Things have been a bit quiet in the Curxes camp since they put out Further Still and appeared on the cover of The Source earlier this year. Over the past couple of weeks though, a few mysterious teasers have appeared on YouTube. All five videos start off with the sound of a cheap Bontempi keyboard, but by the time you get to the fifth, it quickly morphs into something closer to Curxes trademark blitz-pop sound, albeit with slowed down vocals. Some of the lyrics that can make out “Sound and Vision is a privilege” were alluded to in a blog post about tour dates by the band back in September, and the text “Avant Guarded” flashes up. What could it all mean? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
On Friday night we headed down to the Dome Studio Theatre for the Source New Music Night. This month IYES headlined, supported by Luo and Momotaro. We hoped it was going to be a good gig, and it didn’t disappoint. Here’s our pics:
Kins are on tour at the moment, promoting their new single Aimless. We went down to see them play at The Hope on Thursday night, where they were supported by The Hundredth Anniversary. Here’s our pics (as usual, click to view large):
There’s always a lot of great music to see in Brighton, which makes it easy to write this weekly feature. This weekend it’s even easier because some of our favourite bands are playing.
On Thursday night Kins headline The Hope playing a hometown show with their tour for their new single Aimless. Support comes from Francis Lung and The Hundredth Anniversary.
Friday Night is this month’s Source New Music featuring this month’s Source cover stars and Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES, who have just released their debut single ‘Til Infinity. Support comes from two other bands that we’re big fans of – Momotaro, and Luo, who will be joined onstage by members of Physics House Band.
There’s a couple of gigs on Saturday which caught our eye – Dizraeli and the Small Gods are playing at The Haunt supported by Le Juki, with an afterparty taking place at the Fortune of War. Meanwhile, The Blind Tiger plays host to King Porter Stomp, alongside The Allergies and Town of Cats.
Here’s some new music for you all – a few tracks from albums due to land next year, a video from an EP which came out earlier this year and a rather interesting cover…
Black Rooster Black Shag – Run Baby
Run Baby is the lead track from Black Rooster Black Shag’s 3 EP, out this week on EOI productions. Run Baby rocks harder than their debut Amsterdam, and has a very cool video to go with it, filmed around the streets of Brighton. Both singles feature on the band’s upcoming album As Far As My Lead Will Take Me, due in March next year.
Native Roses – Mainline
Mainline is the first track that’s come out from Native Roses forthcoming album Montpelier Blues, out on the first of January. The album will also feature four collaborations with Birdy, who was once a member of the band, but has gone onto bigger things.
Momotaro – Dust
In another first listen from an album due next year, Momotaro have shared Dust with us all. We’re looking forward to seeing Momotaro playing on Friday night at this month’s Source New Music supporting IYES.
Normanton Street – Wednesday Night Champions League
Normanton Street put up a video to their track Wednesday Night Champions League last week, filmed disconcerting close to where I live. Wednesday Night Champions League is taken from their Moves EP from earlier this year, which can be downloaded for free from their soundcloud page.
The Wytches – All That She Wants
The Wytches new single Robe for Juda is out the week. We already wrote about that a few weeks ago though, so instead here’s their cover of Ace of Base’s All That She Wants. Obviously.
Yesterday, The Beautiful Word released their new album Particles. The Beautiful Word were on my radar years before I even started the blog, and throughout that time they’ve always taken a more personal yet inventive approach to their marketing. All the emails I’ve exchanged have been with the band members themselves rather than anonymous PRs, and many of their gigs have taken a twist, from fancy dress to performing a gig on a bus driving around town. When they offered to send out their new cd to me, it came as no surprise to find some sweets in the jiffy bag as well when it arrived. Other bands, please take note!
Over the years, there have been some constants, but that doesn’t mean that the band hasn’t developed. The Beautiful Word will probably always be slightly twee folk pop with close female harmonies, but their newer material shows a higher level of musicianship, best displayed on recent single and album title track Particles, with it’s Vampire Weekend-esque African guitars. At the time it came out we said that it was probably the best thing they’ve done. After a couple of months of playing it, now we’re pretty sure it is.
We’ve heard a lot of the album before, with half of the tracks having had videos made for them already. The video for their most recent single, Eating Me, Eating You (a metaphor for devouring relationships rather than anything more literal, apparently) quickly descends into a food fight – while the music may have grown up, the band and their songs still have a wide eyed innocence.
Of the stuff we haven’t heard before, our favourite track is Coconut Hair – slightly silly but sweet lyrics to an infectious catchy pop tune, which sums up what The Beautiful Word are all about. If you want a bit of light in your life, Particles is the album for you.
Particles by The Beautiful Word is out now on bandcamp. The launch gig for the album is at Latest Music Bar on 28th November with support from The Common Tongues and The Emperors of Ice Cream.
Time for this week’s regular post on the weekend’s gigs that have caught our eye. There’s some interesting this time round – an afternoon gig, a gig celebrating twenty years since the headliner’s first single, a gig accompanied by a Caribbean supper and more.
Tomorrow night we’ve spotted that P for Persia are headlining at The Hope. We haven’t seen them live for a while, having missed the launch of their split single with Speak Galactic, but the few times we have caught them they’ve been brilliant live. We won’t be missing this. Support comes from Fat Bicth and Headquarters.
On Friday night there’s a Beatbet vs Haha Fresh electronica night at The Globe. It’s not your normal venue for a gig, but then Beatabet aren’t the types to go about things the way you’d expect. DA-10 and Foreign Skin are on the bill, alongside Blue Ducks, Morgan Hislop and Hypnotized, and Beatabet DJs. Meanwhile, somewhere else you wouldn’t expect a gig Ez Stone is performing at The Writers Place at 9 Jew Street, at an event called Come Rhyme With Me. Alongside his gentle folk, there will be spoken word poetry and as promised above, a Caribbean Supper.
And then on Saturday Night, My Life Story perform at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar. It’s twenty years and a few days since Jake Shillingford and his band released Girl A, Girl B, Boy C, which they followed up with a string of orchestral pop hits throughout the nineties. These days Jake is Head of Music Business at BIMM, although the band still get together for an annual gig up in London, and this is the first time in years that the band have gone on tour. Also on Saturday Night, Professor Elemental is playing at the Green Door Store, alongside steampunk visuals. He’ll be supported by Gilli BloodAxe and Invokal. If staying out late isn’t such an appealing prospect, then perhaps you should pop along to the Brunswick where they’re holding an afternoon gig from 2pm, headlined by Grasshopper, a band with talent that surpasses their years.
Yesterday, barely twelve months after last year’s fantastic Nebula Dance, Ital Tek released a new mini-album Control. It’s available on double 12″ and download, and is released on Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu records. You can order it from there and listen to samples of each track, or there’s a preview mix up on Soundcloud:
Shortly after I posted about the free download of Songbird in one of our New Music roundups a few weeks ago, the Moulettes camp got in touch to point out that they weren’t giving out the download to celebrate the end of the promotion of The Bear’s Revenge, but to celebrate the start of the last leg of the touring of it, before they get their heads down to finish work on Constellations, their third album due for release in spring of next year. Sadly their’s no Brighton date on the tour – the band played at Middle Farm’s Applefest in October – but London’s not that far away, is it?
Since then the band have announced that they aren’t just giving away Songbird as a free download but a whole six track mix tape, entitled Farewell To The Bear, featuring three tracks from The Bear’s revenge as well as a b-side, a remix and a live track. Assault is one of the best things they’ve ever done and is utterly breathtaking live, so it’s good to see it having more of a life than just being a b-side.
Here’s the full list of tour dates. Support comes from Sompting’s Josienne Clarke (with her guitarist Ben Walker)
Nov 15th – The Grand, Clitheroe
Nov 16th – The Stables, Wavendon
Nov 20th – Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury
Nov 21st – The Jericho Tavern, Oxford
Nov 22nd – The Greystones, Sheffield
Nov 23rd – The Leopard, Doncaster
Nov 24th – Village Hall, Marnhull, Dorset
Nov 28th – The Factory, Barnstaple
Nov 29th – The Joiners, Southampton
Nov 30th – Islington Assembly Hall, London
Dec 4th – Glee Club, Nottingham
Dec 5th – The Met, Bury, Lancs
Dec 6th – Thekla, Bristol
Dec 7th – Monkey Bar, Swansea
“Africa Live Video” said link in the email we got about Dog in the Snow’s new update. We don’t really do live video on the blog, but we clicked through anyway since we’ve loved everything that Dog in the Snow have done so far. We shouldn’t have been worried – the only hint that it might be a live video is the slightest smattering of clapping as the video fades in and out. Outside of that it could be a studio performance it’s so flawless. The videography utilises double exposures and never shows the audience, but it turns out that it is a genuine live video, shot at the Hoxton Bar and Grill last May. Africa is sparse but melodic, somewhere between folk and pop yet at the same time something all of it’s very own. Take a look below.
Brighton Music Blog 