It was a sad day when Gloria Cycles split up back in 2010, but this year Jennifer Left has burst back onto the Brighton music scene. Now fronting her own band, and with a brace of songs written with producer Tim Bidwell and Bonobo’s guitarist Ewan Wallace, Jennifer Left is back. Over the year, they’ve released two singles – Black Dog and Diggory – and grown in confidence with every show they’ve played. They’re also one of two bands in our calendar this year who’ve covered New Order – check out their gorgeous bossa nova cover of Temptation.
Last thursday night, The Blind Tiger was the place to be in town as the great and the good of Brighton crowded in for the launch of Jennifer Left’s new single Diggory. Spotted amongst the crowd were other local artists, producers, record label bosses, magazine editors and photographers. Not bad for a chilly November evening.
The May Birds
Support came from The May Birds, one of the latest bands to pass through Tim Bidwell’s Clockwork Owl studio. Despite missing their piano player, a beautiful sound came from the stage – lovely harmonies and lush arrangements. I look forward to hearing their EP once Tim’s finished working his magic. If only the crowd had appreciated them a bit more though – In my opinion, the level of background chat was quite insulting. It might have been people not paying too much attention to the support band, or the acoustics in the Blind Tiger, or the May Birds being quite quiet, but if you’re at a gig have a bit of respect, eh? It’s not just me that thinks it’s bad manners – it was top of the list on the Source’s recent Gig Charter.
Jennifer Left
I mentioned last time I saw Jennifer Left that she’s had a bit of a transformation of late into more of a pop star. It could be the sharp bob haircut she now sports, or the more extravagant stagewear, or just the confidence from having your songs played on the radio, but whatever it is, she continues to get better and better. There’s more communication with the audience, there’s less fiddling between songs, the musicianship seems slicker – again, it’s not just a single thing that you can put your finger on that’s improved. The set opened with their first single Black Dog, and rattled through a whole load of tracks which will end up on the upcoming album Hushabye as well as their gorgeous Bossa Nova version of New Order’s Temptation. The cover is one of the b-sides to Diggory, which the band closed their set with.
Here’s four videos to keep you entertained. Two for new songs, two for some not so new songs. Jennifer Left and Abi Wade released their new singles yesterday (and Jennifer Left is having a launch party for hers at the Blind Tiger on Thursday). Mosaic by Fear of Men and Spectre by Curxes both came out earlier in the year, but the videos have only just appeared:
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.
In case you haven’t seen it, the video for the new Jennifer Left single has landed. Diggory is the second release to come from her forthcoming album Hushabye, which has been produced by Tim Bidwell, and the video has been made by Thom Undrell, who also put together the fantastic video for Black Dog earlier this year. Diggory hits the shelves on 5th November, and Jennifer is having a launch party at the Blind Tiger on the 8th November. See you there!
Not every event in Brighton can boast an Amy Winehouse impersonator as compere, but then not every event is Club Berlin, a new live night at the Jive Monkey which had it’s second outing this week. If an Amy Winehouse impersonator is a bit drunk and can’t remember all of the words to the likes of Rehab or Valerie, does that ruin the experience or make it more authentic? And was the drunkenness part of the act?
As I arrived, Dominic Von Trapp from Sweet Sweet Lies was performing a solo acoustic set. Accompanied on ukulele and guitar, Dom sang a host of tracks, most of which were familiar from his band’s album The Hare, The Hound & The Tortoise. The songs stood up well – the songwriting is solid and Dom’s distinctive voice and delivery is one of the things that makes Sweet Sweet Lies special.
Next up was Jennifer Left, also playing with a pared down band to fit onto the tiny stage. No bass or drums this time around, but she was joined by her guitarist and incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist Helen, who played keyboard, trumpet, accordion and xylophone. Jennifer Left looked more like a pop star than ever, with her heavy eye make up and cool new bob making her look like a dark haired Dusty Springfield. To cope with the reduced set up the band played up the jazzier elements of their songs, which worked especially well on their cover of New Order’s Temptation, and rounded up with a preview of their new single due in October which I’m sure we’ll be writing more about nearer the time.
Finally we had Call Me Jolene, who appeared the most band-like with guitar, bass, drum and vocals, but were still reduced in numbers. Rather than play a stripped down set as the other bands had, they played to a backing track – rather disconcerting when a piano track starts playing mid-song with no keyboard player on stage! Despite the presence of ex-Gene frontman Martin Rossiter on bass, Call Me Jolene are very much about Sophie Pointer: her vocals are the centrepiece of each of the songs they played and she was the only member of the band to engage with the audience. The songs themselves are slick adult rock songs, one pitched as a future James Bond theme, and another pitched as Jolene’s response to Dolly Parton’s song that the band took their name from. Some of the band’s songs I’ve heard on Soundcloud have a bit of a country feel, but this wasn’t especially evident live – I’d love to hear more of that coming through.
Club Berlin returns to the Jive Monkey on Thursday 20th Sept and features IDC, Bela Emerson, Das Fenster and Saffron Reichenbacker.
Jennifer Left’s debut single Black Dog came out a few weeks ago, and last night she held the launch party for it at the Blind Tiger Club. Support came from Cate Ferris and the Peppermint Beat Band.
Cate Ferris had a tricky job as opener of the night – Set times were already pushed back because of the football and when she took to the stage things were still quite quiet, but by the end of the set the venue was full and she had everyone eating out of the palm of her hand. Playing predominantly new material, some of which has been recorded by Tim Bidwell (who also produced Jennifer Left’s single) to be released as an EP sometime in the next couple of months, Cate played guitar, drums, flute, and keyboards, and used samplers to loop her sounds and harmonise with herself. Expect to read a lot more about Cate on the blog in the next few weeks as we get more details of her single and her flashmob on 1st July…
Next up were The Peppermint Beat Band, a tight five piece retro rock’n’roll group, originally from Northampton but who’ve been based in Brighton for the past few years. Their trousers were as tight as their harmonies, and their facial hair was quite something too.
The Peppermint Beat Band
Finally this month’s Source cover star hit the stage. The band’s songs bring together a wide range of influences, from folk to jazz to pop and back again, all underpinned by Jennifer Left’s distinctive smoky voice. Band members swapped instruments, picking up a variety of guitars and basses, a mandolin, some keyboard based instruments, including an accordian and a xylophone (which almost fell apart on it’s way to the stage), as well as trumpet. Despite not yet being released yet, the songs sounded accomplished and familiar – old yet new at the same time. Time flew by and before we knew it the set was being closed with the song that the whole evening was celebrating, new single Black Dog.
Here’s a few new videos for you to watch, including two bands who are both playing in town next week. We’ve written about the first two before, but when we did, the videos weren’t ready yet, so here they are now.
First up is Jennifer Left with her new single Black Dog (which we wrote about here). Jennifer is having a single launch at the Blind Tiger on Tuesday, supported by Cate Ferris and The Peppermint Beat Band
We wrote about the new Fear of Men single Green Sea ages ago, and it’s finally released on Monday. Fear of Men are supporting Best Coast on tour at the moment, and they play Coalition on thursday.
Finally we have Nimmo and the Gauntletts, with the lead track from their debut EP Young Light. The EP came out in January, but the video’s only just been made:
Last week, I mentioned that the new Jennifer Left single was due soon. The physical copies drop next monday, but for those of you living in the twenty first century who don’t want to be burdened with cds cluttering up your house, the digital version is out today.
Jennifer Left – Black Dog
Black Dog has been all over BBC 6Music and Radio 2, and rightly so. The song is fresh off-beat pop which is a great showcase for Jennifer’s almost jazzy vocals. Best of all, it has whistling. There’s not nearly enough of that these days. It’s backed with the title track of her forthcoming album Hushabye (which has more whistling, mandolins and some rather lush strings) as well as remixes from The Wild Knights (wobbly, glitchy house), Murder He Wrote (all stripped back and minimal) and Restlesslist (with added bleeps, surf guitar and reverb turned up to eleven on the vocals).
The video isn’t online yet, but here’s a version of Jennifer and her band playing the track for Balcony TV last year:
You can download the single on iTunes, or from her bandcamp site which also has an option to pre-order the physical release where you get the download right now.
If you’re wondering about the amazing brown paper dress in the promo shots, read more about it on the Create Studios blog.
Update : I’ve seen that someone has googled the blog looking for Jennifer Left’s label. The single is being released on Singing Hinny Music, with catalogue number SH001CD
This post is partly for me to remember exactly what I’m meant to be doing and when things are happening, but you can take it as a “Brighton Music Blog recommends…” if you like. It’s a collection of releases and happenings taking place over the next week or two, some of which might end up as full posts, if I get around to it.
Firstly, Soft Arrows have released their album “All Through The Sinew”. You can buy it download from Bandcamp here.
Next up is a couple of gigs in London, both on next thursday (31st). Two of my favourite bands – The Moulettes and Nordic Giants are launching their new material at shows at Bush Hall and Hoxton Hall respectively. Both promise to be fantastic events, but expensive bills for my car mean that I won’t be able to make either, sadly. At least that means I don’t have to choose between them.
The Moulettes gig is to launch their new album The Bear’s Revenge, which is out at the end of June. In advance of that, they’re releasing Sing Unto Me as the first single from the album on 4th June. The video is coming soon, so I’ll do a proper write up when I’m allowed to show it to you all. In the meantime, here’s a live performance of one of the many b-sides, a new track called Assault, which is very impressive indeed:
Talking of new singles, Jennifer Left also releases her new single on the 4th June. I’ve had a sneak preview of Black Dog, and it’s fantastic. It’s got whistling in it – not enough songs have whistling in them these days.
Finally, a couple more gigs to mention:
Bleeding Hearts are pushing the boat out slightly since it’s a Bank Holiday on 4th June – they’re starting a bit earlier at 7pm and have five acts rather than the normal three or four. Head along to the Prince Albert to hear Danny Kendall, Polyanna, Mary Hampton, Adrian Oxaal and Junior Electronics.
Then the following day (5th June), Com Truise is playing the Haunt. He’s not from Brighton, but support Anneka is, so I’ll be heading down to take some snaps and do them a write up too.
Brighton Music Blog 