Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 1 – Van Zon / Cannon Fodder

Posted on 20/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

There’s been times this year when it’s felt like I’ve been their biggest cheerleader, but I won’t make any kind of apology for that because there’s nobody quite like Van Zon, who have successfully mixed up post rock, folk and a bit of neo-classical to come up with a genre all of their own. They were the first gig I saw in 2024, my most seen band this year, and they’re looking to be one of the first bands I see next year too. The highlight for me was October’s Hidden Herd gig where they showcased the songs that they were just about to record for their debut EP (due to be released sometime next year), all of which felt like a step up from the high bar that they had already displayed. If you haven’t listened to Cannon Fodder yet, settle down and strap in for an epic eight minutes.

1 : Van Zon / Cannon Fodder

2 : Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006
3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers
4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 2 – Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006

Posted on 19/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

When I first heard 1st July 2006 it stopped me in my tracks – the combination of the non-standard time signature, Bertie’s spoken word segments which sometimes get overwhelmed by the rise and fall of the rich backing, alongside Bowie’s emotional vocals was a heady mix. It still moves me now – to cram so much into just four minutes is no mean feat.

2 : Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006

3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers
4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 3 – Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers

Posted on 18/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

About fifteen years ago I started taking my camera along to gigs – it could have been a fad but at the end of a gig at Latest Music Bar the support act asked if they could have a copy of my photos, which might just have been the spark of encouragement that has made me carry on for all this time. After her gig at the Rosehill in November this year Cate Ferris once again got in touch to ask for a copy of the photos from that night too. The first time I saw her live, it was just Cate and an acoustic guitar on stage, but as the years have rolled by she introduced looping pedals, samples and electronics. Back in 2009, Steve Baker was the guitarist in The Woo!Worths, and he has made the journey to music production over time putting out releases under the name Champion Fever. Somehow Blinkers is their very first collaboration – apparently Steve hadn’t even been to one of Cate’s gigs before this year – but what a banger it is.

3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers

4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 4 – Ideal Living / Roam

Posted on 17/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

How to describe Ideal Living? In an interview they described themselves as PostSpook Knitwear Rock, but maybe they were taking the piss. They cite Tom Waits and Ennio Morricone as influences, but they remind me at times of the bits of Arab Strap I love where the intensity of the music is matched by lyrics that are unafraid to push boundaries. They take their name from Joy Division’s first release An Ideal For Living, and you can see that Billy Marsh’s role as front man is inspired by Ian Curtis. The rest of the band are a Who’s Who from some of Brighton’s other great upcoming groups, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when one of these groups breaks through (and it will be when, not if).
Roam is a diatribe about how man has imposed himself on the countryside, inspired by the view from the top of the cliffs near the Marina looking down over Brighton, it’s closing refrain of hushed chants of “Concrete and plastic and silicon” electrifying the audience whenever I’ve seen it performed live.

4 : Ideal Living / Roam

5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 5 – MEMORIALS / Lamplighter

Posted on 16/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

Taken from their official debut album Memorial Waterslides – last year’s Music for Films doesn’t count because it was, as the title suggests, soundtrack works – Memorials described Lamplighter as “the poppiest song on the album”. You can’t argue with that, but I’d love to see the effect that the swirling organs (they built their own Mellotron for the track) and driving krautrock drums might have on someone who’s spent 2024 on a diet of Charli XCX and Taylor Swift. It was a toss up for me as to whether to put Lamplighter or A Guaranty of Sanity into my end of year list, but including a track tucked towards the end of a relatively low key EP release might sound like I was trying a bit too hard. The Centre Pompidou EP does deserve a mention though, since it includes a track which unlocks a Memorials easter egg which has probably passed most listeners by: The album, Memorial Waterslides, includes the track Memorial Waterslide II – three and a half minutes of uncompromising free jazz. The EP has a completely different track called Memorial Waterslide, made up of funky hip hop loops, which sounds wholly unrelated to it’s namesake. Play them both at the same time though, and you get a fantastic new psych track, much much greater than the sum of it’s parts.

5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter

6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 6 – Hutch / Ice on the Lake

Posted on 13/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

With immaculate timing, Hutch put out the second single from their Smile & Wave EP in what felt like the coldest week of winter back in February, and since then they’ve had a hectic year of live dates, the peak of which was surely headlining Green Door Store’s 234 Festival in September. Their more recent gigs have started to include some new material, so hopefully we’ll see a new release from the band before long.

6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake

7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 7 – Lime Garden / Pop Star

Posted on 12/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

Cambridge Dictionary’s word of 2024 is Manifest – “to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief doing so will make it more likely to happen”, and what better example of this than writing a song called Pop Star then spending most of the year touring the UK, then Europe then the US, and having your album go top twenty along the way?

7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star

8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 8 – Thomas Ducout / Feminina

Posted on 11/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

Back in the summer I got an Instagram recommendation for a page called Low Tide Heartbreak Club – a bunch of Brighton based surfers sharing their love for surfing culture not just through other people’s posts but their own creative efforts. There was an exhibition on at a gallery in the North Laine showcasing their art and photography, as well as the talents of producer and DJ Thomas Ducout. His mini-album Philosophie Du Surf was initially a cassette only release exclusively available at the gallery, which came out just in time to become the soundtrack to late summer days and nights, and is now thankfully on streaming services. I wouldn’t be so brave as to make a direct comparison, but the breezy sample based rolling hip hop beats aren’t a million miles away from the Avalanches. Tune in, turn on and drop out.

8: Thomas Ducout / Feminina

9: Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10: David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 9 – Jamie Broughton / The Sound

Posted on 10/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

I only recently caught on to just how good Jamie Broughton’s musical output was, but now that I have I bang on about him to anyone who stands still near me for long enough. I was aware of who he was before then, popping up onstage for various other Brighton bands playing whatever instrument was required, but it was seeing him live playing a full set of his own songs that the penny dropped. Sounding not dissimilar to Tame Impala when Kevin Parker was hanging out with Melody Prochet, Jamie’s album Big Long Sun – now also the name of his group now he’s widened his horizons from playing everything himself – is a fuzzy 70s infused psych dream pop gem.
I’ve been told that Jamie has albums and albums worth of unreleased material, and right on cue a new single Heaven is By Your Side – still psych pop, but drawing it’s influences from the 60s rather than the 70s – has been released today. No doubt we’ll be hearing a lot from Jamie and Big Long Sun in 2025.

9: Jamie Broughton / The Sound

10: David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 10 – David Best / Terms & Conditions

Posted on 09/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

2024 was a quiet year for Fujiya & Miyagi, who weren’t up to much publicly save for their headline gig at Lewes Psych Fest and the release of a 2003 radio session to raise money for a former band member who had passed away before their time due to cancer. There was also the release of “Message – Send – Failure”, the first offering from front man David Best under his own name after numerous collaborative side projects over the years. Cream of the crop from the album was Terms & Conditions, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on one of his bands albums, punctuated by the semi spoken lyrics and vocal tics that he’s made a calling card in his career.

10: David Best / Terms & Conditions

11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator