Various Artists - There Is Only One T In Wichita

Wichita is one of the UK’s best left-field yet unpretentious small labels, and this is a nice intro to their current work. Although it’s billed as a seven-year anniversary marker, they’ve gone for their most recent and popular signings (the omnipresent Simian Mobile Disco and the whistle-craze starting Peter Bjorn & John) sadly at the expense of the divine My Morning Jacket and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (although these did feature on the 2003 compilation Gone Fishin’). Other than that, it’s a varied, interesting 14-track sampler, from The Blood Brothers’ campy garage with disco falsetto, to the fervently low-key Talking Heads-style indie of former (overrated) flavours of the month Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Where it falls down is in its folkier choices, with Moon Occults The Sun a particularly bloodless offering from the terminally dull Espers, and a similarly morose effort from Meg Baird. The Cribs’ lairy indie pop and Los Campesinos’ hardcore-tinged dance punk on You Throw Parties We Throw Knives up the mean energy levels, however, and overall it’s a lucky dip with plenty of good prizes, especially for £4.