New Music – Fear of Men, Flash Bang Band, Foreign Skin, IYES, Fujiya Miyagi, Fool’s Empire, Faux Flux, Anushka

Posted on 03/06/2014 by brightonmusicblog

It’s been a frustrating week for us – our internet has been playing up and we haven’t been able to make half the posts that we wanted. As time has passed we’ve ended up with more and more to add to our regular new music post, so here we go, with more music than normal:

Fear of Men have spent the past few months supporting Pains of Being Pure at Heart on tour in America. Next week the tour moves to Europe, starting in France, so to celebrate the band have recorded a French version of their single Luna:

It’s not just Fear of Men who are off to Europe on tour next week – Flash Bang Band are too. Here’s a brand new video for Young Rogue from their album Bite Your Tongue that they’ve posted to celebrate, made up of footage from last year’s European tour.

The latest new music from Foreign Skin is a video of a live remix of Draper’s Electricity. You can catch Foreign Skin performing in the flesh at the Green Door Store on 26th June supporting Bernholz:

Sticking with remixes by Brighton acts, here’s IYES remixing 1965 by Zella Day, taking something that Lana Del Ray wouldn’t be ashamed of into electro wonderland:

This Friday we’re off to see Fujiya & Miyagi, supported by AKDK. You don’t have to wait until then to hear them in the same room though. Here’s Flaws from Fujiya & Miyagi’s new album remixed by AKDK:

Fool’s Empire release their debut EP on 16th June and have a launch party at the Green Door Store on the same day. Here’s the title track This Is Not For You:

Faux Flux put out a new single yesterday. You Know follows on from the electro pop of last year’s Come Alive and Week Long War releases:

Last, but by no means least, is the massive new tune from Anushka. Mansions is taken from the band’s upcoming album Broken Circuit. Huge wobbly bass, jittery beats and gorgeous harmonies

April Top Ten

Posted on 04/05/2014 by brightonmusicblog

April was another great month for Brighton music with some fantastic albums being released as well as some lovely one offs for Record Store Day. May’s already shaping up nicely too but until then, here are our favourite tracks from last month:

1. Eagles for Hands – Handprints

Handprints is the sound of the party starting – lots of cowbell, housey piano and uplifting vocals. Eagles for hands are top of our list of bands to catch at the Great Escape next week – they’re at Coalition on Saturday night at 2.30am, and also at KLDSCP’s party alongside Caveman Genius and Foreign Skin and a whole host of other acts.

2. Fujiya & Miyagi – Flaws

Fujiya & Miyagi’s new album Artificial Sweeteners is out on Monday, although if you get down to Resident today they’re already selling signed copies. Flaws is the first single and is a great indicator of what to expect from the rest of the record – classic Fujiya & Miyagi with more electronics thrown into the mix. There’s still a few tickets left for their gig at the Haunt on 6th June but it will sell out, so I’d get a ticket sooner rather than later.

3. Fear of Men – Luna

Luna is the first single from Fear of Men’s brilliant new album Loom. If we didn’t love the track (which we do), it might have warranted a place in our top ten just on the basis of the utterly beautiful packaging – a fanzine written by the band and a clear flexidisc (along with download codes).

4. AK/DK – Maxwell’s Waves

AK/DK’s new album Synth + Drums + Noise + Space was one of our highlights this month. The lead track is the bleepy Maxwell’s Waves, and electronic krautrock rush. AK/DK are the support at Fujiya & Miyagi’s gig at The Haunt that we mentioned earlier.

5. Curxes – Jaws

In April, Curxes put out Precurxor – a roundup of of old tracks and demos to keep our interest while they get on with the business of recording their proper debut album. It’s definitely working for us. Our highlight is Jaws, which captures the urgency and power of their live shows.

6. Winston & Goldstein – Ode to a Massive Obsession

When we heard that Jacqueline from Kins had a new project, we didn’t envisage Winston & Goldstein, whose main influence seems to be mid-nineties alternative dance music from what we’ve heard so far. There’s a heavy hint of Leftfield in Ode to a Massive Obsession, which can only be a good thing in our book. Oh, and the video is all kinds of brilliant too.

7. Blood Red Shoes – Speech Coma

Speech Coma is the new Blood Red Shoes single. The the chorus goes “I can’t get the words out / I can’t get the words out / It’s like someone cut out my tongue”. And so does the video. Quite literally. Not for the faint hearted.

8. Cate Ferris – Gotta Do Better

We haven’t got a media link for Gotta Do Better, the latest offering from Cate Ferris. The only way to hear it is to sign up to her page on PledgeMusic, where she’s currently raising money for her new EP.

9. Cleff – Restart

Restart is on Cleff’s new Listen In EP, a lovely blend of electronic and classical music. We posted open the EP’s opening track Big Ideas earlier this month, but it was Restart which got under our skin.

10. Fickle Friends – Play

Fickle Friends have got a real knack for a catchy pop song. We loved Swim earlier this year, and they’ve done it again with Play. Fickle Friends are another band who are on our list for the Great Escape, playing at the Green Door Store on Saturday night, and at the Mesmerist on Saturday afternoon.

New Music – Fujiya & Miyagi, Blood Red Shoes, Eagles for Hands, Aashton, Fear of Men, King Porter Stomp, Cleff, Adolescent

Posted on 21/04/2014 by brightonmusicblog

We’re currently in the middle of an extra long weekend, so we thought we’d celebrate by posting up an extra long New Music Post for you all.

First up, Fujiya & Miyagi have posted a video for their new single Flaws, taken from their upcoming album Artificial Sweeteners. Tickets are selling fast for the album launch at the Haunt on 6th June:

Blood Red Shoes have also posted up another video for one of the tracks from their new album. Speech Coma is a rather bloody and dark black & white affair, probably not one to watch if you’ve just had your breakfast. The band pay a hometown gig at the Concorde this friday which we’re really excited about:

Eagles for Hands have a new single out called Handprints. They’re back to dancier territory after their collaboration with Sivu that we posted last month and we like it a lot – bright percussion, chopped up vocals and a housey piano line that ties it all together. Nice and cheap on iTunes at the moment too.

Sticking with house music, Aashton features on a new EP being put out by Sccucci Manucci next month. The Nine Bows EP will be out on double 12″ on 9th May and kicks off with Aashton’s track I Can’t Shake It:

Fear of Men have posted up a couple of tracks as a taster for their debut album which gets released tomorrow. Since we got the promo, Loom hasn’t left our stereo, and The Line of Best Fit have just given it a 9/10 review. Descent is going to be the second single from the album, but there’s no details of a release date just yet because first single Luna got held up at the press because of Record Store Day.

King Porter Stomp have a new single out, available right now as a name your price download from Bandcamp. There are two links to share in addition to the video for Still Running – There’s the link which gives you the single, the instrumental and the acapella, and there’s a remix package too.

Cleff released their debut EP last week. The six track EP is callsed Listen In and is out now via iTunes. Here’s EP opener Big Ideas:

Last, but by no means least, is a new video from Adolescent. Golden Halls Part Two is taken from his upcoming Golden Halls EP which is out on May 12th on KLDSCP, with a launch party taking place on the same day at the Green Door Store.

Fear of Men Album Launch / Spectrum at the Dome Studio Theatre

Posted on 18/04/2014 by brightonmusicblog

On Tuesday Fear of Men launched their new album Loom with a gig at the Dome Studio Theatre. Loom is out this monday, but if that’s too long to wait, you can buy the limited edition coloured vinyl edition as a Record Store Day exclusive tomorrow. If even that’s too long, it’s currently streaming on Pitchfork.

The launch gig was the first of a new set of regular nights at the Dome called Spectrum, put on in collaboration with Resident Support on the night came from Grace Carter, Grasshopper and Abi Wade. Here’s our pics – as usual, click to view large:

Record Store Day

Posted on 15/04/2014 by brightonmusicblog

This Saturday is Record Store Day – a day to celebrate independent record shops, and a day when a whole load of records get put out on special edition vinyl. This year also happens to be Resident Records 10^th Birthday, so they’re laying on even more treats than normal. A host of local bands are putting out releases – Fear of Men are releasing a coloured vinyl edition of their album (which doesn’t get a full release until the following Monday), and Metronomy have a one sided 12” of Love Letters, as remixed by Soulwax. The full list of Brighton releases is below, with the full list of everything Resident will be stocking over on their website.

Anushka / Distorted Air EP 12″
Mark Chadwick / Red Sky 7″
Cuz / Tametebako LP
Natasha Khan + Jon Hopkins / Garden’s Heart 7″
Fear of Men / Loom LP
The Levellers / Carry Me 12″
Metronomy / Love Letters (Soulwax remix) 12″
Luke Sital Singh / Greatest Lovers 7″
The Wedding Present / EP4 Can 10″

New Music – Fear of Men, The New Union, Luo, Bentcousin, A Lily

Posted on 24/03/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s out latest round up of Brighton’s new music, with tracks from Fear of Men, The New Union, Luo, Bentcousin, and A Lily.

We’ve written about Fear of Men‘s new single Luna before (here and here), but now they’ve posted up the video, premiered earlier today over on Vice, featuring wrestling, archery and snake handling

The New Union‘s new single Now came out last week, and now you can download a free remix by Oxford’s Pixel Fix, where they’ve swapped the jangling guitars are swapped chilled beats:

Luo released a new three track EP today. Lapis Lazuli is a return to Luo’s earlier electronica style, but he promises that he hasn’t turned his back on prog:

BentCousin have got a new track up on Souncloud. Everything is apparently about stalking, not that you’d guess from the melodica and soulful backing:

Since our last new music roundup A Lily have posted up the last two cover versions which go to make up their Augury EP. You can download Cold Blooded Old Times (originally a Smog track), and The Hollows (a Why? cover) from their bandcamp page:

Fear of Men / Spectrum at The Dome

Posted on 11/03/2014 by brightonmusicblog

We’ve got two Fear of Men related things to write about today, so we thought we’d wrap them up in one handy blog post.

First is more info on their new single Luna, which we first posted about a fortnight ago. Art is Hard records, who are putting out the release on April 7th, describe the format as a Flexizine: a 20 page A5 fanzine – Fear of Men Quarterly – and a 7″ flexidisc. We put up the audio of A-side Luna with our earlier post on the single, and yesterday the b-side Outrun Me was premiered in the Guardian’s music section, which we can share with you now. The Luna Flexizine can be pre-ordered from the Art is Hard website.

The single Luna precedes Fear of Men’s debut album Loom by a fortnight. The Brighton launch takes place on 15th April at the Dome Studio Theatre (formerly the Pavilion Theatre) at a new night being held called Spectrum (formerly Source New Music).

With Source Magazine sadly retiring from it’s physical form, Brighton Dome have taken the opportunity to revitalise their new music project. As well as the new name, they’ve got a new partner in Resident record shop, and they’re also expanding the scope of what they do. Spectrum Live replaces the monthly music nights that they put on, which always had great line ups. On top of that there’s also Spectrum Seminars, which will give local musicians to learn more about the industry, Spectrum Site & Sound which will offer the opportunity for musicians to collaborate with film makers to create something within the Dome complex, and Spectrum Residencies which sees the Dome working with individual artists to develop their live act. We look forward to seeing how these develop over the coming months – no doubt there’ll be plenty of blog from us along the way.

Fear of Men / Luna

Posted on 27/02/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Fear of Men have announced the first single from their upcoming album Loom. Luna will be released on a 7″ flexi disc on 7th April on Art is Hard, preceding the album which is out on 21st April on Kanine Records (with a special edition being released for Record Store Day on 19th April).

Fear of Men play a launch party for the album at the Dome Studio Theatre on 15th April before playing some more gigs in London and New York.

Coming up : Fear of Men album news, New Union at Bermuda Triangle

Posted on 03/02/2014 by brightonmusicblog

Last week Fear of Men posted up the first teaser of their upcoming album – an anonymous video mysteriously entitled 3/2 lit only by candlelight with a simple vocal line sung in the near dark by Jess. It turns out 3/2 was a date, and now that it’s the 3rd of February detailed news has come out. Their debut album will be called Loom, and will be released on 21st April on Kanine Records, with a deluxe limited edition vinyl edition being released for Record Store Day. The opening two tracks Alta and Waterfall are currently streaming at Gorilla vs Bear, and you can pre-order the album at fearofmen.co.uk. The full tracklisting is: Alta / Waterfall / Green Sea / Vitrine / Tephra / America / Seer / Luna / Descent / Inside / Atla.

Something else that’s caught our eye thanks to this fantastic poster is an upcoming gig from The New Union – ever ones for strong artwork. They’ll be playing at Bermuda Triangle on Friday 7th March and will be supported by The Hundredth Anniversary and Fickle Friends. Tickets are a mere four pounds in advance.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Seven – Fear of Men / Seer

Posted on 07/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

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.