glows while the lyrics swerve from childhood memories to the comforting melancholy of watching The Lion King, earnestness delivered with disarming humour (“I’m wearing black jeans like my father did, I always thought they were ugly when I was a kid”). It’s one final confirmation that Wrinkles are dedicated to making something that sounds quite unlike anything else around at the moment. But don’t take our word for it, stream the whole thing below ahead of its release:

Photo by Amy Donovan

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