Syrup Moose Records: V (2024 Compilation)

ICYMI: at some point in the latter half of 2024, Syrup Moose Records officially announced that they were taking a well-deserved break during 2025. After averaging at least one release (digital and/or cassette, sometimes CD and/or vinyl too) for their first 2-1/4 years in existence, they have hit the pause button on anything new over the course of this whole year.

Honestly, I think this is a brilliant idea and more people should follow suit. It might give me a slight fighting chance to eventually one day dig myself out of the pile of stuff on my to-do list I have been compiling over the past dozen or so years, stuff I’ve heard and enjoyed enough to write something about to share with the folks who come here to read these words, but which I’ve failed to find the time and energy to do so (yet).

Anyway, because they’ve never half-assed anything, Syrup Moose closed out last year with one hell of a bang: their latest and greatest compilation V — the fifth in a series (not including their first anniversary Year of the Moose) — which tips the scales at a whopping 108 tracks (yes, you read that right, one hundred eight), totaling roughly EIGHT HOURS of material as varied as the label’s first two years of releases have been.

 

Various Artists – V (Syrup Moose Records, 27 December 2024)

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Being for the Benefit of Equality (2022 Compilation)

Earlier this year, an anonymous, benevolent soul from Maryland (USA) proposed the launch of a new digital record label for charitable purposes. And hence, Food Desert Records was born. Named for the concept where more impoverished communities frequently lack easy access to affordable higher-quality, higher-nutrition foods, this new entity has set out to engage in activities that will raise awareness and generate mutual aid — not only for literal food deserts, but more broadly for any underprivileged or marginalized communities.

The label has cited their mission as “supporting charities that uplift and empower maligned communities,” further explaining that “Friends and allies are welcome; racists, fascists, homophobes, and transphobes are not. Together, through love and music, we will help to build a better world.”

 

compilation cover art

Various Artists – Being for the Benefit of Equality: A Blade with Which to Defend the Trans Youth of Texas (Food Desert Recordings, 04 July 2022)

 

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