This review of this months second Source New Music Night I’m afraid to say isn’t up my own personal standards. Normally I do my best to write about all of the bands on the bill (if they’re from Brighton), but I’m just going to focus on Restlesslist for this write up, so I apologise to Oliver Welby, Them The Sky and Phoria. I’ve been sick with a cold this week which, meant I was lethargic and slow, which led to me arriving late to the evening, which led to me missing a big chunk of the proceedings, and then when I did arrive I bumped into quite a few people I know, which was great but meant I wasn’t giving the attention I should have to the musicians that were onstage. And then at the end of the evening Restlesslist played their album Coral Island Girl in full, and it’s going to take something incredibly special from any band to stand up to comparison to that.
I’ve raved about Restlesslist before. The blew me away when I first saw them at Sea Monsters back in January, and then confirmed all of my expectations when I went to their album launch in September at the Haunt. There are so many individual elements to love and yet the sum is greater than the whole. One of the first things that strikes you is the music. It’s not just that they skip around genres, it’s that they don’t it clumsily, with the transitions being aided by Mark Campbell’s narration of the story. And what a story – I’ve listened to the cd over and over since I got hold of it, and it still makes me smile. Then there’s the light show provided by InnerStrings, a little bit trippy, a little bit retro and one more thing that make the band so compelling to watch.
The key thing for me though is that fact they’re all loving being stage so much : You can see that all of the band (I counted nine onstage on thursday) love all of the music that they’re playing. You can see the affection for the influences in all of the songs, and for their fellow bandmates. You can see that it matters to them to put together something that gives them the opportunity to share the things they love – so much music, as well as their friendship with each other – with the wider world, having a great time while doing it.
You can listen to Coral Island Girl in full on Soundcloud:
One of the phrases we seem to be writing almost as often as “Brighton Music Blog” these days is “produced by Tim Bidwell”. He’s had a great year, working with a lot of our favourite local acts – Jennifer Left, Cate Ferris, House of Hats… We thought it was about time he got a bit more credit, so we popped round for a cuppa a few weeks ago to find out to find out how he got to where he is and the bands that he’s worked with.
Around ten years ago, Tim was half of dance act Hardkandy. They released a few albums to critical acclaim but there was a nagging feeling that some of their fellow Brighton peers – the likes of Will Quantic and Si Bonobo – were getting some of the fame that they deserved. Even when he was making dance music, Tim was into his folk, and in 2006 formed the Folklaw label with Fin Greenall, known to fans of Ninja Tune as Fink, and Elliot Richards. The first album Tim produced for someone else was the The Gin Club by Nikolas Barrell, released by Folklaw in March 2007, and around that time Elliot spotted Kate Walsh playing in a pub in Brighton. The resulting number one album, Tim’s House, ended up being self released rather than coming out on Folklaw but kick started Tim’s career as a producer.
“When I first met Cate Ferris, I was a bit terrified of just how talented she is. With her EP, I produced it, but I didn’t really, it was Cate just playing around in the studio and me giving her the space to play around and just capturing her because she’s so full of energy and musically talented. I’d seen of her is doing stuff with the loop pedal on YouTube, so I got in touch with her and asked if she wanted to talk about working with me.
She’s got an amazing voice and she’s a good songwriter, and she’s doing great things and working with great people. For the EP she wanted to experiment with more different things in the studio and get away from the whole loop pedal thing.
She’s a lot like me, she’s quite a control freak musically. I’m not so much musically, but I am with projects, or giving a sound to something and I like giving a sound and working on the artwork even, for things and stuff like that. I like getting involved, whereas Cate’s a little bit of a genius.
“The Cordelia Gartside EP sounds beautiful. I’m really chuffed with it. Some of the best stuff I’ve done. I got some of the best players I know to play on it. We’ve got John Smith on guitar – he’s one of the best guitarists in the country and he loves Cordelia’s stuff. She’s off to college now, so she’s going to be writing away and hopefully we’ll be doing some more recording at Christmas when she comes back.
I’m really excited about Cordelia, she’s got a lot of potential and she’s a whole package, and she means what she does. She’s not interested in doing pop stuff, she’s really into Bon Iver and Laura Marling and people like that and she wants to be a credible artist. She’s not going to sell her soul to the pop devil, which is really refreshing.
I did the video for Fathoms’s Deep. She was so brave doing the stuff in the water. That STUNK! It was one of those peat lakes, so when she got in it, it just kicked up. I woke up the next morning and I was covered in bites. It was shot near Uckfield, some ancient woodland with a lake in the middle, it was beautiful. We got chavs throwing stones at us while were doing that which was a nightmare, but we got there in the end.
“House of Hats are great guys to work with. I’ve just recently finished their EP. which has just been released. That was a real labour of love – that took quite a while. They’re real perfectionists, especially with the vocals. They know what they like as well. I always like someone to take the lead vocal, but they wanted all the vocals at the same level. They all write the material, so it was difficult for me as a producer as well, because sometimes I wanted Al’s vocals to come out more, or Noddy’s vocals, because that’s just my instinct as a producer. That said, Rivers Will Run, the title track of the EP, is very much Al’s track. And Noddy sang on Home is Where the Heart is, and that’s beautiful, so there are a couple of tracks of theirs that have got that prominent vocal.
As well as all of the other production work that Tim’s done this year, his big project has been with Jennifer Left, co-writing and producing her forthcoming album Hushabye. He originally approached her about working on a solo project back in the days when she sung and played bass in Gloria Cycles, and things have finally come to fruition this year.
“Hushabye was all recorded here. I co-wrote it with Jen and a guy called Ewan Wallace. That took over a year to record, just taking our time. It was nice to write again actually. Both of them very talented and it was nice to do that. I’ve been producing for so long you don’t really get to write any more. It was nice to give Jen a sound too. Jen gave us a list of influences and we sort of forged the sound. To be honest the eleven tracks on the album were the first eleven tracks we did. A lot of people you have to write ten tracks to get one good one, but we were just quite pleasantly surprised by how it all came together. Obviously there was a couple of duff ones here and there that we got rid of, but overall we were really chuffed how it all came together. And it was that thing of giving her a sound that was kind of new but then sort of had elements of the Beatles, Django Rheinhardt, swing and jazz elements, but there’s also Grizzly Bear stuff and weird little elements here and there that just make it a little bit different with Jen’s voice. She’s mad as a box of frogs though!
Diggory is released on 5th November, and is backed with a couple of remixes as well as Jennifer’s gorgeous take on New Order’s Temptation:
The launch party is at the Blind Tiger on 8th November, where Jennifer Left is supported by The Maybirds – another band produced by Tim!
Cate Ferris and House of Hats EPs are out now, and Cordelia Gartside’s EP will hopefully be out before the end of the year.
We mentioned last week that yesterday saw the Oxjam Brighton Takeover taking place across town. As promised we went to report from the newly renamed Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.
Minor Sounds
It was a bit of a quiet start for Minor Sounds. Who knows whether this was a reflection on the weather, the fact that there’s so much on, the Sunday night effect, or the fact that we’re spoiled in Brighton by so many free gigs, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more support. It’s a real shame because Minor Sounds set was quite a joy to hear. The band make a kind of amplified folk, and played a set mostly from The Humming – their album which came out earlier this year – as well as a few new songs, which pointed to a more experimental direction for the band, with a lot more atmospherics going on.
Curxes
As much as I enjoyed the headliners, it was second band Curxes who stole the show for me. We’ve featured their two singles Spectre and Gold this year on the blog, which they opened and closed their set with. In between we were treated to a confident set of industrial electro pop, sounding like a female fronted mid-period Depeche Mode. I’ve managed to miss Curxes every time they’ve played this year before now, and didn’t disappoint when I finally did see them. They’re back on stage again next week, supporting Nordic Giants at their “Danger De Mort” gig at the Green Door Store, where you’ll get another chance to hear the band and see what Roberta described as her “Nan on acid” dancing.
P for Persia
It seems like only a few weeks since P For Persia were onstage at a Source New Music night. That’s mainly because it has only been a few weeks – when P for Persia played on the Beatabet hosted night back in September. They were great then, and they were great last night, playing angular wonky synth punk, combined with with some of Beatabet’s cartoon visual projections. Daniel McNally is one of Brighton’s most compelling frontmen, and I challenge anyone not to enjoy themselves at a P for Persia gig.
Source New Music is back again this Thursday, headlined by the brilliant Restlesslist, who will be performing their album Coral Island Girl in full. Support comes from Phoria, Them The Sky and Oliver Welby.
So, you’ve finished with Oxjam and the mass of musical fun this past week? Wondering where the next great sounds are coming from? Look no further because hurrah, this Friday, Laish are back in town.
Laish playing at The Haunt, Brighton
Daniel Green’s band have just completed a European tour and are now on a short home country trek, stopping off at the Hope on Queen’s Road, this Friday 26th October.
They’ll be supported by Maia – a 4-piece alt- folk band from Huddlesfield who have supported the Low Anthem, Anais Mitchell and the Unthanks, as well as playing the Cambridge Folk Festival and No Direction Home – a mix of gigs which pretty well describes their sound.
They’ve also got Nick Edward Harris on the bill, and having seen him support Emma Gatrill (also a Laish band member) at her album launch earlier this year I would highly recommend you get their early to experience his amazing intricate rhythmic guitar playing which is out of this world.
Laish, in case you didn’t know, come out of the excellent Willkommen Collective. Dan plays drums for Sons of Noel and Adrian when he’s not penning some of the most charming, honest and authentic songs to have come out of Brighton or anywhere for many a year. Their first album was released a couple of years ago, and was one of our records of the year – Mojo magazine termed it “Beguiling songs of love”, Line of Best fit “Clever and accomplished”. An excellent EP ‘Obituaries‘ came out earlier this year and a second album is now in the can and this blog for one can’t wait.
Listen to the title track from the Obituaries EP here
Before we head out to the Dome Studio bar for the Oxjam Brighton Takeover tonight, here’s a few bits and pieces for you to listen to and watch.
We mentioned Al Chamberlain’s Train Song in our review of september’s Bleeding Hearts Club, and since then it’s turned up as a free download on Soundcloud. Go and grab it now – it’s one of my favourite tracks of the year.
Next is a new video by Omega Male, half of whom is Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best. Take a look at Testosterone here:
Then we have Ital Tek with the eponymous title track from their new album Nebula Dance, which comes out tomorrow:
Finally, we have beautiful, trippy video Ayla by the Maccabees
Yesterday Fear of Men played the Brighton launch of their new single Mosaic at the Green Door Store, at an event put on by Be Nothing called HappyFest. It was an all dayer, and loads of other bands played – The Hundredth Anniversary, Feature, Wild Cat Strike, Flamingods, Furrow, Lovepark, Female Band, and Shudder Pulps. We could only make it for the end of end of the night and caught Boston’s Female Band and the headliners. Fear of Men make a point of not playing too frequently, making their live gigs more of an event, but have broken cover for their new single – which you can buy on 7″ from Resident here. I could tell you how much I enjoyed them live, how great the performance was, how their collection of releases so far sound like a really sold set of songs, how I can’t wait to hear the new stuff that they’ve been holed away writing this year, but rather than all that, here’s a few shots from their set (click on the pics to view large):
There’s some sad news for anyone who was thinking of heading over to Middle Farm this weekend for Applefest. Because of all the rain that we’ve had, and all of the rain that’s forecast over the next few days, they’ve decided to cancel this year’s festival. There’s a full statement on the Middle Farm Website.
Don’t despair though, because there’s still plenty of music to be had this weekend (albeit with less cider, but this is a music blog, not a alochol blog). Oxjam is still taking place this weekend all over town, and they’re reducing the wristband ticket price to £6 and will now be selling tickets to individual venues too. It’ll cost three pounds to get into the Dome Studio, The Hope or the Unitarian Church, and two pounds to get into White Rabbit, Mash Tun or Riki Tiks. Full line up details and further info can be found over on the Facebook event.
I’ll admit that I’m a little bit behind the curve when it comes to writing about the new Bat For Lashes album, The Haunted Man. It’s garnered fantastic reviews across the board, and today a brilliant feature got put up on Pitchfork, which as well as being a deeply insightful interview with some stunning photography, also felt like a who new way of using the internet.
I can’t match anything that’s been put up, but what I an do is collect some of the best bits and pieces together and share them with you all. First and foremost is the Pitchfork article. Make sure you scroll down rather than paging down, or you’ll miss most of the photos.
The music press has been very kind to the album. The Line of Best Fit gave it nine out of ten, and NME gave it eight out of ten. It got a good write up from Drowned in Sound too, but they don’t give ratings.
It also did well in the rest of the press, with the Independent making it their cd of the week. The Guardian gave it four out of five, and the Telegraph and the Observer weren’t quite so effusive both giving it three out of five.
Bat for Lashes plays Brighton Dome on Sunday 4th November.
Something I’ve been meaning to write about this month is the Oxjam Brighton Takeover. Every October (well, every October for the past four years at least), loads of gigs are put on all over town, featuring local bands, raising money for Oxfam. There’s been a few gigs already, but the big night is this Sunday, when you can buy a wristband for a mere eight pounds and get access to six venues, each hosted by some familiar names.
Meanwhile, from 3.30pm at the Unitarian Church, BN1 Magazine bring you Wide Eyed Order, Unsung Lilly, 900 Spaces, Ellen & The Echo and The Move-Ons.
Also from 3.30, the Hope are working with Under The Bridge Studios (who are a few arches up from the Green Door Store). They’ve got a monster bill with Fragile Creatures, Hot Fiction, Oh! My Head, Running Dogs, Half Crown, Sweet Jonny, Ivy King, Devil In Detail, and Justin Alfonso playing.
Sound Screen are running the show at Riki Tiks from around 6pm, with Pact, Cave Man Genius, Alphabets Heaven, Amongst The Pigeons, Atlantiks, and Platypi.
Concrete Jungle are also running things from mid-afternoon, kicking off at 3.30 at the Mash Tun, with King Mews, Concrete Jungle, Early Ghost, Ross Pike’s The Courty Love, Hideous Bitches, and Peter Clough.
Then at the White Rabbit, Hush Hush are providing the entertainment with Chuck SJ Hay, Hope Rudd, Rought Citizen, Rotait, Verity Sessions, Tom Hughes, Bella Kardasis, Zoe Hazel Hedderwick, and Lisha Tole.
BUT WAIT – that’s not all. After all the other venues wind down, Riki Tiks are hosting the afterparty with Showdown. Phew!
Well, that was officially the loudest acoustic gig that we’ve ever been to. Acoustic very rarely means acoustic these days, and everything at The Hope last night was plugged in and turned up to eleven, even though the instruments involved were acoustic guitars, strings and an autoharp.
Heliopause
First up were Heliopause, playing their first proper gig since May. Since then, their numbers have reduced and the band now just consists of Rich Davis and his laptop (although he’s hoping to boost the numbers by the end of the year). His short but loud set – thank goodness for ear plugs – comprised mainly of songs this year’s Lumo Tape album, a little more stripped down perhaps than other outings, but not suffering for it. The opening support slot came up as a competition run by Mice Parade along with their label Fat Cat. The label tells me that it was a pretty close run thing to choose between the entries, and that their second choice was excellent as well, but that Heliopause had the edge, being a bit more appropriate for the other bands on the bill.
Do You Feel What I Feel Deer
The second Brighton band were Do You Feel What I Feel Deer, whose single Save My Heart we wrote about last month. Before the gig I was concerned that one of the things that makes them so special might get lost if they played as a duo. Thankfully, they brought along a string section with them (well, two violins and a cello), and they were able to share the beautiful arrangements which make them more than just another folk duo. Vocals were shared evenly between Rachel and Eleanor, sometimes swapping the lead line mid-song, and the songs themselves are beautiful – otherworldly folk with close harmonies and instrumentation to die for.
Mice Parade
Headliners Mice Parade aren’t from Brighton, or even from Britain, but they are signed to Brighton based label Fat Cat. They’re touring their new album Candela as an acoustic trio, and main man Adam Pierce brought along two fantastic musicians along with him, a scandinavian ukelele player, and Dan Lippel – one of the finest classical guitar players I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live. Together, the sound they made was something beautiful. Thoroughly recommended.
Do You Feel What I Feel Deer are playing tomorrow night at Bombanes, and are supporting Mary Hampton at the Hanover Centre on 10th November. Heliopause support NZCA/LINES at the Green Door Store this thursday.
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