It’s been a frustrating week for us – our internet has been playing up and we haven’t been able to make half the posts that we wanted. As time has passed we’ve ended up with more and more to add to our regular new music post, so here we go, with more music than normal:
Fear of Men have spent the past few months supporting Pains of Being Pure at Heart on tour in America. Next week the tour moves to Europe, starting in France, so to celebrate the band have recorded a French version of their single Luna:
It’s not just Fear of Men who are off to Europe on tour next week – Flash Bang Band are too. Here’s a brand new video for Young Rogue from their album Bite Your Tongue that they’ve posted to celebrate, made up of footage from last year’s European tour.
The latest new music from Foreign Skin is a video of a live remix of Draper’s Electricity. You can catch Foreign Skin performing in the flesh at the Green Door Store on 26th June supporting Bernholz:
Sticking with remixes by Brighton acts, here’s IYES remixing 1965 by Zella Day, taking something that Lana Del Ray wouldn’t be ashamed of into electro wonderland:
This Friday we’re off to see Fujiya & Miyagi, supported by AKDK. You don’t have to wait until then to hear them in the same room though. Here’s Flaws from Fujiya & Miyagi’s new album remixed by AKDK:
Fool’s Empire release their debut EP on 16th June and have a launch party at the Green Door Store on the same day. Here’s the title track This Is Not For You:
Faux Flux put out a new single yesterday. You Know follows on from the electro pop of last year’s Come Alive and Week Long War releases:
Last, but by no means least, is the massive new tune from Anushka. Mansions is taken from the band’s upcoming album Broken Circuit. Huge wobbly bass, jittery beats and gorgeous harmonies
Friday night saw the Cable Club present the strange phenomenon that is the re-incarnation of Trim Tab Jim and it was another one of those brilliant Brighton gigs full of talented inventive musicianship that seemed to be attended by about … Continue reading →
May always passes too fast for us in Brighton — too many things to do and not enough time to do them all. We did get enough time to get our ears around plenty of local new music though, and here’s our pick of the bunch.
1. Fujiya & Miyagi – Caucasian Sweat
Our most listened to track this month was Caucasian Sweat, taken from the bonus disc of their new album Artificial Sweeteners. That’s nowhere to be found online – it’s from the bonus disc, part of the incentive for you to put your hand in your pocket and spend some of your hard earned money on the cd – so here’s album opener Flaws instead:
2. Eagles for Hands – Glitterall
Last month Handprints topped our chart. The new Eagles for Hands double A side is still on heavy rotation at Brighton Music Blog towers and this month we’re featuring the chilled house b-side Glitterall:
3. Tigercub – Blue Blood
Number three in our chart is the new 7″ from Tigercub which comes on rather cool blue vinyl:
4. Adolescent – Golden Halls part II
Golden Halls is the new EP from Adolescent. Part One is a short piano piece with additional ambient textures, part two which we’re featuring is this fantastic effervescent electronica:
5. Us Baby Bear Bones – Old
This month Us Baby Bear Bones split up and left us with a final EP – Ursari – to remember them by. Our favourite track was the wonky r’n’b of Old:
6. IYES – Toys
In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been any great surprise that IYES latest demo was so good, after all Lighthouse (now sadly taken down from their soundcloud page) was just a demo. Anyone wondering if they can maintain their high standard should take a listen to Toys:
7. Gazelle Twin – Antibody
I don’t think I’ve been disturbed my a music video quite as much since Aphex Twin’s promo for Come To Daddy. Not for the faint hearted, but brilliant nonetheless:
8. Alice Amelia – 11:11
Alice Amelia’s 11:11 is the kind of music that you’ll want to be hearing once the sun finally comes out properly – soulful r’n’b for summer days:
9. Sam Organ – It’s cool if you don’t want to say anything, I’ll just say nothing too
Sam Organ’s latest offering is the second track in this month’s ten from KLSDCP records. They also put out the Adolescent EP, and the downtempo beats of “It’s cool if you don’t want to say anything, I’ll just say nothing too” sit perfectly alongside it:
10. Winston & Goldstein – Non omnis moriar
Finally we have Non Omnis Moriar. We joked when we wrote about this at the very end of April that we don’t often post up Latin on the blog, but we’ve also gone and featured Us Baby Bear Bones Ursari in this month’s top ten (Ursari being Bear in Latin). You can catch Winston & Goldstein live for free at the Green Door Store on 9th June, on the bill with Brighton Music Blog favourites Dog in the Snow.
Tomorrow sees the release of Alex Banks‘ debut album on Modeselektor’s Monkeytown label. Illuminate‘s main vocal contributor is Elisabeth Bernholz (aka Gazelle Twin, who is co-credited on All You Can Do, Silent Embrace and A Matter of Time), but the record also features Cate Ferris as well. The album launch party is is a late gig on the 21st June at The Loft, with Ital Tek in support. The record is out on cd or double vinyl and is already available to listen to on Spotify.
Gazelle Twin releases her new Antibody EP digitally on Anti-Ghost Moon Ray today, followed a physical release on limited blue 12″ on 16th June. Antibody comes backed with remixes from Wrangler and I Speak Machine as well as new b-side Phobia, and can be pre-ordered from iTunes here.. Antibody will appear on Gazelle Twin’s upcoming album Unflesh, due later this year.
To celebrate the launch Gazelle Twin played a gig at the Green Door Store last thursday, supported by Eva Bowan, and we were there to capture it:
Wow, out of the blue not just one but three free-to-download EPs from the excellent Fiona Sally Miller sounding awesome, still in the lo-fi alt-folk mode and not a single sign of the long-promised techno album (well, perhaps I should have sat still is just a little bit techno…)
FSM slips her music out quietly without the slightest attention, but it is very much worthy of your ears. This may well be a clearing of the decks but we hope it is perhaps a sign that more is on the way and we might see her out and about performing again soon.
Here’s another batch of new music for your listening pleasure. First up is a double dose of Moulettes, whose new album Constellations is out on 2nd June. In the past few days a video and a Champion Fever remix of Lady Vengeance from the album have appeared online:
Next we have a new video from The Self Help Group. The rather lovely The Bus is taken from their album Not Waving But Drowning which came out earlier this year:
Young Night are a band from Australia who pestered me for a while on twitter without giving me any indication that they were now Brighton based. It turns out that they moved to Brighton earlier this year (although their band Facebook page still says that they’re based in Brisbane). They’ve updated their twitter page though, and are giving a push for their summery guitar pop track Picasso:
Last week KLDSCP released Adolescent‘s new EP Golden Halls. We’ve featured a couple of the tracks before as they’ve appeared but now the whole four track EP is up on bandcamp, and it’s all rather lovely:
We posted about the new Us Baby Bear Bones EP at the weekend, and sadly missed the launch yesterday at the Green Door Store. If you want to get hold of the Ursari EP, you can buy it from their label Love Thy Neighbour’s bandcamp page:
Young Night aren’t the only Australians who’ve relocated to Brighton who have a new release out. Kins have new three track single out, headed up by album track Mockasin’s (their apostrophe, not mine) available as a free three track download from soundcloud:
Last but by no means least, this week also sees the release of the new Beautiful Boy double A side Home / Love Me More, out now on Raygun Records:
The Wytches have announced details of their debut album Annabel Dream Reader. The record is coming out on August 25th on Heavenly Records and features previous singles Gravedweller and Robe for Juda and upcoming single Wire Frame Mattress, whose new video has been directed by legendary photographer Steve Gullick:
It’s been a bit quiet from us for a little while, for which we apologise profusely. It’s all the Great Escape’s fault. As fun as it is, it does leave us with no spare time for three days, then knackered for a few days after that.
We’re back now though and unfortunately it’s with some sad news. Last week we got a press release saying that one of Brighton’s finest bands – Us Baby Bear Bones – were splitting up. They’re releasing a second and final EP, Ursari, which has been produced by Blood Red Shoes’ Simon Ansell which is coming out tomorrow on Love They Neighbour, limited to only a hundred copies, and also playing one final gig at the Green Door Store, with support from Hypnotized and Speak Galactic. Here’s the video for Only One from the EP:
Don’t be sad for too long though. Two of the band’s members are continuing as Psalm Springs, and their first track Get Out (Leave) is already out there, tucked away on Cupboard Music’s sampler cd that they gave away to those who made the early start on Record Store Day, which isn’t too difficult to find a stream of with a little bit of hunting. If Psalm Springs are even half the band that Us Baby Bear Bones were they’ll still outshine most of what Brighton has to offer so we look forward to hearing more from them.
Last week, Black Rooster Black Shag released their debut album As Far As My Lead Will Take Me. We were out of town for their launch gig at the Bees Mouth on thursday, but we caught up with Mirika, JJ and Dan last Sunday afternoon when they played a another gig at the Ranelagh.
Brighton Music Blog: So the album’s called…
JJ: As Far as My Lead Will Take Me
BMB: And where did the title come from?
JJ: Between us we came up with the title. I think it really reflected the journey of the record. We met in the Southern Hemisphere, moved to the UK and eventually settled in Brighton and I think it was that sort of journey that by the time we got to Brighton that really made up the record. That whole trajectory that we took and it kind of sums up the spirit of the record in terms of going a great distance and getting to a particular point and the fact that you can still go a little bit further.
BMB: So are some of the songs quite old and have taken this journey or are they all quite new?
JJ: Some of the songs I suppose were composed a while ago but we’ve got Dan into the band and come together as a three piece and the sound has changed, and every time we play we play it slightly differently, we never try and play the song the same way the same time twice. So in that way the songs always evolve and are always fresh and there’s always something different every time we play. The skeletons of the songs were written quite a while ago but every time we play them they’re a little bit different.
Mirika: The band club we sort of had to hold back to really be able to play in this band. J and I were touring other projects when we met so we wrote all these songs cross continentally for a little while we were touring the other projects then once we finished those records we could make this band happen. So we really willed it to happen, although we’ve only been playing shows now for nine months.
BMB: So you launched the album at the Bees Mouth last thursday. How did that go?
M: Oh man, so much fun.
BMB: Did you play in that little sweaty room downstairs?
Dan: I think we made it worse. It probably still stinks of us now.
JJ: Our audience have got a very good aroma! It was just a great night There was a lot of people that came down, a lot of friends. We had a really good time and everyone walked away having celebrated the fact that the album’s finally out really, because a lot of them were friends who played on the record and we did have a lot of people around us that helped so it was just really really nice to have everybody in the same room and celebrating not just the end of one journey but the start of another one.
M: We’ve already been demoing new stuff, so it was quite exciting.
BMB: You first visit to Brighton was to visit the Great Escape?
M: We just came to visit, we weren’t playing. SO many great venues and people were really friendly which was really nice.
BMB: Are you around for the Great Escape this year?
JJ: We’re actually playing the Alternative Escape at Marwoods Cafe, on the saturday afternoon about half past five so we’ll definitely be around.
R: Any tips of bands to go and see at the Great Escape?
JJ: I would just tip to go and check out the Brighton bands. I think there’s such a vibrant scene going on with bands here. Compared to what you see on the surface from other cities it’s unique. There’s a lot of exciting guitar bands happening. For me it’s more about seeing my friends and seeing those bands play in front of a bigger audience of people that wouldn’t normally come and see them play. Anything from Brighton go and check it out.
BMB: Where’s next for the album? You’ve played launches in Brighton, London and Barnsley.
JJ: We’re playing Eastbourne, then Nottingham, then London again, and then Manchester, Doncaster as well. We’d like to play a few smaller towns and some of the bigger cities as well. Our idea is not to have one huge tour, but to keep going out and visiting places. It’s a slower run with an independent band, you can’t throw all your eggs into one basket, you’ve got to work it a bit longer. So we just want to go out and see as much of the country as possible.
BMB: Are you doing any festivals this summer?
JJ: We’re playing Coalfields, up in Barnsley again, but that’s about it really. We’re a relatively new band, so we haven’t really hit the festivals hard at this point. We’re more into playing smaller venues for now, getting the intimate atmosphere going really. That’s where people are responding best to the music so we’re happy cultivating that at the moment.
M: It’s nice when you go to a town and you see people who saw you at your last show. That’s the best. I don’t need to play anywhere extravagant, I just want a good vibe, and to be able to relax a bit and have a bit of fun.
Black Rooster Black Shag’s album is out now, available from EOI productions. You can catch the band on Saturday at Marwoods Cafe around 5.30 as part of the Alternative Great Escape (so you won’t need a wristband).
Brighton Music Blog 