Rose Coloured Records – ‘Doorstep – Volume 1’ [Review]
Here at TMMP, grassroots music is a big deal. I’ve never understood why people will happily watch rubbish, stuck-in-a-rut TV talent shows that promote an illusory path to instant fame (and drop almost every winner once the last pennies have been squeezed from their exhaustive promotional activities) when hundreds of far more fascinating stories can be found just down the road, at a local music venue like The Boileroom in Guildford. It’s incredible to think that so many great, even world-class talents can go ignored, despite being within such easy reach year in, year out. Why wait for the next week’s TV-scheduled slot when you could just poke your head out of the front door and experience something first-hand? Read more…
I’m really happy to see that prog-pop is slowly becoming A Thing. Dirty Loops, Eyal Amir, Project RnL, Maxi Curnow, Signals, and many others have a real knack for melding beautiful songwriting with unorthodox arrangements and stellar musicianship to create a fresh and exciting new sound crammed with so much potential for variation that it makes the stuck-solid formulae still relied on for pop chart success seem exhausted and thickly cobwebbed by comparison. 
As this blog’s name suggests, I love variety. Nothing gets my ears twitching and brain cells firing quite as readily as the discovery of a fresh new band capable of delivering healthy doses of genre-hopping brilliance. Parachute For Gordo are, therefore, a godsend to me. 
TMMP readers know all too well how much we love Signals. I’ve 
First off, let me just say: This tune is fucking immense. It’s anthemic, even joyful, heavy as fuck, and is wrapped up in a unique sound that can be readily identified as belonging to Arcane Roots – regardless of what the “Biffy Clone” critics claim. Now, there’s a certain amount of Biffy in there, yes – after all, music is rarely made in a vacuum, and artists of all stripes have been influenced by others – but Arcane Roots deliver their own special twist on Biffy’s brand of new-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. 
Having heard In Dynamics live before checking them out on record, this isn’t what I expected. During Questions, there’s a lot less of the Biffy Clyro sound I noted during their live show, and many more beams of uniqueness poking through the dark thundery clouds of rock. 
The Cottonettes
Prepare to have your brain broken.