VARIOUS ARTISTS

Wonderful multimedia document of the little label that could.

Prior to setting up Rocket Girl Records in 1998, music obsessive Vinita Joshi managed The Telescopes, ran Cheree Records and co-founded Ché Trading (both named after her beloved Suicide), whose roster included Tindersticks, Bardo Pond, Lilys and Urusei Yatsura. This handsomely illustrated hardback book, written by Richard Milward, tells the remarkable story of how an Asian girl from Rugby prevailed in an industry fraught with pitfalls, steering Rocket Girl single-handedly through two decades and over a hundred releases. Her simple mission statement was in-keeping with someone who was, first and foremost, a fan of the acts she represented from God Is An Astronaut to Kaleidoscope’s Peter Daltrey: “I want to share good music with everyone out there.” Aside from the book, this package features a Mogwai flexi disc, a 7-inch single on orange vinyl and a 16-track compilation CD. A fine spread of eclecticism it is too, from Silver Apples’ space-prog and the esoterica of Robin Guthrie to Pieter Nooten’s post-rock abstractions and the VU drone of A Place To Bury Strangers. Best of all is TVP’s All Coming Back, in which Dan Treacy remembers the time he witnessed Nico pissing in the sink when they shared a gig in Berlin. Rh