January Top Ten

Posted on 02/02/2015 by brightonmusicblog

We didn’t do a top ten at the end of November. It had been a quiet month, and we were gearing up for our top twenty that we posted in December. Both months had a few great tunes that are too good to pass up though, so this month’s top ten has a few tracks from the end of last year too.

1 The Go! Team / The Scene Between

The Go! Team are back! Our top spot is the lead track from the band’s new album also called The Scene Between, out in March on Memphis Industries.

2 Anneka / End of It

End of It only features Anneka’s voice, but the layers and the textures and the harmonies demand repeat listens.

3 GAPS / She Bears a Flower

GAPS latest release came out right at the end of November last year sounding like some a futuristic remix of an Elizabethan childrens folk song.

4 Ambassadeurs / Forever

Forever is the lead track from Ambassadeurs latest EP out last month. Ambassadeurs play a gig at The Green Door Store at the end of the month, supported by Foreign Skin.

5 The Fiction Aisle / Blue

We liked Tom White’s new band’s first proper track so much that we got it into our end of the year round up, even though it hadn’t been in one of our top ten posts. Since we’re catching up on November here it would be wrong of us to omit it.

6 David Harks / Odyssey

We loved Open Arms, also taken from David Harks’ Lomo EP but shared much earlier in the year, as soon as we heard it but Odyssey was much more of a slow burner working it’s way under our skin until we couldn’t stop listening to it.

7 Tyrannosaurus Dead – Flying Ant Day

Tyrannosaurus Dead were the first band we ever interviewed on the blog, so it’s great to see their debut album (also called Flying Ant Day) finally released.

8 Seadog / Transmitter

Seadog’s Transmitter EP was launched at the end of December, while most of us were busy being distracted. The physical release is due in the springtime, but you can grab the EP now if you head over to Bandcamp.

9 Phantom Runners / Laserbeam

Laserbeam is a free download from Phantom Runnerscover on Soundcloud. Hanging out with Huey Morgan (who’s produced their last few tracks) is obviously rubbing off – this is the most laid back thing they’ve done.

10 Man Ray Sky / Ether Song

Finishing up with the title track from an EP from December, Ether Song is four minutes of breezy guitar pop.

GAPS at the Prince Albert photo gallery

Posted on 27/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Last night we braved the cold to head out to the Prince Albert where GAPS played a hometown gig following their recent mini tour. Since the last time we saw them they’ve gained some rather lovely visuals which meant they were standing in the dark – that we got any photos of the band was something of a miracle. They’ve also written an awful lot of new material too which has broadened their sound while still operating within the bands existing premise of folk + electronica, now taking in breakbeats and some trouser shaking bass. Support came folk troubadour Lloyd Williams who did some very clever things with a guitar, a banjo and a floor mounted accordion. Here’s our pics, click to view large:

Kristin McClement launches ‘the Wild Grips’

Posted on 26/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Kristin McClement launched her new album ‘The Wild Grips‘ on Saturday night in Brighton at the One Church on Gloucester Parade, the latest in a long line of incredible music from the Willkommen Records stable.

Support act Benjamin Benedict, a solo Ben Rubinsteain – lead singer with Mariner’s Children, had a bit of a cold which made his reverbed vocals sound a lot like one of those early 60s English pop singers favoured so much by the likes of Joe Meek. That was no bad thing. Supporting Willy Mason also seemed to rub off on Ben. He started off a bit snuffly and hesitant, but showed the strength of his songwriting and singing in the last three songs.

Benjamin Benedict

But this was really all about Kristin McClement, whose album ‘The Wild Grips‘ has been a long long time coming. Song ‘Planks’ was a highlight of the first Willkommen Collective compilation way back in 2009, but little McClement music had emerged since then, despite her regularly venturing forth to play live in a variety of formations, lately most commonly as a two-piece with drummer and backing vocalist Julian Owens. Now her long-awaited debut is out in the world, recorded with Christian Hardy of the Leisure Society who featured on keyboards here in an expanded live band.

Kristin McClement

McClement’s set began with her solo, playing the beautiful mournful ‘Mouthful of Shells’, then she was joined by drummer Owens for ‘Planks’, another stunning song. This is the mainstay of her live performances in normal times, but for the remainder of the set her stage support grew to feature Christian Hardy, three quarters of Eyes and No Eyes as well as multi-instrumentalist Emma Gatrill and the aforementioned Owens, allowing the rich sounds of the album to be re-created live.

The ‘The Wild Grips’ is an extraordinary collection of mournful yet beautifully crafted and poetic songs, with McClement’s deep resonant voice dominant throughout. Songs like ‘Hoax of a Man’ and the aforementioned ‘Mouthful of Shells’ are particular favourites, but the whole work is genuinely quite special. There’s the lost princess spirit of the alt-folk heroine Sibylle Baier in the intimate cool of the songs, but enriched with the talents of the Willkommen collective the musical depth of the playing comes into finer focus. Julian Owen’s percussion and backing vocals are particularly noteworthy, as was the playing of the gritty soulful celloist Becca Mears.

The main set ended with the Drink Waltz {‘Drink with me’) in which the audience were asked to join in the poignant chorus, not easy given the awkward flow of the words but achieved with aplomb. Then the band returned for an encore of the album’s title-track , a deeply elegant and personal song. Perhaps not an obviously uplifting way to end a show, with its dark lyric, but the band lifted the gloom and filled the large Baptist church hall leaving the audience mesmerised and happy.

Kristin McClement

Listen to the opening track ‘Blackfin Gulls’ below

The album ‘The Wild Grips’ can be ordered via bandcamp at https://kristinmcclement.bandcamp.com/

New Music

Posted on 25/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Another week, another round of up new music for you all. First up is Laser Beam, the new single from Phantom Runners, which came from their sessions with Huey Morgan.

Last week Fear of Men posted up a video for their track America, from their album Loom, suitably filmed while they were on tour in America:

Lonely in Paradise is only the second track that I am L has put out there, but musically it sounds incredibly established, a bombastic ballad with Florence & The Machine style elements.

Seadog have a new EP out on Bleeding Hearts Recordings. Transmitter is the first track and also the name of the five track EP. The EP is out now as a download on bandcamp, with a 10″ coming in the spring.

We posted about the new The Go! Team track The Scene Between recently, but this week the video hit the internet. In Ian Parton’s own words “[I was] imagining things like aerial fly-bys, bad chromakey, Waco cable access, country versus the city, a choir in the wilderness. The key thing was I was definitely imagining looking down on landscapes, rivers and forests, but I could hear a slightly menacing, kind of pagan, thing going on too and a definite schizo thing between the verse and the chorus.”

Memory Loop have collaborated with Eva Bowan on a piece of electronica called 5115. Things start out quite ambient, but around the halfway mark the skittering beats kick in.

Around this time last year The Hundredth Anniversary did a session for indie website Daytrotter. You have to sign up to their website to listen to the sessions, but the band have put up Caroline from the session up as a free download on their soundcloud page:

ARC have just put out their debut EP Dopamine. Dopamine is track two EP, with track one being the jauntier 1664 Water, which we’re hoping is an ode to Kronenbourg.

Last but by no means least is some new music from Nightkites who put out a great EP last year called Drones. They’re back with another EP, this time called Drones 2, which is also a free download over on Soundcloud. Here’s track three – Dusk:

Album news – Will Mussett / November Storm

Posted on 19/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

News has reached Brighton Music Blog of local singer songwriter Will Mussett‘s debut album. November Storm will be released on 31st January digitally and on cd via BBrat Recordings and has been produced by fellow Brightonian Alex Wells. While the bulk of the album was written by Will there are also some collaborations from heavy hitters from the music industry – 40,000 feet was co-written with Jim Irvin (who’s worked with Lana Del Rey and Chloe Howl) and John Fortis (who’s worked with Paolo Nutini and Laura Marling) helped out with In Loving Memory. You can take a listen to the title track below:

The album launch is at the Green Door Store on 31st January. Head over to the Facebook event for a link to buy cheap advance tickets

Sputnik – an evening of intergalactic sounds

Posted on 18/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Saturday night in Brighton and we were getting our groove on at the Green Door Store for a free-entry night of “intergalactic sounds inspired by outer space” with four local dance-oriented acts, headlined by the legendary psych-rockers Cloud playing what I was told was rumoured to be the opening and closing night of their 2015 World stadium tour.

Opening act NJ Strange has been messing around with software and technology-based sound for around quarter of a century and laid down some smooth sounds to introduce the evening.

Second on was the electro-dance mix-meister Peter J Mason who is one half of the electro-pop high-drama-duo Becky Becky as well as re-mixer for the likes of Button Eyes, Woodpecker Wooliams and various Fence Collective acts. His high-powered hi-energy set played under the new name JOTA really got the joint moving, and well-deserved the hearty round of applause.

Third act INVADR comprised electronics-wizard Matt Garland who had programmed software to project a space-inspired light-show that was triggered by the different aspects of his 1970s synthesiser-driven dance set. It felt a bit Kraftwerk and a bit Jean-Michelle Jarre.

Finally, headliners CLOUD are a bit of a supergroup comprising a movable feast of players from the Brighton music scene past and present. Whilst guitar-based, the group include synths, electro-violin and a guest appearance on flute by Woodpecker Woolliams. The band are infrequent visitors to the stage these days but when they play live their thing is an improvised barrage of psych-inspired rock, with a lot like Hawkwind at their grooviest. They were on very good form tonight and there was a lot of dancing going on amongst the enthusiastic audience. Hopefully we’ll be seeing another space-fuelled psych night like this again soon.

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Words and pictures by Jon Southcoasting

New Music

Posted on 12/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s our first new music post of 2015. We’ve kept receiving music over the Christmas break, including an incredible five emails from one band about a track we’d already featured in a new music post. Odd.

First up is the new single from Moulettes, the aptly titled Glorious Year, out today via the usual digital distribution channels, which comes with remixes from Jimthefingers (aka Moulettes bassist Jim Mortimore) and Modernaire – an old pseudonym of the band they used when they made dance music which has largely been inactive for the last five years:

Ambassadeurs new release came out last week. The Forever EP has been released on his own Lost Tribe label, and can listen to it below on Soundcloud:

Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster drummer Rob Ling has got a new project called Krak Krak, which he describes as like the White Stripes on crack. They have an upcoming EP coming out in February on Sonic Anhedonic in February, but as an introduction here’s a track called It Sleeps:

After we put Yumi & The Weather into our top twenty at the end of the year last year we were promised that there would be some new music soon, and today a new track called Be There appeared on Soundcloud. We don’t know much about the track, but we’ll keep you posted with any news:

Finally, from nowhere we have a mini album from Black Black Hills who we had thought were missing in action somewhere. The eponymous release collects together the bands several singles along side a few other unreleased tracks and is available on Bandcamp now:

grasshopper video and live news

Posted on 12/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

News has reached Brighton Music Blog HQ from the grasshopper camp. First up is a remix of Rico’s Revenge, taken from last year’s Circle Time EP. It’s been turned into a very cool slice of synth based krautrock by Def Stare artist Oban 2. Visuals in the video come from Innerstrings Light Show who have been making a whole load of Brighton’s gigs a lot more better looking for the last few years.

If you wanted to catch Grasshopper live (and trust us – you should), there’s two local gigs coming up. First up they’re playing at Northern Lights on Saturday, supporting Bleeding Hearts Recording signing Seadog. A little more impressively, they’ve also managed to grab a slot supporting The Charlatans who are playing at Worthing Pavilion on 15th March.

Album news : The Go! Team / The Scene Between

Posted on 06/01/2015 by brightonmusicblog

It might seem like we’ve been away for a little while, not posting anything since last year, but we haven’t been away for quite as long as The Go! Team, whose last album came out nearly four years ago. After a few teasers last year news has come out tonight of their new record The Scene Between due to hit the shops on 23rd March. You can take a listen to the album’s title track below, featuring a new vocalist but otherwise a very familiar Go! Team sound. You can pre-order the album now via the band’s website in various combinations of LP, CD, download and T-shirt combos. We’ll bring you more details of the album as we hear of it:

An alternative End of Year Brighton Top ten

Posted on 26/12/2014 by brightonmusicblog

As Rob has been meticulously drip-feeding his top twenty from 2014 into the blog over the last few weeks, I thought I’d provide an alternative listing just to show the diversity of our blogging tastes. That meant, no duplication with the Rob-o-Sphere, and so out went Curxes, Cate Ferris, Fear of Men, all of which were excellent in my book.

That left me with the following selections capturing ten (well, eleven) of the brilliant sounds and songs that emerged from our fair city over the last year in a shambling semblance/pretence of order:

1 Bentcousin – Dizzy

These terrible twins have been drip-feeding the cosmos with some ace songs, but this was the killer track for me released on a vinyl 7 inch and with some super Brighton-relevant rapping from Rory P.

2 yourgardenday – Something in the Music

A gorgeous plea for tolerance and harmony and a love of music, this had a limited release last year as lead track on Robin Coward’s Flat Stream EP, finally getting a full on-line release this summer.

3 Time for T – Free Hugs

An adorable band writing some adorable songs, this slunk of 70s soul has a great chorus and a charming video in which the band spend the whole song hugging Brighton people. Did I say it was adorable?

4 Sharon Lewis – Boxer’s Glove

Released right at the tail end of last year, this came from the Simple Things EP that accompanied Sharon’s excellent album, a melancholic tale of domestic violence, harsh but beautiful.

5 Fragile Creatures – Fragile Creatures

This band write some classic pop and none better than this – the self-named winner from their first EP which came out this summer.

6 Ellie Ford – Low

Singer-songwriter who had her debut EP re-released by Hidden Trail Records this year, from whence came this song, and also released an excellent covers EP. Ellie Ford is a singer who just gets better and better and her debut album should come out next year.

7 AK/DK – Maxwell’s Waves

This track comes from their album titled ‘Synth + Drums + Noise + Space’ which kind of sums up their sound without the excitement of their stunning live shows.

8 Slum of Legs – Razorblade the tape

This band are manic live, and their initial punky 7″ single on the Tuff Enuff label captures just half of this energy. This was the b-side.

9 Fiona Sally Miller – Lanterns

From one of three EPs released on the same day, this was one of the proper songs rather than the underwater experimental or live tracks, but like so much of Miller’s work it sounded magical.

=10 The Delta Bell – Wasted

Hiawatha Telephone Company – Dave

‘Wasted’ is a classic rambling country song sung by the gorgeous tones of Kate Gerrard and hit all the right notes in my book.

Shamelssly squeezing an eleventh song into my top ten I’ll come clean and admit that I had a hand in ‘Dave’, but it’s a song that ought to resonate in 2015 it being election year. Ripe for a cover, but for now we have this.