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VARIOUS ARTISTS 'BLUE SKIES UP: Welcome To The New Pop Revolution'
(Dogbox Records, June 2006)

Do you like pop? No is that? That’s because you see pop as the processed rubbish that appeared on the now deceased Top Of The Pops over the past decade. I for one fit rather neatly into this bracket, as the idea of sharing musical tastes with a 12-year-old girl with aspirations for fags and cheap booze perturbs me. Cue Dogbox with their mission statement to ‘bring back pop’ with their latest compilation ‘Blue Skies Up: Welcome to the New Pop Revolution’.

This rather rosy/bold title from two ‘anonymous’ teenagers using the guise of Kenneth the Dogbox pooch to rattle the cages of ‘mainstream’ pop the nation over perhaps might be a step too far as the pop princesses mentioned above seem to have a shit load more money than people with more refined musical tastes (make your own conclusions as to why that is) that this EP is aimed at.

Despite this rather crushing fact, the music on here does give one mild hope as to the future of the all-encompassing genre as indie favourites including Luxembourg, The Boyfriends and The Bridge Gang all feature on the collection, alongside Boosh regulars Robots in Disguise to add to the breadth and depth of the Dogbox kennel. I apologise for the dog paraphernalia reference (as he sips coffee from his snoopy mug) but the first official outing from the label offers glimpses into a future that are a little less ‘I hate pop music; it’s generic noise for children who think ringtones make good songs’ to ‘Yes, I appreciate the subtle undertones of a tragic, yet surprisingly upbeat take on post-structuralism in a neo-national world.’

Admittedly, I’d rather feed my hands to my senile dog than see pop become the new grime in that sense, but with such promising acts featuring on this little gem in an otherwise shit-laden rough one must take a note of optimism as the Crazy Frog song ‘discreetly’ passes your correspondent’s window.

By Matt Hussey

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