The Return of Nanocluster

It’s been a bit quiet on the blog over the summer, as the local scene always gets quiet in festival season (although there has been a few gigs where we haven’t taken so many photos, which just ended up on our Insta feed). Gigs are firmly back now though, and last night saw the return of NanoclusterImmersion‘s live night where they invite guests to collaborate for a week culminating in a performances at the Rosehill. As noted last night, it’s been four years since the last local Nanocluster (although they took the event to SXSW festival earlier this year), and it was a joy to see the event return. Last night’s guest was Cubzoa AKA Jack from Penelope Isles, who brought psychedelic guitar squalls to Immersion’s kraut based electronica, all accompanied by visuals that I assume were put together by Malka Spiegel, judging by the output of her personal Instagram feed, which featured emotive views of Brighton and beyond. There’s no word yet on when the next one will be, but hopefully it won’t be in another four years!

Thomas White at the Pipeline gallery

Apparently it’s been ten years since Thomas White last played a solo gig. It’s not like he hasn’t been busy since – In that time there’s been a couple of Electric Soft Parade albums, the formation and retirement of The Fiction Aisle, unexpected ambient side project Queer Drone Freedom Ensemble, and drumming duties with Rose Elinor Dougall (and more recently with The Waeve). For much of the latter years of that period though, as he explained onstage last night, he was beset with writers block, which only lifted when his father passed away. He’s back writing songs again now, with a new EP on it’s way shortly, and this was intimate gig was the first opportunity to play some of those songs, as well as highlights from his extensive back catalogue and the odd cover.

Support came from M. Butterfly, Unholy Jo (who was responsible for encouraging Thomas to play live again) and 3D Jesus.

click through to the pics to view large

The Go! Team at Chalk gallery

Last night the Go! Team played their first hometown gig for five years. Since then, they’ve released two albums – Get Up Sequences Part One, and Get Up Sequences Part Two, and this gig was the final date of the tour promoting Part Two. The set covered their whole career – they played at least one song from each album, but the night lent most heavily from their debut (which they noted turns 19 this year) and their latest records. The set list (if you can’t read upside down from the first photo) was:

Let the Seasons Work
Mayday
Ladyflash
Divebomb
Get it Together
I Loved You Better
Semicircle Song
Huddle Formation
The Scene Between
Gemini
Going Nowhere
Keys to the City
Everyone’s a VIP to Someone
The Power is On

(encore)
Whammy-O
T.O.R.N.A.D.O.

(click through the images to view large)

Fujiya & Miyagi at Patterns photo gallery

Last night Fujiya & Miyagi played a home town gig at Patterns as part of their tour to support their new album Slight Variations, and the band were on top form playing a set made up of a mix of tracks from the new album all the way back to Ankle Injuries. Support came Bunkr, who previously supported Fujiya & Miyagi back in 2016 under his Lost Idol guise.

The full set list was:

Non Essential Worker
Sweat
Uh
Digital Hangover
Freudian Slips
Extended Dance Mix
Transparent Things
Personal Space
New Body Language
Collarbone
Knickerbocker
Seratonin Roshes
Impossible Objects of Desire

encore:
Slight Variations
Ankle Injuries

Hutch at 234 Festival at the Green Door Store

This weekend Green Door Store held their annual free 234 Festival, which has been running since at least 2014 (see our post from way back then here). Various other commitments meant we couldn’t spend the whole weekend drinking beer and watching bands, as much as we’d liked to have done, but we did get along to see Hutch, who we’re big fans of. Visuals for the whole weekend were provided by the ever spectacular Innerstrings, who’s probably still sleeping it off now.

Click through the pics to view large:

Sairie – The Cinder Sheet EP launch

On Wednesday night we paid a visit to the Folklore Rooms for a gig to celebrate the launch of Sairie‘s new EP The Cinder Sheet. The EP was conceived over lockdown, when Emma and Jon from the band started playing around with covers from film soundtracks. Now expanded to a eight track EP and shared with everyone, the release leaps from French New Wave to Sci Fi to Morricone, all remade in Sairie’s psych-folk style.

Support at the gig from Alex Painter (from Great Pagans) and Maria Marzaioli (from Slum of Legs) new project YOU&TH, who pushed the folk window out to embrace jazz, loops, traditional Italian songs, and field recordings.

(click through the pics to view large)

Brighton Bands at the Great Escape (on film)

The Great Escape feels like a distant memory now. Everywhere else posted up their roundups days ago, but ours has taken a bit longer because of our bright idea to shoot on 35mm film , which means that we needed to wait for processing before we could even see the photos ourselves. Anyway they’re here now, so click through for our pics of ARXX at the Hope & Ruin, Lime Garden downstairs at the Hope & Ruin, Laundromat at BYX, Hanya at Presuming Eds, Hutch at East Street Tap, Plantoid at East Street Tap, Hanya (again) at Pryzm, Heights at the Komedia, and Johanna Bramli at Hotel Pelirocco.

 

Great Escape First Fifty at Chalk, featuring Heights and Isabelle Brown

Let’s talk about the Great Escape. And let’s not mess about, it is probably the single most important event in Brighton’s musical calendar (alongside it’s sister event the Alt Escape). We missed it last year and we missed it this year, but the festival have just announced their first batch of artists for the 2022 festival taking place 11-14 May. They call this release their “First Fifty” and to make a bit more noise about it they put a couple of gigs – one in London (where Brighton was represented by Lime Garden), and another at Chalk where local newcomers Heights and Isabelle Brown supported Sam Ryder. They invited us along, we brought our camera, and you can see our pics below (click through to view large)

The full Great Escape line up can be found here

Lime Garden at Mutations Festival

Last weekend was Mutations Festival. We were only there for one day as a punter, and we only caught one local act, but here are our photos of them. Lime Garden are one of our favourite bands right now (check out their new single Clockwork), and we look forward to what they come up with next. Click through to view large