A skip, a bound, and Ho Ha, it's off! Dutch band DL Bucket team up with Boston electronica The Secrets to produce a sprightly, pop heavy EP that seems to deviate oh so slightly from The Secrets prior EP release, Thin Cities. The songs meld well however and seems old hat to both.

The Secrets currently have produced only one EP in addition to their most recent project with DL Bucket. Their Thin Cities EP came out in 2001, a nice combination of emo and electronica. Their contributions to this compilation take a definite turn from Thin Cities. 'Outstanding' is light and poppy, less sugar coated than Bis, with what appears a strong influence by Superchunk or Moped. 'Western girls' is a little more subdued, closer to their EP but still with a tangible split. 'Western girls' is almost loungy at times, but retains its ties to electronica with space-like, synthesizer back ground effects. Still, the vocals in this song are much like 'outstanding' with their Superchunk/Moped influence. Overall, not a bad performance by The Secrets.

DL Bucket are a band from Holland that also have an EP on Laterex Records. '(Can't stand) hand stands' is a fun listen with what sounds like Spanish commercial background clips. There first song, like The Secrets, is very light and poppy. Though faint, one can hear threads running from such bands Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples in Stereo, to name a few. My favorite pick on the album, however, is 'my stupid curse.' Half emo and half garage rock, the song harkens to early Dambuilders. It is subdued one moment then blends into a nicely buzzed chorus. A solid performance by DL Bucket.

Light, happy, but pleasantly filling, DL Bucket and The Secrets put out a decent EP. Though at times it may err in being a bit too sprightly, it seems all these relative new comers need is time to work it out.