This album is filled with tracks by well-known names from the early days of Gothic Rock, and you can see the contrast with the music of today, which has steeped in clichéd imagery for far too long, individual identity having seeped into some mutual off-black grey. Take the opening track "Tenterhooks" by ol' Mr. DAMNED himself DAVE VANIAN - starting off as a plastic-y cheap horror theme, it widens out into a grand theme with harmonic voices blending together in a slowly floating, benign drapery of dark hues & dusty diffusion. Then comes what purports to be the title track of this album - "The Whip" by CARCRASH INTERNATIONAL, an unusual blend of slightly electronic drumbeat, taped human screams, tinkling piano, booming bass, and other such sources form the intro to a tight, fast little thing with a crisp, electronic sound - closer to HUMAN LEAGUE circa their second album than SEX GANG CHILDREN (from whom the bass player DAVE ROBERTS - compiler of the album itself - originally hails from). A fast, bright, light thing, sleek and smooth. And speaking of SEX GANG, the next piece is a collaboration between MARC ALMOND & ANDI from said group called "The Hungry Years" in which they recorded vocals over a medium-paced, tight, crispy-electric backing without hearing what each was doing. It does have a 'together' feel to it, and as light as it may be, it still has a certain intensity. A track which didn't appear on the original release (the album came out in 1983 on vinyl) was "An Eye For The Main Chance" by ROSETTA STONE. Hard drumming & darkly flat voice combine with sequential violin into a smooth thing much in the style of SISTERS OF MERCY - a large, dramatic thing which should please those with a taste for such things - hooky & sombre. CHRISTIAN DEATH offer us "Still Born/Still Life", as dread-painted as ever, they kick up layers of clogging dust in a fever dance, an inside-pocket-contained inferno of dark Goth. "Machine Politics" by SPAHN RANCH is another recent group, combining both Goth & Industrial into a hardcore death-edged medium-paced blaster of a track with a nice fade-out guitar sound & distant metal bashing motifs. PLAY DEAD give us "Bloodstains, Pleasure", a faltering, heavy thing built on heavy drumming which heads into almost tribal dance at some points. Lots of dramatic darkness, lots of interesting noises all combine into a tight little song. "Scream Like An Angel" by the once admittedly aptly named BRILLIANT is still as hard & bright, keeping it's early KILLING JOKE influence, but honing it back, bringing the drums forward, turning it into a sub-Disco dance track. "Junkies" comes from KOMMUNITY FK, a hybrid sound combining the black drape sombre soulfulness with a bright, fast dance chorus. "Permanant Red" by USHERHOUSE is familiar to me from the album - combining a MICK KHAN-tinted bass with a fast, grizzle-and-velvet medium-paced Rock backing. "Chasing Bars" by SUPERHEROINES picks up into a fast, hard-edged Goth/Metal crossover showing that the girls can kick ass even harder than the boys when it comes down to it - this must be the hardest track on the album with some strong, distinctive guitar playing set against a calmly confident Rock rhythm. "11:11" by SCREAMS FOR TINA again visits an area in the no-man's land between mainstream Rock & Gothic. The vocalist comes across with the sober greyness of a latter-day IAN CURTIS set against a less moody musical backdrop. Good old UK DECAY give us a blast from the past with "Slavedrive" - combining Martial drumming with metallic, almost acoustic guitar & spider-walking bass while the vocalist surfs, battling the waves of sound in a strange, tense piece of music full of odd (and clever) little twists & turns. Next comes a group called NÖSFERATU with "Pictures Of Betrayal" - a dark, quick little piece with an odd little rattlesnake break. They hearken towards SISTERS OF MERCY or THE MISSION with a vocalist who reminds me of the guy out of IMMACULATE FOOLS. "Just Call Me Sky" is by THE DAMNED in the guise of NAZ NOMAD & THE NIGHTMARES - a light, almost Sixties-like song with twangy guitar & bright organ, miniature of a song. MEPHISTO WALZ bring us "In The Room That Love Exists", probably suggesting SIOUXSIE to the reviewer because of the female vocalist (whose voice is a lot more velvetty-textured) rather than the music, which tends to waver between a tight light darkness & a swirling soup of guitar FX. Addictive & enchanting - very straightforward, considering it's an offshoot of CHRISTIAN DEATH. Next up comes a fast, thumping thing by the original SEX GANG CHILDREN - "Oh Funny Man", which is apparently about Charlie Chaplin. It has an early ADAM & THE ANTS sound, wound up & given a strong injection of SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES' energy/imagery serum. Finally comes an up-to-date remix of the title track - "The Whip" again from CARCRASH INTERNATIONAL. It has an even strange sound, somehow more aged with the violin as the front instrument. Not as powerful as the original, but with strong strains of THEATRE OF HATE seeping through it like pus through a dirty bandage.Not a bad album & probably a good starting place if you need to do a crash course on Goth - most of the better-known names are here, plus a few you might not be familiar with. Not really a collection of classics, nor really a classic in its own right, but damn interesting & full of entertainment value.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.