Rose Coloured Records – ‘Doorstep – Volume 2’ [Review]
Dropped right before Christmas last year, Rose Coloured’s Doorstep Volume 2 compilation doubtless made great stocking filler for a number of Surrey and Hampshire’s resident music fans. It also offers plenty of great reasons to get excited about the Guildford- and Aldershot-centred music scenes in 2015.
Regular TMMP readers will already know twothirtytwo and their track Bones (the winningly passionate opener from their EP The Hope We Had); Following Foxes and Almost Lost It (a polished folk-rock song with plenty of pop potential); and the darkly British angst of Lightboxes‘ Wendigo (and the Infinite Sadness). But there are fourteen more tracks on this beyond-long-playing compilation, with enough immense offerings in there to justify wading through the lot. For TMMP, Champion Jack‘s epic riffage on Godzuki, Secret Black Boyfriend‘s dirt-encrusted Reuben-do-sludge vibe on Talk Show Paternity Test, Annabel Allum‘s excellent and quirky acoustic number Sea/Sky, Midfield Workhorse‘s stocky Challenge Accepted and The Wicked Venetians‘ cool and slinky party tune from hell (Shivers) were serious standout moments – but that does nothing to take away from the remaining tracks.
While Rose Coloured’s first Doorstep compilation suffered from some iffy tracks and induced a bout of Punk Fatigue that forced this reviewer to take a break around the halfway mark, Volume 2 is very different. Although the production jobs on some of the remaining tracks (the Ed Allen Trio‘s Skin Ain’t Mine; the chirpily-monikered itoldyouiwouldeatyou‘s Word & Object; Joe Booley‘s Never Fail, Never Fade; Fauntleroy‘s This Love Is Uncomfortable; Those Makeshift Heroes‘ Such A Shame; Kilter‘s Rain) don’t do the songs themselves justice, the minds behind the music still manage to shine through it all – and the punk bands in the lineup (The Cottonettes, Tindall, and Miss Vincent) all deliver strong tunes and shedloads of anxiety-ridden energy. In terms of pace, variety, and songcrafting quality, Doorstep Volume 2 is definitely a winner.
As I said at the start, this compilation offers plenty of reasons to get excited about the Guildford/Aldershot music scene in 2015. It’ll be very interesting to see how these acts move forward in the months to come.
Links / Listen
Rose Coloured official website.
Follow TMMP on Twitter for more awesome music.
twothirtytwo on Facebook and Twitter.
Champion Jack on Facebook and Twitter.
Secret Black Boyfriend on Facebook.
The Cottonettes’ official website.
The Ed Allen Trio official website.
Annabel Allum on Facebook and Twitter.
Following Foxes on Facebook and Twitter.
Tindall on Facebook.
itoldyouiwouldeatyou on Facebook and Twitter.
Joe Booley on Facebook and Twitter.
Fauntleroy on Facebook.
The Wicked Venetians on Facebook and Twitter.
Midfield Workhorse on Facebook and Twitter.
Miss Vincent on Facebook and Twitter.
Those Makeshift Heroes on Facebook and Twitter.