Various Artists – Moshi Moshi Singles Club Volume 2

The best labels are those that don't seem to have a particular house style or centralised sound. On album artists alone, Moshi Moshi play house to a range of bands that seem to have only the most tenuous connection outside the qualitative - The Very Best to the Wave Pictures, Slow Club through Hot Club De Paris to Lo-Fi-Fnk. A similarly eclectic but not that far off the mainstream strand courses through their Singles Club releases, and just a few weeks before they put out The Drums' album, a signing which might lead you to think Stephen and Michael are already planning which bit of Belize they're going to moor their new yacht off, this second collection emphasises their good ear for a bit of most things. And yes, The Drums are on here, even if the breezy three minute hook-laden greatness of 'Let's Go Surfing' is starting to sound a little at odds with their more Cure-ish other material. They're not even the biggest post-Singles Club release achievers represented, Florence & The Machine's 'Kiss With A Fist'. The same as the album version as far as I can tell, it does raise the issue of how to properly review Florence's first single without the baggage of what's gone since, but its early development betrays a certain uncertainty and fragility to her vocal at odds with the basic garage-blues riffing, less 'produced' than her singles since, and lyrical domestic violence suggestion.As is the way of things these days, there's plenty of electronica. James Yuill would have been called folktronica once, an unashamedly folky singer-songwriter structure being assaulted by laptop electronics and turning a little New Order, and it's surprising given prevailing hype conditions that his own early positive press didn't turn into anything more tangible. Casiokids steadfastly keep to Norwegian so 'Grønt lys i alle ledd' could be any old shit lyrically, but the summery pop rhythms under the vintage synths keep it pleasingly floaty. Diskjokke's squelchy acid 303 Italo-disco might sound a little dated, but the Kraftwerk recalling beat gives it a rare impetus.Elsewhere: 'Good Thing It’s a Ghost Town Around Here' by multi-handed San Franciscans Still Flyin' gradually unveils its Architecture In Helsinki-meets-A Certain Ratio-meets-cheerleader chant rehearsals over a breathless five minutes. Fanfarlo may lean a little too close to Arcade Fire on 'Drowning Men' compared to the album that followed, but the standout controlled soaring and hope in desperation in Simon Balthazar's vocals are there. Silverfish comprise most of The Mae Shi and take a fairly similar approach, choppily chaotic riffing with a spasmodic electronic undertow, if a little more metal-like, that far from outstays its welcome. And while a piano house-influenced bass-heavy grime-pop track sounds like an accidental inclusion in this grouping, Bless Beats' 'Sex In The City' could easily have followed where 'Bonkers' led.As you'd expect with such a scattershot collection, not everything works. Thecocknbullkid does the early 80s synthpop thing via Neneh Cherry to no great effect, Kindness' cover of the Replacements' 'Swinging Party' attempts to marry David Byrne vocals to house beats via early LCD Soundsystem and doesn't quite come off, Samuel & The Dragon (who were among the Mirror's tips for 2010 accompanied by a picture of the not exactly similar Dragonforce) spends four minutes never quite getting to the point and we don't need Mirrors when we have Golden Silvers and records involving Vince Clarke to put together ourselves. Still, four lesser tracks out of 14 singles isn't a hit rate to sniff at, and closing with the dreamy wonder of Summer Camp's 'Ghost Train' - and no, it doesn't sound any different now we know who they are - proves that the label still has a keen ear for things well beyond balance sheets and single sales statistics, that is to say genre-free classic pop in its assorted, unlikely guises.