Most bands don’t get around to putting out one album per year, but in 2013 British Sea Power have managed two – the soundtrack to From The Sea To The Land Beyond (which they performed live at the Duke of Yorks earlier this year and released a week ago), and Machineries of Joy, hailed as both a mature album and one of their best. The single of the same name appeared in March and is the ninth door in our advent calendar:
One thing 2013 should be remembered for is the great summer we had. After a run of what felt like years of terrible, rainy, cold summers this year reminded us how summers ought to be. A good, hot summer deserves an appropriate soundtrack and Cate Ferris’ collaboration with reggae legend Nick Manasseh turned out to be just what we wanted to hear.
The brothers Alex and Tom White brought their Electric Soft Parade back to hometown Brighton for the first gig of a short pre-Xmas tour. Playing songs from their latest album ‘Idiots’, a contender for many people’s end-of-year best-of lists for sure, they … Continue reading →
For most of this year Fear of Men have been working hard on the debut album, which is nearly finished and due to hit the shelves in April 2014. To tide us over until then, the band put out their previous 7” and cassette releases together as a compilation called Early Fragments, which came out on coloured vinyl, cd and download back in February, then on tape for Cassette Store Day in September. The compilation came out with one unreleased track – a new tune called Seer which is what we’re featuring in our Advent Calendar for you here.
It’s been a busy year for the Nordic Giants – after a few years in which they only managed to release two EPs / singles in total (which both featured the same lead track – Shine – which appeared in last year’s advent calendar), the band managed to release a single and a double EP in the last twelve months. Speed The Crow’s Nest appeared in February, and then in October the Build Seas, Dismantle Suns EP was released in two parts at either end of a near sell out national tour.
We’ve picked Neotenie as the choice for our Advent Calendar – it comprises of their classic cinematic sound overlaid with samples prophesising big changes ahead, not necessarily for the best. We could have picked any of the tracks from the EP though – all fantastic stuff.
We might be approaching Christmas, but the new music keeps on coming, with five new tracks to share this week.
First up is Curxes with their new single Avant-Guarded. They hinted at the track with a series of videos on Youtube that we blogged about a couple of weeks ago. Avant-Guarded is another fantastic electro-pop assualt from the band and is out now to buy on Bandcamp.
On the first day of Christmas, Blood Red Shoes gave to us… The Perfect Mess. The band posted up QR codes in 10 cities across the world and said that they’d release the song once they were all found, which they were within 24 hours.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have recorded a new version of Higgs Boson Blues from this year’s Push The Sky Away. The new version is an epic, clocking in at more than nine minutes:
Normanton Street launch their Phoebe Freya EP on Friday Night at the Green Door Store. They’ve posted up one of the tracks – Juicy – as a taster on Soundcloud.
Finally Omnivert have got in touch to tell us about their new track which features Helen Ganya Brown, better known on the blog as Dog in the Snow. Chichijima is available as a name your prices download on Bandcamp.
Back in March, The Physics House Band put out the first release on their new label kldscp (named after their regular Kaleidoscope club nights held at Sticky Mike’s). It was a seven track compilation of local electronica, and the standout track for us was the blissed out beats of Foreign Skin’s Hoi Sum. Hoi Sum means happy in Cantonese – Flavia Aliverti was born in Hong Kong – and the track is certainly devoid of any negativity. Best enjoyed on a hot sunny day with a cool drink close to hand.
A Lily’s Lupa EP came out last month on Love Thy Neighbour, and it’s lead track – The Sparrow In the Lemon Tree – is absolutely gorgeous. Layers of lush strings, harp and delicate vocals interweave with quietly burbling electronica of the gentlest tracks in our list. You can catch A Lily live next Friday (12th) when they’re on the bill at the Green Door Store with Asgeir and Farao.
We’d been aware of Dog in the Snow for a little while, but it wasn’t until we caught them at the Green Door Store at their Two Three Four mini-festival in August that we really sat up and paid attention. There was something about the performance, and Helen Ganya Brown’s voice, and the music which as much art as it was rock, that set them apart from the other bands we caught. A few weeks later we were presented with sparse avant garde pop of Fire in the Sky, haunting and beautiful and our third pick for our Advent Calendar.
Day two of our Advent Calendar is one of Brighton’s finest live bands. Black Black Hills put out two singles this year and we’ve picked out the hip swaying rock’n’roll of Red Cabin.
As well as being a great song, Red Cabin has a fantastic video. We’ll let you watch it to work out just what makes it that little bit different. Things have been a bit quiet from in the Black Black Hills camp of late – no gigs since Playgroup festival and no social media updates since August. Hopefully there’ll be some more music from the band in the new year.
Brighton Music Blog 