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House of Hats at The Brunswick / Cate Ferris at The Neptune

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This weekend we went to two gigs which on paper, could have been very similar – Both were in Hove, in pubs, both were folk-based acts, and both featured performers who have recently made recordings with local producer Tim Bidwell. That’s where the similarity ends though.

Saturday night, House of Hats hosted their Harvest Sessions night at the Brunswick. The Harvest Sessions is a monthly affair put on by the band where they invite other people they’ve worked with onto the bill to share them with their audience. This month saw Cordelia Gartside (who’s also recently been produced by Tim Bidwell), Rob Vincent and Conrad Vingoe play with House of Hats.

Cordelia Gartside

I only caught the end of Cordelia’s set, but for someone so young I was impressed at how she held the room enthralled. Sometimes the simplest of setups – just a voice and guitar – can create wonderful things. Next up was Rob Vincent, who was very good, and had a fantastic voice, but isn’t from Brighton, so I’ll move on.

Conrad Vingoe

Conrad Vingoe was next onstage, fresh from playing at the Levellers’ Beautiful Days festival thanks to winning a set through an Acoustic Magazine organised contest. Conrad was playing with a slightly reduced band, since his regular mandolin player was playing with Emily Baker in Shoreham, and was just accompanied by double bass, as well as his own guitar and harmonica playing. It was easy to see that Conrad had the skills to win the set – as well as a quality performance, he was charismatic and friendly between songs too. He’s got an EP out soon, which I’m sure we’ll tell you more about nearer the time.

House of Hats

At the end of the night House of Hats came on, and played a relatively short set for headliners – I guess that’s that’s the price of having four bands on the bill. The band played a number of songs from their debut House of Hats EP, their upcoming Rivers Will Run release and even threw in a Dylan cover. Lead vocals were passed between guitarist Alex and multi-instrumentalist Noddy, and the close harmonies from the whole band sounded very slick indeed. It’s great to see a band who are working so hard and seem to be on track for big things also remembering the people they have worked with along the way.

Cate Ferris

Sunday night we were just around the corner, where Cate Ferris was playing at The Neptune’s regular music night. Cate was last invited to play at the Neptune back in March, and they enjoyed her performance so much that this time they gave her the whole evening to perform in, which she broke up into two forty-five minute sets. Most of this was filled with her newer material which starts off simply but builds up subtly with harmonic vocal loops and sampled drum or keyboard lines complimenting her acoustic guitar. It wasn’t all new tracks though – Cate also dug out old favourites Still Green and Bonnie & Clyde. The gig also marked the first outing of Cate’s new EP – “Deep Breath, Ready, Get Set, Go” is a new four track which isn’t officially out until next Monday, but was available on the night. After a marathon set, the crowd demanded more, so Cate improvised on the spot, building a song just made from harmonies layered over one another and looped – a raw exhilarating end to a fantastic performance.

 

Friday Video roundup with Ingrid Plum, Cordelia Gartside, Astro Physics and The Kingsmiths

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Here’s a few videos that have come our way recently – it’s been barely a week since the last one, but they keep rolling in. There’s some folk from Ingrid Plum, who’s playing at the Bleeding Hearts Club on 10th September and Cordelia who’s supporting House of Hats at the Brunswick tomorrow night, then some Hip Hop from Astro-Physics, and some indie rock from The Kingsmiths, so there’s definitely something for everyone there:

 

Ingrid Plum / Early

Cordelia Gartside / Fathoms Deep

Astro Physics / Chances

The Kingsmiths / My Best Error

Woodpecker Wooliams / The Bird School Of Being Human

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The Bird School of Being Human is the new album from Woodpecker Williams, out on 10th September on Robot Elephant Records.

The album is both challenging and comforting, bonkers and beautiful. It all starts off innocuous enough, with Gemma Williams (you didn’t think Woodpecker Wooliams was her real name did you?) proving that Brighton can match Joanna Newsome for quirky harpists. The first sign of discontent is at the end of opener Red Kite, where things break down a bit, but Gull brings back the strumming.

But then we have the new single Sparrow, and everything’s changed. The harps have gone. There’s wonky chopped up keyboards, and lots of reverb all across the vocals. Magpie has acoustic guitars and a queasy drone, and by the time we get to Crow (which got picked for the cover cd of this month’s Uncut), things get really messy and distorted. I’m sure I’ve had nightmares  which have sounded like this. Which is kind of a compliment – in that to actually capture the creeping fear and paranoia is quite a feat.

Then our palates are cleansed with Dove, as Gemma reminds us that there is beauty in the world. The harps swirl again, but this time recalling some of Bjork’s quieter moments from Vespertine. Finally the record closes with Hummingbird, the album’s triumphant moment. It builds slowly from a choir-like intro, then halfway through things pick up, vocals get looped, latin drums kick off, and the vocals are joined by trumpets and party blowers.

Less than half an hour after we started, the album’s done. You’ll want to listen to on repeat to go through all those emotions again and again, and I can guarantee you won’t hear anything quite like it this year. Sparrow is out as a single next Monday with remixes from Marcus Hamblett, Becky Becky and 182 Productions, and the album launch is at Saint Andrew’s Church on Saturday 8th September. You can pre-order the album from the Robot Elephant Website.

Apples and Eve / Dionysus

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Apples and Eve return with a new EP of gypsy folk out a week today. Dionysus is available to pre-order from the band’s website, and there’s a launch party at the Komedia next Wednesday (5th September), which hopefully we’ll be down at to report on. If you can’t wait a whole week, you can watch the video for Dionysus here, and listen to the EP below:

Tyrannosaurus Dead / Lemonade EP

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Tyrannosaurus Dead released their new EP last friday, called Lemonade, after the title track. The band haven’t strayed too far from their lo fi shoegaze sound of their previous releases, but have spent a bit more time working on the production, bringing things closer to the band’s vision of their sound. The EP was recorded at Lightship95 – a studio on a boat in the East End of London earlier this year.

To celebrate the launch the band played a free gig at the Green Door Store, which must almost be a home from home for them these days. Support came from Gum (who were also on the bands recent split-release cassette), Poledo and Ides.

The Lemonade EP is available to buy through Tyrannosaurus Dead’s bandcamp page:

 

Club Berlin featuring Call Me Jolene, Jennifer Left and Sweet Sweet Lies

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Not every event in Brighton can boast an Amy Winehouse impersonator as compere, but then not every event is Club Berlin, a new live night at the Jive Monkey which had it’s second outing this week. If an Amy Winehouse impersonator is a bit drunk and can’t remember all of the words to the likes of Rehab or Valerie, does that ruin the experience or make it more authentic? And was the drunkenness part of the act?

As I arrived, Dominic Von Trapp from Sweet Sweet Lies was performing a solo acoustic set. Accompanied on ukulele and guitar, Dom sang a host of tracks, most of which were familiar from his band’s album The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise. The songs stood up well – the songwriting is solid and Dom’s distinctive voice and delivery is one of the things that makes Sweet Sweet Lies special.

Next up was Jennifer Left, also playing with a pared down band to fit onto the tiny stage. No bass or drums this time around, but she was joined by her guitarist and incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist Helen, who played keyboard, trumpet, accordion and xylophone. Jennifer Left looked more like a pop star than ever, with her heavy eye make up and cool new bob making her look like a dark haired Dusty Springfield. To cope with the reduced set up the band played up the jazzier elements of their songs, which worked especially well on their cover of New Order’s Temptation, and rounded up with a preview of their new single due in October which I’m sure we’ll be writing more about nearer the time.

Finally we had Call Me Jolene, who appeared the most band-like with guitar, bass, drum and vocals, but were still reduced in numbers. Rather than play a stripped down set as the other bands had, they played to a backing track – rather disconcerting when a piano track starts playing mid-song with no keyboard player on stage! Despite the presence of ex-Gene frontman Martin Rossiter on bass, Call Me Jolene are very much about Sophie Pointer: her vocals are the centrepiece of each of the songs they played and she was the only member of the band to engage with the audience. The songs themselves are slick adult rock songs, one pitched as a future James Bond theme, and another pitched as Jolene’s response to Dolly Parton’s song that the band took their name from. Some of the band’s songs I’ve heard on Soundcloud have a bit of a country feel, but this wasn’t especially evident live – I’d love to hear more of that coming through.

Club Berlin returns to the Jive Monkey on Thursday 20th Sept and features IDC, Bela Emerson, Das Fenster and Saffron Reichenbacker.

Call Me Jolene on Facebook

Call Me Jolene on Soundcloud

New videos : Fragile Creatures, House of Hats, King Porter Stomp, and King of Cats

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We’ve come across a few videos in the past week or so which I thought I’d share. First up is Dear Michael by Fragile Creatures, which we wrote about back in June. They’ve finally got a video to go with their debut single. Next up is House of Hats with their next single Rivers Will Run. We interviewed them about their previous animated video not long ago. Then we’ve got the video for the new King Porter Stomp single which is out on Monday. Finally, we’ve got a new offering from King of Cats. We meant to write about his cassette that came out on Reeks of Effort a little while ago, but somehow got a bit distracted:

 

Fragile Creatures – Dear Michael

House of Hats – Rivers Will Run

King Porter Stomp – The Shuffle

King of Cats – Swelling Up

Speak Galactic / Precautionary Measures

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Back in February at Sea Monsters, Speak Galactic were one of the bands that really stood out for us – the intensity and the amount of ideas all fighting to be heard in their music are what all bands should strive for.

Nearly six months after they first caught our attention, Cupboard Music are releasing a new single and album by the band. The single, Precautionary Measures, is out on download right now, available to buy through Cupboard Music’s bandcamp page.

Things start off with woozy space age pop, but before long this is joined by arpeggiated keyboards, clattering drums, thick bass and multi tracked vocals. After a rather frenetic first half, things calm down for a bit before everything comes together again for the rather intense last minute.

Precautionary Measures demands to be listened on headphones or a stereo with decent separation: the tracks in each channel are just slightly different, as though they’re different takes of the same recording and background sounds bounce around from left to right. This doesn’t detract from the track though, and if anything makes it more engaging, making you listen to it closer to work out just what it is that’s drawing you in.

Precautionary Measures precedes the album Severed, which comes out on 24th September, on limited frosted 180gm heavyweight vinyl and slighly less limited download. The band are having a launch party at Fitzherberts on 15th September, supported by Us Baby Bear Bones and Plurals.

I am Ampersand / Holding the Negative up to the Light 7″

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Back in January, I only gave I am Ampersand’s debut single “20 Seas, 4 Oceans” a passing mention in a blog post with a few other videos that were around, which is a travesty because it’s fantastic – four minutes of sunshine psychedelic folk pop. Matt Hainsby’s second 7″ is just as good. Holding the Negative up to the Light crams in even more ideas that it’s predecessor without losing any of the charm. And being the sucker for nice packaging that I am, I can only say good things about the translucent orange vinyl that it’s pressed on, and the screen print that comes tucked into the sleeve.

 

Negative is a tune of two halves – in the first half of the song, the vocals are accompanied by acoustic guitars and strings and then at around a minute and a half the song crumples then revives itself with effervescent analogue synths which bubble along and bring a completely different dynamic to the second half.

I Am Ampersand’s album is due later in the year on the Great Pop Supplement label. On the strength of his first two singles, it should be a corker!

 

BIMM Live in Churchill Square

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A-level results are out today and if you’re considering studying for a future in the music industry, be that on or off stage, then the local choice ought to be BIMM (or Brighton Institute of Modern Music as nobody calls it). They’re celebrating their tenth birthday this year so to celebrate and to show people what they can produce, they’re putting on an afternoon of music in Churchill Square. Four bands are playing:

Rising Tide 12:30
Glass City Vice 13:30
Tiny Dragons 14:30
Elk 15:30

Tiny Dragons

If you’re interested in their courses as well as hearing live music they’re also holding an open day at their main building where you can meet staff to ask questions and see the facilities. There’s more info at www.bimm.co.uk/brighton