Screaming Tarts (Limited Edition 18 Track Compilation Album) By Steve Rudd

The superb second release from Mr Martyn at www.screamingtarts.com , this is a rare rock compilation album that comes packed with eighteen fresh cuts of Glam-infused rock action that are all genuinely brilliant. Teenage Casket Company headily kick-start proceedings with their catchy Dial It Up riff, before Electric Eel Shock liven affairs up even more with the lust-lashed rock 'n' roll of their Scream For Me anthem. The album in general is a perfect mixture of already well-established outfits (with McQueen, The GaGa's, Miss Black America and My Ruin for starters) and fresh bands that the majority of the nation might not have heard of yet, such as Lucifer Star Machine, Pornovurt, Ten Foot Nun and Inner Mantra.

Mr Martyn never discriminates when it comes to music. So long as the overall quality of the music is great, then that's all that really matters, regardless of how well-known the band might be. The exciting thing about compilation albums like these is that it's a great way for the less-established bands to get heard en masse, and for people on a global scale to start spreading the word about such bands and their music.

The Screaming Tarts series of compilations has so far sold like wildfire, largely due to the success of Mr Martyn's www.screamingtarts.com website that receives hit-after-hit, week-after-week... from music lovers right around the world. All the bands who have so far featured on either this release or the first Screaming Tarts release owe Mr Martyn a huge debt, bearing in mind that people as far afield as Japan, America and Australia can now sit in the comfort of their own home and listen to music by bands that they might not have otherwise ever come into contact with before.

If you like rock music of any sort, you'll love every last one of these eighteen Screaming Tarts-endorsed tunes. Who can resist the feisty and catchy fem-fronted rock of Brand Violet and their Lovesick Ballad of La Gata Blanca, Blunderbuss' sobering confession that anchors I've Been Drinkin' Again, let alone Liverpool Pop-Goth band Zombina & The Skeletones - Counting On Your Suicide?

The album is one long highlight, but the triple-header presentation of McQueen's amazing Life Support ICU anthem, Phluid's genuinely rip-roaring and life-affirming Rock 'n' Roll Is Dead (Long Live Rock 'n' Roll), and The GaGa's heart-attacking Replica tune is the point at which the album climaxes to the most ecstatic degree. Still, perhaps the most well-known and obsessively-followed band that features on this release is saved right for the very end. When a band of My Ruin's calibre allows a song such as Spilling Open to feature on a compilation album, it's almost a sure-fire guarantee that such an album is indeed a must-hear exercise. And it is. In more ways than eighteen.

Intrigued? Then get on to www.screamingtarts.com without delay and bag yourself a copy for a fiver.

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