Vic's Secret '23 - Various Artists
Baffled Octopi Records
Released June 14th, 2023
Baffled Octopi Records have amassed a portfolio of work that is as vast as it is bizarre. Based in Victoria, BC, for the past ten years the beautiful weirdo(s?) at the helm of that crystal ship have steered the label through nearly 40 releases, if their Bandcamp is to be trusted. Artists will frequently collaborate and coagulate under the label’s chemically volatile conditions, often spawning new projects that flower into even more experimental excursions.
A unifying anchor connects and arranges the label into meaning, acting as a sort of spine from which radiates the nerve system that makes up the rest of the label’s output. This is Baffled Octopi Records’ (almost) yearly compilation, which has been going strong since their 2014 release FOURTEENforFOURTEEN: Indie Victoria 2014. The tradition has been kept fairly consistently since this debut effort, and each release has tasked itself with unearthing and spotlighting what they describe as the “tip of the iceberg” of outsider music from the Victoria independent scene. It is a noble undertaking, and it has personally provided me with no end of new discoveries and surprises, and Baffled Octopi’s latest installment in this series, Vic’s Secret ‘23, is no exception.
Featuring the work of eleven artists, the compilation spans the gamut of hard rock to no-wave brutality; of heartfelt singer-songwriter to glitchy psycho-funk. TENT CITY kicks things off with the tensely angular “Face Mask,” whose dry-as-a-bone production cuts to the ice cold heart of that classic late-70s British post-punk sound, a beloved aesthetic paid homage by the likes of Crack Cloud across the Strait of Georgia. The Mole contributes a pleasingly off-kilter scatter of electro beats which segues into perhaps the most conventionally handsome cut on the album. Saltwater Cowboy’s anthem “Peaches & Cream” is big and shiny and catchy and jangly and enjoys all the high highs and low lows of a well-composed indie banger: at once melancholy and uplifting, not a hair out of place. The lo-fi rocker “Riding High” by Divisionaries is like a perfect potato chip— small and crunchy and tasty. “Eat My Words” by Maitarra is a shapeshifting soul-inflected detour full of twists, carried by a strong vocal performance and culminating in a sultry guitar solo.
The second half of the compilation begins with a volcanic riff so filthy it would make Michael Gira blush. This is the work of The Dog Indiana on their punishing face-melter “The Hanged Man.” I don’t know how to write about this one as I am still trying to use a spatula to scrape myself off the floor after listening to it. As the de-facto centerpiece to the album, its monolithic size looms large, and frankly I could’ve used about eleven more minutes of it.
Fang & the Toebeans skip into frame with almost perverse glee following this last torrential tirade, and their glitchy chops, swinging beats and fart noises effectively scooped up what was left of my brains, packed it in a bong and sucked it into their lungs. In a good way. The Happy Failure brings the ride back down to earth with their lamenting “It’s Not Okay,” perfectly leading into Queen’s Parks heavy-hitting and slow-burning “Friends,” which recalls some of the intricately meaty guitar of Failure’s later work. Finally, Prince Shima & Purveyors of Free Will play us out with their mind bending info-orgy of a track “Facebook World,” which folds in on itself again and again like a particularly virulent internet rabbit hole, a barely restrained cacophony of samples and electronics for the reality-starved mind.
As with each installment in the Baffled Octopi saga, the listening experience is many things— puzzling, hilarious, thrilling, disorienting— but it is never, never boring. I may not understand everything in their catalog, and I’m sure there are some releases of theirs that I may not gel with; but no matter what, every time I listen to one of their projects I know that I will always walk away somehow enriched. This is maybe Baffled Octopi’s most valuable contribution: the nurturing of work that is unafraid to challenge and provoke; work that revels in its individuality.
That, and maybe a little madness. That never hurts.
- Harman Burns
