Reviews by the following people:

Jeremy Keens - Ampersand Etc
Marceline Smith - Diskant
Moron - Industrial.org
David Blane - Discogs.com
Julien Jaffre - Jadeweb / Monotrains & Satellites
Erwan - STNT
Stuart McHugh - Is This Music?
Frans de Waard - Vital

"In a nice link, September opens with a piece from Death Cat, 'Theme fromS', a live recording of a piano sample with scratchy swirling over, some big feedback, a voice sample some nice keyboards, morphed guitars and squarling ­ a fine introduction. The Consume connection continues on this album as Opaque offers a semiambience in 'What if, OK?' ­ a soft whooshing wind, relaxed drums and night guitar, a fuzzy guitar emerges with feedback tones that drifts into a building density full and shimmering. Drum and bass break in to the climax and fade.

A couple of bass guitar drum trips follow. Hex's 'Dr Stangelove' is pulsing powered and jangling moving to noise that appears on their album, while 'Aforementioned' opens with a melodic guitar picked solo, bass comes in, then drums up the ante and the guitar gets bigger, driven by the bass, finally fading through feedback to guitars. More forceful and melodic music from Milgram, speeding up for a chorus, shifting into louder parts in 'La poule d'eau geante du canal des moeres' while there are some machine-gun firing and fancy guitars during 'France 5 ecosse 0'.

Changed direction from March of Dimes, who play Takamines (some sort of string instrument), and are let down a little by the poor recording of 'March on john' but the attractive folky picking, voices and claps make it through, and are better represented in the catchy 'Two leos' with a complex picking that beats along behind the vocals in the verse and opens up in the chorus. Then back to the lofi garage with 'Polaris' which pumps along with an open jangly guitar, has various breaks (wahwah, woozy) then a fuzzy part that continues to the end.

And then a finale of psychedelic weirdnesses with three long tracks. Serious Naan (another Consume released act) outline the 'Mental state of nothing' combining slow percussive rhythms, vents, descending tones, percussions, key boards blurts and wavering horn calls that spiral around. Fiend's 'Spacetime (live)' slowly develops echoed loops, voice pulses and samples with a bass loop, whispered reverbed vocals, slows and recovers, pulsing and flutters. To be followed by Nimrod 33 collaging chopped vocal samples, occasional beats, noises, song samples (love don't live here any more), sticky cds, guitar and swirls that remind you of The Orb, even more so when you read the title 'Song of the endless wandered on grim paths with ecstasy on his brow', but travels their own route. A drifting defocussing trio.

Before the unnamed/credited real final track a sweet swinging blue-grassy guitar solo, which concludes a nicely balanced and sequenced album that provides plenty of listening pleasure. So two collections well worth following up to get some tastes of music from Leith, Scotland and beyond ­ or just for an interesting mix of styles that make for a good listening combination. In terms of presentation, simple booklets with some information, images including local photos taken by Clare-44 (label boss), in plastic envelopes. (As to the label, apparently the w is pronounced in the singular, and the first disk has, at the top of the address MaRitime vieW 44. 44 is the phone area code. Not sure what it all means!).

Jeremy Keens - Ampersand Etc

No Rewind is an annual compilation from Edinburgh featuring some new bands of an adventurous nature. Death Cat start things off by trying to break our ears with feedback and scary distorted voices backed with twinkling harp sounds and picked guitar. Which is fantastic, obviously. We've also got the marvellous Hex who get two songs for being great. Hex make loud - no, make that LOUD - distorted guitar instruMENTALism and they're only about twelve years old or something. The two tracks here show their loud rock side and their bass-heavy quiet side. Both are great. March of Dimes get two songs too and deservedly. It's one man and his electric guitar stuff, the kind of guy you'd expect see playing in the corner of some downhearted grimy blues bar to a bunch of guys playing dominoes and drinking bourbon. Other highlights include Fiend's weirdo noise soundscape, the soundtrack to your fevered creepy hallucinations and Polaris with their snaky, jerky riffrock. Definitely recommended so I'll finish up now so you can go check the website and get yourself a copy for £5. They'll even chuck in a free copy of last year's comp featuring good stuff like Guapo and Late Night Foreign Radio. Hurray." Marceline Smith - Diskant

"This is the second go around for me with the "No ReWind" compilation series and let's just say that my feedback last time was less than charitable. Where as the first in the series was mainly focussed on (often dated) elements of noise rock, this release splays itself out over a wider noise field with post-rock, drone, ambient and noise based material mixed up in with the expected noise rock pinnings. Eclectic is the standard copout for describing this type of collection and while there is still the odd wince laying in wait, it is still an interesting enough ride to lace your shoes up for.

For the price of admission you get 74 minutes of material spread over 13 tracks and 9 artists with one of the tracks conspicuously uncredited. The disc opens with a crazed bit of mixed influence from Death Cat. It's an unlikely mix of People Like Us, Nurse With Wound and V/Vm (i.e. arty noises and unexpected sillyness) which if you can come up with a specifc genre title for beyond "experimental" I'll call you master for a day. Opaque are somewhere between the jangliest of Slug's strum fests and a particularly bad acid Skullflower jam and as both acts appeal to my sense of scale, guess what - I like it. Hex direct the parade back into noise rock territory with a very Communion label sounding approach that is to the point and just mathy enough to make you think a little but without forgetting what made Rapeman, Slint and early Don Caballero fun to crank the volume up to. Not so much with Milgram as there ain't really room for both me and them to share the same college dorm. It's well played and those who don't get an instinctive frown upon seeing Phish up close will probably enjoy it but for me it just seems the wrong side of wank and test audience with the heavier moments toned back so as not to get anything dirty.

March of Dimes reminds me a lot of Jonestown, especially the "purdy mounth" bit of klog stomping that is "March on John". Unfortunately the religious frenzy turns into more of a electrified folk rock party for "Two Leos" and whatever it is that these folks are up to, I want no part of it. Polaris get all angular and bouncy with "Dr Colossus", pursuing Hex down the same alley, scrawling math equations on the pavement before ultimately fading from view into the thankfully prog rock free horizon. The antithesis of "heavy" but pleasant none the less. Serious Naan (. . .must resist Indian food puns) go all spooky like with "Mental State of Nothing", only the flash of maglites and the menace of echoing footsteps to keep one company. Fiend work in the dark over a shimmering plate of delay and reverb which swoops around with giant wings and cold indifference, the listener's arms getting kinda tired by the end but still keeping airborne. "Spacetime" by Nimrod 33 is about as much fun as being locked in a music store sound booth just as some Pink Floyd shirt wearing post-hippy starts peaking, can't handle it and starts spewing out a heavily chorused stream of drug tainted spooge which has the consistency of undercooked speed and is stinkier than a hardcore street kids wool socks. With visuals and appropriate environment it might have given off a little charm but as an unaccompanied audio document I can't help but look at my watch.

I have to admit a bit of confusion over what exactly "NoRewind" is trying to achieve here. The varied fauna and flora make a strange tasting salad for sure which could use a little less cheese since it conflicts with the nuttier and more metallic flavours. There is some decent material to be had though and if restraints were used on the floppier acts I think there would be far less obstruction in the ailes. An honest try which shows that there is hope for this Scotland based scene." Moron - Industrial.org

"Highlights are track 10 by Serious Naan, which is what they call atmospheric, meaning it doesn't have a tune and would frighten babies apart from babies who later turn out to be deaf or autistic, and track 12 by Nimrod 33, similar in style but better than his one on Alba Absurdia (it's considerably longer, which better suits an attempted musical saga)." David Blane - Discogs.com

"Le calme apparent des photos très belles qui ornent la pochette (la rivière Almond et la London Road, semble-t-il) tissent une fausse réalité, puisque les groupes ici présents distillent selon leur influence, une noise émotive, sombre, émaillée, atmosphérique (Opaque) un émo-core racé, tendu, aux guitares parfois stridente (Hex), un hardcore impétueux et strictement instrumental digne du meilleur de chez Dischord, (Milgram) une symphonie bucolique et champêtre, aux consonances country (March of Dimes), du déstructuré façon Albini en moins urgent (Polaris), voir électronique avec Nimrod 33 etc. Amateurs d’émotions et de bruits intelligents, cette compile est la vôtre. Un catalogue aventureux et brillant." JJ. - Jadeweb

"NO REWIND est le nom dédié à la compilation annuelle du label et mailorder écossais MRW44 (orchestré de main de maître par la miss Claire tout là haut dans la région de GLASGOW !). Une première mouture nous avait fait apprécier toute les variations climatiques que pouvaient subir cette passionnée au grand coeur bruitiste et expérimental ! Un titre de GUAPO qui tuait, d'autres fanfrelucheries expés torturés entre spleen noisy et pop mélodique à l'expérimentaion certaine ! Cette nouvelle production fait de nouveau tomber les masques... sombres poèmes, mélancolie de l'automne et douleur intestine à la tumeur bénigne... à nouveau ce DEATH CAT pour débuter le machin, pile poil dans l'artifice sombre et mélodique, tout comme son confrère OPAQUE qui aime triturer sa solitude bruitiste à grand coup de guitare noisy lignée early SONIC YOUTH et consorts... HEX sonne plus rock, les rythmes sont arrivés, à bas le spleen des grands soirs, on pense à l'avenir serein lorsque tout à coup, pour leur deuxième morceau, on se rend compte brutalement qu'il ne faut pas chanter si vite le bonheur des jours à venir... Retour dans le lard bruitiste instrumental et bien noise... Puis les francais de MILGRAM qui mettent un coup de fraicheur la dedans, se présentant bien dans la continuité de la compilation, rythmes enjoués pour annoncer le nouvel album chez le lyonnais REDF RECORDS (le label de RED NECK MANIFESTO !). Suit 2 morceaux de MARCH OF DIMES, entre SEBADOH pour le premier morceau et AND ALSO THE TREES pour le second (oui bon...), donc sorte de PASSION FODDER country folk punkoïde, entre clap clap, blues et craquement d'allumettes sous la santiag... ouaif... Puis une vieille connaissance, POLARIS, post hard core dissonant ou post rock éclopé que l'on croyait disparu à jamais dans les méandres de l'histoire mais qui reviennent ici avec un titre sympathiquement correct... SERIOUS NAN tape électronique industrielle à pendant jazz seventies trituré... FIEND en live s'accapare le sampling, la basse et la boucle électronique pour un long morceau à la limite du dub glauque et de l'illbient... NIMROD 33 se lance lui dans un set DJ trituré à la sauce new wave (CURE et consorts...) et à l'extasy délirante... le dernier titre, " ", en personne, excusez du peu (!), nous ramène à la guitare folk dans une ballade home made bien mélodique pour terminer cette compilation variée et décalée à l'ambiance noire et sombre mise en forme par cette francaise émigrée en Ecosse ! Soutenez Claire et MRW44 : "Have Faith, Keep Faith, Give Faith" ! (comme elle l'indique à la fin du livret du disque...) C'est y pas le bon esprit çà ??? hein ? Amen ! " Erwan - STNT

"A brief history - mrw44's is, in simple terms, an outlet for 'weird' music. While No Rewind #1 was a seemingly random, but at times at-times exhilirating mix of musical styles - even Later Night Foreign Radio veered between melodic melancholy and frantic guitar wig-out - this is more of a rounded affair. There are still 'proper' songs aplenty in the shape of March of Dimes but it's definitely what's sometimes called 'left field' by people lacking a pigeonhole. Death Cat, who open the album, actually offer a quite tuneful track (by their standards) but Hex deliver an assault on the senses via their fast'n'jerky guitar instrumentals. Brendan O'Hare's Fiend are another act of note with some experimental calm far removed from Marocosmica, but there are discoveries aplenty here, including Polaris' math-rock take on Bogshed (or so it seems). Worth seeking out." Stuart McHugh - Is This Music?

"The second compilation CD focusses more local talents from around Glasgow and seems to be style-wise more into alternative music of people playing guitars. March Of Dimes, Hex, Milgram for instance are such bands with a traditional line up and rock song structures. More experimental are Opaque (who released their stuff before on Consume) Fiend and Serious Naan, who either operate on the fringes of noise or drone stuff. Even there the elements of rock come to the surface. Not entirely my thing this compilation, mainly because alternative rock is not my interest. As far as I judge these affairs it's all pretty played and some of these bands definetly could become something bigger." Frans de Waard - Vital