Exactly a month ago I got a Facebook message from Lady Boy world headquarters’ top secret Reykjavik hideout, the one hidden in Kolaportið underneath the table of the old guy selling fermented shark meat, letting me know that the latest Lady Boy release was coming out soon, a comp that was their best ever.  That’s right.  Best.  Ever.  Now, to be fair, I get emails from a number of labels and distributors, and I have yet to see one that says “Hey Jeff, our new release is coming out soon.  It’s total garbage, but please listen to it.”  So I take everything with a grain (or the entire rim of my glass if I’m drinking tequila while reading my email) of salt when it comes from a label.  But Lady Boy… Lady Boy is different.  I own all of the non-edible prior Lady Boy physical releases. (♠)  They get all the best, or at the very least the most interesting, Icelandic bands for their comps.  They’re the label that helped us connect with Farmacia on our recent trip to Argentina.  So when they send me secret communications, I listen.

Lady Boy Records 018 opens strong with the incomparable dj. flugvél go geimskip, the world’s seemingly most innocent practitioner of psych electronica and a woman with amazing taste in leggings.  “Geimurinn er Allt of Stór” reminds me of the first time we saw her live, a total trip-fest of psychedelic craziness about cats and outer space that made me wonder if someone slipped something in my drink. (♣)  And it just gets crazier from there.  About half the bands are new to me, and I don’t have words enough to express how impressed I am with WayFresh & Gipsy Sailor Jerry (“Ball Game”) and Sindri Vortex (“Svona Dafna Blómin Best”), a pair of electro beat-mosters that even Mrs. Life in the Vinyl Lane gives two thumbs up and two feet tapping. (♥)  And let’s not forget Pseudologia Fantastica who just slay it with some intense techno action, a beat assault on your synapses that leave behind aural tracers like some kind of weird sonic acid trip.

While the first part of the comp is weighted heavily towards electronica, things take a turn for the rock when Singapore Sling kick in with “Sonic Haus,” spinning the whole thing into a high octane psych-rock feeding frenzy bound to melt your brain.  Then things get heavy.  As in really, really heavy.  I’m not familiar with Skelkur Í Bringu, but they bring a lot of pure mass to the party, like one of those huge weights that Roadrunner used to drop on Wile E. Coyote.  “Dýragarður” is like some lost L7 track that just punches you in the face over and over and over again, leaving you smiling and spitting out a couple of teeth afterwards.  From there the Lady Boy crew bring it down a notch, showing they understand the physics of making a mixtape and hitting us with the holy four-pack of Kuldaboli, Andi, Aska, and Harry Knuckles (“New Leans” is one of the comp’s best jams)… this might be a near-perfect mix.  Throw in the surf-western stylings of Notorious Wave Slicers and the very Adam-West-Batman-esque “Rautt Ljós Feat. Axon Bronson” by Skrattar and you have the icing on the cassette cake.  So good.

Go check this sucker out HERE and bask in its pure glory.  As usual, it’s also available on a laser-etched limited edition (of 50) cassette as well.

(♠) Lady Boy 03 was a download laser-etched on a tangerine.  Due to the difficultly of importing fruit into the US, I do not own a copy of this.  Plus it came out a while ago and is probably pretty gross by now.

(♣)  They had not.

(♥)  Mrs. Life in the Vinyl Lane:  “Do we have this on digital?”
Me:  “Yeah, the tape hasn’t arrived yet.”
Mrs. Life in the Vinyl Lane:  “Whatever.  The tape does me no good.”

This is how our evening sofa conversations go.  Really.  I’m a lucky man.