Today we applaud Brighton’s poppermost band – Kovak. Despite being unsigned, both their singles this year – Killer Boots and Living The Dream – got airplay on the BBC, on Radio 2 and 6Music. They’ve just come back to the UK after recording their new album in Spain – keep your eyes peeled for that next year!
Kovak
Abi Wade’s And Blood And Air EP was one of the first things we wrote about when we started the blog last year, but we didn’t get to see her live until January of this year and it’s only when you see Abi perform do you truly appreciate her talent. You can pull off all kind of tricks in a studio, but to see them recreated in a live setup is breathtaking – the percussion, the cello played in every way imaginable (and some ways you probably wouldn’t imagine, like with a hairbrush), and the haunting voice, all coming from one person is nothing short of incredible.
Abi’s gone from strength to strength this year, putting out another release – Heavy Heart – and supporting Patrick Wolf on his tour, which is coming to St Mary’s Church on Tuesday 11th December. It promises to be a very special gig – As well as a homecoming for Abi, Patrick Wolf is playing an acoustic set. Tickets are still available (from Resident, via the Source website, etc) as of the time of writing.
Heliopause came to our attention at Sea Monsters earlier this year with their widescreen folk vision. A few months later, The Lumo Tape appeared – an album that mixed folk with layers of cinematic post-rock and sparkling electronica. It was one of our favourite releases this year – a judgement which lasted a lot longer than the hangover from the buckfast that got passed around at the album launch at Brighton Electric!
Heliopause are feeling festive and have announced that they’re giving us a new EP for free on Monday. Keep an eye on their social media next week for announcements (facebook, twitter)
Heliopause
Fancy going to see a Brighton band this weekend? Here’s who we recommend:
Our pick for Friday is Lout’s regular Brighton Rocks night. This week The Witches, Fragile Creatures, Little Shocks, and Bliss are on the bill at Sticky Mikes. The BIG gig in town is Rizzle Kicks at the Brighton Centre. Apparently that starts at 6.30, and I’m sure most of their audience probably need to get to bed early, so if you were keen you could probably get to both! 😉
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Our choice for Saturday is the Riots not Diets Christmas Party at the West Hill, headlined by Shrag. There’s support from Cosines, Bad Librarians and Fulhast, as well as a film about post-punk girl group Dolly Mixture. You can pick up a ticket for six quid from Resident.
Action Beat aren’t from Brighton, but Speak Galactic and P for Persia who are supporting them at the Prince Albert are. Also, Luke Sital Singh is on at the Hope – probably your last chance to see him anywhere so small, so don’t miss out!
It’s been quite a quiet year for Munich in terms of headline local performances and proper releases, but the band did give us a sneak peek at what they’ve been up to by putting some of their demos up on bandcamp for a limited time to download. And if these were just the demos, I can’t wait to hear what the final recordings end up sounding like – lilting guitars, soaring choruses, epic pop. Just Like You was the soundtrack to our summer.
Munich
Moulettes returned with their second album The Bear’s Revenge this year, which was even better than their debut. Sing Unto Me and Uca’s Dance were released as singles, and the highlight for us was their intimate gig at the Marlborough in April where they were joined on stage by Arthur Brown (who they would go on to support later in the year)
It’s quite rare for us to make more than one post in a day. It’s even rarer for us to post about the same band twice in one day. But that’s what we’re doing right now. This morning we made Curxes band of the day in our Advent Calendar – this has obviously put them in the Christmas spirit, and they’ve put out a festive tune for us all to enjoy (via our friends over at Breaking More Waves). It’s a bit quieter and calmer than their usual fare, showing a side to them that they’ve been hiding from us until now. They shouldn’t have been so coy – this is rather lovely.
Merry Christmas Curxes!
Is there something in the water that nobody’s told me about? After Friday night’s Miserable Rich gig being their last gathering for the foreseeable future, it seems that The Bleeding Hearts Club have also hung up their hat for now too.
Whereas most Bleeding Hearts have involved three or four acts, each only playing three songs, last night involved over a dozen bands, each only playing a song or two, with a rule that it had to be a Christmas related cover. I didn’t catch the names of everyone but Fire Eyes, Self Help Group, Nick Hudson, Ingrid Plum, Jane Bartholomew, Things in Herds, Clowns, Crayola Lectern, Tandy Hard and Seadog were amongst the bands who played, some onstage, some in amongst the crowd. Some bands embraced the Christmas theme more than others, and somehow we ended up with two versions of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders. I’m sure the Pretenders’ Christmas song was 2000 Miles. It was some of the more leftfield covers which raised the biggest smiles. Clowns covering The Sex Pistols God Save the Queen was brilliant, and Crayola Lectern doing Bat Out Of Hell was a moment of warped genius.
We’re going to miss Bleeding Hearts every first Monday of the month, and we hope that it’s only a temporary break. This isn’t be the last we’ll hear of them though – they told me to pencil in the release of the Crayola Lectern album for next April.
Day four is Curxes. Glorious industrial electro-pop. This year they gave us a couple of fantastic singles – Spectre and Haunted Gold – and a some memorable live shows with awesome visuals. They’re also our local contender in the Blog Sound of 2013 poll, which had it’s longlist published yesterday.
Curxes next live date in Brighton is supporting Polly Scattergood at The Haunt on 10th December.
Curxes
Lawry Tilbury III, aka Birdengine, is a Brighton institution who’s been purveying his unique brand of gothic folk for more than five years now. His last album ‘The Crooked Mile’ is a masterpiece and essential listening. This year he’s been quietly gigging and working away at some new songs, in preparation for a much-anticipated new album in 2013. In the meantime, you should check out his website and take a look at the amazing video for the single ‘No Arms’ below.
Words and Picture by Jon Southcoasting
Brighton Music Blog 