New Music – GAPS, Great Pagans, She Crazy, Dark Train, The Dubarrys, Heliopause, Winston & Goldstein

Posted on 09/10/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s our first New Music post for October, which is already shaping up to be another great month.

It only feels like the other week that we were sitting in the sun outside Small Batch interviewing GAPS about their new EP with Maya Jane Coles, but they’re not resting on their laurels and have announced details of another new single. She Bears a Flower will be released out on Sexbeat on 1st December:

Great Pagans have previewed Tangled Up in Poetry from their upcoming album Cupid in Error which gets released on Anti Ghost Moon Ray on 20th October. The launch party for the gig takes place at the Green Door Store on 6th November with support from Japanese Sweets and Soph Nathan.

As we head to the end of October, we’re hoping we see more videos like the new one from She Crazy. Made by Novi films, the promo for Zompocalypse Now is nothing short of brilliant (the song’s not bad either)

Carrying on with the vaguely horror theme, here’s Jekyll & Hyde, the new track from Dark Train:

A couple of weeks ago we posted up the video to Lilly by The DuBarrys, taken from their self titled EP. At the time we didn’t have too much info, but this week, as the band post up the rest of the EP to soundcloud, we thought we’d share another track from the record and also the iTunes preorder link.

Here’s some new music from Heliopause. City of Glass is possibly the furthest away from folk that the band have strayed to date:

Finally, a new download from Winston & Goldstein. If you’ve ever wondered what an ambient electronica response to female celebrity phone hacking might sound like, take a listen to Celebgate:

next week : Bootleg Festival at the Prince Albert

Posted on 09/10/2014 by brightonmusicblog

When I first started buying records, a bootleg was something very different from what it is now. Bootlegs used to be live recordings of gigs – if you were very lucky they’d be direct from the sound desk, but more often than not they’d be taped by someone in the crowd so you’d end up with muffled sound and the audience singing along. Next week the Prince Albert and Brightelmstone Promotions are putting on a four night event called The Bootleg Festival, less about mash ups, and more about the live recordings – every night is getting recorded with ticket holders getting a download of one song from each act and full recordings going on sale. And since it’s being put on with the full cooperation of the Prince Albert, recordings from the sound desk are guaranteed! There’s some great Brighton bands playing with Clowns, Crayola Lectern, Flash Bang Band and Thieves by the Code already on the line ups with more bands yet to be announced. Advance tickets can be bought online here.

Night House launch their EP

Posted on 04/10/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Last night we went to the launch of the new EP by Night House, the new band of man-about-town Nick Williams who has helped curate and participated in some memorable musical events at last night’s venue the marvellous Marwood Cafe. Previous Marwood events curated by Nick included a brilliant weekend of gigs featuring an array of local acts as part of the free The Great Escape festival earlier this year.

First on the bill last night was the extraordinary sight of Laura and the Bass. Amazonian, Scandinavian, Blonde and dressed in not much more than a lace-looking body stocking, Laura presented a striking vision. Fortunately her playing and singing was top-notch, with her songs of the trials and tribulations of modern love.

Next up was the soulful pop of the accomplished four-piece band Staniford, with another tall and talented lead singer in the person of Tom Staniford.

The penultimate act were one of Brighton’s finest, the Self Help Group. This was a tight venue for a six-piece to play, not helped by Mark’s visible man-flu symptoms and the chatter from the now packed upstairs space, but the Groupies rose to the challenge and played an absolutely blinding set with a mix of new and old songs. The harmonies between sisters Sarah and Clara Wood are always a delight, but the whole band seemed to relish the challenge and were as tight as I’ve seen them. Songs from their excellent album ‘Not Waving But Drowning’ were mixed with new songs, like Eddy’s House, a song about a dog house that takes on mythical proportions in the masterful hands of this band. They’re playing next on 22nd October at the Brunswick in a gig hosted by Chris T-T and come very highly recommended.

Finally, man of the night Nick Williams got to play the songs from the new Night House EP along with band versions of some of his older songs. Particular favourites to my ears were ‘Heart on a Wire’ and ‘Berlin’ (referencing “a seaside town” so maybe the title is figurative).

The lead track ‘New Year’s Prayer’ is a lovely thing, mixing some late 70s pop harmonies with an indie soul sensibility. You can see the video for the song here.

September Top Ten

Posted on 01/10/2014 by brightonmusicblog

September was yet another great month for Brighton Music. We’ve barely kept up with posting the new music that we’ve heard throughout the month, but these have been our favourites:

1 GAPS & Maya Jane Coles – In Dark In Day

GAPS collaboration EP with Maya Jane Coles was an easy choice for our number one spot this month. We were fans of GAPS before this release, and In Dark In Day made us love them even more.

2 Gazelle Twin – Belly of the Beast

Live show of the month had to be Gazelle Twin’s headline post at last week’s Spectrum night at the Dome Studio Theatre. The tracksuit and obscured face was the perfect visual representation of her leftfield claustrophobic electronica. We could have chosen any track from her new album Unflesh, but we’ve gone for Belly of the Beast.

3 Cate Ferris – Giants

Giants has been a staple of Cate’s live sets for quite a while, so we were pleased to hear it get released on her new EP Disappear. It’s even better live – if you’re about this weekend get down to the Level where Cate is headlining the Lantern Fayre around 8-8.30ish on saturday night.

4 Dog in the Snow – Africa

Helen Ganya Brown’s latest single is another great slice of art pop which, too, has been a staple of her live sets over the last year.

5 Momotaro – Kite

If we could have, we’d have put the Deep Blast & Ricco Remix of Kite into our top ten tunes for you to listen to this month, but since it’s not streaming anywhere online, here’s the standard single version

6 Fear of Men – Tephra

2014 has been a good year for Fear of Men – support slots with Pains of Being Pure at Heart across the US and Europe, an album with great reviews across the board, a headline UK tour of their own, and to top it all their latest video premiered on the NME website.

7 Oslo Parks – Twin

As debut singles go, you couldn’t ask for better than Twin. We’re looking forward to heading down to the Green Door Store for the launch tomorrow night (Thursday 2nd October).

8 Heliopause – I seem too cold (Faulty Remix)

Heliopause’s latest offering is a beautiful, blissed out, exotic rework of an older track, put out to celebrate Brighton Digital Festival.

9 Troves – Afterthought

Afterthought is another debut single from another new Brighton band, and coincidentally, Troves are the support to Oslo Park’s gig on thursday.

10 Phantom Runners – On The Run

Finally, we have On The Run, the new Huey Morgan produced single from Phantom Runners, with it’s video filmed partly at Brighton Arts Club.

Lutine album launched

Posted on 30/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Lutine launched their album ‘White Flowers’ at St Laurence Church in Falmer village on Saturday night. It was a fitting setting, and not just because it had also been their recording studio. Their music has an ethereal choral quality, and draws on a pastoral rural tradition that seemed right at home in the plain 19th century country-church setting.

We’ve already been enjoying Emma Morton and Heather Minor’s excellent single Sallow Tree, which sounds like nothing else we’ve heard of late.

The album is full of more of their beautiful vocals and harmonies, accompanied by subtle instrumentation which has been likened to medieval music but is made on an assortment of modern things, including a harmonium from India. The opener Espera has a deathly hum running through it which adds to its haunting feel. ‘Death and the Lady’ seems to take the melody from that ancient song ‘To be a pilgrim’ which was a common tune back in the day when hymns were the lingua franca of morning school assemblies and buries it under twigs and moss and meandering daydreams before pulling out a haunted skeletal song. But this is not a gothic melodrama of an album, it’s a subtle collection of rare folk melodies. There are hints of early English music, country folk songs and 1970s horror soundtracks (a candyfloss version of the Wicker Man perhaps). A particular favourite is ‘So it Goes’, a kind of Que Sera Sera for ancient times. But most of all the album reminds me of those obscure alt-folk albums made in the early 1970s, comfortably English and yet enigmatic and located in a mythical time and place. it’s an excellent enjoyable debut and well worth checking out.

Available now via Front & Follow

Demob Happy debut single and tour news

Posted on 30/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

News has just come in of Demob Happy‘s first proper single on the eve of them heading out on their first headline tour. Succubus is coming out on 17th November on Milk Parlour Records on 7″ and download and will be backed with a cover of The Technoheads I Wanna Be a Hippy. The band’s tour starts tomorrow in Bristol and ends up with a hometown show at Bleach on 17th October.

Gazelle Twin at Spectrum at the Dome Studio Theatre

Posted on 29/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Friday night was the latest Spectrum event held at the Dome Studio Theatre, organised in collaboration between the Dome and Resident records. This month’s even was an Anti Ghost Moon Ray showcase, headlined by the jaw dropping Gazelle Twin, in support of her new album Unflesh. Also on the bill here her label mates Great Pagans and Bernholz, whose album How Things Are Made is also out now.

Here’s our pics. As usual, click to view large:

New Music

Posted on 29/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Another bumper New Music post for you all. We were out at gigs every night last week, so things have built up once again.

Our first track is by Heliopause, with I seem too cold (Faulty remix). Faulty is a night that Heliopause has been putting on at Brighton Digital Festival for the past few years and is taking place as I type at Fitzherberts. This is what happens when you spend your time going to gigs rather than writing blog posts.

Oslo Parks launch their debut single Twin on Thursday (2nd October) with a gig at the Green Door Store. Here’s a remix of the single from Germany’s VIMES:

Another demo from Black Honey surfaced last week. The Taste doesn’t offer any big surprises from their previous uploads – more widescreen American sounding rock’n’roll:

Swing Song is the new single from Kovak. It’s coming out on 20th October, and the launch party is going to be held at The Hope on 8th November:

Clash premiered the new video from Tyrannosaurus Dead last week. Local Bullies is taken from the band’s forthcoming album Flying Ant Day, which is available to pre-order now.

Momotaro have released a re-recorded version of their track Kite, which originally appeared on their album Second Side. It’s been released by German label Blue Dye and comes backed with a house remix by Deep Blast & Ricco Rizzo.

Red Shortbread is the debut track from Jack Watts. It was produced by Tim Bidwell (who’s worked with the likes of Jennifer Left and Cate Ferris), and the video was made by Create Studio’s Kenny McCracken:

Lilly is taken from The DuBarrys forthcoming self titled EP. Other than the name of the EP, and that one of the other tracks is the lovely, acoustic Undress Your Soul, details of the EP are rather sketchy and we can’t even find so much as a release date for it. More details as we hear of them:

Finally, we have Obelisk, a new video from Battery Operated Orchestra. Obelisk is taken from the album Incomplete Until Broken, which is available now on Bandcamp.

Anushka single and tour news

Posted on 28/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Anushka are back with a new single and tour. Atom Bombs is being released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Records on October 13th and comes with a dub mix and a some remixes, including the NameBrand Sound remix featured here. To support the release the duo are out on tour, playing at Audio on thursday night (2nd October).

Fear of Men and The Hundredth Anniversary at The Hope

Posted on 27/09/2014 by brightonmusicblog

On Thursday Fear of Men kicked off their first headline tour of the UK, which is also the last round of promotion for their album Loom. Last week they also put out a video for album track Tephra, directed by the band themselves, which shows the effigy created for the front cover of Loom being burned to ash, also marking the end the band’s links to the album. The band have already played Norwich last night and are also taking in Leeds and Manchester this weekend, with the tour concluding in London at Concrete on 2nd October.

Our pics from of Fear of Men, and support The Hundredth Anniversary, are below the video.