Brighton duo GAPS have announced a new single, I Know It’s You, premiered last week on The Line of Best Fit and coming out on 9th December. The single is getting a 7″ and digital release on Sexbeat who also put out the Keep You / Cascade double a side earlier this year, and the flip will be a new track called Inside Your Head.
I Know It’s You has less folk influence than their previously heard material, opting instead for four minutes of sleepy ethereal pop, further cementing their stake as one of Brighton’s hottest new bands. Links to pre-order the single are available on the Sexbeat website.
At the end of last month, the Nordic Giants played a gig at the Concorde to launch the second part of their Build Seas, Dismantle Suns EP.
The Nordic Giants have long been one of Brighton’s best live bands, with their gothic outfits, stunning visuals and huge huge songs. Since this was a bit more of a special occasion they were aided and abetted by The Shadow Enigma, a collection of musicians who added additional strings, brass and percussion to bolster the band’s already massive sound.
The EP starts with long time live favourite Little Bird. The smooth start with gentle jazzy keyboards and female vocals turns out to be a smokescreen for the Nordic Giants brutality with huge clattering drums kicking in two thirds of the way through. The second track Mechanical Minds also features pianos and big drums, which die down every now and then to reveal old samples warning of a dangerous future. Strangest Tides is a calmer affair, with tender female Scandinavian vocals over something akin to Sigur Ros’ less guitarry work. EP Closer Dark Clouds Mean War is brooding and cinematic, with thick lush strings and simple piano line building up throughout the song, and it’s only in the last seventy seconds of the track that percussion kicks in, the Dark Clouds in the title bringing their promise of a storm.
Here’s another post of new music that has come to our attention. We literally can’t keep up – we started writing this about a week ago, but every day there’s been new things to add to it. Good work Brighton!
Faux Flux – Week Long War EP
Thew new two track Faux Flux EP is out now on Donut Records. The EP features two new tracks, the poppy Week Long War and the more ethereal As Kids. Grab the EP as a free download over on Bandcamp now.
Flash Bang Band – Thinking above my Station
Flah Bang Band are continuing with their effort to put out a video for every track on their Bite Your Tongue album, this time filmed in an ex-DIY store.
Tigercub – Mother
Mother is the third video from the debut EP by Tigercub, which got released on iTunes last week on Club The Mammoth records. Videos for the other two tracks – Little Rope and Centrefold – have been online for a while, but Mother has just popped up to coincide with the release.
Plasticine – Dreamers of the Day
Dreamers of the Day is the debut single from Plasticine, who we first caught back at Sea Monsters earlier this year. You can grab it as a free download over on Soundcloud.
Bentcousin – Sunglasses in Winter
Pat and Amelia from Bentcousin are only in their early twenties, so it’s more than impressive for them to be tackling a subject like domestic violence. Sunglasses in Winter appears on Creechers, a new compilation on Creech Records. You can download it for free here. The compilation also includes Fire In The Sky by Dog in the Snow, which we featured a few weeks back.
A Lily – Lupa
A Lily is the musical project from James Vella, one of the guys responsible for Fatcat Records. Lupa is lovely stuff – lush strings, twinkling electronica and melodic vocals. As well as the bandcamp links, you can also pick it up on 12″ from Resident in town.
Heliopause – Eden
Eden is the fourth of a set of EPs put out by Heliopause as the band goes through a bit of a transition period. Each of the tracks on the release are just vocal and guitar, gentle almost-folk, but Richard Davis – the constant member in the group – is in the process of putting together a full band for the new material he’s working on.
Normally around this time of week we post up our recommendations for the forthcoming weekend’s gigs. This week we’ve picked out just one for your attention, which is also an album launch for a new compilation which features some great Brighton bands.
Hidden Brighton is a new compilation from our friends over at Hidden Trail – the label associated with the Some Of It Is True blog. It’s being launched with a gig on Friday Night at the Palmeira with three of the bands who contributed to the compilation playing live. The Self Help Group, Hella Better Dancer and Ellie Ford will be performing, and the album also features contributions from Kill Moon, The Raving Beauties, The Standard Lamps, The Hundredth Anniversary, tiNhearT, Flash Bang Band, Woodland Blue, Kokopelli and Us Baby Bear Bones. Proceeds from the album will go towards charity Grace Eyre, who support local children with learning difficulties, and all acts have donated their tracks free of charge. Tickets for the gig will be available on the door or in advance from the venue or Resident Records.
Last night Wild Cat Strike played at the Green Door Store to celebrate the launch of their new EP Attentive Blood, and we went along to record the even for posterity and to share a bit of the atmosphere for those who couldn’t make it. The EP is out now via bandcamp through the link below. Support came from equally great Poles Apart and The New Union.
Since the end of last year, anyone whose asked us about the Brighton music scene has probably had their ear bent by me telling them that the best new band around were IYES. And now, about a year after we were knocked off our feet by the stunning Lighthouse, their debut single ‘Til Infinity has landed.
Sparse and simple for the first minute with just tribal drums, handclaps and Melis’ vocals, the track then explodes into life with a pop chorus that’s simultaneously both breathy and vulnerable, and powerful with its swirling chiming guitars, and clashing cymbals. Midway through the track IYES’ other half Josh gets a vocal turn adding a bit more colour to proceedings, and later there’s a bridge that drops everything to almost nothing, before one last triumphant chorus, and then at just three minutes everything’s over and done with – as all great pop songs should be.
Best of all, they’ve used an apostrophe and one ‘l’, which this pedant secretly very happy.
Somehow, we’ve turned two! Two years of gig going, photo taking, demo listening and doing out best to share the music we love coming out of Brighton. Here’s what we loved in October:
1 Eagles For Hands – Lisbon
Eagles for Hands gave out their new EP for free for a short while earlier in the month and the title track, which sounds not dissimilar to 808 State at the height of the powers has been our most played track this month. The free download is over now (you should have grabbed it when we told you about it!) but it’s worth every penny you’ll pay on iTunes.
2 Momotaro – Reverie 3 Gaps – Belong
Giving away a free track in return for signing up to a bands mailing list is the new black. Or something like that. Momotaro and Gaps are two of our favourite discoveries this year and you can get these tracks just for the price of an email address.
4 The Beautiful Word – Eating Me, Eating You
“It’s not rude!” Megan and Emily blush when they introduce this track live. Of course it’s not, but a bit of innuendo doesn’t do anyone any harm. The video for Eating Me, Eating You dropped this month, and the track appears on The Beautiful Word’s album Particles which we’ll be reviewing soon.
5 Electric Soft Parade – The Sun Never Sets Around Here
The Sun Never Sets Around Here in ESP’s new single to go alongside their minitour. The band have just announced a Christmas date at the Unitarian Church on 6th December. Get your tickets quick because it’s going to sell out fast.
6 Prince Vaseline – Sunset
Lovely lovely stuff from a Milke & Biscuits side project
7 Nordic Giants – Neotenie
Neotenie appears on part one of the Nordic Giants Build Seas Dismantle Suns double EP. We’ll be putting up something about part two – the Dismantle Suns half – very soon.
8 Yumi & The Weather – All We Can
The lead track from Yumi & The Weather’s debut EP (and it’s accompanying video) is a much sunnier track than the weather outside at the moment. We’ve had it on repeat to bring a bit of summer back into our lives. The Vondelpark rework that’s also on the EP is quite tasty too.
9 Moulettes – Songbird
Moulettes gig at Applefest (which we missed because we didn’t want caught in the torrential rain in Lewes), and their giveaway of this track reminded up just how much we love Moulettes. From the look of their Facebook / Twitter streams, they’re working on new material right now. Can’t wait!
10 Alice Amelia – #1000 Dreams
We rather liked Alice Amelia’s free download that she gave away earlier this month – sophisticated sparse piano and a lovely vocal. She’s playing down at Above Audio this Wednesday for free as well!
Just a short and sweet weekend gig post this week, because we’re darting off to see Nordic Giants at the Concorde soon (there are still tickets on the door apparently, and they’re a brilliant live band).
Thursday night is Halloween, so it’s only right that our gig pick for the evening is Green Door Store’s Halloweiner event, with Tigercub headlining. It’s a late one though – it doesn’t start until 11pm, which isn’t exactly ideal if you’ve got work in the morning.
Friday night is Lout’s regular Brighton Rocks night at Sticky Mike’s. This week London Commands You, The Fuses, Lonesome Heights and Dear Joseph play.
Then on Saturday Jipsy Magic launch their new single at the Blind Tiger. So Serious comes out as a free download this weekend, and they’re holding a free party to celebrate.
Kins eponymous album has been out since July, but until now there hasn’t been a single released from it. All this changes when they release Aimless on 18th November. The band are heading out on a national tour starting later this week culminating in a hometown gig at The Hope on the 21st of November.
We’ve got a bit of catching up to do in our new music round up – it’s been nearly two weeks since we made one of these posts, and we found a couple of other bits and pieces from when we were away a few weeks.
Man Ray Sky – Luma
Man Ray Sun have put up a video for their new track Luma, taken from their forthcoming EP Coreless, which comes out in November on Beatabet Records
Bunty – Multimos 6
Talking of Beatabet, Bunty released the sixth episode of her Multimos project a few weeks back. This time round it’s a free bandcamp download, so you can enjoy it even if you’ve got a tight budget.
Samuel Organ – Bay
The Physics House Band’s Samuel Organ has posted up a taster of his forthcoming album onto soundcloud with the track Bay. The track is a bit more chilled and a bit less aurally challenging than his previous solo releases, but doesn’t lose anything for it.
Lonesome Heights – Nagasaki
The new single by Lonesome Heights is a track that came out back in September while we were away, but we’re pleased to write about it now. Once you’re done with watching the video you can buy the track on iTunes.
Circ – Unself
The new track from Circ is called Unself and features vocals by Hane Laure.
Ez Stone – Moroccan Whiskey EP
Ez Stone’s Moroccan Whiskey EP is coming out next week on TLS Records – the new label set up by The Loft Sessions. For now, you can listen to the second track Old Man Soul on Bandcamp and pre-order the cd. The first hundred will be signed!
Waxwork Figurine – Peace With the World
Peace With The World is the new track from Waxwork Figurine. The first half is a little like some of Radiohead’s more electronic output, but then halfway through, the guitars kick in!
Eone – Dispersion
The new release on Numerology Records is another one which came out while we were on our holidays in September. Eone’s Dispersion EP has got deep house beats for the dance floor, and enough detail and ambience to make it worth a listen through headphones too.
Invokal, Asbest & The Paragraph Pirates – Yo Ho Ho
The new hip hop poetry from Invokal comes in a variety of different versions – Jungle Step, Glitch Hop, Electro Hop and Space Funk – and is available to download now on Bandcamp.
Moulettes – Songbird
Our last track in this mammoth roundup is my favourite from Moulette’s album The Bear’s Revenge. The band have just finished all of their touring and promotion for the record, and to put a close to that chapter are giving away the lovely Songbird as a free download.
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