The label lives up to its ‘tastemaker’ reputation on an excellent iteration of its annual compilation.

Slow Dance’s annual compilation is a consistent celebration of the fruits of the scene, repeatedly making the case that this label is the best in touch with what is happening right now on London’s alternative scene and beyond. In recent years, they have cast their net a little wider, featuring some artists from beyond the UK, but its bedrock is still innovative recordings, experiments and demos from the range of London sounds.

Opening the compilation, Plutoz Beach provide an instant highlight with ‘More Than A Drunken Night,’ an instantly ear-catching track which compresses the beautiful chaos that has made their live sets so compelling. Lipworms’ ‘Handshake’ fizzes and fuzzes along, evoking psychedelic dreaminess with punk pragmatism when it comes to jam length and sounding a little like if Martin Hannett produced the Victoria Line. Hank arrive fresh from the practice room with their debut recorded release, a home demo of ‘3/4,’ which is just long enough to evoke the idiosyncrasy they bring to the lo-fi guitar band sound.

The growing influence of folk music on contemporary work is felt on ‘My Father’s Sheep is Dead’ by Milkweed, a duo pushing beyond revivalism to forge a more experimental and electronic sound still rooted in folk song. Anticipating their new EP coming later this month, it is a great example of what these compilations do so well.

Each year, the Slow Dance compilation pulls together an inspiring diversity of original sounds, mostly a product of bedroom experimentation by artists pushing towards the top of their game/best experimental moments. Some similar highlights on the album in this respect are feeo on ‘shrine’ and DUNCE, whose practically named ‘C_Fe’ flashes on and off at the push of a particularly silvery synth chord. Meanwhile, n.o. Art Ensemble represent the breadth of Slow Dance’s catalogue, featuring with a track from their experimental debut release ‘War, n.d,’ which we loved upon release last year.

More traditional guitar bands also figure here, with Something in the Lake and Velvetine reflecting the wave of 90s revivalism sweeping through the scene, the former sounding more like contemporaries Bar Italia in their encouragement of rough edges and tastefully artless vocals while the latter leave room for a little more unreality, be it dreamy or apocalyptic.

‘Slow Dance ’23’ is a celebration of new ideas; at their best this is always the case with the label’s compilations. We hear glimpses of the artists redesigning music and of the sounds that will no doubt permeate the music of those inspired by the collection. The fashionable term ‘tastemaker label’ applies to no one else as accurately as it does to Slow Dance Records, and their collections are a constant reminder of why that is the case.