Fledgling online-only label Ano(t)raks takes a somewhat needless risk with their second compilation album, ¡°Upwards and Onwards.¡± Founded late last year, Ano(t)raks highlighted bedroom-made indie-pop, a style defined by simple guitar playing and equally basic lyrics about love. Indie-pop has been going strong since the 1980s ... and has barely evolved sonically since then. Nobody expected Ano(t)raks to deviate from that, but ¡°Upwards and Onwards¡± nudges the gates open and features more electronic-leaning artists and jammier collectives. It makes the album an engaging listen, and establishes the imprint as an incubator for all sorts of promising young artists.

Still, indie-pop in the mold of English twee-label Sarah Records appears frequently on ¡°Upwards and Onwards.¡± A few groups who highlighted the label¡¯s first compilation, ¡°Soon,¡± also grace the sophomore collection. Osaka¡¯s Post Modern Team impress with the jaunty ¡°Someday,¡± while Youth In My Videotapes provide a superb intro to indie-pop via ¡°You Don¡¯t Know I Love You¡± (bask in awe at the hyper-twee title). The Vanities, though, deliver the strongest traditional indie-pop song here with the up-tempo bounce of ¡°Gabriel¡¯s Blue Hat.¡± None of it sounds new, but Ano(t)raks has a keen ear for picking artists who can make the listener forget the derivativeness with catchiness.

The more sonically adventurous moments, though, make ¡°Upwards and Onwards¡± a keeper. Tokyo¡¯s Canopies And Drapes¡¯ lyrics on ¡°G&C ¡ª Giovanni And Campanella¡± sound twee (they allude to the main characters from the story ¡°A Night on the Galactic Express¡°) but she undercuts that by ramming harsh guitar noise against airy keyboard. Right after that is Kai Takahashi¡¯s ¡°1980,¡± a synth-and-bass workout. On the other songs here, a line like, ¡°Do you remember/Do you remember me?¡± would sound wimpy, but is downright sexy when cooed by Takahashi. Not all the new terrain works ¡ª Jini¡¯s ¡°You and I (Remix)¡± overdoes the vocal manipulation, while the usually stellar The Paellas contribute ¡°No Fear (Demo),¡± which lives up to the bracketed part. But then stuff like Fukuoka-band Jam The Mod¡¯s eight-minute ¡°2nd Rainbows¡± pops up, the young outfit crafting an ambitious song jumping from crunchy noise bursts to jingle-bell-accented passages. It¡¯s the best song here, and proof no music label needs to pigeonhole themselves at the expense of ambition.

Get ¡°Upwards and Onwards¡± at .