I am rarely surprised when I hear a label sampler on which each song is completely different from the next. However, quantity usually works against quality; labels seem to think diversity is always good for a gold star, even if their roster is 50 percent shit. Not so at the Cuban Fan Belt offices: though they're smothered in eclecticism, there isn't a weak band here.

Bassmental Sound System opens the set with "Leaf Liquor", which sways between Jamaican dub, gritty New York funk and chin-stroking IDM -- Warp, Def Jux or Miles Davis's early On the Corner sessions would be lucky to produce such a work. The track slowly evolves, peeling away layers of drum machine patterns, murky sampled vocals and echo-plexed guitars, at last ending in delay-pedal residue. Fuel Wheel's "Geography of Weath" is, strangely enough, a Joy Division-cum-They Might Be Giants-style jam: the band fronts with silly vocals and toy instruments, while harboring pitch-black desperation underneath. "Formless Faire" by Geographic Auxiliary dives head-first into post-rock territory. Despite the stark juxtapositions of wonky, panned slide guitar, seasick vocals, horns and glitchy background sounds, the track is fluent and cohesive -- in much the same way that Tortoise and all those Montreal kids make sense out of the kitchen-sink ensemble. Though not quite as dark and brooding, the Rain's "Raindance/Crackwhore" recalls Ministry (circa Land of Rape and Honey) and early Pigface: heavy industrial drums and military marching samples mingle with an assortment of echoing textures whose climax features the barely-audible sounds of chainsaws and female screaming. Zero as the Reference cover "rock" duties for the label with two sub-two-minute tracks, "Cuban Fan Belt" and "Perpetuation Alone", both a mix of glam, Beck-like (not Jeff) blues and searing sonic noise.

Some labels adhere to the "something for everyone" credo. Cuban Fan Belt apparently prefer "everyone enjoys everything" -- a daunting challenge that they accomplish quite gracefully here.