We Stand: An International Compilation In Support of Planned Parenthood features 44 Artists representing 10 countries with all profits donated to Planned Parenthood.
It is the second similar release by Verses Records of Washington, DC, hot on the heels of their previous compilation Code Red which supports the ACLU.
Planned Parenthood is a United States organization, which is under siege like never before. The goal is to help raise funds and awareness for one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality healthcare for women, men, and young people. We stand together for solidarity, equality, safe (and reliable) health care, as well as freedom of choice.
Verses Records is a collective comprised of: Monica Stroik, Dave Harris, Doug Kallmeyer, Dempsey Hamilton and Dennis Kane. It was created to release and promote approaches to music that are not represented in popular, mainstream culture.
‘We Stand’ is an excellent compilation and I’m very proud to have one of my songs featured. For $8 you get over 3 hours of music with a bit of everything from hynoptic ambiences, jazz grooves, glitchy soundscapes, dub-techno to harsher industrial sounds and dark edged songs in the knowledge that all profits from your purchase are going to a very worthy cause.
Hrim – Huldufolk
A kind of jazz meets folk meets glitch sound, it’s downtempo and cinematic with haunting and beautiful vocals. Superb arrangement and layering.
Blankets – A Lifetime of Happiness
Superb layered percussive rhythms with edgy synth sounds, vocals are a bit unnerving. Great tension to the song.
Stephanie Merchak – Dark Times
Excellent use of delay on layered percussion and drums creates a dynamic groove which contrasts really well against the sweeping synth / pad sounds.
Night Glitter – Raised for the War
There’s a brilliant vibe to this track, it has a laid back groove with shimmery guitar chords, well layered organ and synth riffs and dreamy vocals. There’s just a hint of distortion in the guitar at times which adds a great tension.
Julia Kent – sycorax
A great evolving ambience to the song which develops a great tension with the increasingly frustrated sounding strings.
Yoko K – Lou
Another beautiful opening, a really dreamy quality with the soft vocals, synths and background water sounds. It’s a hypnotic track, superbly layered sounds create a subtle ebb and flow feel.
Mellow Diamond – American God
A great arrangement of bass riff and deep strings which act like a drone. The vocals are excellent, they sit slightly back in the mix which gives them a kind of ethereal feel. Nice change of feel when the distorted guitar enters.
Fold – Something Gives
A laid back jazz groove with well written and excellently spoken vocals.
Huda Asfour – Sama’i
A very organic and natural sound to this song, lovely vocals, natural percussion and beautiful sounding instruments.
Divine Circles – Flower Song (demo)
A percussive instrument provides a great blurring between a melody and layered percussive rhythm providing a great backdrop for the violin part.
Dennis Kane – Loss and Confusion
An arp creates a great tension with layered piano chords and reversed chords, there’s a haunting beauty to the strings. Excellently atmospheric track.
Ghost Airplane – Nose Dive
A great choppy riff to open, the vocals have a dreamy quality. Great layering of synth sounds and nice change of feel with vocal harmonies and synth arp. A great riff towards the end of the song too.
Humanfobia – Olanzapine Moss Ethereal Temple
A sound like a dialling modem to open, it’s a bit glitchy, a bit drone with excellently processed vocals which sit low in the mix.
Blind Idiot God – Subterranean Flight (live at Roadburn)
An instrumental rock / metal sound propelled by solid drumming and bass playing, the lead guitar has great tone and the song is an excellent jam.
The Orchid – A Gentle Way of Getting Even
The opening guitar riff has a great pensive quality leading into a mellow rock sound with a nice change.
James Wolf- Refuge
This has the feeling of a live improvisation, layered strings and synths create really interesting harmonies and movement in the sound, it’s captivating with an edge of tension.
Sally Sparks – The Darkest Night Passes
A call and response feel between great vocal harmonies and strings leading into sombre sounding piano with brass, it’s a contemplative sound with a great ambience.
Addie – Lilia’s Butterfly
Beautiful vocals and a smooth jazz feel, this song has natural sounding percussion and excellently layered piano and strings.
Margaret Noble – The Beginnings
I really like the arrangement of the drone bass, arp and percussive rhythm, there’s an excellent evolution of the song with some very well crafted sounds.
YTAMO – Pool
Excellently layered sounds create an atmospheric opening, I really like the placement and panning of sounds. There’s great changes of feel through the song which has a great experimental quality whilst retaining coherence and continuity of sound.
Owlbinos of Northfield – These Grief Tourists
Complex layered glitchy rhythm, epic distorted sounds and ominous drone create an edgy soundscape with a great build and release.
Ivy Meadows – New Energy
Great contrast between the more urgent bass and laid back layered melody which has more of a floaty feel.
Guivulle – Fire on the water (Ft. Mercy Weiss)
Sparse synth melody compliments the picked acoustic guitar really well. The song has lovely vocals and interesting chord changes which grab your attention.
ensemble, et al. – Four
An excellent natural sound to this song with layered percussion, bass drone and xylophones. It has an urgency to the rhythm which contrasts with the more laid back melody. Great use of distortion towards the end of the song.
Dead Neanderthals : Mass Hypnosis
The drumming provides a great momentum for the really gnarly lead guitar sound. Great change in feel with the rhythm picking up pace before returning to the original tempo.
Housefire – incubatorawakeningsequence
There’s a great pulsing to this song, like a heartbeat, with synth and swirling vocals which can be heard without hearing what is being said.
Belly Full of Star – Jupiter
Lovely synth sounds with reversed elements, it’s a great ambience which also creates a rhythmic element. Some really subtle background sounds and effects which fade in and out seamlessly.
Silk Drop – Broken Mind
Lovely swirling synth and deep bass sounds, percussive rhythm is complex with some great delayed elements. The vocals are lovely. There’s just an edge of tension to the sound which works really well.
Roofhare – Come on Let’s Do It!
Excellent percussive rhythm with subtle bass and synth parts, there’s some very well crafted sounds which create a song which is quite hard to describe which is arranged and layered to great effect. The quotes add a great element.
Clara Engel – Uneasy Spirit
A beautiful and haunting song with a very natural sound. Captivating vocals are complimented by acoustic guitar, natural percussion and strings. Some lovely harmonies too.
Xambuca – OPTION+COMMAND+ESC
A great evolution in this song from a sonar type of sound to drone to an industrial rhythm.
DmIII – Ve
Plucked string to open, the violin provides a contrast. The bass is quite subtle but has a great presence.
Shane Parish – there is no reason to panic, there is no death
A guitar solo piece, it sounds like the guitar has an unusual tuning with the bass string resonating against the fret and some nice harmonies.
Andrulian – Beyond the lies and noise
This is my entry, feel free to add your own comments!
Tristan Welch – Taking Western Avenue
I love how the evolving, warm ambience of the synth is contrasted against a harsher distorted sound.
Glitchfield Plaines – Ambient Greats volume 1
Subtle distortion on the guitar works really well leading into an excellent riff which sounds like it builds from footsteps. Layered synth arp and bass give a great momentum.
Red Spells Red – Many Happy Returns
A wonderfully atmospheric ambient track with really well layered background sounds, pads and keys. There’s a subtle movement in the sounds which creates some excellent textures.
Lizzy Kindred – Neon
There’s a dark edge and a brooding quality to this song, the opening bass riff leads into excellently processed sparse percussion with an ominous sounding background drone and synth lead and effects. The vocals are beautiful and sit quite low in the mix which gives them a kind of ethereal feel and presence.
Soft Ledges – La Nina
This song has a slow indie / rock groove with a foreboding feeling. It has excellent piano, passionate vocals and distorted / feedback guitar which tells the sad story of abuse really well.
Sarah Schonert – Because I am Stronger
This is a superb piano solo with a really positive upbeat feel.
Chrissie Caulfield – Kick Start
This track has soulful violin which contrasts against a background sound which is a really well processed bass sound which is a bit distorted, slightly bitcrushed and has great movement. There’s a change to a more uptempo feel in the violin playing with some really interesting background sounds.
Oe – Keep the Light On
This song has a great ambience with a subtle movement in sound and some excellent textures. There’s great use of found sounds and impact sounds and some intricate percussive rhythms too. I really like the contrast between the ambience and the glitchy elements.
behr – Thoughts Swallowed Dub
A wonderfully atmospheric track with layered background sounds, synths and drum patterns. It’s quite difficult to describe, it has a kind of dub techno feel at times, more minimal at others whilst retaining an expansive sound. The bass has great presence.
Elisa Faires – Amaryllis
Comprised of vocal sounds such as ‘ooh’ and ‘ahs’, this song has excellent layering which gives some great harmonies and a great soundscape. It has meditative and hymn like qualities, a very calming sound.
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