Various: The Strip Soundtrack

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

For a show big on bump'n'grind, its spin-off album doesn't exactly exude a sense of strut. In fact, the only candidates rhythmically raunchy enough among the 18 local offerings that could possibly propel a spin is Lucid3's sensuously groovy Shake The Smooth Machine, Wellington jazz-popsters Twinset's cover of Sunny, Gramsci's electro-soul Beautiful Life, and the show's theme of Garageland's sunny country-rocker Life is So Sweet.


However, that doesn't stop this being a stylish and smart contemporary Kiwi-pop compilation with its tracklisting leaning towards sweeter offerings by a range of guitar groups (goodshirt, feelers, Goldenhorse, Pluto, Pine, Cassette) with brief excursions into laidback soul (Che Fu's Waka) and reggae (the Black Seeds' Coming Back Home).

Label: Loop