Moulettes and Arthur Brown at Komedia

Posted on 22/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

There’s not enough hours in the day. If there were, we’d be getting around to a lot more gigs. As it is, we’ve already missed the Slytones, and Moulettes have already kicked off by the time we arrive. Since we last saw them back in April, the band are leaner, but stronger. Slimmed down to a mere five members – those who’ve followed them over the years will know that’s quite a low number – the band still manage to sound bigger than ever. The band are more professional too – gone are the minutes lost to fits of giggles inbetween songs. Their set is mainly drawn from this year’s Bears Revenge album, losing some songs which have been staples for a long time, but instead showcasing the talents of the whole band as their newer songs do. One of the great joys of going to see Moulettes play live is the musicianship, which you can only truly appreciate by seeing the band in the flesh. My high point is Assault – a musical battle between violin and cello which is quite frankly breathtaking.

Moulettes

Most of the crowd are here for Arthur Brown though. Arthur’s a Lewesian these days, and that would be just about enough to slip into our remit if we were being generous, but there’s more reasons than that to write about him as well as Moulettes. I should imagine that most write ups of the gig will probably focus on the guitar and keyboard players, their sex (female), and their attire (hot pants and leather trousers respectively). Hearing them play, you would know that they were actually chosen for their command of their instruments. Instead, I’m going to focus on the bassist and the drummer. Drums and backing vocals are covered by Sam Walker, better known as front man of The Muel, who we haven’t written about nearly enough this year. Bassist (and musical director for the current live show) is Brightonian Jim Mortimore, who’s also in Moulettes, and in The Muel with Sam. What makes Jim’s role in the band especially interesting is that his dad Malcolm has also featured in Arthur Brown’s band over the years. It’s the youth and vitality of the backing band which elevate the show above so many bands on the heritage circuit – there’s no decades-old politics or history between the members, so they can just get on with playing fantastic music, covering some of the songs that Arthur’s famous for, including Death Grips, which he tells the audience has been attributed the credit of the birth of heavy metal despite the original recording didn’t feature any guitars, as well as a full hour of psychedelic garage rock. Arthur Brown is still pretty youthful too, for a seventy year old. He’s still got an amazing voice, and he’s still dancing around the stage, flanked by his band and by flamenco dancers which add to the visual element of the show. There’s no flaming helmet tonight, but that’s probably due to the low ceilings in the Komedia. We don’t want to see Dukes at Komedia burning down before it’s even opened do we?

Arthur Brown

Oui Love tour / Omega Male

Posted on 21/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Oui Love is a platform for French bands to get more exposure in the UK. What are we doing bringing them up on a blog all about bands from Brighton, I hear you ask? We’ll get to that later…

Yan Wagner

Oui Love started a few years ago, and as well as bringing bands to tour the UK, it’s also brought them over to festivals, becoming a regular feature at The Great Escape. Last night, with Melting Vinyl, four bands played under the Oui Love banner – three French and one linked to Brighton (see – I can write about the night here!).

Jupiter

I arrived as Yan Wagner was onstage, playing lush electro. The synths said New Order, but the vocals were more brooding. Next up, Jupiter took to the stage. The three piece had a great pop sensibility, with coquettish female vocals over songs which drew from the great French House tradition. Definitely ones to watch, for sure. Headliners Juveniles struggled for a while with some kind of short circuit which pulled the power on their equipment after a couple of bars, and the time taken to fix it ate into their set meaning they only got to play a few songs. What they did play was fantastic though. Loud exuberant live house, with clattering drums and rich bubbling synths. If only they could have played for longer.

Omega Male

That’s enough about French bands though. This is Brighton Music Blog after all. The reason we went along to the evening was to see the evening’s third act – Omega Male, who released their debut album last week. Half of Omega Male is David Best from Brighton’s Fujiya & Miyagi. When I found out that David Best was working with Omega Male and that Matt Hainsby was working on his own I Am Ampersand project, I feared that maybe we wouldn’t hear from Fujiya & Miyagi again, but seeing the rest of the band in the audience has put those ideas to rest. Omega Male’s live setup has Best on vocals and guitars, and Project Jenny Project Jan’s Sammy Rubin on keyboards and backing vocals. I sensed a certain nervousness – maybe it was because it’s one of the band’s first ever gigs, maybe it was the home crowd, or maybe it was because he didn’t have the safety of the band that he’s been playing with for over ten years – but there was no talking inbetween songs, and many were performed with eyes closed. The set followed a different arc from the album – where the record closes with the serene beauty of Buildings Like Symphonies, this was thrown in quite early into the set which built up to bigger, more up tempo songs later on, which made sense for what was predominantly an evening of dance music. Live, they don’t match up to Fujiya & Miyagi just yet, but I have no doubt they can achieve it in time – All they need is a bit more stage presence, and maybe a huge closing track they can jam out to, like Best’s other band have with Electro Karaoke.

The Oui Love winter tour heads to The Shacklewell Arms in London tonight, and then onto the Soup Kitchen in Manchester on Thursday. Omega Male only performed at the Brighton leg of the tour.

Catherine Ireton / Treasure Tracks #4

Posted on 20/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

This Saturday saw Catherine Ireton’s fourth and final Treasure Tracks gig. Her previous mystery excursions have involved a little bit of a hunt, but this time around we really were sent on a wild goose chase, not only to get hold of tickets but also to get to the final location.

The first clue was a picture posted online of the red phone boxes on Trafalgar Street, with a number to dial. I went to the phone boxes – one was out of order, the other only accepted credit cards, neither smelled great. I stepped out into the fresh air to dial the number only to get a recorded message telling me to look up for the first clue. That sent me off to one of two record shops to hunt down a Prince album which contained the next clue. The onto Resident where the final clue could be exchanged for a ticket to the gig, which just told me to turn up to the George IV statue at 8.15 on Friday night…

Fast forward to a cold drizzly night, and a group of around twenty or thirty people congregate near the North End of Pavilion Gardens. The event was put on in conjunction with Source New Music, and Bex – who introduces their regular evenings (and does all the hard work pulling most of it together) – popped up to lead us to the location of the concert. Through the stage door round the back of the Dome, down some stairs and through some 17th century tunnels (which now lead off to dressing rooms). Then back up some stairs, past a rarely used museum entrance, and somehow into the bar at the Dome, where we stop off to buy a drink before being led through the Corn Exchange and into their foyer area where a stage had been set up and Catherine and her two accompanying musicians were waiting.

It was only a few weeks ago that we saw Catherine play a full gig at the Green Door Store. All of her treasure tracks gigs have felt a little bit more special than that, playing to friends rather than an audience, to people who are willing to make that little bit extra effort to find out about the gig, and consequently Catherine was a little more relaxed. The songs were the same, but they benefited from the intimacy. The set included all of the Treasure Tracks given away so far – Synapses, given away after the Booth Museum gig, Invisibility Disguise, from the Brighton Model Railway club gig, and Pieces of You from her webcast – as well as a selection other tracks, culminating in the last track that was sent through – This One’s Gonna Make Me Some Money – tying in nicely with the gig being held in the Corn Exchange.

Although this was the last Treasure Tracks gig, there are more plans for interesting gigs in intimate locations. Keep your eyes peeled for something in the Theatre Royal in the new year…

Martin Rossiter / Drop Anchor

Posted on 20/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Later this week, I’ll be writing a review of the new Martin Rossiter album, The Defenstration of Saint Martin. I’ll mention what a glorious return it is for the ex-Gene frontman (who’s now based in Brighton, obviously). I’ll note how there’s obviously been a lot of pain in Martin’s life, and comment on just how eloquently this is put across in the ten minute opener Three Points on a Compass. I’ll note how the instrumentation – just voice and piano – makes it both simple and powerful. And I’ll feel slightly daunted about putting some words together when my command of the English language isn’t a patch on his.

In the meantime, here’s a video of one of the standout tracks from the album – Drop Anchor:

British Sea Power / From The Sea to the Land Beyond

Posted on 18/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

If you missed British Sea Power at the Duke of Yorks on Friday Night providing a live soundtrack to From The Sea to the Land Beyond then fear not, because the film itself is being shown on BBC4 at 9pm tonight (Sunday 19th November), and also on Wednesday at 00:00 (which is actually late on tuesday night).

From the Sea to the Land Beyond is a film about the British coast made from 100 years of our film heritage stored in the British Film Institute collection, edited by Penny Woolcock with a soundtrack by British Sea Power.

I didn’t make it down on Friday, and haven’t seen the film yet, but with a title like that, the soundtrack just has to include British Sea Power’s track To The Land Beyond:

http://www.landbeyond.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/FromTheSeaToTheLandBeyond

Weekend gig picks

Posted on 15/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

We thought it would be worth posting up a few of this weekend’s gigs, since there’s so many great ones going on (and so many that we won’t be able to get to, but want to make sure you know about them). Tonight, Restlesslist play a set at the Prince Albert of their first new stuff that they’ve put together since the brilliant Coral Island Girl which they’ve been playing all yeat. Over the road at the Green Door Store, Ninja Tune’s Grasscut are playing a homecoming gig, and out in Hanover, The Bobby McGees are bound to entertain at the Horse & Groom. Meanwhile, The Resonators will be playing tracks from their new album The Constant at the Blind Tiger.

Tomorrow, our friends over at Some Of It Is True are hosting Bellman at the Palmeira, and Flash Bang Band are supporting. Cupboard Music are hosting a night called Hey! Fever at the Green Door Store, with Speak Galactic and Soft Arrows on the bill, and British Sea Power are playing a live soundtrack to a new film called From The Sea To The Land Beyond at Duke of Yorks.

Then on Saturday, Catherine Ireton plays her final Treasure Tracks 4 in association with Source New Music. Who knows exactly where that’s going to be! Our final pick of the weekend is Anneka who’s supporting Plaid at the Concorde 2.

Here’s to a great weekend of live music!

Omega Male / I Am Ampersand

Posted on 11/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It’s been nearly two years since the last Fujiya & Miyagi album Ventriloquizzing came out, so we’re about due another one. As it happens, we’ve got two. Or maybe none. Confused yet?

The next couple of weeks sees the release of Grave Goods by I Am Ampersand and the eponymously titled Omega Male. I Am Ampersand is the solo project by Matt Hainsby, Fujiya & Miyagi’s bass player and Ampersand. Omega Male is a collaboration between David Best and Project Jenny Project Jan’s Sammy Rubin.

Both albums start off sounding like they could be Fujiya & Miyagi’s own work. Omega Male, the opening track of the Omega Male album Omega Male (sorry, I couldn’t resist) reuses a technique David Best used on Ankle Injuries, repeatedly slipping in parts of the band name into the lyrics. The vocal style is unmistakeable and the track sounds like Fujiya and Miyagi with a heavy dose of electronics. I am Ampersand’s opener Lights and Radios also showcases Matt Hainsby’s contribution to Fujiya & Miyagi, with a bit rolling bassline and fizzing analogue electronics at the end. After the openers, the albums take on their own distinct personalities.

There are several options for you if you’re in a band but you want to pursue a side project – you could take what you do in the band and see how that works with other musicians, or you could use the opportunity of being free from the band’s style to do something rather different, and the two albums here show both those choices.

Fujiya & Miyagi and Project Jenny Project Jan have collaborated in the past, touring together and making the track Pins & Needles which appeared on Project Jenny Project Jan’s Colors EP back in 2009, so it’s no great surprise to see David Best working with Sammy Rubin again. David Best’s trademark vocals, emphasising each syllable (there’s a track about saying sorry called Uh-Pol-Uh-Jet-Ik), make the album sound very familiar to those who know Fujiya & Miyagi, and work well combined with Sammy Rubin’s electronica. It’s not a dance album though – You Bore Me To Tears revels in Serge Gainsbourg’s long shadow, and the album’s closing track. Buildings Like Symphonies, is probably the most beautiful song I’ve heard this year. An 8-bit electronic melody opens things sounding like digital birdsong. A simple string line starts at the same time as Best’s hopeful lament. Over a verse or two, the strings build, joined by subtle horns. Halfway through a loose drumbeat kicks off, the strings are soaring, and you truly believe Best when he sings that “Rumours were circulating / that we could build / Buildings Like Symphonies”. It’s the magical chemistry that makes tracks like Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack or Gorecki by Lamb the classics that they are. Breathtaking.

I Am Ampersand also has another of my favourite tracks of the year on it – 20 Seas 4 Oceans has received heavy rotation in these parts since it received an ultra limited release on 7″ earlier this year. I was enjoying it for the music, sounding a little bit like an acoustic country-folk take on Spirit In The Sky, not paying nearly enough attention to the lyrics which, now I’ve read the press blurb, I can hear are all about the song’s narrator being a Merman living in a city wanting to return to the sea. Obviously. The rest of Grave Goods is lovely pastoral psychedelic folk-pop, at times sounding like some of Gruff Rhys’ quieter moments, never losing it’s edge and lapsing into something “nice”. Fujiya & Miyagi loom large on Eko, an uptempo instrumental midway through the album, and then it’s back to the wonky pop on the first proper single Holding The Negative Up To The Light. The album closes with the title track Grave Goods – the archaelogical term for possessions buried with bodies. Three and a half minutes of country twang ruminating on life and death, and everything you accumulate inbeween. A fitting close.

Omega Male by Omega Male is released on Full Time Hobby on 12th November, and play at the Blind Tiger on Tuesday 20th November as part of Melting Vinyl’s Oui Love night.

Grave Goods by I Am Ampersand is released on Great Pop Supplement on 19th November.

Jennifer Left / Diggory single Launch

Posted on 10/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Last thursday night, The Blind Tiger was the place to be in town as the great and the good of Brighton crowded in for the launch of Jennifer Left’s new single Diggory. Spotted amongst the crowd were other local artists, producers, record label bosses, magazine editors and photographers. Not bad for a chilly November evening.

The May Birds

Support came from The May Birds, one of the latest bands to pass through Tim Bidwell’s Clockwork Owl studio. Despite missing their piano player, a beautiful sound came from the stage – lovely harmonies and lush arrangements. I look forward to hearing their EP once Tim’s finished working his magic. If only the crowd had appreciated them a bit more though – In my opinion, the level of background chat was quite insulting. It might have been people not paying too much attention to the support band, or the acoustics in the Blind Tiger, or the May Birds being quite quiet, but if you’re at a gig have a bit of respect, eh? It’s not just me that thinks it’s bad manners – it was top of the list on the Source’s recent Gig Charter.

Jennifer Left

I mentioned last time I saw Jennifer Left that she’s had a bit of a transformation of late into more of a pop star. It could be the sharp bob haircut she now sports, or the more extravagant stagewear, or just the confidence from having your songs played on the radio, but whatever it is, she continues to get better and better. There’s more communication with the audience, there’s less fiddling between songs, the musicianship seems slicker – again, it’s not just a single thing that you can put your finger on that’s improved. The set opened with their first single Black Dog, and rattled through a whole load of tracks which will end up on the upcoming album Hushabye as well as their gorgeous Bossa Nova version of New Order’s Temptation. The cover is one of the b-sides to Diggory, which the band closed their set with.

You can buy Diggory over on iTunes or Bandcamp.

Saint Etienne / Casino Classics

Posted on 08/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Despite appearances, 1996 was a good year for Saint Etienne. Although it was two years since Tiger Bay came out and another two years before they would release Good Humor they weren’t resting on their laurels. I would regularly see them DJing at the Heavenly Jukebox at Turnmills, alongside the likes of The Chemical Brothers. It seems kind of crazy to think that you could go clubbing where the Chemical Brothers were residents, but remember that Dig Your Own Hole didn’t come until 1997. If it wasn’t the Chemical Brothers headlining the night, it would be David Holmes, or Richard Fearless from Death in Vegas, or Jon Carter from Monkey Mafia, or Andy Weatherall. Only in retrospect can I see just how stellar the line ups were.

Saint Etienne have had one foot in the charts and the other on the dancefloor ever since Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley decided to cover a Neil Young song because they hadn’t yet written any songs of their own. The 7″ version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a Balearic classic, but Andrew Weatherall’s Mix of Two Halves (a nod to the fact that Saint Etienne are named after the football team rather than the French town) was the first of dozens and dozens of remixes which were as good, if not better than the original.

In 1995 the limited edition run of Saint Etienne’s first best of, Too Young To Die, came with a bonus disc of remixes which went down a storm. The following year this bonus disc got a full release with an extra cd. Casino Classics hit the shelves and featured remixes by The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Way Out West, Underworld, Monkey Mafia and Death in Vegas. Where the first disc was previously released mixes, the tracks on disc two were brand new unreleased remixes. Some were remixes of tracks that hadn’t even been released, and tucked at the end of the compilation was a remix by Broadcast, who at the time had only put out one EP and had yet to sign to Warp records.

Over the past three years, Saint Etienne have slowly been reissuing remasters of all of their old albums, and it’s now Casino Classic’s turn. Where each previous reissue has included an extra disc of material, the deluxe reissue of Casino Classics comes with two discs of additional material covering some of the best remixes since the original release all the way through to the release of London Conversations – the remastered Greatest Hits which kicked off the reissues. On the new version we’ve gained remixes of tracks by the likes of Paul Van Dyk, Faze Action, Tiesto, Aim, Add N to X and Hybrid, as well as US-only remixes of Only Love Can Break Your Heart and Nothing Can Stop Us by Masters at Work. There’s also some more remixes from the older days which weren’t included on the original Casino Classics including Pete Heller’s piano house take on Kiss and Make Up which only ever came out on 12″ over twenty years ago. Completing the circle, things finish with their Cola boy remix of The Method of Modern Love – the last single from the period covered. Cola Boy was another project that Pete and Bob were involved with in the early days of Saint Etienne, who only released two singles in 1991.

It’s hard to know where to start with recommending tracks from this compilation. I’ve already mentioned the Andrew Weatherall remix of Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and the Broadcast take on Angel. David Holmes remixed Like a Motorway before he got the funk, and is an amazing thirteen minute acid-techno wig out. The Monkey Mafia remix of Filthy is a big beat classic. The Faze Action mix of Sylvie is ten minutes of brilliant Latin house. Cool Kids of Death mixed by Underworld has been slimmed down by four minutes from the original to be able to fit more tracks in, but you still get more ten minutes of it. Their foray into drum’n’bass – when PFM remixed Down By The Sea is also reduced by half, but across the four cds (and the bonus downloads), you get a monster 54 tracks. It’s astonishing for any band to have that many remixes in the first place, let alone so many over so many years of such consistently high quality.

Casino Classics is out on Monday 12th November. On the same day, there’s also a deluxe reissue of Sarah Cracknell’s solo album Lipslide. Saint Etienne get a mention because Pete’s a Hove resident these days, but since Sarah isn’t a Brightonian I won’t be writing about what a great single Anymore was, or about how Summer Song (previously issued as a Saint Etienne song on the fan club only Boxette) is one of the absolute very best things to have come from the Saint Etienne camp, or about the mystery of multiple inclusions of some songs at the expense of the lilting acoustic bossa nova of b-side Oh Boy The Feeling When You Held My Hand (which you can buy as an mp3 from Amazon here). Oh wait, hang on…

Saint Etienne play the Concorde 2 on 13th December

Four Videos – Jennifer Left, Abi Wade, Fear of Men, Curxes

Posted on 06/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s four videos to keep you entertained. Two for new songs, two for some not so new songs. Jennifer Left and Abi Wade released their new singles yesterday (and Jennifer Left is having a launch party for hers at the Blind Tiger on Thursday). Mosaic by Fear of Men and Spectre by Curxes both came out earlier in the year, but the videos have only just appeared:

Jennifer Left / Diggory (itunes link)

Abi Wade / Heavy Heart (itunes link)

Fear of Men / Mosaic (Resident link)

Curxes / Spectre (itunes link)