Bleep

A lot has changed in the world of pop and how that world perceives music like this since PC Music last issued a compilation. 2016’s PC Music Volume 2 still felt somewhat alien in the landscape, seen critically as both ahead of its time and also maybe too ironic for its own good. In six years time, their unique blend of Web 2.0 aesthetics, rave-y overstimulation, audio hyjinx and pure pop is not only en vogue, but basically a genre unto itself, and one that has inspired countless other internet-based subgenres in its wake. It’s about time A.G. Cook and co. took stock. Ranging from new exclusives to tracks released as far back as 2018, Volume 3 still manages to sound fresh.

Take for instance, felicita’s new addition ‘marzipan’. The delicate, ambient-leaning track featuring Caroline Polachek edges close to the calmer sway of the middle tracks on her solo debut Pang. However, felicita miraculously drifts out even further than PC Music associate Danny L Harle’s light-handed production. Further down the Volume 3 tracklist, Umru’s collab with Tommy Cash and 645AR ‘check 1’ somehow splits the difference between SOPHIE’s silicone aesthetic and trunk-rattling trap music. Perhaps most ingenious of all may be Planet 1999’s ‘crush’ - the only band signed to the label pours the patented PC sugar overload over a starry eyed shoegaze production.

Between the sheer depth of sounds and legitimate global pop star collaborators in tow, this comp proves the PC Music crew are still at the cutting edge nearly a decade in.