The compliation is pleasingly varied, offering a wide range of styles, all linked by the (admittedly subjective) ‘weird’ tag. Some of the songs, such as Goose Lake’s ‘Roses Hallowed’ and Bong Sample’s ‘Wintertime, and the Living is Breezay’, are just plain creepy, but there are other ways in which the collection maintains a sense of foreboding. Camembert’s lo-fi garage rock is immediately followed by Forrest McGregor’s vocal driven folk, the succession from scuzzy guitars to gentle acoustic strumming serving to heighten the sense of strangeness. Similarly Taiwan’s lovely summer jam is followed by the perfectly titled ‘Insane’ by Planet Space; You get that bizarre feeling of reluctance or fear upon seeing or hearing something normal out of place. The non-weird tracks become weird as part of the collective whole, that horror movie effect of placing brightness or happiness completely out of context, the way a stalker wearing a grinning clown mask is weird or the way Clockwork Orange’s ‘Singing in the Rain’ scene is weird. This set of songs is “Lynchian”, they get under your skin, sometimes for inexplicable reasons, and you sense that even when being familiar or ‘normal’ they are probably just pretending.

If sinister or unsettling music isn’t your thing, don’t be put off. After all  this is a compilation from 17 artists and each deserves to be taken on their own merit. Yes, the order creates a sense of strangeness but the Taiwan song really is a great chilled out jam and Wand’s ‘Mt. St. Helens’ is a fast-paced, upbeat folk song. You can take away two things from this release: a damn fine album and a whole host of new bands to explore further.

Weird Pop (?) from the Peace Country is available for free at the Peace Country Diaspora Bandcamp page, and be sure to keep an eye on future releases/shows by PCD on their website.

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