‘Rose Room’ showcases a club-heavier sound in the Donor Lens catalogue, giving us a satisfying long player that contextualises the recent slew of killer singles
Cardiff’s finest (strictly speaking one half lives in London), Donor Lens is back. Rose Room represents their first long player since 2021’s Error Area. And whilst three years can feel a long time, the boys have been busy for sure; both releasing solo projects (as Wichita Limewire and Kid Neon, respectively); writing and performing as part of vaporave/jungle outfit 3PeaceSweetz (with Kid Neon’s brother, Enzo); as well as both now being official members of the UK’s best synthpop outfit, IVERSEN.
And it’s this amalgam of influences, multi-tasking, and the clear benefits of having performed live (as Donor Lens and with IVERSEN) in the UK and the United States over the last two years, that we hear writ large on Rose Room. You have to experience the world in order to adopt, bend, break and reconstruct the sounds of sticky-surfaced clubs, dark city streets, the toll of travelling, and (a recurring theme) a celebration through dissatisfaction of what internet culture has given us…and what it has taken away.
You can taste – through glitchy breakbeats, console bleeps, and the marriage of subtle and audacious pop and internet-driven samples – DL’s desire to break the Matrix and get us all in one room having the night of our dancing lives again. And if the end of the world is nigh, surely it’s better to party through it.
DL are part of a new wave of vaporwave artists who unashamedly employ vocals (gasp), live instruments (gaspier still), and who reach out to ever more diverse influences, to direct, inform, and colour their productions. On Rose Room, we hear everything from citypop inspired floor fillers, house and rave, to futurepop, drum and bass, and grungy electronica. The guys also know when to pull in a guest singer (or in Enzo Van Baelen’s case, MC); each collabing artist understanding the assignment and bringing unique and authentic elevation to their track. Be it Japanese artist Eulalie (Mirror Mirage), Kiera Pixie (Seeing Voices), DATAGIRL (Forget Yr Name), or the roof-raising queen that is Jana Tyrrell (whose live appearances alongside the band have brought the proverbial house burning down to its embers) – heard on Kept On All The Time, and Get Back @ U.
In summary, Rose Room is both a continuation of Donor Len’s musical USP, and an evolution into headier club-ready anthems, sure to melt live crowds into a frenzied ecstasy. To quote standout single, Made This About U; boom, it’s a fucking smash.