The new sampler from KMG Records, Trendsetters: Alternative reminds me very much of Brainstorm Records' Rock sampler back in the early 1990s-and for good reason. It's got many of the same artists as that sampler, doing in fact many of the same songs! The new Trendsetters series is a companion piece of sorts to the double-disc reissues that the label has been putting out for the last couple of years. The Alternative disc, for example, includes such pioneers as Terry Scott Taylor (and three other incarnations of him), Adam Again, Lost Dogs, LSU, and Mad At the World.
The song selection is pretty good, for the most part-props to KMG for including three songs from the hard-to-find Miracle Faith Telethon Terry Taylor album-but some song selections are puzzling. Why use LSU's pop-punk cheese-fest "She's On Fire" rather than one of the songs that actually helped shape the Christian alternative scene, such as "Bye Bye Colour" or "This Is the Healing"? Why aren't bands like Jacob's Trouble, Poor Old Lu or Mortal represented?
Still, if you're looking to get into early Christian alternative music, this Trendsetters disc is certainly a fine place to start, especially since many of the albums represented here are long out-of-print and hard to find.
