V/A - Our Voice, Pro-Choice

Label: Hands On
Year: 1993

This was an oddly structured compilation. It has four bands, one song a piece. Nothing weird there. It was a benefit for Utah Pro-Choice Coalition, which, again, isn't inherently odd.
What was weird was that it has a "Utah side" and a "non-Utah side", and I'm sure you can gather what differentiates them. Side A, the Utah side, has two...wait for it...bands from Utah, and you would fully expect a record benefitting a Utah charity would in fact feature artists from The Beehive State. Makes perfect sense. Right? But then then you're left to decipher what constitutes "non-Utah". I mean, shit, that could be pretty much anything, anywhere, ever. The mind boggles at the possibilities...could it be "bands that are left handed"? "bands from the Lesser Antilles"? "bands with STDs"? How would you ever know?!
I'll tell you.
In the case of this record, whoever put it together must have had the bright idea to balance out the Utah (aka "who?") bands with bands that people have actually heard of and seem to really like. Not a bad idea. And as far as curating a couple bands that people had heard of and seemed to like, they did pretty well culling Born Against and Heroin. That's two bands that will get you to shell out your hard earned Taco Bell money (you're welcome Utah Pro-Choice Coalition).
So there you go; four bands, four songs, you've heard of two, you've never heard of the other two. Born Against covers Life's Blood, so that's sort of a double bonus. Heroin does a really great fractured noisy ripper. Anger Overload (you know, from Utah) sound like a hardcore band covering Soundgarden, kind of. It's actually a good song. N.S.C. (you know, from Utah) are pretty forgettable male/female vocal punky hardcore. Nothing offensive, just nothing all that exciting either.

DL