Various – A Record To Ruin Any Party Voodoo Rhythm Compilation Vol 3 is the third installment in the Swiss label’s ongoing mission to document some of the most defiantly strange and genuinely exciting music operating at the fringes of roots, blues, and garage rock.
The Label Behind the Noise
Voodoo Rhythm Records out of Bern, Switzerland has built a catalog unlike almost anything else in independent music. The label has always operated on the principle that good music should be uncomfortable, unpredictable, and impossible to categorize neatly. This compilation series is their way of throwing open the doors to that catalog and letting the whole strange sprawl of it speak for itself. If you already know the label, you understand what that means. If you don’t, this is as good an entry point as any.
Various – A Record To Ruin Any Party Voodoo Rhythm Compilation Vol 3: What You’re Getting
The range here is genuinely impressive and, frankly, a little disorienting in the best way. You move from Ye Ye Garage Beat to Blues Trash to Cajun to string arrangement funeral music to Chicago Boogie Blues to psychedelic garage blues and then all the way out to Outlaw Country. Artists on the compilation include Movie Star Junkies, Bob Log III, Delaney Davidson, Dead Brothers, and Mama Rosin, a lineup that reads like a roll call of some of the most committed outliers in contemporary underground music. Bob Log III alone is worth the price of entry for anyone who hasn’t yet encountered his one-man band chaos. Dead Brothers bring the funeral parlour atmosphere they do better than almost anyone. Delaney Davidson is a New Zealand songwriter who has carved out a genuinely singular corner of dark country and blues. These are not household names and that is entirely the point.
Format and Packaging Details
This is a CD release on Voodoo Rhythm Records, catalog number VOORCD 64. The packaging is not an afterthought. The disc comes housed in a double gatefold cover and includes a 12-page booklet, which puts it well above the standard jewel case treatment most compilations receive. Voodoo Rhythm has always understood that physical media should feel like an object worth owning, and the production on this release reflects that. If you collect CDs alongside vinyl, or if you’re building out a Voodoo Rhythm collection, this is a well-presented document of everything the label stands for across a single disc.
