Variety recently reported that retailers have sounded the death knell of the Compact Disc. Sales have continued to decline over the years and the past holiday season was the worst yet. Next December, should you be looking for an album to give to a friend or family member, you may have to look online since stores will be making room for items that actually sell as opposed to the racks upon racks of the CDs you've become accustomed to seeing.

Todd Millenacker refuses to help matters.

2008 is barely two weeks old and we're seeing the release of the fourth installment of the popular Twin Cities Electropunk series spearheaded by the Avenpitch frontman. Incorporating a DIY ethic that reaches beyond the Punk of years past the Electropunk compilations are reminiscent of the traded mixtapes from back in the day but instead of people putting together low-quality rundowns of their favorite songs they're actually writing and recording fairly decent quality songs themselves then handing them out for free at shows.

That's right, the Twin Cities Electropunk, Volume 4 CD is free to anyone that attends the January 12th release party or the shows performed by any of the bands included on the album. You can even download it (along with its three predecessors) on TCelectropunk.com. They're giving it all away. How Punk Rock is that? Record Labels and profit margins be damned, which seems to be the prevailing outcome.

The most enticing part of the entire project is that you're getting some really good music in the process. The old adage, "you get what you pay for," certainly doesn't apply. This isn't just a handful of pitiful local kids doing their worst impressions of contemporary music. Many of these acts are displaying some interesting musical layering that includes elements of dance, electronic, and rock (Classic, Punk, Metal and otherwise). It features a large group of individuals raised on a broad palate of tastes in sonic expression and condensing it into something unique to a young generation looking to build a new kind of excitement in popular music. And it's working. While no one can readily agree just where the term "Electropunk" came from or where the "movement" started the scene local to the Twin Cities is capitalizing on its growth and becoming the defacto hotspot for the genre, in large part due to the continued success of these compilations and the bands that contribute to it.

Volume 4 is the most compelling collection of songs yet, starting out with another pogo-inducing winner from Avenpitch then switching gears into a beautiful pop-rock kiss-off executed by the group IKKI with just enough of a sneer to keep it accessible without being cloying. "Goodbye Cruel World" is definitely a highlight in the mix and will certainly sell you on the idea of keeping this CD in your player. Strong tracks by familiars like Audio Victim, OBCT, Thosquanta and heavyweights like Amdeide and Mach Fox elevate the collection to "must-have" status. Each act included was required to contain elements of rock and electronic and also be able to perform their music live, so you're not just simply getting a patchwork of sounds created in someone's basement that will never be reproduced in an organic fashion.

You're going to like quite a bit about what Millenacker has assembled here as there's truly a wide variety of tastes represented. You can thumb your nose at the "punk" reference but what this all represents is certainly far more Punk than much of the music carrying that banner in the past twenty years, particularly on commercial radio. What have you got to lose, anyway? Certainly not money. Twin Cities Electropunk, Volume 4 might not intrigue you from start to finish but you're sure to find plenty of enjoyable moments over the course of nearly an hour's worth of local music. And I'm willing to bet that, once finished and digested completely, you'll go looking for more at TCelectropunk.com as well.

See also: Review: Twin Cities Electropunk, Volume 5