We’ve got an interesting New Music post for you this week – new tracks from some of our city’s biggest bands as well as some exciting stuff from some of Brighton’s younger home grown talent.
Fujiya & Miyagi‘s last album (excluding solo projects Omega Male and I am Ampersand) was back in 2011. The band are back now with an album due in the spring, the first taster of which is Tetrahydrofolic Acid – much more electronic and a lot less krautrock than before:
Electric Soft Parade have put up a video for another track from last year’s Idiots. One of Those Days comes out to coincide with a Spanish tour that the White brothers kick off tomorrow:
Love Thy Neighbour, home to Abi Wade, Us Baby Bear Bones and A Lily have just signed Hypnotized. Their first release for the label will be Telesto – a five track EP coming out on 24th March. There’s a launch party at the Green Door Store on 10th March, and you can hear the title track from the EP here:
Last, but by no means least, The Hundredth Anniversary announced news of their new five track EP Wreckers this week, which is released on 17th March. Only a hundred copies are being pressed and if you can pre order it from the Odd Box bandcamp page. you get an early download of It Becomes Us from the EP:
Lily & Madeleine are two sisters from Indiana with an excellent album under their belt and a musical presence that belies their teenage years. Suffice to say, they put on an excellent performance at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar last night … Continue reading →
On the 17th March, The New Union release their new single Now. Now is another slice of fantastic guitar pop which follows up 2013’s Without You 7″ and Staying Friends EP. We already gave a mention to the band’s upcoming Brighton gig at the Bermuda Triangle on 7th March, but at the time we didn’t know it was to promote a new single. Support at the gig comes from Fickle Friends and The Hundredth Anniversary. You can hear the new single now (see what we did there) on soundcloud via the link below:
If you’re brave enough to leave the house without fear of being blown away or drowned, here’s our gig picks for this week:
Tonight two local acts are supporting Basia Bulat at The Hope. You can catch Bella Spinks and Heliopause on Queens Road from 8pm. Meanwhile Audiobeach Studios celebrate their fourth birthday with a showcase at Sticky Mike’s with sets from BirdEatsBaby, Nylon Sky, Echo & the Beats and Departure from Normal.
Friday Night is Valentines day, and The Valentines are playing their last ever gig at the Prince Albert, with support from Fire Eyes and Dirt Royal. You can also catch Normanton Street over at the Green Door Store.
Our pick for Saturday night is also two local acts supporting a touring band – Ez Stone and Ellie Ford are on the bill with Lily & Madeleine at Sticky Mike’s. We also like the look of Derriere who are playing at the Blind Tiger.
Last year, The Physics House Band put out their six track debut release Horizons / Rapture. Today a remixed version of the mini album was put out on the bands own Kaleidescope records as a free download on Bandcamp. Remixes come from the likes of some of Brighton’s best electronica talent including iTal Tek, AK/DK and Luo as well as Blood and Biscuits labelmates Teej, Three Trapped Tigers.
A few weeks ago we chatted to Momotaro about their debut album Second Side, and since then it hasn’t left our stereo. This weekend they’ve put the whole thing up to hear on Soundcloud, which you can hear below. If you like it (and we think you will), then you can support the band buy buying it via their website.
March the 3rd sees the debut single from Brighton Music Blog Favourite Dog in the Snow. Factory will be the second release on London’s Tidal Wave records, and has been produced by Dubstar’s Steve Hillier. Factory follows in the vein of Dog in the Snow’s previous art pop offerings, this time around offering a more synth led sound. If you’ve been to see Dog in the snow live, this is the song they play where Helen Ganya Brown swaps her guitar for a hand held sampler. A video and more information on pre ordering the single are due soon, but until then you can hear the track on Tidal Wave’s Soundcloud page:
Over the years Heavenly Records have put out some of my favourite records from the likes of Saint Etienne, Beth Orton, Doves and Toy. Today Wytches signed to the label too, putting out new single Gravedweller, which being given away as a free casssette to the first fifty people through the door on their upcoming tour, stopping at Northampton, Liverpool, Hitchin, Bedford, Cambridge, Reading, London, Tunbridge Wells, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Leicester (sadly there’s Brighton date). If you can’t make it to any of those dates (or you don’t think you’ll be one of the first fifty through the door), you can grab the track (and it’s b-sides) as a free download.
Last week Fear of Men posted up the first teaser of their upcoming album – an anonymous video mysteriously entitled 3/2 lit only by candlelight with a simple vocal line sung in the near dark by Jess. It turns out 3/2 was a date, and now that it’s the 3rd of February detailed news has come out. Their debut album will be called Loom, and will be released on 21st April on Kanine Records, with a deluxe limited edition vinyl edition being released for Record Store Day. The opening two tracks Alta and Waterfall are currently streaming at Gorilla vs Bear, and you can pre-order the album at fearofmen.co.uk. The full tracklisting is: Alta / Waterfall / Green Sea / Vitrine / Tephra / America / Seer / Luna / Descent / Inside / Atla.
Something else that’s caught our eye thanks to this fantastic poster is an upcoming gig from The New Union – ever ones for strong artwork. They’ll be playing at Bermuda Triangle on Friday 7th March and will be supported by The Hundredth Anniversary and Fickle Friends. Tickets are a mere four pounds in advance.
With December being a quiet month for new music and with us being a bit busy with our end of year round up, we thought it would be an idea to combine the new music we heard December and January for our Top Ten this time around.
1 Fickle Friends / Swim
In the middle of winter, Swim was exactly what we needed to hear to be reminded that it won’t always be cold and grey.
2 IYES / Crazy in Love
Beyonce released a new album, so IYES shared their cover of her most popular tune with us.
3 GAPS / I Know It’s You
GAPS second single I Know It’s You came out in early December but it’s been on heavy rotation since then round these parts, along with its B-side Inside Your Head, getting a bit more interest thanks to the fantastic Foreign Skin remix.
4 Curxes / Avant Guarded
Avant Guarded is another of December’s single releases, which came easy listening YouTube teasers, drums which could be used as sonic weaponry and a video featuring the band wearing budgerigar heads. Obviously.
5 Do You Feel What I Feel Deer / Golden Future
Do You Feel What I Feel Deer quietly split up midway through 2013, then snuck out their gorgeous album Beat Glorious Heart before Christmas when they thought people weren’t looking. By then it was too late to appear in our end of year round up, but it would have done if we’d heard it sooner. It’s difficult to pick out one track, because the whole record is lush, but we’ve put up album closer Golden Future to listen to here.
6 Ital Tek / Golden
By the time we had blogged about Ital Tek’s free Christmas giveaway Golden a few weeks ago it had already reached its download limit. Thankfully for everyone who missed it, it’s been reuploaded, so go and grab it while you can!
7 Calico / Nightowl
Calico put out their first single Night Owl right at the end of November, after we’d put together our November top ten list. We haven’t enjoyed anything this cinematic and funky since David Holmes’ soundtrack stuff.
8 Kins / Opsimplistic
We wrote about Kins single Aimless and went to the launch party at The Hope back in November last year, but what we didn’t spot at the time was that the track – and a brand new B-side Opsimplistic – had been uploaded to Soundcloud. The B-side is just as good as anything on the album and definitely deserves a bit more exposure.
9 Thomas White / Go Your Own Way
Last year Electric Soft Parade’s Thomas White covered the whole of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Alex White covered Steely Dan’s Katy Lied. They’re both very good indeed.
10 Gudjohr / I Built A Home
Some sunny guitar pop to round off our top ten, which we only got hold of last week.
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