Brighton Digital Festival : Sound Screen headlined by Nordic Giants

Posted on 24/09/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Last night we paid a visit to another Brighton Digital Festival event. We’ve got another two events in our diary in the next week too, so look out for reports on them.

Caveman Genius

Sound Screen was an audio visual event put on by Pop Up Brighton at the Pavilion Theatre, pairing up electronic acts with visual artists. Electronic acts make some of the most exciting music, and as even Deadmau5 pointed out this summer, quite often the live performance just involves them pressing play in Ableton. All of tonight’s performers do a lot more than just sit behind a laptop, but all were enhanced with the addition of visuals.

Pact

The event opened with Caveman Genius – a one man act who plays live drums alongside his lush downbeat electronica. I’m loathed to use such an outdated phrase as Trip Hop, but it’s probably the words that describe his music best, and it’s meant as a compliment. Next up was Pact, whose sound was far more suited to the dancefloor. Unfortunately, the Pavilion was in a seated configuration last night, so I don’t think he was truly appreciated. It would be good to see what he could do at 2am in a club rather than 9pm in a theatre. The last act before the interval were the slightly more laid back Adolescent, who played as a whole band setup. Alex Parish was the focus, who controlled the electronic side of things and occasionally took to the drums, while the rest of the band added shimmering guitar and bass

Adolescent

The headliners of the night were the fantastic Nordic Giants. If you haven’t heard them yet, you must. If you haven’t seen them live yet, you’ve missed out. Musically, they’re post-rock, as emotional as Sigur Ros, with the quietLOUDquiet of Mogwai and the politics of Godspeed you Black Emperor. Visually, the band make so much more of an effort than anyone else – body paint with nightmarish masks, strobe lighting, and award winning films from Shorts International, with the vocal for each track given a separate backlit section on stage. It all makes for arguably the best live performance in Brighton, and it was frustrating that they only got a half hour set, at only their second live performance in town this year.

Over The Moon Festival

Posted on 12/09/2012 by brightonmusicblog

This weekend (14-16 September) is the Over The Moon Festival, which is the new name for the Out of the Ordinary Festival, which is probably the nearest weekend festival to Brighton these days. There are LOADS of Brighton based bands playing, so we can’t not mention them, even if we can’t make it along. Over the course of the weekend, Los Albertos are playing one of their last ever dates. They played their last Brighton date last Friday at the Blind Tiger, so this will be one of the very last chances to see them ever. Former Source cover stars Holy Vessels are also playing, as well as Buffo’s Wake, Carnival Collective, The Dirty Devine, Dr Bluegrass & the Illbilly 8, Elijah MC, Forestears, Gyratory Allstars, Jerkin the Rat, Ratbag, Roots Garden, The Black Fields, Time for T, Too Quirky for Me, Transformer, The Triple Chicken Combo and Wide Eyed Order. Other bands from outside of Brighton may also be on the bill.

There’s more information about the festival at www.overthemoonfestival.com/

Tyrannosaurus Dead / Lemonade EP

Posted on 26/08/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Tyrannosaurus Dead released their new EP last friday, called Lemonade, after the title track. The band haven’t strayed too far from their lo fi shoegaze sound of their previous releases, but have spent a bit more time working on the production, bringing things closer to the band’s vision of their sound. The EP was recorded at Lightship95 – a studio on a boat in the East End of London earlier this year.

To celebrate the launch the band played a free gig at the Green Door Store, which must almost be a home from home for them these days. Support came from Gum (who were also on the bands recent split-release cassette), Poledo and Ides.

The Lemonade EP is available to buy through Tyrannosaurus Dead’s bandcamp page:

Catherine Ireton – Treasure Tracks #2

Posted on 16/07/2012 by brightonmusicblog

When I picked up the ticket for Catherine Ireton’s second Treasure Tracks gig, and read that the venue would The Signalman, I was a little surprised – the Treasure Tracks gigs were meant to be all about special venues, and surely a gig in a pub isn’t all that, especially in Brighton. But what if the former Railway Hotel was just a stepping stone to a later destination…

Continue reading →

Amongst The Pigeons and Bitbin at the Pav Tav

Posted on 27/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

When I spoke to Amongst The Pigeons about their album a few months ago, the conversation turned live gigs, and about how there wasn’t many opportunities to for electronica acts to play live around Brighton. Realising that nothing in this world is handed to you on a plate, he went and organised his own night, and very magnanimously didn’t put himself at the top of the bill. Continue reading →

Fear of Men Supporting Best Coast

Posted on 22/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

For a Brighton band* Fear of Men don’t play that much in Brighton. So far this year, they’ve played as part of the Sea Monsters mini-festival, and also played a set during The Great Escape, so their support set for Best Coast is the first opportunity of 2012 to see them on a decent sized stage. The band have been supporting Best Coast for most of their UK tour, which is a bit of a coup for a band with only a clutch of singles to their name so far, and the homecoming gig is also the final date of the tour.

Fear of Men

It was an early gig anyway, because of a club night later on at Coalition, and Fear of Men’s set started at a ridiculously early 7.15pm, but by then the venue was already getting busy. For about half an hour, they filled a few seafront arches with their melodic guitar pop – catchy, tuneful melodies with fuzzy guitar around the edges, owing as much of a debt to Sarah Records releases of the late eighties as it does to the wave of female fronted indie bands of the nineties – songs that might not fill stadiums, but that you’ll form much more of an emotional attachment to. It’s a similar trick to that played by Pains of Being Pure at Heart – the familiarity of alternative music from the past but pulled off with a modern style that they make their own. In no time at all, the band are closing their set with new single Green Sea. I reckon it’s about time they came back and played a headline set.

Jess Weiss of Fear of Men

Later on, Spectrals from Leeds plays for a bit (sad songs, because they were one man down, apparently), and then Best Coast headlined. They started nervously with the lead track from their new album The Only Place, but quickly hit their stride rattling through their back catalogue, finishing up with Spectrals joining them onstage for their last track – a tradition which apparently started last time both bands played in Brighton. A great night!

Best Coast

*well, partly Brighton – some of them are Londoners, but they’re that good that we’ll keep them for ourselves.

Anneka supporting Com Truise at The Haunt 5/6/12

Posted on 06/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

It was a British Bank Holiday, therefore it must be raining. It seems to be raining nearly every time I go to the Haunt. But last night it was definitely worth braving the weather, as new-in-town promoters TEA put on Com Truise with support from Anneka, who’s a local artist who we haven’t written about on the blog yet.

Com Truise

Com Truise was fantastic, filling the room with big crunchy beats. But Seth Haley, as his mum calls him, isn’t a Brightonian so let’s devote the rest of this blog post to the support. There’s a chance you may have heard of Anneka already – She’s collaborated with the likes of Falty DL, Starkey, Ital Tek, Vex’d and Blue Daisy on records that have been all over BBC 6Music, Radio 1 and XFM, and now she’s starting to perform on her own.

So many solo female electronic artists get compared to Bjork, and often it’s a very lazy comparison on the journalists part and one that doesn’t tell you a great deal about the artist either, so let’s refine it a bit and then justify it: Anneka’s music sounds like Bjork’s around Post / Homogenic – Music that would sound as good on the dancefloor as it would on the radio, or through headphones. The sound is heavy on the bass, but the rest of the musical spectrum isn’t ignored, nor are melodies or song structures. Vocally, Anneka isn’t so much like Bjork – she doesn’t attempt the vocal acrobatics or growls – but her voice does have strength, warmth and character.

Anneka

In a live environment Anneka didn’t just hide behind her computer and augmented the those sounds with live vocals, extra keys and percussion making for a far more interesting experience, and the sound setup in The Haunt deserves a mention for sounding so good – loud but without being overbearing. In her short twenty minute set as well as half a dozen of her own tunes Anneka also covered PJ Harvey’s Electric Light, using the original as a base, transforming PJ’s simple mantra into something epic:

Anneka is definitely an act to watch out for. Go and see her somewhere with great sound sooner rather than later because before long, if there’s any justice, she’ll be too big for anywhere in Brighton.

https://www.facebook.com/annekamusic

http://soundcloud.com/annekamusic

http://annekamusic.tumblr.com/

The return of Celebricide

Posted on 02/06/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Legendary Brighton rock band Celebricide returned to the stage for a one-off gig, six years after they went into hibernation following the release of their debut album and effectively disappeared from the scene. A real shame, as on Thursday night’s showing they are still amazing and hopefully this won’t be the only time we see them.

Lead singer Tim Leopard started the evening in dark shades that made me think of Andrew Eldritch and Sisters of Mercy, but musically the band had a lighter touch and more variety. Dave Hughes on keyboards and Steve Barber on guitar were constantly inventive, the shadowy presence of Chris Anderson (now Crayola Lectern) on bass and the powerhouse of Emily Powell on drums never let up the rhythm.

Fly magazine called them “Elegant psychopaths… a lethal cocktail of Pulp, Roxy Music and The Fall. With literary lyrics about blackmail, contract killings and ruined lives…” Well, yes there’s an oddness and an aggression which is full on and confrontational but their new wave gothic rock belies a humour and self-depreciation which is also endearing.

Support came from Clowns. If you haven’t seen this Brighton band yet then you really ought to – they produce a really tight full-on garage-rock sound, and in Miles Heathfield (ex-Poppycocks) have a lead singer prone to prowl the stage and terrify audiences. Although tonight they omitted the Clown costumes that would occasionally appear at early gigs and even neglected to play their anthemic ‘She Says I’m A Clown’, they were really quite brilliant with an unrelenting driving snarling rhythm and beat from start to finish.

Their single is out on one of this blog’s favourite Brighton labels ‘Bleeding Hearts Recordings‘ and is well worth seeking out.

(All Photographs by Jon Southcoasting)

Source New Music at Brighton Festival

Posted on 17/05/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Updated! Some of the line ups have changed, and some have been improved upon, so I thought I’d update this post and bump it up to the top again.

May is a busy month in every Brightonian’s calendar, with the Festival, the Fringe, and the Great Escape all happening on top of everything else that normally happens. Source New Music are embracing this wholeheartedly, and instead of putting on one gig this month, they’re putting on loads! Instead of their usual home of the Pavilion Theatre, they’re residing in the Dome bar for the next few weeks, with gigs at lunchtimes and in the evenings every weekend throughout May. Things kicked off today with Fragile Creatures. The age range was a bit lower than their usual gigs – they had an appreciative crowd of toddlers dancing throughout their set! The full list of acts playing is below:

Fragile Creatures playing in the Dome bar for Source New Music

Sat 5 May
12:30pm Fragile Creatures
22:00 – 00:00 Wyndham Earl

Sun 6 May
Live music from 12:30 onwards with…
Kate Rose
Early Ghost
21:30 – 00:00 – African Night Fever DJ’s

Thu 17 May
8.30pm – midnight
Beatabet Collective: Scalar Fields + Tim Didymus. DJ Jules Arthur

Fri 18 May
9.30pm – midnight
Beatabet Collective: AK/DK + Bunty. DJ Jo Brahmli.

Sat 19 May
2pm – 4.30pm:
A showcase of the best local young talent including music collective Shoreham Allstars + The Basis + The Sighted and the Captured.

9.30pm – midnight:
DJ Hot Tip Hi Fi

Sun 20 May
12.30pm – 4.30pm
Live music from The Woo!worths + Sweet Sweet Lies + Monsters Build Mean Robots + Jennifer Left.

Thu 24 May
9.30pm – midnight
Beatabet Collective: O82. + “iphone Orchestra”. DJ AK/DK

Fri 25 May
9.30pm – midnight
Beatabet Collective: Bunty + AK/DK. DJ: Man Ray Sky

Sat 26 May
12.30pm – 4.30pm
Blues with Dave Beckett

9.30pm – midnight
DJ Sam Abrahams

Sun 27 May
12.30pm – 4.30pm
Jacko Hooper + Caitlin Stubbs + Abi Wade + Forestears.

The New Union supporting Clock Opera at Green Door Store

Posted on 30/04/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Before last night’s gig I’d had a listen to The New Union on soundcloud and what caught my ear was the slick production. Great studio production isn’t a guarantee of a great live performance though, so I was impressed by their display supporting Clock Opera. All dressed in black, the group gave the impression of a band with a unified look, rather than just four guys who happened to be on stage together. The songs were well written, obviously well rehearsed, and sounding tight. If anyone was looking for Brighton’s next big guitar pop hope after The Maccabees, they need look no further than The New Union.

The New Union

Brighton Music Blog

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