- After capping off a series of ten 10-inch releases with his own Coming On Strong earlier this year, West Norwood Cassette Library's WNCL imprint enters a new phase with its first label compilation. On We Are Family Vol. 1, four of the label's resident eccentrics, including West Norwood himself, are invited to display their wares. The results are evidence, if ever it was needed, that brilliant ideas will trump a crystal clear mixdown any day of the week.
Don Froth's "Liftin Weights" is supremely bashy broken beat house of the highest order, its skittering snare rolls and cheeky edits keeping things exciting 'til the closing bars. "Pancake," meanwhile, sees Kentuckian Milyoo on typically bizarre form, its layered halftime/double time groove and gleefully dissonant sample bricolage giving the impression of several tracks being smashed together on the fly—though the breakdown still manages to give off just a hint of soulful warmth.
West Norwood brings a nicely circular vibe to proceedings in presenting a VIP of the label's inaugural release, "What It Is," recalibrating the rolling junglisms of the original into something slower, tighter and far more muscular. The real star here, though, is Knowing Looks, whose "Cytal Fink" starts off sounding like Pearson Sound driven to itchy extremes, before we're plunged into utterly dysfunctional disco edit territory—a perfect way to get your dance floor grinning and brukking out all at once.
Tracklist01. Don Froth - Liftin Weights
02. Milyoo - Pancake
03. West Norwood Cassette Library - What It Is (VIP)
04. Knowing Looks - Cytal Fink