On Friday night we headed down to the Dome Studio Theatre for the Source New Music Night. This month IYES headlined, supported by Luo and Momotaro. We hoped it was going to be a good gig, and it didn’t disappoint. Here’s our pics:
(click on the pics to view large)
There’s always a lot of great music to see in Brighton, which makes it easy to write this weekly feature. This weekend it’s even easier because some of our favourite bands are playing.
On Thursday night Kins headline The Hope playing a hometown show with their tour for their new single Aimless. Support comes from Francis Lung and The Hundredth Anniversary.
Friday Night is this month’s Source New Music featuring this month’s Source cover stars and Brighton Music Blog favourites IYES, who have just released their debut single ‘Til Infinity. Support comes from two other bands that we’re big fans of – Momotaro, and Luo, who will be joined onstage by members of Physics House Band.
There’s a couple of gigs on Saturday which caught our eye – Dizraeli and the Small Gods are playing at The Haunt supported by Le Juki, with an afterparty taking place at the Fortune of War. Meanwhile, The Blind Tiger plays host to King Porter Stomp, alongside The Allergies and Town of Cats.
We’ve been away for half of September, so this month we’re just doing a Top Five rather than our normal Top Ten. Any good stuff we like from the last week or two may well make it into next month’s list. Anyway, without further ado:
1) Dog in the Snow – Fire in the Sky
At the top of the pile this month is Helen Ganya Brown’s latest haunting offering, available as a free download through soundcloud, and with a video that just went up online today:
2) Palm Springs – Could You Be Wrong
We’re the ones who’ve got things wrong about the new Palm Springs single. Their label, Random Acts of Vinyl, sent us a copy a few weeks ago and there was a bit of a mix up with release dates and we haven’t got around to doing a write up yet, even though it’s been out for a few weeks. We’ll be giving it a proper write up soon, but in the meantime, let it be known that it’s one of favourite tracks of recent weeks:
3) Luo – Spiral Staircase
Luo keeps churning out great music, which he keeps giving out for free, and was awesome at Sound Screen at the Corn Exchange earlier this month. This is our favourite track from his latest EP Imprints:
4) Momotaro – Embers
We got turned onto to Momotaro care of the new Green Door Store fanzine which has been popping up all around town. They’ve got got a bunch of free downloads up on Soundcloud, and Embers has had a lot of plays at Brighton Music Blog HQ:
5) Nordic Giants – Violent Lights
We only heard Violent Lights less than a week ago, but we’re big fans of Nordic Giants so we couldn’t not include it. The Build Seas EP which it’s taken from is out tomorrow.
Here’s our latest post of the seemingly never-ending stream of fantastic new music from Brighton.
First up is a brand new dream pop download from Dog in the Snow. Fire in the Sky was produced by Steve Hillier, best known for his work in the nineties as a third of Dubstar, but the track owes more to Bat for Lashes and those who have followed her – haunting vocals, fuzzy guitars, a simple piano line and pounding drums.
Next up we’ve got a remix of Keep You by GAPS. The Paradise Remix brings in the beats earlier, loses some of the vocals and makes the whole thing far more dancefloor friendly.
After writing this weekend about how much we love Luo, we’re a little bit embarrassed to admit that we missed him putting out another EP a few weeks ago. Imprints is free four track download that shows that electronica needn’t be cold an inhuman.
Yesterday Ed Prosek announced the release of a new EP. Willow tree is five tracks of gentle acoustic folk, which you can listen to on bandcamp and buy on download or limited cd.
Ancient Times have a new 7″ out next monday. Double A side Nightschool / Hieroglyphic has two tracks of unashamedly Smiths influenced indie which you can order now through their bandcamp site.
Freefall is a new single from brother / sister due BASA. Things start a bit synth-pop but by halfway through things are definitely dubstep.
Last, but by no means least is Embers by Momotaro, who have been tipped in the second edition of Green Door Store’s new monthly zine as “Brighton Band To Watch”. At the moment, all of Momotaro’s music on Soundcloud is free to download, so go and feast your ears!
About a year ago we saw Nordic Giants headline a night at the Pavilion Theatre which showcased both audio and visual sides of their performance. Sound Screen was an event put on as part of Brighton Digital Festival which paired up bands with visual artists, and last Thursday it returned as part of this year’s festival.
The first band on were The Hundredth Anniversary, who have recently taken more of a visual slant with their approach to their new single Last Drive. The Hundredth Anniversary have a lot more vision than a lot of lo fi bands around, and the cinematic view afforded by huge screen felt appropriate
For us, Luo were the real winners of the night in the space of only a few months they’ve grown from one guy making glitchy electronica on a laptop to a six piece band (which featured two members of Physics House Band) making ambitious, complex, jazz influenced beats. It sounded immense. We’ve been fans of Luo since we first heard them, and now it seems they’re fulfilling all of their potential.
Phoria are one of Brighton’s most ambitious bands, and took the opportunity of a headline slot at the Corn Exchange to not just include visuals in their set but also a string section. The band crammed a massive amount of emotion into their time on stage and the crowd – who seemed to be made up mainly from people visiting Brighton for the Digital Festival rather than the usual gig going crowd – responded accordingly. A great night all round.
Gallery (click to view images large):
For this week’s gig picks, we’ve got tie-ins with two different festivals and some local media big hitters putting on gigs, as well as a few other odds and sods.
You may have heard that Brighton Digital Festival is on in town at the moment and as part of that Pop Up Brighton return with their Sound Screen event, bringing together local bands with international visual artists. On Thursday night at the Corn Exchange Phoria, Luo and The Hundredth Anniversary play to a backdrop of visual collaborations that the bands and video artists have been working together on for the last six weeks. Meanwhile Time for T headline at the Hope for Brightonsfinest, with Gypsy Switch, Paper Hawk and Prisoners Cinema also playing, and Monsters Build Mean Robots and Spacenoid are on the bill at Brighton Noise / Nice Weather For Airstrike’s Industroika gig at the Prince Albert.
On Friday Night Lloyd Williams and Ellie Ford launch their debut release at St Mary’s Church, Black Rooster Black Shag headline the Prince Albert, and Bad for Lazarus play Sticky Mike’s.
Saturday night is the third of The Haunt and Juice Brighton’s short run of weekly gigs. This week they have Them The Sky, Garden Heart, and Paper Hawk on the line up. It’s also the first of this month’s two Source New Music Nights (they’re hosting another on 20th as part of Brighton Digital Festival). This one is curated by Wildwood Promotions and is headlined by Alex White’s Interlocutor, with Red River Dialect, Octopuses and Herb Denton’s Last Dime playing too. Finally, it’s the Over The Moon Festival’s pre-party at the Blind Tiger, with a line up that includes Eagles for Hands, Mitch Wade Cole, Platypi, Eone and Murder He Wrote.
We’re out of town for the weekend, but that’s not going to stop us telling you about the great music that’s on. In fact, we’re going to bring our normal timings a day earlier and start the post off from bands playing Wednesday night, since there’s some great gigs going on then that we’re gutted we’re going to miss out on.
Octopuses, Becky Becky and Do You Feel What I Feel Deer? are all on the bill at the Prince Albert on Wednesday night for the launch of Octopuses new single Sarcastic. At the Blind Tiger you can see Faux Flux, Luo and Spacenoid, and you can see The Beautiful Word at Northern Lights.
Skipping to Friday Night, Eliza Jaye holds her album launch at the Ranelagh, and at the Blind Tiger there’s this month’s Les Enfants Terribles, featuring Bad for Lazarus, Fox in the City and The Frenzied Anaesthetist. Unfortunately Fear of Men supporting Youth Lagoon has been rescheduled so if you were hoping to see them you’ll have to wait until October.
We’ve already mentioned Saturday night RSPB Fundraiser at Saint Luke’s Church with Mary Hampton and Do You Feel What I Feel Deer? Saturday is also this month’s Source New Music at the Dome Studio Theatre – Flash Bang Band headline, with support from 900 Spaces, Hundredth Anniversary and The Victory Dolls. Meanwhile, at the Green Door Store Gnarwolves host the launch party for their new EP Funemployed.
Here’s our gig picks for this weekend coming up. We’ll keep things short and sweet this week since this isn’t the only post we’ll be putting up tonight.
Thursday night’s pick is Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, who’s playing at the Prince Albert, supported by Jennifer Left. Meanwhile, at the Pav Tav Luo and Marvin Molina provide support for Sheffield’s Kimmy Yeah.
On Friday night The Resonators headline the Blind Tiger. If dub isn’t your thing then Flash Bang Band are playing for free at Northern Lights. There’s also a Brighton Rocks night at Sticky Mikes, with The Victorian Hunter, The Evil Son and the Frank Melena Band.
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Saturday night sees Milk & Biscuits playing a Glastonbury warm up gig at the West Hill Community Centre alongside Traams and Speak Galactic with lighting from Innerstrings Light Show. Unusually, it’s not a BYOB gig and there’ll be a bar. Meanwhile all weekend at The Gladstone it’s their Gladstonebury festival
Here’s this weekend’s gig picks for you all. This week we’re extending things out to Monday, because there’s a gig that we can’t not mention.
On Friday night Martin Rossiter headlines the Source New Music Night at the Dome Studio Theatre. Support comes from The Beautiful Word and Jacko Hooper so this should be a bit special. Tickets are a bit pricier than a normal Source New Music though – so if you’d rather save your pennies then head down to Sticky Mike’s where the Physics House Band are hosting another Physics House Party. They’re playing a headline set with members of Flamingods, and there’s support from Luo, Caveman Genius, Demob Happy, and Shrine. Hush Hush Friday at the Blind Tiger caught our eye too – another free gig with FVNERALS topping the bill and Dog in the Snow supporting.
Saturday Night’s pick is Clowns, who are playing at the Prince Albert. If you like your weekends a bit funkier then The Impellers are on the bill at Craig Charles Funk and Soul Club at the Concorde.
Brighton Folk comes back to the Brunswick on Sunday Night, with Amy Hill and The Galleons playing.
The reason we’ve extended things out to Monday for this weekend’s picks is to include the Electric Soft Parade‘s album launch at the Green Door Store. The album is definitely the highlight of 2013 for us so far and will be on sale at the gig. Support comes from Crayola Lectern. Also on Monday, for those who prefer their ‘problem folk’ to sunshine pop, ex Brighton resident The Great Park returns from Germany for a gig at the Prince Albert, ably supported by local singer-songwriter Tandy Hard. Frankly, as ever, we’re torn…
Welcome to our second monthly Top Ten feature. It’s officially regular, now that we’ve made it two months in a row! As with last month, it’s loosely based on what Last.fm has told me I’ve listened to, although this month it seemed to bear no relation to what iTunes was recording for the play counts. Also one of the tracks is just a YouTube video, so that didn’t appear on iTunes or Last.fm. So without further ado, here’s what we’ve been loving this month:
1) Watching Her Dance / DA-10
Watching Her Dance appeared on our radar roughly at the same time as we heard about DA-10’s The Shape of Space EP, but it was the EP which was getting the attention and the PR push. Several weeks later it’s this mode dancefloor friendly free download which is still on heavy rotation.
2) Battersea / AK/DK
Battersea is the lead track from AK/DK’s new cassette only release Dispatch #3, and we love it’s crazy squelchiness
3) Rio / Cave Painting
The video for Rio surfaced online a few months ago, but the EP finally hit the shops on 29th April. The packaging is every bit as gorgeous as you’d expect from Cave Painting, as is the quality of the music. There’s only a hundred of these out there, so good luck hunting one out
4) Daddy / IYES
This track was a bit of a surprise after the vocal pop of Lighthouse and Glow, but Daddy showed that IYES are just as assured at Balearic house
5) Goddess of War / Phantom Runners
Phantom Runners were one of our discoveries in the run up to the Great Escape. We didn’t manage to catch their set (although hopefully we’ll be there when they play at the Blind Tiger at the next Les Enfants Terribles night on 28th June), but we think their debut single as a great slice of indie pop
6) Anneka / Deliver
Not a single, or even a physical or digital release, but just a Youtube video, Deliver was still one of the best tracks out of Brighton we heard this month
7) Abraxical Solapse / Physics House Band
The Physics House Band’s Horizons / Rapture mini LP came out in April, and while it’s not as accessible as some of the poppier acts on the list, it’s certainly just as rewarding. You probably won’t be whistling any of the songs in the shower, but you will keep going back to them over and over
8) Hold On / Luo
Luo seem to be growing more and more with every new track we hear from them, and Hold on is no exception. In a few releases they’ve expanded their range from glitchy chill out and currently sound like a more electronic Physics House Band. Give them a few months and the sky’s the limit
9) Fallback / Catherine Ireton
A little while back, our friends over at the Some Of It Is True blog started up a record label called Hidden Trail. We got a bit distracted and haven’t got around to writing about the label’s first release yet – a compilation of some of their favourite tracks they’ve come across – but our favourite track from what we’ve listened to so far is Catherine Ireton’s Fallback
10) Goldfish Song / Crayola Lectern
We’re still listening to The Fall and Rise of Crayola Lectern at Brighton Music Blog HQ, and have grown rather fond of The Goldfish Song, a tune about suicidal pets sounding not a million miles away from The Beatle’s Day In The Life
Brighton Music Blog 