It’s been a few weeks since our last New Music post, and we were playing catchup with that one, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. Here’s a selection of our favourite tunes that have come to our attention in the last couple of weeks.
First up is Our Girl with their debut single Sleeper, the coolest four minutes of guitar music we’ve heard in a while:
We’re big fans of Sea Bed here at Brighton Music Blog, and when we heard that they had a new single we thought that would be a good time to catch up with them. As with most things on the blog at the moment we’re not quite as up to speed as we’d like – the single was released as a digital download at the end of October – but we dropped them a line anyway…
Hi Sea Bed, how are you?
Busy, tired and looking forward to the new year now. We have a new live rig that we’ve been putting together the last few weeks and inbetween all of that have loads of exciting gigs to rehearse for and of course… Keep writing!
Back at the end of July you announced a new single which has only just got released. What can you tell us about it?
So the single Akira is a techno pop song we finished up earlier this year and released through indie label Four Thieves. It’s kind of our first real statement as Sea Bed emphasising our love for both the underground and more mainstream artists of the last few decades, but still carrying over an air of mystery as to what we will do next release wise. We have known each other for a while now and both writing and performing with very clear intentions compared to previous projects we were in has allowed our creative freedom to flow and make something we feel is unique on record and on stage.
Is the song anything to do with the 80s manga film of the same name?
The lyrical content is about awakening and what road you choose to take with the important decisions in your life. With that in mind, there are strong parallels to the film. Realising that you have the power within you to positively alter your destiny is what the song was originally written around and in the manga, Tetsuo (the antagonist of the film for those who don’t know) has supernatural powers awakened in him but uses them for destruction and revenge.
The 12″ of the single sold out weeks before the release date. You must have been pretty chuffed with that?
Absolutely, It’s amazing to have support from a label like Four Thieves who believe in what you’re doing enough to get the music out there in whatever format possible. Most importantly it’s people like yourself who go out of their way to support and listen to new music that keeps the whole thing alive.
You always have great visuals at your shows, and the band photography that you’ve had done is really strong. How important is the visual side of things for you?
100%! We take it as seriously as the music and try to have a hand in everything we do so that it doesn’t lose sight of what Sea Bed is about. We have found in the past Very quickly other people can steer your image down some very unimaginative routes. I think artists had a larger window of time pre and early internet age to really craft their identity visually and sound wise but now every minute detail that is posted can be clawed back through time by search engines so we have to be completely satisfied with whatever art forms we release under Sea Bed.
Talking of live shows, I see you’ve got a date in Shoreditch in for January. Are there any more Brighton dates lined up?
Yes that’s for the Ibiza Rocks festival, their equivalent of BBC introducing which is amazing! Brighton will see us playing the Green Door Store on the 19th November and Patterns on December 10th, hopefully beta testing our new chunky live setup.
When you posted on Facebook about the new single coming out you hinted about an exciting new release coming in 2016. Is there any more that you can tell us?
Without giving away too too much it will be another vinyl and digital release through Four Thieves only we are doing a full EP with them! So all new tracks, a big remix for the A side and video to accompany it which will be early 2016 when everyone has recovered from the post Christmas and New Years hangovers.
You DJed last week at the launch party for Via Tirana’s new single. Are there any other local bands you think we should be listening to?
That was a great night, ended the party with a track by Clouds called Chained To A Dead Camel which for most of the people left in there made them lose their shit!
There are some really sick electronic acts around Brighton at the moment. We are vibing Troves, INWARDS, Karl Toon, Foreign Skin, Mount Bank and in the more traditional band world there is a mental new Soul act called Bathcat and the guys in Big Society. That and all the usual suspects like Demob Happy and our good mates in Black Honey which most people are raving about at the mo. Brighton’s got a good thing going on.
Here’s a blog post I started writing back in SEPTEMBER. I’ve been terrible about writing blog posts, but at least the excuse of a five month old baby is a pretty good one. Normally I’d write a paragraph to go with each track, letting you know about release dates and launch parties, but in the interests of actually getting this posted, here without any introduction is some of the (now not so) new music that we heard around six weeks ago. To everyone who’s sent us tracks since, watch this space. Hopefully the next update won’t take as long!
High Tyde – Do What You Want
As we posted about yesterday, Phantom Runners have just kicked off their tour which we were surprised to find were their first headline dates. We also mentioned that these were their first gigs with their new line up, including new female vocalist Liv, whose contribution alongside a lot more synths has given the band a much more rounded pop sound. We were there with our camera and got a few shots of the band and of Curxes who supported. Click on the pics to view large:
This week, Phantom Runners head out on an eleven date tour of the UK. They kicked things off at the weekend with a low key date in Worthing and are heading to The Hope & Ruin tonight. There’s another local date the weekend after next at Sticky Mikes before they properly head out on the road taking in London, Bournemouth, Southampton, Hastings and Dartford (as well as another Brighton date at Bleach on 26th November).
The band are rejuvenated having had a bit of a line up change recently, and support at tonight’s gig comes from Curxes, who we haven’t caught since their appearance at The Great Escape six months ago, so we’re looking forward to tonight.
I was told it would get easier, but evenings seem to be getting more difficult for now, and rightly so, a small baby is taking priority over blogging. We haven’t given up, and I’m grateful for Jon posting about the Self Help Group over the weekend.
Maybe it’s time to go back to posting about individual releases rather than trying to find the time to write about everything we hear about. We’ve got a post like that brewing, but I’ll need a bit more time to finish that up. To keep things ticking over, here’s news about IYES new EP, entitled Part Two. If you hadn’t worked it out yet, it’s the follow up to this summer’s Part One EP.
Lessons is syncopated pop with an unexpected piano solo midway through. Gone starts minimal and moody until steel drums and layered vocals build up. You might have heard the futuristic r’n’b of Toys before when a demo version appeared on the band’s soundcloud page last year. The EP finishes off with Beautiful Mess – classic eyes with Josh and Melis trading vocals atop their trademark arpeggiated synth sounds.
Part two is out now on Spotify, iTunes and all the usual places.
A relatively quiet week for new music this week, but here’s what we’ve got to share. First up is the new GAPS All Me, All You remix EP, which the first music we’ve embedded from Spotify, so hopefully this will work. There’s remixes from Maya Jane Coles and Alex Arnout of two tracks from their album In, Around The Moments, as well as the original versions, and you can also buy the EP on iTunes here.
Black Honey‘s new single is called Corrine. It’s getting a physical release in a month’s time on 23rd October on Foxfive records, and the band are heading out on tour for most of October, finishing things up with a hometown gig at the Hope & Ruin on 5th November. Continue reading
Next Monday Kovak release their long awaited second album Modern Lovers. It’s being released on 74 Records and features previous singles Radiate and Swing Song. It’s an unabashed all out pop record drawing influences from the likes of Blondie and Scissor Sisters. The album was actually recorded quite a while back but the band took a break between recording and releasing while lead singer Annelies had a baby. They’re now firmly back on the scene and heading for a dancefloor near you soon!
Here’s our first new music blog post in a little bit. Thankfully things have been quite quiet in the last week or so – I guess all the bands are off at festivals rather than uploading new tunes.
Anyway, our first track is the first new proper release from Dog in the Snow since last year’s Africa single. Proxy is taken from their new EP Uncanny Valley, which comes out on Love Thy Neighbour in October, and has it’s launch party at the Hope & Ruin on 14th October:
Brighton orchestral pop architects The Fiction Aisle have announced news of their debut album and EP this week. Heart Map Rubric gets released later this year on 27th November on Chord Orchard records on hand numbered limited edition digipack CD and download, with pre-orders being taken from October sometime. In the meantime the band have also shared their debut EP – a new version of Blue, which the first track they shared on Soundcloud late last year, a shimmering widescreen pop symphony. It comes with a host of remixes with British Sea Power playing up the track’s slow motion majesty, Acquaintance giving the track a balearic house twist and JØTA turning it into electro synth pop. The EP is available to download for a limited period from the band’s soundcloud page.
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