We’re all familiar with the breakouts from Chicago’s Hallogallo scene by now. Horsegirl, Lifeguard, the Lifeguard offshoot Sharp Pins, and Friko are the kids who are saving indie rock from its boring self by mining its past with a fresh set of ideas and a recharged sense of community, and labels like Matador Recods, ATO Records, and the storied K Records have taken notice. But are you well-versed in Hallogallo’s extended universe beyond just the narrative which the press has told you about it? Most people think the underground punk scene that gave us these exciting young artists began and ended with them, but that’s only a part of the lore.

RED XEROX: Chicago Youth Beat 2020-2025, does more than just celebrate the scene’s nascent days. It’s a critical history lesson still happening in real time as it continues to be a burgeoning hot bed of spirited discovery from Chicago’s rock underground. As the inaugural release from the Brooklyn indie comic and zine shop, Desert Island, compiled by Eli Schmitt of the contributing psych-gaze band TV Buddha, you get to hear early cuts from the aforementioned Horsegirl, Lifeguard, and Friko in their most lo-fi and noisiest cassette-bled states, but it’s really in the lesser knowns that come after them who pique mind-blown status in realizing that same energy comes from a crowd of kindred sonic revolutionists untethered by outside trend.

On the more visceral end, Dwaal Troupe’s “En Utero” and TV Buddha’s “Baby, Woah!” offer static-charged shitgaze, respectively packed with indie-pop and a psychedelia in the hooks department. The latter’s preface from “Dukkha Coca” by the wordless (beyond its screams) gothic post-punk dub fusion of Current Union TM fiercely establishes some of the scene’s stranger waves. On the softer side, Post Office Winter’s “Mother, Sister, Nurse”, Amaya Peña’s “Song for Avi”, and Free Range “Lost & Found” are lovely bedroom-pop ornations filled with brilliant off-kilter melodies and carefully-decorated flourishes in warm keys and roaming electrical currents that make them anything but wallpaper sound. And if you thought Kai Slater was the only one well-versed in pop songbooks beyond his own existence here on Earth, the very DIY-coated power-pop of “Go Somewhere Else” by P. Noid and daisy punk harmonies by Uniflora on “Two or More” indicate that he’s always been in good company.

It’s not lost on these ears that as streaming services and their playlist slop have done a number on the need for curated compilation culture over the years, RED XEROX: Chicago Youth Beat 2020-2025 — like its included artists’ modus operandi — feels like a direct reaction against algorithm-based discovery. The compilation goes one step further, though, in doubling as a reminder to anyone not be privy to making the trip out to Chicago to hear for themselves that there are whole communities of music out there to be found. This one just happens to be an audio document about a bunch of young punks and outsiders who took to making zines and planting them all around the city like some kind of bat signal to find one another — to create a noise on their own terms. It may have begun with Horsegirl, Lifeguard, and Friko, but from the sounds of it, it won’t be ending with them either.

RED XEROX: Chicago Youth Beat 2020-2025 is available now on Desert Island Recordings.

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