News of a new Fujiya & Miyagi album is always welcome, and May’s release of the band’s fifth long player Artificial Sweeteners didn’t disappoint. The first taster we got was the acid house number Tetrahydrofolic Acid which hinted at a new dancefloor led direction for the band, with analogue synths over pulsating beats. While the rest of the album was certainly more electronic, long term fans would have been pleased to hear that they hadn’t lost their krautrock groove.
If your main exposure to the local music scene is through the live route, then you might assume that IYES have had a pretty quiet year – By our calculations they’ve only played in Brighton once, supporting Raleigh Ritchie a few weeks ago at the Haunt. Actually though, they’ve been pretty busy. In the spring ‘Til Infinity, which featured in out 2013 list, got a 7” release backed with their cover of Crazy in Love, and there have been numerous remixes which have appeared (including a turn for Jack Garratt, who’s hotly tipped for big things next year). More recently they’ve signed to Sony and had their track Glow feature in mobile phone ads and get scheduled for release early next year. They have had one proper single this year, the sultry, effervescent, MNEK produced Breathe:
Right now we’re in deepest midwinter, less than a week away from the shortest day of the year. Thankfully though, it won’t always be so – Give it a few months and it’ll be spring. The days will be getting longer and the weather will be getting better, and then out of nowhere we’ll have a day that almost feels summery, where you leave your coat at home and bask in the warmth of the sun for the first time in months. Swim by Fickle Friends sounds like that day feels.
This particular part of BMB tends to be a bit of a Grinch this time of year and would be minded to bury any band who recorded a Christmas song deep deep deep in the cold cold snow. But this year the little cockles that warm must have reached my heart because there have been what even I consider to be some very fine seasonal offerings from the local Brighton crew. The BMB mainstay will be back to restart his best-of-the-year list shortly, but in the meantime, here’s some jingle jangle sweetness for you.
We mentioned the Random Acts of Vinyl xmas EP a few weeks ago, but it’s so good we’ll mention it again. This time we’ll feature the Delta Bell, with Kate’s beaut of a 60s Phil Spector-influenced song Hey Santa Claus!
Next up are our favourite bentcousins, with an anti-Christmas break-up song. It’s simple and endearing, perfect for this time of year really if you’re sipping brandy alone and wrapping presents for one. .
Danny Green was a longstanding Brightoner, part of the Willkommen team and a regular feature on this blog thanks to two outstanding albums until he upped and moved to London earlier this year. However, as Laish he is still one of the finest writers of songs of a Brighton persuasion and he has just released a seasonal EP, with sad confessional songs that recount a depressing stay in a freezing Berlin, inform us that we are unlikely to get a present from Danny this year, and in his annihilation of Silent Night, a reminder that the usual drunken debauchery will probably end up in fighting. I love this a lot.
Finally we have a new upcoming release from electro-pop Becky Becky, out on Monday. it’s the usual dirty disco weirdness that we enjoyed on their album this year and you’re bound to love it. Here’s taster track, Bells Ringing, which should give you a flavour of what we’ll get on Monday.
End of year lists are a funny old business. Should they be a measure of the success of the artists on the list you’re compiling? If that were the case then Royal Blood would be the top of any Brighton based list by the longest of margins (and they have been voted album of the year by NME readers). The alternative is that they’re based on personal preference instead, which is incredibly subjective but does give us the chance to enthuse about the things we’ve loved the most over the past twelve months. Being just a list of twenty acts is incredibly restricting too. The past couple of years we’ve put together out best of list as an Advent Calendar instead, which gave us another five acts we could include, but would have meant us getting our act together in November which was never going to happen this year. So here’s the first half of our top twenty – we’ll count down our top ten counting down as we get closer to Christmas.
20. Yumi & The Weather – All We Can EP
Technically All We Can came out in December 2013, but end of year lists had all been agreed by that point and tracks on the EP are easily as good if not better than most of the new music we’ve heard in 2014. The Vondelpark rework of the EPs title track is pure bliss.
Anushka’s Mansions, the lead single from their album Broken Circuit which came out on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings was one of our tunes of the summer.
18. Curxes – Valkyrie
To keep us interested while the Brighton / Portsmouth duo inch forward to completion of their debut long player (which has a provision title of Verxes), this year the band put out PreCurxor – a compilation of their early work – and this single, a noisy, frantic affair that’s guaranteed to wake you up.
17. Michael A Grammar – The Day I Come Alive
We fell in love with Michael A Grammar’s The Day I Came Alive on the very first listen, probably because it sounded like early Blur and reminded us of our first trips to indie discos many years ago.
16. Dog in the Snow – Factory
Dog in the Snow put out a couple of singles this year, with Factory being the more electronic of the two. The video was a fantastic match for the song, initially about mundane daily repetition before morphing into something magical.
15. The New Union – Now
The New Union continue apace with their melodic indie rock. Now was the first of their two singles of 2014, which was followed up later in the year by the equally great Believe in Nothing.
14. Winston & Goldstein – Ode to a Massive Obsession
Jacqueline Collyer used to be in Kins, but this year she went solo, ditched the guitars (mostly), and embraced electronica in all it’s forms on her album In The Eyes of the Other from ambient to dance tracks like Ode to a Massive Obsession which is our pick.
13. The Fiction Aisle – Blue
The Fiction Aisle have only played three gigs, and have only put one track on the internet so far. The man behind the band is an industry veteran though, with over ten years experience under his belt. This year, Electric Soft Parade hung up their hats (except for the odd one off), but Tom White has formed a brilliant new band, recruiting brother Alex on drums, and a cast of thousands. Well, about a dozen.
12. Blood Red Shoes – Blood Red Shoes
Blood Red Shoes eponymous fourth album was heralded from all quarters as a return to form. Their gig in April at the Concorde was the loudest thing we heard this year.
11. Adolescent – Golden Halls part II
There’s been an incredible amount of electronica produced in Brighton this year, most of it coming out through the wonderful Physics House Band affiliated KLDSCP records. Pick of the bunch for us was Adolescent’s Golden Halls EP, and it’s utterly beautiful and unhurried lead track Golden Halls Part II
In a rare return to our gig picks posts, here’s three gigs that have caught our eye:
Drill Festival is this weekend. There’s a fantastic line up featuring LOADS of Brighton bands from big names like The Wedding Present, Blood Red Shoes and British Sea Power alongside upcoming bands like Speak Galactic, Dog in the Snow and Luo. You can read the whole line up on Drill’s Facebook page, but rest assured you won’t be disappointed.
Things have been a bit quiet from Les Enfants Terribles since their regular venue The Blind Tiger closed down earlier this year. They’re back next wednesday with out of towners The Away Days heading the bill, supported by locals and Morning Smoke.
Last, but by no means least is the Bleeding Hearts Christmas party. The Bleeding Hearts Club went into hibernation after their Christmas party two years ago to focus on putting out records (by the likes of Crayola Lectern and Cuz as well as upcoming releases from Clowwns and Seadog), but they’re back for a one off event at the Rialto Theatre on Dyke Road next Monday. Expect some great festive music from some of the old familiar faces. You should also be able to pick up a copy the Random Acts of Vinyl Christmas 10″ mentioned in our last blog post too.
The flow of new music has slowed recently, as it always does this time of year. The blogs are otherwise occupied with end of year lists (ours will be coming soon), but there’s still a few bits and pieces out there to tell you about.
King Porter Stomp‘s new single Warning, which features the talents of reggae legend Prince Fatty came out last week on Feet Up records on 10″ and download. It’s backed with a Dub remix by dub producer Nick Manasseh.
Yesterday saw the release of GAPS new single She Bears a Flower. We posted up the video for the single back in October, so we won’t repeat ourselves. Instead what we have for you is the b-side We Are Here – the most ambient thing we’ve heard from the band so far:
Finally, now it’s December it was inevitable that there would be some Christmas music coming. Random Acts of Vinyl have put out a four track 10″ EP with their bands each penning an original festive tune. We’ve got the audio of Fire Eyes‘ O Falling Snow below and the EP also has contributions from Beat Hotel, The Delta Bell and Palm Springs. Details of how you can get hold of the EP will be in the next blog we put up later this evening.
In 2013 we must have seen IYES at least half a dozen times. Things have been a bit quieter in 2014 though – despite a few singles and remixes it was only last night that they played their first hometown gig of the year, supporting Game of Thrones actor turned R&B songsmith Raleigh Ritchie. Since we last saw them they’ve signed to Sony (you’ve probably heard their track Glow on the adverts for Sony phones), and they’re sounding better than ever. Support came from local lad Sam Jordan, whose set was running late which mean that IYES had to cut a few songs from their set. Hopefully they’ll be back soon with a headline gig when Glow gets released in February. Until then here’s our shots from the last night. Click through to view large:
Brighton Music Blog 