Worldbeaters Vol. 11

[The Raven]

I been blastin this non stop since i got what has to be one of the last copies of this comp which is a solid mix of lofi/garage rock, mod, r'n'b flavored Euro beat, early psych rock, and hooky/Beatlesque teenbeat

All the artists are super original, and (to my non audiophile ears) the sound is loud and excellent. Many years ago I had read a Ugly Things (?) review of Worldbeaters that made this sereis seem like the Eurobeat equivalent of the infamous Quagmire/Boulders type comps (great/mega rare tunage with lousy mastering) but was pleasantly surprised to find this thing roars. Maybe (a 'la Quagmire) earlier volumes of the series were poorly mastered while the latter vol.'s sound way better (?)

I like the layout of the cover art too. The back cover fonts looks ALOT like whats used on the back cover of the Quagmire comps

Originally i got this just cuz it features what is so far the only reissued track from the odd Chilean group Los Pussycats (my personal fave of all the many killer acts that went by that name back in the day). But really everything on here is amazing. Other faves on here include Eddie Peregrina & The Blinkers (Philippines), Golden Men (eerie sax driven rock from Italy), the A-side from Los Brincos' only Italian language release (an odd/angular 12 string mover from '67 with some intense/church choir-esque vocal harmonies that transform into screaming), Anders Nelson Group's kickass soul garage classic "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" (from Hong Kong, and *not* a version of the Bit A' Sweet track), John Hatton & The Devotions' "I'm Comin Home"(Netherlands), and pretty much any of the Latin American/Spanish artists repped; those take up at least a quarter of the track list

So are any of the other volumes of Worldbeaters as good as the final one? Volume 9's track list looks pretty great; 10 seems really interesting as well

 

[13th Floor Garage]

I enjoyed this particular series. Generally speaking I'm not the biggest fan of beat, freak-beat etc (I like some, but not as much as US Garage)... and this particular series contains musical styles that seem to appeal more to those of us that are more partial to garage, pop-garage etc..

As with most compilations, some volumes will be better than others, but overall I like them all.

Although sound quality may have been hit/miss on the Quagmire series, I considered the selections to be over all quite good. The guy that produced these was on another forum about 15+ years ago. He was nice enough to sell me advanced copies of future volumes prior to artwork at a good price.