Reviews by the following people:

Jeremy Keens - Ampersand Etc
Stephane F. - Heimdallr
Octopus Magazine
PV - Ultra Zine
Moron - Industrial.org

"Mrw44 popped its head up last issue with their third release, the Hex solo album. This Edinburgh label started its run with these two compilations from what is intended to be an ongoing series, combining lesser known bands from anywhere (but with a Scottish focus) with similarly sited unknowns.

Neck Doppler drags us into August with the weird 'Listen to me' from his solo album on Consume ­ weird frightening vocals invoke your attendance underlined by tapping percussion, ray guns and plinking keys; and we are prepared. Two tracks from Late Night Foreign Radio offer a combination of heavy guitar jazz: 'Pythagotron (beyond the reach of)' has a twangy guitar/bass/drum improv feel which acts as a verse to a heavier metal guitar, ending with drones and a 60s feel. Then 'Searching for gorlan' a mellow swinging tune, with trumpet, and a nice vocal, alternating structure again leading to a forceful climax before easing to the end.

Servo, from France, give us 'Empty' a psychedelic garage phased vocal sliding into some heavy pop and 'Instru#1' a wild instrumental driven by the drums with solo crazy guitar. 'The baron' is a kraut-surf-rock piece from Guapo where bass, effects and drums slowly builds, rough, squealing, eases and then breaks looser then into a drone period before a big wind down.

Black Sun take 'Body to body' through a number of stages ­ a gothic poem forming the focus. The first part has slow piano, a beat and a distorted voice that sounds like a phone sample, building a slow portentousness and rhythm; then a clear presentation of the poem with strong loops rumbling and spacey; finally the full NIN dense and shouted ending with slowed voices. Which all comes off quite nicely.

Layers of sound in Aethr Flux 'Sand then, the fireworks' with piano, drone, dense chinging, phasing with a vocal in there, panning sounds churning lofi guitar working to restrained percussion. And finally '11th August' sees Death Cat recorded live in a 20 minute electronica set that combines distortion loops sqrls samples (distorted slowed) beat (with a musicorhythm drift) tones slowdrifting singing feedback scratch plinging, much with a seeming guitar base and bass included, building intense and then more restrained slower melodic sections to a wild churn and organ fade ­ a wild ride to conclude on."

Jeremy Keens - Ampersand Etc

"Cette compilation est la première d'un nouveau label anglais, mrw44, présentant ses artistes dans leur série No Rewind, à paraître chaque année. Les formations bénéficiant d'une tribune se situent toutes dans des catégories différentes de la musique indépendante. NECK DOPPLER ouvre le bal, résolument original et expérimental, à la croisée du spoken word et des incantations rituelles électronico-industrielles. Les Ecossais de LATE NIGHT FOREIGN RADIO proposent un premier morceau passablement poussif, truffé de bonnes idées, mais gâché de riffs métal ennuyeux. Leur deuxième titre, "Searching for Conian", paradoxalement, est une merveille de pop song à la Wedding Present, dans la plus pure tradition de ce qui se fait de mieux dans l'indie (post)rock, épatant ! Suivent les français de SERVO, avec deux titres honnêtes dans la lignée de Fugazi ou des formations américaines de même veine. Les Londoniens de GUAPO sautillent sur des rythmes saccadés, aux accents teintés de hardcore et de free-jazz, sur un morceau tout en longueur et décapant de virtuosité. Viennent ensuite les étonnants Ecossais de BLACK SUN, avec un long titre sombre à souhait, comme si Boyd Rice était invité à reprendre un morceau des Swans du début, orchestré par Laibach. AETHER FLUX délivrent un excellent morceaux noisy atmosphérique, dans la plus pure tradition anglaise, proche des délires de My Bloody Valentine. Pour conclure, DEATH CAT ferme la marche sur un titre de 20 minutes, à l'expérimentation décalée et déstructurée, enregistré live, en totale improvisation, et devenant de plus en plus intéressant au fur et à mesure de la progression hasardeuse. Reste une compilation des plus honnêtes, couvrant une large palette de la musique indépendante actuelle, où chacun devrait découvrir son intérêt propre. A suivre..." Stephane F. - Heimdallr

"Avec sa pochette en forme d'excroissance urbaine maladive, ses noms de groupes emplis de noirceur, son gout pour la bichromie sobre, le label MRW44 pourrait passer sans probleme pour un label post-indus au simple regard de sa compilation "No Rewind". Vision reduite, car malgre un premier morceau plutot radical (Neck Doppler, entre Diamanda Galas et Cabaret Voltaire) et un dernier carrement bruitiste, (Death Cat), le reste s'avere plus inspire par un noise-rock de bonne qualite (Late Night Foreign Radio et Guapo en tete) rappelant parfois les productions Amrep ou Touch and Go les plus frenetiques de leur epoque. A ecouter sans moderation en tout cas..." Octopus magazine.

"Opener Neck Doppler reminds of the Residents, Late Night Foreign Radio continue the Ralph records feel but add some heaviness to their brew of MX-80 Sound, Chrome and Knitting Factory influences, and even a trumpet. Servo combines grunge with a "Faith" era Cure sound on "Empty" and sound very eighties indierock still on "Instru#1". Guapo also remind of Knitting Factory style early Sonic Youth & co. Black Sun's "Body to body" starts off with a menacing calm, but the rather strained BlackSabbathcore second half of the track kind of ruins that classy buildup a bit. Contrary to their name, Aether Flux bring a rather heavy, heady brew which mixes all kinds of eighties and early nineties indierock influences. Death Cat, finally, open their lengthy "11th August" with an experimental soundscape to which they then add tentative guitar; with a proggy organ behind that, the track suddenly starts to feel like an early seventies private pressing. The track then inconsistently moves on through a few more ups and downs which do not really add to the strength of the 'journey' as a whole. 't Is clumsy and tiresome but promising... which also holds for the whole of this sympathetic DIY compilation by debuting Scottish label MRW44 (the name's derived from MaRitime View 444). It's probably a good springboard for young bands, but it's not a polished production." pv - Uzine

"A strange title for this release, the "No Rewind" bit that is. There are some exceptions, the delightfully cloying left handed intro piece "Listen To Me" from Neck Doppler for one, but for the most part this compilation acts like a second hand flashback to the late 80s and early 90s. Noise tinged math rock is the main order of the day and it's a confused bit of scratched out equations, initially anyways. I am a huge fan of noise rock, having greedily gulped back far more than my fair share of seminal acts and beyond so I find myself torn in that I am naturally drawn towards this kind of thing but just can't shake the "been there done that" of much of this rather derivative and mediocre release. After close to 15 years you come to expect best of breed in newer acts and instead, this sounds more like Scotland just discovered the Communion and Touch n Go back catalogs.

Although Late Night Foreign Radio has its moments, the Slintish bits are far less coming-of-age-movie had from the original source and the more frenetic moments here seem less honest though possibly this is just fallout from the thinnish production, dry like British soap operas, and weak vocals which make me picture a skinny guy in a beige v-neck bleeting on about his feelings. It doesn't suck exactly (actually "Searching For Corian" is a decent ballad minus the vocals) but this is well trodden ground and so the high water mark tends to drown those not exceptionally adept at swimming. French act Servo offers up some almost directly pilfered early riffing from Slint's "tweez" or perhaps the first Don Cabelaro CD, but again without the initial novelty factor or finesse of the originals. It's tired sounding, lacks a lot of the live energy that drove earlier acts over the tops of the trenches. The second track from these folks fares a tad better due to its "live" production and lack of sub-quality vocals, you feel a brush of wind every time a drum is hit, nervous enjoyment as you wonder whether the harmonics will break into feedback. It's not amazing but I made it to the end of "Instru #1" with no formal complaints lodged. Guapo put forth one of the stronger showings here though it is practically a medely of random Casper Brotzmann songs. As in exact copy, rapid fire atonal strumming, sparse NoMeansNo backing rhythms, the kicker being that this is a duo using bass and drums only. Zero points for originality but plenty for satisfying execution. Black Sun has been listening to a lot of "Children of God" by the Swans but interpreted with a Neurosis sounding character. It drags on a bit long (perhaps that is the point) but it definitely had more originality than most of the material here. "...And the, the fireworks" compliments of Aether Flux manages to take a cool Trance Records act Crust like industrial sensibility and sully it up with Bono like vocals resulting in a wierd mix somewhat like an even more softened Crystalized Movements. It screams for female vocals to my way of thinking, ethereal being far preferable to shitty college beer commercial. Sans vocals, the song is actually pretty strong for the genre, slick production and really nice orchestration but the sum adds up to indie schlock rock. The final track compliments of Death Cat is not much more than 19 minutes of noise improv, not that this is a bad thing, just somewhat out of context here. A large number of textures are introduced throughout, delay the main tool here and some downright power electronics vocal stylings creeping in from time to time. I find it frustrating though how the material veers suddenly into flip-floppy Pink Floyd scented Tortoise droppings, self-indulgent without any real money shot in trade. Live, I'd drop all arguments as that would provide context but here this comes across as an unedited "you had to be there" drug jam.

Yup, not a lot here to keep you from digging in the fridge for something better than left overs. If this had been released in 1993 it would have still been a little sub-par but at least topical but with a 2001 release date, these folks need to sweat a little harder. Emo kids who don't know any better might get better mileage but this scene snapshot needs some more time developing me thinks." Moron - industrial.org