Various

Mindblowing comp of obscure, highest-calibre DIY Post-Punk and Synthwave from the archives, brilliantly compiled by Darren McCreesh and brought to you by Finders Keepers' Cache Cache sublabel - so damn good. There's been a deluge of post-punk reissues and rarity compilations in the past five years, and in turning their spades to the same ground, Finders Keepers have dug way deeper than anybody else, and come up with a cache lost classics that are both truly lost and truly classic - the quality control alone is enough to distinguish this set from the mass of European "wave" re-runs. Compiled by Darren McCreesh, Strange Passion is in fact dedicated to "Irish post punk DIY and electronic music 1980-83", a geographic and historical microfocus which makes the wealth of innovative, energetic material contained within all the more remarkable. The most well-known act featured is probably Virgin Prunes, whose 'Twenty Tens (I've Been Smoking All Night)' is a clattering, riotous delight, a bit of a contrast to the more strung-out, gothic material that they're best known for. Dogmatic Element's 'Strange Passion' is just incredible - percussive female-fronted garage-punk that fits into the Raincoats-Headcoatees continuum, while Chant!Chant!Chant!'s 'Play Safe' sounds like The Birthday Party gone crust-punk. The second half of the comp explores weirder textures, showcasing the faux-naive cosmic pop of Operating Theatre and Choice, the eerie drum machine punk-funk of Stano, the minimal synth dirging of The Peridots and the exquisitely twee, utopian electronics of SM Corporation. As far as we can tell, pretty much all of this stuff is culled from ultra-rare 7"s that you couldn't get hold of even if you had a spare grand in your pocket, so don't miss this opportunity to acquaint yourself with the Irish arm of the independent music boom that keeps on giving. Absolutely storming stuff, thoroughly recommended.