World Around Records is a fairly new record label, run collectively by a group of artists spread out across the country and around the globe. It’s a beautiful arrangement, one that couldn’t have happened twenty years ago, but today a support system is in place for all of these independent artists to continue to work and collaborate. In fact, the mission statement is presented on the opening track by Louis Mackey, “WA Intro,” which features a short spoken piece at the beginning of the song. The voice says, “I have a lot of contempt for the record industry, and I don’t particularly want to be a part of it any more than I have to. The fact that we started our own label is proof of that. You know, when you don’t want to be a part of something, you do it yourself, so we did.” With that in mind, they start off 2012 with a collection of unreleased tracks from their roster, letting us know just what they’re all about.

While this album features both vocal and instrumental tracks, I tend to think of this compilation as an instrumental collection with a few emcee tracks, rather than vice versa. The balance is fairly even, with ten of the nineteen tracks landing on the instrumental side. The reason I feel this way is that while there are some good emcee tracks, there are several phenomenal instrumental tracks on this compilation. Man Mantis was my entry point to World Around, and his new track, “plexippus” is incredibly interesting and challenging, yet still very accessible. It also shows continued growth and an expansion of style for him, as he brings in a really interesting staccato vocal sample that bounces well over some sharp and quick snare hits, filling in the space between these elements as he develops the melody. This builds to a perfectly placed breakdown in the middle of the song, with a sparse piano line playing off of a distorted keyboard bass line beautifully, before returning to the original song structure. Normally, a song this strong would easily be the standout track on a collection. However, his label mates give him a run for his money. Louis Mackey & Dr. Quandry lay down a solid down tempo number filled with sitar and bass in “White Nights.” Naturetone creates a heartbreaking and soulful track with “Take a Look,” with a great juxtaposition of a simple marimba and a distorted wah wah guitar, all while a woman pleads while singing the refrain, “Take a look, take a look at me.” Chants’ “Bone China” gives a European pop sensibility to compilation and gives the compilation one if it’s more danceable numbers. Louis Mackey’s “Lots of Lip” could easily have been on a blues/soul record in the seventies, and immediately made this Albert King & Jimmy Smith fan right at home. Dredi creates a great tension on “In the Dream” that is both uneasy and beautiful. Dr. Quandary’s “The Last Syllable (Supplington Remix)”” is a gorgeous down tempo song with a dreamlike state built around a xylophone melody and tabla drums. However, if it’s a contest, I might have to hand the prize to Zilla Rocca for the closing track, “Hush Money.” Huge drums and bass power this song as a frantic distorted keyboard builds until it explodes into a bright hit of horns and guitar. You can’t listen to this song without turning up your speakers. I’ve tried - it doesn’t work.

After all of this, and there’s still half an album to discuss. As with any compilation, there are going to be some ups and downs. While I found all of the instrumental of high quality, the emcee tracks were a little more hit and miss for me. “No Days Off” has Humpasaur Jones rhyming over a laid back jazzy beat that works well and sets a tone of smart and fun rhymes. My Man Shafe attempts a more confrontational track with “Resistance” featuring Curly Castro and production by Small Professor. It features some really good politicized rhymes, but I fear the message will be clouded by the excessive exclamations of “Fuck that!” all over the track. Adam Kadmon proves to be one of the more frustrating artists on the compilation, whose two short songs, “One” and “Tew”. Both feature some really interesting production, but don’t really provide time or space to have the emcee lay down anything memorable. Castle hints at some real talent as both producer and emcee on “No Sleep,” but the song derails when he tries too hard squeeze in humorous analogies that are meant to be shocking. There’s a sharply diminishing effect happening, and it takes away from the rest of the work he’s doing. “Big Bad” by Jo Blunt and featuring Humpasaur Jones and production by Arhat promises a funky good time, but the lyrics just come across lazy and unfocused, not pushing the song to it’s full potential. Curly Castro’s “Extra” featuring Charlie K and produced by Writtenhouse has the great chemistry between production and rhymes that you always hope to find, with a great hook and a sound that is reminiscent of classic NY hip hop from the early ‘90s. Zilla Rocca shows himself to be a talented emcee on “Vast Vehicle” produced by Dr. Quandry, although he doesn’t quite reach the extremely high bar that he set with his production work on “Hush Money.” Algorythms, the duo of producer Dr. Quandry and emcee Thirtyseven show some great chemistry on “Precious Little Time,” a midtempo funky song about the struggle to make meaningful music.

If you couldn’t tell by the length of this review, there’s a lot of interesting and worthwhile music happening with the folks at World Around Records. Listening to a label compilation of new material as strong as this took me back to the time when I’d look forward to the next Definitve Jux Presents…, knowing that there would be some one-off gems from a talented roster of artists. We Are World Around, Vol. 2makes me glad that these artists found each other, because as good as this compilation is, I’m sure there’s something even better on the horizon.