Greco-Roman - Box Set - Joe Goddard (Hot Chip)

Greco-Roman have consistently topped the hit parade over the last 2 years with their International Sonic Wrestling Match singles series, releasing a collection of unforgettable, toe-tapping, singalong pop records from Buraka Som Sistema, Grovesnor, David E Sugar, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and the absolutely loveable Drums of Death. Well this November Greco-Roman take on the big boys not once but twice, with the release of their first full-length player and a compilation box-set.

Joe Goddard's Harvest Festival seems like a natural debut album for the label run by the London/Berlin collective of DJs, artists and musicians of whom Goddard is a founder, alongside his day job at Hot Chip. (Contrary to popular belief, Greco-Roman is NOT Hot Chip's label). A largely instrumental, electronic album, it winds from woozy ambience to the polyrhythms of London's clubland and back again, and has a strange fixation with fruit. Harvest Festival is out on November 2nd 2009.

The same month sees the release of From The Seat Of Mount Olympus: The International Sonic Wrestling Match, Rounds 1-5, a history that digs deep into the label's extensive 5 single back catalogue with all 5 individual singles lovingly restored onto CD and tenderly placed into a box-set, dwelling lavishly on the artwork of the collective's deviant illustrator Lorenzo Fruzza. A showcase for all the artists and DJs who have grapppled at Greco-Roman's quasi-legal, speakeasy parties, the compilation boasts music and remixes from the label's artists David E Sugar, Grovesnor, Buraka Som Sistema, Drums of Death and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs alongside Skream, Jesse Rose, Hot Chip, Drop The Lime, 2 Bad Mice and The Ragga Twins.

Joe Goddard is adamant: "It's my album and there's no question that I'm getting it to the shops on time. Full Nelson and The Great Mentsh have hired a mid-range Japanese people carrier and The Boston Crab knows someone who has got a driving license."

Greco-Roman will be ploughing the hefty profits back into the Drums of Death concept album due early next year: a lovers' musical based on Rave and Witchcraft entitled Generation Hexed. And don't forget, Drumsie's massive single Got Yr Thing is out soon with remixes from Starkey, Jesse Rose & Oliver $. POW!