Don’t Be Hostile
Opening with a track from pop-punkers Fast Friends, the Don’t Be Hostile compilation seems to be a self-fulfilling title, breezy and laid back. But, it features a dynamic range of music, from the explicitly chill manifest in the delicate piano ballad of Æves, to the hip-hop of Touch AC or the blistering punk fury of Nesh, Soul Divided or Trangression. There is a youthful energy exemplified by a host of styles, from the excessively loud and punchy, to the melody-obsessed, and it all exists in harmony. This is a snapshot of a vibrant scene, a community of people if not connected by the specifics of their genre, then by a general ideology.