July Top Ten

Posted on 01/08/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Want to know what’s been on the Brighton Music Blog stereo this month? Then read on:

1) Kins – Post Tropical Storm
Our most listened to track was Post Tropical Storm from Kins eponymous debut album. It’s powerful guitar pop, but the power doesn’t come from obvious hooks or direct choruses, but from it’s sonic quality. Tribal drums and layers of shimmering guitars coupled with angelic vocals don’t just elevate Kins’ songs above the rest but take them to a different place altogether.

2) The Electric Soft Parade – One Of Those Days
Our soundtrack to the summer is still Idiots by the Electric Soft Parade. One of Those Days effortlessly breezes out of the speakers with sugary sweet vocals, a light swirling guitar riff and shuffling drums. Here’s a live version from the album launch at the Green Door Store back in June

3) Cate Ferris – Blaze Bright
Another tune which has sounded amazing in the sunshine is Cate Ferris’ new single Blaze Bright. Who doesn’t love a bit of reggae in the summertime?

4) Champione – The View (feat. Lizzie Massey) / Tiny Dragons – Come Alive (PACT Remix)
Yes, Yes. This is two tunes. Well spotted. They’re both dance tunes with Lizzie Massey’s vocals at the forefront, the first in autotuned form on the title track from Champione’s recent EP, and the second as part of her band Tiny Dragons, remixed by PACT who also remixed their track Canvas for a recent mix cd released on Kitsune records. The unmixed PACT remix of Canvas is also on the download package of the Come Alive EP.

5) Crayola Lectern – Trip In ‘D’ (Version)
The past couple of month’s Top Tens have featured tracks from Crayola Lectern’s leftfield The Fall And Rise of … album which came out back in April. Never one to do things the way you’d expect, in July he released a single to go alongside it. Slow Down features in album and alternate versions, alongside a different version of the ten minute long Trip in D, which is the track we’ve selected for our Top Ten. The first eight minutes don’t stray too far from the territory laid down on the album version but just when you’re least suspecting it the track takes a sideways swerve and morphs into a motoric Krautrock monster, awakening the ghost of early period Stereolab.

6) TOY & Natasha Khan – The Bride
The Bride nearly didn’t get to feature in our Top Ten after we picked up the limited-to-250-copies 7” from Resident only to discover on first listen that it was damaged. Speedy Wunderground managed to find another copy from somewhere though and it hasn’t left our record deck since. Despite being a cover of an 70s psychedelic Iranian tune, it’s sounds surprisingly like what you’d expect a collaboration between Bat for Lashes and Toy might sound like – The piano lines and vocal inflections are unmistakably Natasha’s, and the thick chugging guitars match Toy’s trademark sound.

7) GAPS – Keep You
GAPS are probably our favourite discovery of the year so far. The band released their double A side Keep You / Cascade on Sexbeat records two weeks ago at a gig at the Green Door Store, and we put Cascade in our top ten last month. Keep You is the more beat heavy side of the 7”, but still has a beautiful pastoral quality to it:

8) Becky Becky – House Of The Black Madonna
We meant to write about Becky Becky’s album launch gig at the Green Door Store a few weeks ago, but it was a busy weekend for us and we ended up missing the moment. As live shows go, it was much more of a performance than most bands manage. Pulsating synth pop (provided by ex Fence Collective Peter Mason) was accompanied by is-it-real-or-is-it-an-act wine drinking from pint glasses and drunken behaviour from Woodpecker Wooliams. The closest reference point is something like The Knife, but this was more pop and less art. The House of the Black Madonna is from Becky Becky’s forthcoming album of the same name.

9) Us Baby Bear Bones – Sun
The Us Baby Bear Bones EP What Starts With a U Ends With an I is still getting a lot of plays at Brighton Music Blog HQ. As convenient as it may seem, Sun was already coming up as having the most plays of the five tracks last week before the rather chilling video got posted:

10) Limbic System – Distant Lands
Limbic System sent us their Beta Wave EP to listen to a few weeks ago, and the beautiful, fragile Distant Lands was the standout track for us. The band are holding their launch party for the EP at Latest Music Bar on 16th August.

New Music – Kins, Gazelle Twin, Cate Ferris

Posted on 15/07/2013 by brightonmusicblog

I was going to put up this blog post over the weekend, but I figured with the weather like it was you wouldn’t be in reading the internet, you’d be out in the sun.

Out of nowhere, Kins eponymous debut album appeared last week. Already picked out by many local commentators as an interesting live prospect, their first excursion on full length long player doesn’t disappoint. Sounding something like a more sonically experimental Foals, you can take a listen on the soundcloud below, and buy on iTunes here. We’ll be reporting from the album launch at the Green Door store next monday.

Following on from Gazelle Twin‘s Mammal EP from earlier this year, last week she released a split EP with I Speak Machine of Ultravox / John Foxx covers. The EP is entitled Exponentialism and is out now on Metamatic Records, and is available from the all good music retailers (including Resident). Here’s the video for Gazelle Twin’s version of Never Let Me Go from the EP:

Cate Ferris has a new 7″ out now on local label Roots Garden. Blaze Bright is a gorgeous piece of dub reggae co-written and produced by legendary producer Manasseh, which is ideal listening for these temperate days. You can pick up the 7″ from Roots Garden on eBay here, or you can buy it digitally from Juno here.

We’ve already written about GAPS new single Keep You / Cascade which is out today on Sexbeat. They’re holding the launch tonight at the Green Door Store. Support comes from Eagles for Hands and Hundredth Anniversary.

Cate Ferris at the Blind Tiger

Posted on 22/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We’ve written about Cate Ferris loads of times, and we’ll continue to do so all the while that we go along and see her and be impressed as we were last night, when she played at the Blind Tiger in a double headliner gig with Londoner A Little Unsaid.

Cate Ferris

If I’ve understated the power of Cate’s voice in posts in the past, it was easily summed up by the reaction of one audience member, who audibly exclaimed “wow!”, when Cate hit her first big note. It’s not just about the power though – using looping pedals she’ll often harmonise with herself midsong and get the harmonies just right. As she noted herself, just a few years ago she was a technophobe and would seen onstage with nothing more than her guitar. These days she has an array of keyboards, pedals and percussion, none of which are overused, Over time these extra additions to her set have been used in more subtle ways, meaning that the song comes first rather than the gimmicks.

The performance left whole room in the palm of her hand, even those who had seen her before, so much so that there was a shout from the back of “Are you single?” (to which there was a very stern reply of “NO!” from Cate’s boyfriend who was also in the audience!).

The set was made up of mostly new songs, from her recent Get Set Ready Go EP, and some which are going to feature on an upcoming Live EP, and closed with jazzy trip hop future classic “Fly”, which I recommend you go and look up on youtube. It’s a fantastic tube and was a real high to end her set on. If you haven’t seen Cate live, don’t miss out next time!

Cate Ferris

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 17/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Before we get onto this weekend’s gigs, we’re going to remind you all about Record Store Day. Hopefully you all know about this Saturday already, but did you know that as well as Resident getting involved, Borderline, Rarekind, Cult Hero, One Stop Records and RK Bass records will also be stocking some of the RSD exclusives. It’s sad that Rounder are no longer around to fly the flag, and a warning that you shouldn’t just go and support your local independent shops just one day of the year!

Anyway, onto the gigs. On Thursday we like the look of Tiny Dragons and Rotait on the support bill for Johnson and the Believers at the Green Door Store. If you fancy a bit more of a grand setting, Mountain Firework Company are on at Saint Georges Church in Kemptown.

Friday night’s pick is Brighton Music Blog favourite Laish, who’s headlining the Prince Albert supported by Emma Gattrill and Martha Rose.

Saturday Night we suggest you head down to the Blind Tiger where Flash Bang Band will be bringing their unique brand of indie pop to the party. Alternatively Cloud, Becky Becky and Kellar play at the Green Door Store.

We’ve also got a couple of picks for Sunday night – We’re very much looking forward to seeing Cate Ferris back in town at the Blind Tiger. She’s been on tour for a while and it seems like ages since we caught up with her. Over on the other end of town, it’s Brighton Folk night at the Brunswick, with Mike Newsham, Donna Fullman and Sam Green.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar / Day 22 / Nordic Giants – Cate Ferris – Dizraeli & The Small Gods

Posted on 22/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Today you might be thinking “How come there’s only a few days left but even more acts who’ve had great write ups on the blog?” or maybe you’re thinking “what’s going on with more than one act being in the description? Surely that’s cheating!”. Both are very good points. We’ll put our hands up and admit that when we were putting together our end of year list there were more than 25 bands we absolutely had to write about, and so for the last few days we’ve combined a few of our favourite acts in order to squeeze a few more people in. It’s also got around our dilemma of what to do about bands who’ve collaborated.

Nordic Giants first put Shine – sung by Cate Ferris – on their A Tree As Old As Me EP back in 2010. It’s such a great track that they re-recorded it this year and put it out as a standalone single. It’s got a fantastic b-side too – the Martin Luther King sampling Together. In theory, their live shows shouldn’t really work – bombastic post rock played just by two people, without the aid of any of their vocalists (they’ve worked with a different singer for each of their tracks). In practise, Nordic Giants are one of the best live bands in Brighton. but they don’t hide behind laptops, instead playing guitar / drums and piano / trumpet, stripped to the waist wearing masks and body paint, illuminated only by strobes during the louder parts of the songs. They play to a backdrop dark short films, and project video of the vocalists for each track into a separate box. If you haven’t seen them live yet, then do whatever you can get to get a ticket for the next time they play. They recorded their album earlier this month in Wales, and we can’t wait until that surfaces at some point next year.

Cate Ferris is someone else you really must see live. There are plenty of people who sing, play guitar and use loop pedals, but no one else who does it all so well and makes it all look so effortless as Cate, nor is there anyone else who’s so down to earth and warm in her performances. Seeing Cate play live is a complete joy, in her songs, her musicianship, and in the wonder she generates in the room. Her “Deep breath ready get set GO!” Ep was great too, proving that her live performance can translate into recorded material.

Cate also lends her vocal talents to folk / hip hop supergroup Dizraeli & The Small Gods, and Dizraeli’s wordplay definitely warrants a mention. The band had a single out in the latter part of the year – Never Mind – and around the time of it’s release we tried to catch up with Dizraeli to talk to him about it, but our diaries never managed to match up. It could end up as Brighton Music Blog’s great missed interview. Or maybe we’ll just have to make sure we catch up next time they’ve got something for us to write about instead.

Weekend Gig Picks

Posted on 12/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

So, we’ve got a veritable bonanza of weekend gigs for you this week. Last week I was musing that maybe things that might get a bit quieter in the run up to Christmas – how wrong I was.

Holy Vessels Let’s start this with Thursday – it is the start of the weekend after all. We’ll be heading down to the Concorde 2 to see Saint Etienne (with support from Scritti Politti – what a line up, eh?). Also on thursday night there’s Mr B‘s Chap Hop Christmas Ball at the Prince Albert. Holy Vessels play their album launch at the Blind Tiger, with support from Soccer96, Autumn Red, The Common Tongues and Songs For Walter. Last Orders at the Marshall Arms is out now and available from iTunes. Paul Diello plays his annual Christmas party at the Brunswick, and Alice Amelia plays the Constant Service.

Noise Night On Friday British Sea Power return with a special Christmas Krankenhaus at The Haunt. Our friends over at Brighton Noise are putting on their second night at the Green Door Store. They were turning people away from first one, so get their early to see Traams, Bitches and the fantastic Negative Pegasus. Transformer are launching their single Dragonfly at the Blind Tiger. Check out the Facebook event for more details and a look at the video. The last gig on our radar on friday is at the Coach House in Kemptown (not the pub on Middle Street), where Crayola Lectern headlines a “veritable melange of auditory delights”.

binge2poster On Saturday The Impellers hold their Office Christmas Party at The Brunswick, which is cheap to get into if you’ve got a ticket for Craig Charles later that night. If you’d like to start things a bit earlier on in the day, Beatabet kick things off at 1pm. They’ve got twelve bands playing at their Betabet Binge – P for Persia, Spacenoid, Napoleon III, Colectress, Speak Galactic, Laboratoro, Old Man Diode, Scalar Fields, Duot, Operator, Temple Decade and Burnt Toast. Phew!

art noise If you’ve still got any energy left come Sunday, then our top pick is Cate Ferris at The Neptune. There’s also an art event at the Blind Tiger called Wonderland, where Amongst The Pigeons, Them The Sky, Tiny Dragons, and the Elevators and Ribbon play in the evening. In yet another night in town with an above average number of bands on the bill, there’s also Club Criminal at Sticky Mike’s, starting from 5pm, with Trip to Dover, The Flip Flays, The Kut, Thieves by the Code, The Trophy Hearts, Childbrain and King Mews.

Brighton Source New Music November 2012 – The Miserable Rich’s last ever gig (for now)

Posted on 02/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

The format of the Source New Music Night changed a little bit this month, with the team at the Dome doing their very best to make sure that we all get to enjoy as much music as possible. Gone is the acoustic act in the bar downstairs, who never really got the appreciation they deserved, and instead a new mini stage was built to the side of the room. There’s still four acts, with the headliner hand-picked by The Source, and this they brought us the Miserable Rich’s last ever gig. For now at least – the band have decided that after five years they’re going to take some well earned time off.

If you got there early, you would have been lucky enough to have caught Ingrid Plum, who played a short set at 8pm. I say played, but Ingrid’s only instrument was her voice, singing her own acapella songs (and one by local legend Chris T-T), in the traditional unaccompanied folk style. It was a performance that captivated the room – a mean for the first act on!

Ingrid Plum

Next up, on the other side of the room on their new stage was Donna Fullman. We wrote about her album Inner World back in July, and have been kicking ourselves that we haven’t made it up to the Bull in Ditchling for one of her Sunday Night sessions, because Donna and her band’s set was lovely – a handful catchy, smooth folk pop songs.

Donna Fullman

Third act Cate Ferris has played Source New Music before, November last year, but back then she was the acoustic act downstairs who not nearly enough people saw. This time around she won over a whole room full of people who packed out the place for their last chance to see The Miserable Rich. What Cate does is nothing short of astonishing, using loops to build up beautifully told songs, and making it look effortless while doing so. And just when that’s impressed you, there’s the amazing voice. I’ve seen Cate many times over the last few years, and I reckon this is the best time I’ve ever seen her – the big stage really suited her. Next time, I reckon she’ll be the headliner.

Cate Ferris

Friday night was a special night not only for The Miserable Rich, but also for their fans, who had come from far and wide to see them for one last time. The songs they played were very much the crowd-pleasers – I lost count of the number of times I heard the words “this one’s my favourite” as I was angling to get a better photo. Tracks came from throughout their five year career, and they were re-joined by original guitarist Jim Briffett for some tracks. It wouldn’t have been right if there wasn’t alcohol involved and James was drinking whisky like it was water, and by the last song before the encore it was affecting his recall for lyrics. I guess he won’t need to be remembering them for a bit though! The night was closed was the band playing acoustically in amongst the audience – a magical moment to end this chapter of the Miserable Rich’s musical career.

The Miserable Rich

Weekend gig picks

Posted on 29/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Three weeks in a row. This IS now a regular feature! Except in a couple of weeks it’s Christmas, and it could all go to ruin, but we’ll do our best.

Our pick for Friday night is the Source New Music night at the Dome Studio Theatre (which you might still be calling the Pavilion Theatre). We’re a fan of the regular monthly night at the best of times, but this month’s is a bit special, being the Miserable Rich‘s last gig before they take a sabbatical. The night also has Cate Ferris, Donna Fullman, and Ingrid Plum. (It’s also a big night for non Brighton Musicians, with Beth Orton, Rodriguez, and Father John Misty playing around town. Happy Mondays and 808 State were also meant to be playing but that’s been put off until June next year)

Our choice for Saturday is a night called Endless Christmas at the Prince Albert – Saturday is the first of December, so we’ll let them get away with using Christmas so early. The night’s headlined by Surfin’ Lungs who are supported by local acts Los Fantasticos, Space Agency and Squadron Leaders. There’s not enough Surf Rock in Brighton, so it’s good to see this happening. This saturday is also the House of Hats next Harvest Sessions at the Brunswick, which comes highly recommended. Support comes from Conrad Vingoe and Kat Rose.

Weekend Round Up

Posted on 25/11/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Time to collect together a few bits and pieces that have dropped into our inbox recently. First up is a remix of Cate Ferris’ Doll on a Music Box by Talking Books:

Next up, the new video from The Levellers, who are making a video for every single track on their new album, which we’ll round up when they’re all done. Until then, here’s Mutiny:

The New Union have put up a video for the b-side to their single Without You. This is Home:

Finally, London Commands You (don’t be fooled by the name – they’re local!), have a new single out called Truth. And for the life of me, I can’t find a way to embed the video into the post. So you can click through and watch it here, or you can buy it via amazon here.

Tim Bidwell Interview

Posted on 24/10/2012 by brightonmusicblog

One of the phrases we seem to be writing almost as often as “Brighton Music Blog” these days is “produced by Tim Bidwell”. He’s had a great year, working with a lot of our favourite local acts – Jennifer Left, Cate Ferris, House of Hats… We thought it was about time he got a bit more credit, so we popped round for a cuppa a few weeks ago to find out to find out how he got to where he is and the bands that he’s worked with.

Around ten years ago, Tim was half of dance act Hardkandy. They released a few albums to critical acclaim but there was a nagging feeling that some of their fellow Brighton peers – the likes of Will Quantic and Si Bonobo – were getting some of the fame that they deserved. Even when he was making dance music, Tim was into his folk, and in 2006 formed the Folklaw label with Fin Greenall, known to fans of Ninja Tune as Fink, and Elliot Richards. The first album Tim produced for someone else was the The Gin Club by Nikolas Barrell, released by Folklaw in March 2007, and around that time Elliot spotted Kate Walsh playing in a pub in Brighton. The resulting number one album, Tim’s House, ended up being self released rather than coming out on Folklaw but kick started Tim’s career as a producer.

“When I first met Cate Ferris, I was a bit terrified of just how talented she is. With her EP, I produced it, but I didn’t really, it was Cate just playing around in the studio and me giving her the space to play around and just capturing her because she’s so full of energy and musically talented. I’d seen of her is doing stuff with the loop pedal on YouTube, so I got in touch with her and asked if she wanted to talk about working with me.

She’s got an amazing voice and she’s a good songwriter, and she’s doing great things and working with great people. For the EP she wanted to experiment with more different things in the studio and get away from the whole loop pedal thing.

She’s a lot like me, she’s quite a control freak musically. I’m not so much musically, but I am with projects, or giving a sound to something and I like giving a sound and working on the artwork even, for things and stuff like that. I like getting involved, whereas Cate’s a little bit of a genius.

“The Cordelia Gartside EP sounds beautiful. I’m really chuffed with it. Some of the best stuff I’ve done. I got some of the best players I know to play on it. We’ve got John Smith on guitar – he’s one of the best guitarists in the country and he loves Cordelia’s stuff. She’s off to college now, so she’s going to be writing away and hopefully we’ll be doing some more recording at Christmas when she comes back.

I’m really excited about Cordelia, she’s got a lot of potential and she’s a whole package, and she means what she does. She’s not interested in doing pop stuff, she’s really into Bon Iver and Laura Marling and people like that and she wants to be a credible artist. She’s not going to sell her soul to the pop devil, which is really refreshing.

I did the video for Fathoms’s Deep. She was so brave doing the stuff in the water. That STUNK! It was one of those peat lakes, so when she got in it, it just kicked up. I woke up the next morning and I was covered in bites. It was shot near Uckfield, some ancient woodland with a lake in the middle, it was beautiful. We got chavs throwing stones at us while were doing that which was a nightmare, but we got there in the end.

“House of Hats are great guys to work with. I’ve just recently finished their EP. which has just been released. That was a real labour of love – that took quite a while. They’re real perfectionists, especially with the vocals. They know what they like as well. I always like someone to take the lead vocal, but they wanted all the vocals at the same level. They all write the material, so it was difficult for me as a producer as well, because sometimes I wanted Al’s vocals to come out more, or Noddy’s vocals, because that’s just my instinct as a producer. That said, Rivers Will Run, the title track of the EP, is very much Al’s track. And Noddy sang on Home is Where the Heart is, and that’s beautiful, so there are a couple of tracks of theirs that have got that prominent vocal.

As well as all of the other production work that Tim’s done this year, his big project has been with Jennifer Left, co-writing and producing her forthcoming album Hushabye. He originally approached her about working on a solo project back in the days when she sung and played bass in Gloria Cycles, and things have finally come to fruition this year.

“Hushabye was all recorded here. I co-wrote it with Jen and a guy called Ewan Wallace. That took over a year to record, just taking our time. It was nice to write again actually. Both of them very talented and it was nice to do that. I’ve been producing for so long you don’t really get to write any more. It was nice to give Jen a sound too. Jen gave us a list of influences and we sort of forged the sound. To be honest the eleven tracks on the album were the first eleven tracks we did. A lot of people you have to write ten tracks to get one good one, but we were just quite pleasantly surprised by how it all came together. Obviously there was a couple of duff ones here and there that we got rid of, but overall we were really chuffed how it all came together. And it was that thing of giving her a sound that was kind of new but then sort of had elements of the Beatles, Django Rheinhardt, swing and jazz elements, but there’s also Grizzly Bear stuff and weird little elements here and there that just make it a little bit different with Jen’s voice. She’s mad as a box of frogs though!

Diggory is released on 5th November, and is backed with a couple of remixes as well as Jennifer’s gorgeous take on New Order’s Temptation:

The launch party is at the Blind Tiger on 8th November, where Jennifer Left is supported by The Maybirds – another band produced by Tim!

Cate Ferris and House of Hats EPs are out now, and Cordelia Gartside’s EP will hopefully be out before the end of the year.