Bizarro World (with Cousin, Speak Galactic, Black Black Hills and Negative Pegasus)

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We’ve been wanting to go along to a Bizarro World night since they started them a few months ago, but this is the first we’ve made it along to. The premise is a simple one – four bands on the bill, each playing three or four songs by a famous act.

We arrived just as Cousin were tackling Pavement. We didn’t manage to get any pictures, because the night was RAMMED. The combination of a great line up, covering great bands, on a weekend, oh, and being free, obviously pulled in the crowds. It’s really encouraging to see live music being supported like this. Cousin played things with a pretty straight bat, and obviously loved their time onstage asking at the end if they had time for one more song.

Speak Galactic

Speak Galactic were up next, and tonight Matthew, they were LCD Soundsystem. The biggest surprise for me was that Speak Galactic were as bold and uncompromising as they always were, and made James Murphy’s songs their own, but at the same time if LCD Soundsystem had played them in that style, you wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. Another shock was drummer Jim Morrison taking vocals on Daft Punk Is Playing At My House, coming out from the shadows for a change. The high point of the whole evening for me was their cover of All My Friends; The slightly disorienting feel of the original being fantastic match for the woozy electronics Owen Thomas creates.

Black Black Hills

Black Black Hills came on after a short break, and each of the four members of the band were Michael Jackson, all picking their own era to dress as, which was a nice touch. Their re-imagining of their songs was fantastic – 80’s pop turned upside down to reveal a garage rock sound that not even Michael Jackson would have recognised. If their covers of Bad and Billie Jean don’t become staples of Black Black Hills’ live sets then I’ll be very disappointed.

Negative Pegasus

Finally Negative Pegasus took to the stage, fresh from playing their album launch at the Green Door Store last weekend. Negative Pegasus are Bizarro World regulars – the nights are organised by guitarist and One Inch Badge promoter Todd Jordan. Previous nights have seen them covering Creedence Clearwater Revival and Daft Punk, but this time they took on Tom Waits, calling in a bit of support from Nick Hudson on vocals. Whiskey soaked bar room drawls were swapped for a full on rock out – a great end to the night. I can’t wait for the next one, hopefully in a bigger venue so that more people can enjoy it. It’s a great concept and a real gem in Brighton’s live music scene.

Bits and Pieces

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Here’s another blog post of a couple of assorted media that have come to our attention that we’d like to share.

First up we have the b-side to the upcoming Fear of Men single coming out on Too Pure that we wrote about a few weeks ago. Mosaic, which is already getting airplay on BBC 6Music, is out two weeks today and the flip Your Side sounds like this:

Next is a remix of one of the tracks from Cate Ferris’ Deep Breath, Ready, Get set GO EP. Condensation has been remixed by Talking Books, and doesn’t feature on the cd:

Finally we have another video for the next single from Bat For Lashes upcoming album The Haunted Man. This is the video to accompany All Your Gold, which also comes out on October 15th:

Bleeding Hearts Club October

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The turn of a new month yesterday brought another Bleeding Hearts Club – a firm favourite in the Brighton Music Blog diary.

Ian Hannah

First on stage was Ian Hannah, who admitted before he started that he couldn’t play guitar. It was a reasonable statement – he probably knew less chords than Status Quo – but what he lacked in guitar playing skills, he made up for with surprisingly good songs. The experience was a bit like an uncle who you’ve never associated with music suddenly grabbing an instrument and initially playing to your prejudices, and then completely changing your mind with a great voice. I doubt he’ll be causing too many waves on the Brighton Music scene, but he was a joy to watch.

Hattie Cooke

Next up was Hattie Cooke, who had stepped in at the last minute having only been asked to play at 2 o clock that afternoon. She was also using a new guitar pedal and running extra effects through an iPad which led to one or two technical difficulties. Behind all that there was a great deal of potential – The songs were there, and when things were going right, the guitar playing was stellar. With more than seven hours to prepare, this could have easily been the set of the night.

Christine Cooper

The third set fell to Christine Cooper, new to Bleeding Hearts, and relatively new to Brighton. Christine used folk music as storytelling, with a powerful voice and fantastic talent on both the fiddle and the banjo. Christine made her traditional Welsh and American folk songs effortless as she used a loop pedal combined with her violin to provide the canvas to her songs.

Tim Keegan

Last night’s final act was something of a rarity at Bleeding Hearts – someone who I’d bought music by, completely independently of any Brighton connections. Back in 2002, Tim Keegan headed up a band called Departure Lounge, and their Kid Loco produced album Too Late to Die Young was hailed in many quarters as one of the records of the year. In the last decade Tim has relocated to Brighton and quietly kept on making music under his own name, and last night we were treated to a short set of this. Departure Lounge’s big strength was Tim’s songwriting, so it was no surprise to hear beautifully crafted stripped back acoustic guitar pop. Joined onstage by another guitarist from his band, intricate guitar melodies were interwoven as naturally as if the instruments were extensions of their bodies. Once again, another amazing end to another Bleeding Hearts Club.

Jennifer Left / Diggory

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In case you haven’t seen it, the video for the new Jennifer Left single has landed. Diggory is the second release to come from her forthcoming album Hushabye, which has been produced by Tim Bidwell, and the video has been made by Thom Undrell, who also put together the fantastic video for Black Dog earlier this year. Diggory hits the shelves on 5th November, and Jennifer is having a launch party at the Blind Tiger on the 8th November. See you there!

Faulty Sound Art AV night

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Calling your event Faulty is tempting fate really, especially where there’s home made electronics involved. Due to a run of bad luck that not even a trip to London for replacement parts could help, it came to pass that the “interactive” element of last night’s Brighton Digital Festival event wasn’t working. Apparently all was well at last weekend’s Makers Faire, but since then things haven’t been right.

Three Brighton acts were on the bill : Krill & Captain Kelp, Maf the ROM and Lumo.

Krill & Captain Kelp

Last time we saw Krill, he was acting solo, hiding behind a laptop at Brighton Electric. Now he’s got a partner in crime, in the shape of Captain Kelp. The music is still predominantly lush ambient electronica, but now live vocals, acoustic guitar and drums are added to the mix, and sampled and looped in real time, proving to the audience that they aren’t just checking their emails.

Maff the ROM

By his own admission, things got a bit stranger when Maff the ROM took to the stage. Maff operates on the very edge of music – not for him are the likes of melodies, or intros or fade outs. Tracks stop unexpectedly, and the sounds coming from the speakers was made up snatched samples from films, footsteps. It was a challenging set, but I reckon that’s just the way that Maff wanted it.

Lumo

The last Brighton band on the bill was Richard Davis, who we’ve written about in glowing terms before on the blog about his Heliopause guise. Last night he was going under the name Lumo. The name of this years Heliopause album was The Lumo Tape and featured material originally written under his Lumo moniker before being beefed up to the full band setup. Tonight, using a heavily reverbed mic, an acoustic guitar and additional keyboards, Lumo plyed on layers on top of pre-programmed material. For each new Lumo experience, we’re told, new songs are written, which means that tonight’s performance was a little rough around the edges, but no less charming for it.

Cave Painting / Votive Life

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Once upon a time, there was a Brighton band called Rob The Rich. They were really good – they even got Single of the Week in the Guardian for their debut release. Comparisons were made with Vampire Weekend, and their future seemed bright, but in the Rob The Rich camp it was felt that something special was lacking, so they went to ground and emerged as Cave Painting.

Things were going fantastically for Cave Painting when they first started – they got themselves a major label record deal after their first couple of gigs. But life on Mercury Records didn’t suit Cave Painting, so they took a step back and ended up signing with Third Rock Recordings, set up by the guy who originally signed them to Mercury. Debut single Gator dropped in May, and now the band have truly arrived with the release of their album Votive Life.

Widescreen epic guitar soundscapes seem to be a bit of a theme for 2012 (see also Brighton Mercury Nominees The Maccabees), and Cave Painting don’t disappoint. Right from the off things sound epic, but they make their own mark and stand out by sprinkling lilting guitar lines over the top. The album never gets too frenetic, instead layering on the atmospherics. Adam Kane’s vocals soar over each track, as much a part of the instrumentation as the are a vehicle to deliver lyrics.

Votive Life is a rich, assured debut album, another record to make Brighton proud of the music that it makes.

Cave Painting play the Green Door Store on 9th October.

Brighton Digital Festival : Sound Screen headlined by Nordic Giants

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Last night we paid a visit to another Brighton Digital Festival event. We’ve got another two events in our diary in the next week too, so look out for reports on them.

Caveman Genius

Sound Screen was an audio visual event put on by Pop Up Brighton at the Pavilion Theatre, pairing up electronic acts with visual artists. Electronic acts make some of the most exciting music, and as even Deadmau5 pointed out this summer, quite often the live performance just involves them pressing play in Ableton. All of tonight’s performers do a lot more than just sit behind a laptop, but all were enhanced with the addition of visuals.

Pact

The event opened with Caveman Genius – a one man act who plays live drums alongside his lush downbeat electronica. I’m loathed to use such an outdated phrase as Trip Hop, but it’s probably the words that describe his music best, and it’s meant as a compliment. Next up was Pact, whose sound was far more suited to the dancefloor. Unfortunately, the Pavilion was in a seated configuration last night, so I don’t think he was truly appreciated. It would be good to see what he could do at 2am in a club rather than 9pm in a theatre. The last act before the interval were the slightly more laid back Adolescent, who played as a whole band setup. Alex Parish was the focus, who controlled the electronic side of things and occasionally took to the drums, while the rest of the band added shimmering guitar and bass

Adolescent

The headliners of the night were the fantastic Nordic Giants. If you haven’t heard them yet, you must. If you haven’t seen them live yet, you’ve missed out. Musically, they’re post-rock, as emotional as Sigur Ros, with the quietLOUDquiet of Mogwai and the politics of Godspeed you Black Emperor. Visually, the band make so much more of an effort than anyone else – body paint with nightmarish masks, strobe lighting, and award winning films from Shorts International, with the vocal for each track given a separate backlit section on stage. It all makes for arguably the best live performance in Brighton, and it was frustrating that they only got a half hour set, at only their second live performance in town this year.

September Source New Music Night feat Bunty

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This month is Brighton Digital Festival, and this month’s Source New Music was put on in collaboration with the Beatabet collective as one of the festival’s events.

We turned up a bit later than we’d hope to the night (distracted en route by Brighton’s newest pub), and arrived as P For Persia had just taken to the stage. P For Persia are a three piece who make indie rock fused with 8-bit keyboards. It was an energetic, intense performance, made all the more enjoyable by vocalist / guitarist Daniel McNally hamming up his role as the band’s focus.

P For Persia

The next act to perform stretched the limit of what you’d call a band. Goodbye Leopold are a vocal trio whose songs are more like chanting than the songs we’re used to at Source New Music nights, and they sported some rather interesting leotards and headwear. But they’re from London, so time to move on to the night’s headliner.

Bunty was taking the opportunity of using the Source New Music / Brighton Digital Festival gig as the launch and showcase of her new project Multimos, which is being released a few tracks at a time over the next year, with the first three available on bandcamp now:

Bunty was making pretty much all of the sound onstage herself, using a loopstation to record parts on the fly before moving onto a different instrument or vocal part. And not to be outdone by the other acts, as well as a live bassist and drummer (wearing hard harts, of course), and visuals from Metaluna, Bunty had dancers, and a man dressed as a bear.

Bunty

The next episode of Multimos is out in a few weeks time on 2nd October. In the meantime, you can read more about the project in Bunty’s interview with the Source.

Kovak / Living The Dream

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Kovak come over all ABBA crossed with Blondie on their new single Living The Dream. It came out on monday, but the video dropped today and is being featured over on Vevo – another coup for the unsigned band. After getting playlisted on radio 2 for their last single Killer Boots, they’ve now all over Vevo (owned and run by the major labels as a way of showing off what they’ve got to offer). The fantastic looking video features footage shot in  the Pavilion – not something they let just anyone do!

The band are currently holed away in the studio recording their new album with Andy Gray (who’s worked with Hard Fi, Paul Oakenfold, Gary Numan and Enter Shikari), but will be coming out to play this weekend for Playgroup festival.

You can buy Living The Dream on iTunes