As Rob has been meticulously drip-feeding his top twenty from 2014 into the blog over the last few weeks, I thought I’d provide an alternative listing just to show the diversity of our blogging tastes. That meant, no duplication with the Rob-o-Sphere, and so out went Curxes, Cate Ferris, Fear of Men, all of which were excellent in my book.
That left me with the following selections capturing ten (well, eleven) of the brilliant sounds and songs that emerged from our fair city over the last year in a shambling semblance/pretence of order:
1 Bentcousin – Dizzy
These terrible twins have been drip-feeding the cosmos with some ace songs, but this was the killer track for me released on a vinyl 7 inch and with some super Brighton-relevant rapping from Rory P.
2 yourgardenday – Something in the Music
A gorgeous plea for tolerance and harmony and a love of music, this had a limited release last year as lead track on Robin Coward’s Flat Stream EP, finally getting a full on-line release this summer.
3 Time for T – Free Hugs
An adorable band writing some adorable songs, this slunk of 70s soul has a great chorus and a charming video in which the band spend the whole song hugging Brighton people. Did I say it was adorable?
4 Sharon Lewis – Boxer’s Glove
Released right at the tail end of last year, this came from the Simple Things EP that accompanied Sharon’s excellent album, a melancholic tale of domestic violence, harsh but beautiful.
5 Fragile Creatures – Fragile Creatures
This band write some classic pop and none better than this – the self-named winner from their first EP which came out this summer.
6 Ellie Ford – Low
Singer-songwriter who had her debut EP re-released by Hidden Trail Records this year, from whence came this song, and also released an excellent covers EP. Ellie Ford is a singer who just gets better and better and her debut album should come out next year.
7 AK/DK – Maxwell’s Waves
This track comes from their album titled ‘Synth + Drums + Noise + Space’ which kind of sums up their sound without the excitement of their stunning live shows.
8 Slum of Legs – Razorblade the tape
This band are manic live, and their initial punky 7″ single on the Tuff Enuff label captures just half of this energy. This was the b-side.
9 Fiona Sally Miller – Lanterns
From one of three EPs released on the same day, this was one of the proper songs rather than the underwater experimental or live tracks, but like so much of Miller’s work it sounded magical.
=10 The Delta Bell – Wasted
Hiawatha Telephone Company – Dave
‘Wasted’ is a classic rambling country song sung by the gorgeous tones of Kate Gerrard and hit all the right notes in my book.
Shamelssly squeezing an eleventh song into my top ten I’ll come clean and admit that I had a hand in ‘Dave’, but it’s a song that ought to resonate in 2015 it being election year. Ripe for a cover, but for now we have this.
New Music – Oslo Parks, David Harks, Fragile Creatures, Troves, Clay Cats, Garden Heart, Thyla, Fable, Thieves by the Code, Crayola Lectern, Curxes
We’ve got a bit of catching up to do with our new music posts – we haven’t made one since the first week of August. Consequently, we’ve got eleven new tracks to serve up for you.
First is thew new track from Oslo Parks. The Night is the double a side to Twin, which we wrote about back in July, and is out today on 7″ on X Novo records. The band play their debut gig at the Green Door Store on 2nd October.
David Harks was brought to our attention by our friends over at Breaking More Waves who despite being based fifty miles up the coast are sometimes better in touch with some parts of the Brighton music scene than we are. Open Arms is one of those tracks that we wish we’d heard when the sun was shining and the temperature was nudging at thirty degrees. It oozes summer from every pore – blissful house beats, steel drums and a breathy male vocal. Fantastic stuff.
Fragile Creatures eponymous new EP comes out on 31st August. Sunshine did the rounds earlier in the summer, and now you can get your ears around Stowaways, another lovely slice of guitar pop. The EP will be available via the usual download sites, and the band are headlining at The Komedia on 12th September.
Youth in Decay is the debut track from new Brighton synth-pop trio Troves. There’s not a great deal of info about the band out there yet, but we’ll be keeping a very close ear to the ground and keeping you up to date:
Clay Cats put out their Soap EP a couple of weeks ago. If you like the sound of the title track that we’re featuring here, you can grab the whole EP over on Bandcamp, and you can catch the band at Brighton Arts Club this friday.
Garden Heart have just put out their debut single Cure, loaded with three part female harmonies and indie guitars. It’s being followed swiftly with a self titled EP which is out on 17th September, and the band are playing a launch show at Bleach on Tuesday 16th September.
One of the supports for Garden Heart’s debut gig is Thyla, who just last week posted up a video for their track Cornfields, which will appear on their upcoming debut EP War which is due in October:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLXpJan3Q_s
Stranger in my Head is the second track to be put up from Fable‘s debut EP Parasite, which has a release date of 13th October. It’s not quite as harsh as I Speak Words which we featured a few weeks ago, but still features uncompromising electro beats and vocals which belie the face that Fable has only just turned nineteen:
Thieves by the Code have just announced details of their debut album Tales from the Green Muse and Beyond. It’s out on 4th October, and to whet our apetite they’ve put up So Slick:
Last week the world was greeted with the sad news of Robin Williams’ passing. The latest upload from Crayola Lectern, a new track called Mork, isn’t a cheap cash in on a tragic event, but a track written for his second album which had been mastered and approved by Williams people before events overtook matters. In Crayola Lectern’s own words:
“This track was mixed a couple of weeks ago for the upcoming second Crayola Lectern album. It is the centrepiece of the album like Trip In ‘D’ was for the first. I’d been in touch with Robin Williams’ fan club asking about how to get a copy to him for his approval and had received a reply. Then, a few days later came the awful news of his demise.
Ironically, this song is very much a celebration of the magic spark that ignites the spirit and gives life; it even charts a life, starting at the crib and ending with old age. Robin Williams, to me, always had a unique way about him which cut through to the essence of humanity and my ‘Mork’ was just an attempt to use his character to make that representation, in a way which celebrates our existence on this planet.”
Finally, we posted about Curxes new single Valykrie in our most recent New Music post, which was subsequently released on 18th August. The track was backed with an instrumental and a four to the floor remix from Deluxe Flamingos which we’re happy to share with you here:
July Top Ten
How is it August already? July seemed to shoot by, probably because so much of it was spent outside soaking up the sun. Here’s our pick of the top tunes we heard last month:
1 Bentcousin – Dizzy
It seems like forever since we wrote about Dizzy, Bentcousin’s ode to summer in Brighton, and it was a while ago – back in the middle of June. But it came out on 7″ on 1st July, so gets the honour of taking top spot in our July round up.
2 Eagles for Hands – Glass Heart
Conversely, Glass Heart was one of the most recent things we wrote about. There’s also now an alternate version on Spotify too.
3 Caveman Genius – Hand Drawn Paradise
The new Caveman Genius EP isn’t out yet (despite what we might have written when we first mentioned it), but if it’s all as good as Hand Drawn Paradise, then we’re prepared to wait.
4 Oslo Parks – Twin
Oslo Parks are one of a number of new electronic pop bands who have sprung up in Brighton, part of a trend that you won’t find us complaining about.
5 Fragile Creatures – Sunshine
Another sun related song in our top ten – the fantastic weather in July obviously affected us. Fragile Creatures’ new EP is due soon, and there’s word that we might get to hear another track from it before the release date.
6 Demob Happy – Suffer You
Demob Happy are a bit more melodic than usual in their latest offering Suffer You which appeared on Soundcloud last month. The band also announced details of their first headline UK tour, which concludes in Brighton on October 16th at Bleach.
7 Soph Nathan – Our Girl
Soph Nathan’s ethereal shoegazey dream pop has been getting lots of plays at Brighton Music Blog HQ
8 Steve Elston – Dear Em
Dear Em is the title track from Steve Elsom’s new EP / mini-album of lovely acoustic folk pop. It was hard to pick one track to put in our top ten since the whole EP is quite blissful.
9 Lion Bark – Come into my Arms
Come Into My Arms has been getting plays on BBC 6Music and XFM, so we’re happy to include it in our top ten
10 Thomas White – Lose That Girl
Most of what we hear about via the blog is original music, but when Tom White covered the whole of Saint Etienne’s Good Humor we paid attention, as should you.
new music – Bentcousin, Demob Happy, Dark Horses, Black Black Hills, Cate Ferris, Japanese Sweets, Fragile Creatures, Eva Bowan
The World Cup’s over with for another for years, so you can all turn your attention to music again. It’s less than a week since we last posted up a new music update, but we’ve still got eight tracks to share today.
First up is the video for Bencousin‘s new single Dizzy, which features Pat an Amelia larking around on the beach with surprisingly few people about.
Demob Happy‘s latest offering is a track called Suffer You, less than three minutes of melodic, breathless rock:
New first track from the upcoming Dark Horses album Hail Lucid State (due out on 28th August) actually surfaced a few weeks ago, but we were caught napping. Slightly late to the party, here’s Live on Hunger:
Up until last week, we were under the immpression that maybe Black Black Hills had split up – the only activity this year on their facebook page has been about their lead singer’s new solo project Rooster Cole. There’s still no news on their facebook page, but a new track called Beneath The Soil has appeared on Soundcloud:
As a stopgap before her new EP arrives Cate Ferris has uploaded a new track to Soundcloud. There’s no loops or big vocal acrobatics on Bad Day, just beautiful folk harmonies:
Owen from Speak Galactic ambient project Japanese Sweets has a new video online. Tune out and let Coming To With Yr Friends Around You wash over you:
Sunshine is the first track out there from the upcoming Fragile Creatures EP. The EP is due later on in the summer, with no firm date yet although the launch will be at the Komedia on Friday 12th September:
Last but by no means least is some more ambient, this time from Eva Bowan. Her facebook page says that Peach Parfait is “the most sunny song I’ve ever made” and comes with a gorgeous video from videographer Robin White:
Weekend Gig Picks
Here’s our choice of the best local bands to see around town this weekend. As always, we’re spoiled for choice.
Tomorrow night we’ll be heading down to Latest Music Bar for The Beautiful Word’s launch for their new album Particles. Support comes from The Common Tongues and the brilliantly named Emperors of Ice Cream. Meanwhile, over at Brighton’s newest venue Bermuda Triangle (tucked in alongside Digital) Theo Verney and Bad For Lazarus are supporting Traams for the launch of issue number three of Boon Magazine. Also on Thursday is Fragile Creatures second curated night at the Blind Tiger. This time around they’re bringing along Octopuses for some live music and The Maydays for Wheel of Fortune Karaoke.
Friday Night is this month’s Les Enfants Terribles, who have a great line up as ever. Top of the bill at the Blind Tiger this month is Plum, a relative newcomer to Brighton who has plenty of accomplishments under her belt – earlier this year she was awarded Best Electronic Artist at the Scottish Music Awards. Alongside her are Phantom Runners who have recently been making the video for their new single and local Math Rock trio Patchwork Natives.
On Saturday Night, Brighton’s Finest host an evening at The Old Market. The night is headlined by The Mojo Fins, but it’s also worth noting that it’ll be your last ever chance to see support act Apples and Eve live before they split up and go their separate ways.
Weekend Gig Picks
We’re going to kick off this week’s round up of the best local gigs with probably the fastest selling out local gig of recent times. Nick Cave may have been born in Australia, but he’s been a Brighton Resident for many years, and this Thursday he brings his Bad Seeds to Brighton Dome as part of their Push The Sky Away tour. If you didn’t manage to get a Nick Cave ticket and fancy some live music tomorrow night, then Physics House Band are supporting Jaga Jazzist at the Old Market.
On Friday night a couple of regular Brighton live music nights have got some great line ups. At the Blind Tiger, Les Enfants Terribles have Tigercub headlining, alongside Plasticine, Great Pagans and Skirts, and then later on at Sticky Mikes Late Night Lingerie have a bill consisting of Spit Shake Sisters, The Querelles, Vyypers, Thee MVPs and Slagcan.
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Sticking with regular nights, Saturday is the next Source New Music night at the Dome Studio Theatre. Recent Source cover stars Traams headline – technically they’re not a Brighton band (they’re from Chichester), but they are signed to Brighton label FatCat, they do play most of their gigs here, and they are a fantastic live band. Support comes from Teardrop Factory, Cousin and Last Heir. Saturday is also Oxjam Brighton day, where for a five pound wrist band you can see dozens of bands all over town at different locations, kicking off from 12 o clock. Full line up details are on the flyer below – our picks are BentCousin, who will be playing at the Seven Stars at 6.30, and Fragile Creatures on at 9pm at the Hobgoblin.
Weekend Gig Picks
It’s a bank holiday weekend, so we’ve got a bumper round of gigs to tell you about this week, extending all the way out to Monday.
On Thursday night Juice FM return to the Haunt for a series of gigs showcasing local bands that they’re calling IntroJuice-ing. On the first of these DrDr launch their new EP with support from Dirty Damn Humans and Vaude Villains. It’s also the first night of Fragile Creatures residency at The Blind Tiger, and they’re joined by Mynie Moe. As well as that, TigerBiteFever launch their Love Is Strange EP at Latest Music Bar.
There’s another two launches on Friday night. Speak Galactic and P For Persia launch their split 12” at the Green Door Store, and yourgardenday launch their Flat Stream EP at St Andrews Church.
Late night on saturday at Sticky Mikes, The Repeat Prescriptions play their last show for a while, supported by The Space Agency.
At The Edge of the Sea is a festival curated by The Wedding Present which has been running at the Concorde over the August Bank Holiday Weekend for a good few years now. This year The Wedding Present play George Best on Saturday and The Hit Parade A-sides on Sunday. Support comes from his 90s pop incarnation Cinerama playing the two sides of their debut Va Va Voom across both nights, and a whole host of supports including Brightonians Dog In The Snow, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers and Monster Bobby.
Finally, if you’re still standing come Monday night, get down to the Green Door Store where Kill Moon headline, with Puppet Kings, The Hunger Pact and The Downing Street Years also on the bill.
New Music
We’ve been keeping our ears to the ground for new music coming out of our fantastic (if a little litter strewn) city, and here’s what we’ve heard recently.
First up is Gaps whose new video Keep You appeared online today. Keep You is appearing on a double on a double A side single with Cascade (which you can currently hear on the band’s Soundcloud page) on Sexbeat Records on 15th July. Keep You sits somewhere between Folktronica and Dream Pop, and we like it a lot.
Dead Captain‘s debut EP is out next week. We don’t know a great deal about it, other than it’s going to consist of five tracks, and that the video for lead track Maybe Maybe came out yesterday. Take a look here:
There’s big news from the Tiny Dragons camp – their tune Canvas has been remixed by Pact and picked up by Kitsune for their latest mix cd. Kitsuné Soleil Mix 2 is out July 1st and sees Tiny Dragons alongside the likes of Hot Chip and Two Door Cinema Club!
Fragile Creatures eponymous new single Fragile Creatures was posted up to listen to on Soundcloud earlier today. It’s another catchy pop tune from the band, who also recently announced that they’re be curating a series of gigs at the Blind Tiger later this year.
Finally, we’ve got the video for Pure & Apart by Tyrannosaurus Dead, the lead track from their forthcoming EP Pure // Apart due out soon on Odd Box records. We first gave a preview of Sadie which is also on the EP back in January, so we’re pleased that the rest of the tunes finally seeing the light of day.
Weekend Gig Picks
May’s a funny months for gigs. One one hand it’s quite possibly the best month in the year – The Great Escape comes to town and there’s so much going on for Brighton Festival and Fringe. But on the other hand there are so many distractions that a lot of bands lay low until there’s a chance that they’ll be heard. So even though this weekend is a Bank Holiday, things are starting to look a little bit thin on the ground.
On Thursday night Rich from Heliopause is putting on a gig at the Hope. His own band and Ingrid Plum act as support from Canadian Ingrid Gatin. Meanwhile, at Sticky Mike’s, BrightonsFinest are putting on Fragile Creatures.
Be Nothing promotions are celebrating their second birthday on Friday night at the Blind Tiger. There are five bands on the bill headlined by Girl Band, with local representation from Tourist and Adolescent.
Our pick for Saturday night is another gig at the Blind Tiger – Brighton’s King Porter Stomp are joining forces with Bristol’s First Degree Burns for what promises to be a fantastic ska / hip hop collaboration.
Jumbo Easter Weekend Gig Picks
Normally our weekend gig picks have events from Thursday night onwards, but with the weekend starting a day earlier this week thanks to Easter, let’s kick things off from today.
Tonight Rizzle Kicks headline the Dome in a charity fundraiser for Audio Active. We wrote about the opportunity for a local act to support them – congratulations to Frankie Stew and Harvey Gunn who won that honour. Alternatively, at the Green Door Store Abi Wade is support at the launch of Charley Bickers album Our Frail Hearts.
On Thursday, it’s the monthly Source New Music night with Jennifer Left, Laish and Le Juki. This month, rather than being at the Dome Studio Theatre, it’s at Church Street Bar, which will offer cabaret style seating. Our other pick for Thursday Night is The Beautiful Word, who are playing a hometown show midway through their national tour which is hosted by Communion.
We’ve also got two picks for Friday Night. The first is Les Enfants Terrible – a new monthly night being held at the Blind Tiger bringing you new Brighton talent. Bands on for their first night are We Spies, Lion Bark, Animal Language and Girlfriend. Our second pick takes us up to the Green Door Store, for their regular Pelirocco Platters night. New Street Adventure, Tiny Dragons and The Chances are on the bill.
Saturday sees Fragile Creatures at the Blind Tiger, supported by Garden Heart and Land of Youth, and on Sunday we’d recommend heading up to the Green Door Store where House of Hats and Jacko Hooper are supporting Tom Staniford, or over to the Blind Tiger where Sweet Sweet Lies are supporting Louis Barabbas.
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