To most people Cable are an unlikely act to receive tribute by way of a covers album. When they disbanded in 1999, their demise hardly caused a tide of news in the national press, a few stories appeared here and there and the whole reaction seemed like the band would not exactly be a massive loss to the music world.

The fans thought different, and seven years later a collection of those fans have got together to pay tribute, and so Souvenir - A Tribute to Cable was born.
The idea for the album came after the setting up of record label Signature Tune (home to In Flight Program, Knives and Like Hurricane), the guys running the label found one thing in common with band after band that they spoke to - they loved Cable. It was an obvious progression that an idea to produce a tribute album would come about.

One year on the label are releasing Souvenir, which collects 15 tracks from UK mainstream and underground acts paying homage to one of the most underrated and influential rocks bands of the 90s.

Some of the more noticeable and more immediate names featured are obvious. Tom Vek and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly are too of the more cutting edge artists to burst into the musical mainstream in recent years and imprint their own styles on some mid-period Cable classics.

You may not have heard of The League of International Best Friends but you will have heard of at least one band that its members come from. For those that don’t know, The League is a special side-project devised by Justin from Your Code Name Is: Milo and bassist Gordy from art-rock trailblazers Bloc Party.
The CD is completed by a bevy of up-and-coming underground UK talent including the likes of My Awesome Compilation, Swound!, In Flight Program and Tellison and established underground favourites like Stapleton and Econoline.

Musically a range of styles are visited upon, proving the strength and quality of Cable’s compositions and song-writing. All are worthy tributes but a selection of tunes approach the music from new angles or really capture the essence of originals better than others.
Here are our highlights:

Stapleton - Sports Cars and Devil Worship
This considered, subtle alt-rock reworking of a forgotten B-side illustrates magnificently the tender side to the Cable’s music.

Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - Freeze The Atlantic
Totally original acoustic, jazzy retelling of the band’s biggest selling single (i.e. that one off the Sprite advert). Cover versions don’t come any better than this and this is the albums highlight.

Swound - Honolulu
True to the original but given Swound’s own quirky edge. A totally fitting tribute to one of the stand-out tracks on Cable’s final album Sublingual.

Fixit Kid - Oubliette
Derby band take a hard-core sledge-hammer to old live favourite and the track that ends the brilliant Live at Brixton Prison EP and mini-album Down-lift the Up-trodden.

Tellison - Song 1
Fuse Cable with sparse, electro-pop, built on subtle repetition and the result is this lush version of the opener to Sublingual.

Dave House - Souvenir
The albums title track is an energetic, stripped-down acoustic rock version that shows the quality of Matt Baguley’s song-writing in its full glory.

Find more on Cable and the tribute album at:

myspace.com/atributetocable
sublingual.co.uk