What a sharp little concept Fat Cat has for this compilation. No Watches, No Maps is an assemblage of the best tracks from the thousands of demo tapes that have been submitted to the label. Just about all of these bands/producers are making their recorded debut on this compilation. I don't believe any will be signed to Fat Cat, but the exposure afforded by inclusion on the record will undoubtedly lead to record contracts for a handful of these folks. Cool, yes?

Okay, so it's helping some undiscovered artists get some airtime. Good for the starving artists. But what's in it for me, the listener starved for good music? I'm going to say "plenty," but let me qualify that a bit. My appreciation of No Watches, No Maps has much to do my tastes and less to do with the brilliance of any of these undiscovered talents. For example, I personally would sooner have my ears processed into cubed steak than subject them to a 19-track compilation of unsigned punk bands. Lucky for me, there's no punk to be found here. Fat Cat specializes in post-rock and electronic listening music, so many of these tracks are right up my alley.

If you were going to do that horrible punk compilation, no doubt many of those bands would be heavily influenced by the Ramones. No Watches, No Maps being what it is, the Autechre admiration is in full effect. You can hear it in Phluidbox's "Mirjenz," which employs the Booth & Brown technique of combining a jittering, repetitive synth melody with a distorted beat that seems to come from another place entirely. With its skittering industro/electro beats and chaotic vocal samples, Com.A's "Radio Squelch Crush Land" could work on Tri Repetae++.

But other viewpoints are represented, and I could see some of these artists appearing on other labels and other scenes. Mokira is an artist from Sweden who delivers one of the best tracks, the gurgling, dubby "Hes." Hopefully, Mokira had the good sense to submit this demo to Stefan Betke's ~scape label, because this track would fit in perfectly next to Farben, Kit Clayton and Pole on the next Staedtizism compilation. "Trocchi Traveled Inward" by Moneyshot, which consists of little but punishing electronic drums that are really just leaden bundles of distortion, would fit nicely next to Panacea on one of Mille Plateaux's Electric Ladyland sets.

As I said before, the rock here is of the post variety. Ukiyo-E mailed in "Val Doonican," a lilting guitar/bass/drum instrumental that's a tad more melodic than most of what I hear in this vein these days. "Asterion" by the Balky Mule is also a comp highlight, one that scores big for its simplicity. Recorded at home on a four-track, "Asterion" is mostly just a few notes of piano, a banjo and a distant TV sample. A bit like the first Stars of the Lid record, but with a lot more space.

"Asterion" disproves one theory that I'd worked up about No Watches, No Maps. I imagined that one of the reasons it's such a strong collection, given its "amateur" cast, is that most of this music was created on computer, and hence sounds just as good as what the "pros" can do. But the song with acoustic instruments recorded on a crummy four-track turned out to be one of the most engaging of all, so that idea was shot. I guess you have to chalk it up to the filtering capabilities of the people at Fat Cat, who were able to render what had to be a huge mass of cultural fat into one sweet-smelling tube of ear cream.

-Mark Richard-San