We haven’t posted up a gallery of a local gig since October last year, and the last time we featured a gig at the Green Door Store was back in 2014. It’s been a while. So here are some shots from last night’s gig. Prince Vaseline headlined supported by Red Deer People and grasshopper, and turnout was surprisingly good for a grey Sunday in January. Click on the pics to view large:
Here’s a blog post that I meant to write back at the start of December, but you’ve probably read enough excuses from me about why I’m not blogging as much as I ought to these days. As ever, it’s been a nightmare to cut things down to ten (which is why we’ve got eleven), and if you asked me tomorrow the order would no doubt change. But any further ado, here’s our end of year round-up:
10 : Tigercub / Demob Happy
Back in October Demob Happy snuck out their debut album Dream Soda, and then at the end of November Tigercub released their Repressed Semantics EP. Both releases are fantastic, and both bands have been touring hard all year. we couldn’t choose between the two:
9 : Prince Vaseline
Prince Vaseline’s first full length A Naturally Coloured Pleasure really was a pleasure for us when it came out in the middle of this year:
8 : Black Honey
Last time we saw Black Honey they were supporting fellow Brightonians The Wytches at The Haunt and they wiped the floor with them:
7 : Grasscut
We kept going back to Grasscut’s third LP Everyone Was a Bird, and everytime it sounded better and better, and then last month they gave us a video premier of The Field:
6 : The Go! Team
We thought that The Go! Team had split up for good after 2011’s Proof of Youth, so their return this year, sounding fresher than ever, with The Scene Between was some of best news we heard:
5 : IYES
IYES have kept a lower profile live this year, but put out two very strong EPs called Part One and Part Two:
4 : Clowwns
We’ve been waiting for The Artful Execution of Macho Bimbo for years here at the blog. We only wish we’d been recording when Bleeding Hearts label boss Chris explained the reasons for all the delays over a pint about a year ago, although half of it was prefaced with “this is just between us…”
3 : Sea Bed
Sea Bed were our great new find this year. Electronic music with soul who we end up evangalising about to everyone we meet. They haven’t got much music online at the moment, but there’s promises of exciting things to come this year:
2 : The Fiction Aisle
Heart Map Rubric was a thing a majestic, beautiful work of art and was arguably the finest thing that Tom White has put his name to to date:
1: GAPS
GAPS managed to top last year’s collaboration with Maya Jane Coles with In, Around The Moments, their first long player which straddled the line between electronic and acoustic while managing to sound unlike anything else which would be labelled folktronica:
Grasscut’s 2015 album Everyone Was a Bird has been this year’s slow burn grower for us so when were offered the opportunity for a video premier we jumped at the chance. The band have produced videos for each of the tracks from the album and we’re pleased to provide the first showing of the promo for the album’s penultimate track The Field. The video was conceived and directed by Roger Hyams, who’s worked with Grasscut’s Andrew Philips in the past – when Grasscut played at The Basement back in June the show opened with Roger Hyam’s short film Grand Union, which was scored by Andrew.
Andrew described the video is “a beautiful representation of the idea of trying to make the landscape reveal its secrets and depths”. It was partly shot on the South Downs, and has a nod to the slightly unorthodox campaign the band undertook for their previous album. He told us a bit more about the track and the album : “I wrote The Field about people who get up at the crack of dawn in all weathers in the relentless pursuit of ideas. Roger’s vision of this was for me to dig up a film canister he’d buried on the Downs, take it to a darkroom and develop it into a beautiful photograph of a tree – also taken by him. This burial he says was a subtle allusion to Grasscut concealing cassettes around the country for our last album, Unearth. Almost all (apart from two) of those cassettes from Unearth were found. The one at Spurn Head near Hull was found this year, three years after leaving it.”
You can watch the video for The Field below, and you can pick up Everyone Was a Bird on LP or CD from Resident.
Kicking off this week’s new music post is the latest track from David Harks, who featured in last year’s top ten tracks (which reminds us, we really should think about getting something together for this year). Tripping Ghosts is a more ethereal affair, mirroring the reflective nature of the lyrics. It’s out now on Jumjum records, backed with a remix by French duo Loframes:
Tomorrow The Fiction Aisle release their debut long player Heart Map Rubric. Thomas White’s latest project is a big departure from his previous indie exploits – Electric guitars are out, in are brooding orchestral arrangements and jazz solos. The album is currently being streamed over at Never Enough Notes and is being released on Chord Orchard, a label set up by Tom specifically to release Fiction Aisle records.
The album launch takes place Friday night at the Unitarian Church with support from Capt Lovelace and Nick Hudson. More details of the gig can be found on the facebook event page.
It’s been a few weeks since our last New Music post, and we were playing catchup with that one, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. Here’s a selection of our favourite tunes that have come to our attention in the last couple of weeks.
First up is Our Girl with their debut single Sleeper, the coolest four minutes of guitar music we’ve heard in a while:
We’re big fans of Sea Bed here at Brighton Music Blog, and when we heard that they had a new single we thought that would be a good time to catch up with them. As with most things on the blog at the moment we’re not quite as up to speed as we’d like – the single was released as a digital download at the end of October – but we dropped them a line anyway…
Hi Sea Bed, how are you?
Busy, tired and looking forward to the new year now. We have a new live rig that we’ve been putting together the last few weeks and inbetween all of that have loads of exciting gigs to rehearse for and of course… Keep writing!
Back at the end of July you announced a new single which has only just got released. What can you tell us about it?
So the single Akira is a techno pop song we finished up earlier this year and released through indie label Four Thieves. It’s kind of our first real statement as Sea Bed emphasising our love for both the underground and more mainstream artists of the last few decades, but still carrying over an air of mystery as to what we will do next release wise. We have known each other for a while now and both writing and performing with very clear intentions compared to previous projects we were in has allowed our creative freedom to flow and make something we feel is unique on record and on stage.
Is the song anything to do with the 80s manga film of the same name?
The lyrical content is about awakening and what road you choose to take with the important decisions in your life. With that in mind, there are strong parallels to the film. Realising that you have the power within you to positively alter your destiny is what the song was originally written around and in the manga, Tetsuo (the antagonist of the film for those who don’t know) has supernatural powers awakened in him but uses them for destruction and revenge.
The 12″ of the single sold out weeks before the release date. You must have been pretty chuffed with that?
Absolutely, It’s amazing to have support from a label like Four Thieves who believe in what you’re doing enough to get the music out there in whatever format possible. Most importantly it’s people like yourself who go out of their way to support and listen to new music that keeps the whole thing alive.
You always have great visuals at your shows, and the band photography that you’ve had done is really strong. How important is the visual side of things for you?
100%! We take it as seriously as the music and try to have a hand in everything we do so that it doesn’t lose sight of what Sea Bed is about. We have found in the past Very quickly other people can steer your image down some very unimaginative routes. I think artists had a larger window of time pre and early internet age to really craft their identity visually and sound wise but now every minute detail that is posted can be clawed back through time by search engines so we have to be completely satisfied with whatever art forms we release under Sea Bed.
Talking of live shows, I see you’ve got a date in Shoreditch in for January. Are there any more Brighton dates lined up?
Yes that’s for the Ibiza Rocks festival, their equivalent of BBC introducing which is amazing! Brighton will see us playing the Green Door Store on the 19th November and Patterns on December 10th, hopefully beta testing our new chunky live setup.
When you posted on Facebook about the new single coming out you hinted about an exciting new release coming in 2016. Is there any more that you can tell us?
Without giving away too too much it will be another vinyl and digital release through Four Thieves only we are doing a full EP with them! So all new tracks, a big remix for the A side and video to accompany it which will be early 2016 when everyone has recovered from the post Christmas and New Years hangovers.
You DJed last week at the launch party for Via Tirana’s new single. Are there any other local bands you think we should be listening to?
That was a great night, ended the party with a track by Clouds called Chained To A Dead Camel which for most of the people left in there made them lose their shit!
There are some really sick electronic acts around Brighton at the moment. We are vibing Troves, INWARDS, Karl Toon, Foreign Skin, Mount Bank and in the more traditional band world there is a mental new Soul act called Bathcat and the guys in Big Society. That and all the usual suspects like Demob Happy and our good mates in Black Honey which most people are raving about at the mo. Brighton’s got a good thing going on.
Here’s a blog post I started writing back in SEPTEMBER. I’ve been terrible about writing blog posts, but at least the excuse of a five month old baby is a pretty good one. Normally I’d write a paragraph to go with each track, letting you know about release dates and launch parties, but in the interests of actually getting this posted, here without any introduction is some of the (now not so) new music that we heard around six weeks ago. To everyone who’s sent us tracks since, watch this space. Hopefully the next update won’t take as long!
High Tyde – Do What You Want
As we posted about yesterday, Phantom Runners have just kicked off their tour which we were surprised to find were their first headline dates. We also mentioned that these were their first gigs with their new line up, including new female vocalist Liv, whose contribution alongside a lot more synths has given the band a much more rounded pop sound. We were there with our camera and got a few shots of the band and of Curxes who supported. Click on the pics to view large:
This week, Phantom Runners head out on an eleven date tour of the UK. They kicked things off at the weekend with a low key date in Worthing and are heading to The Hope & Ruin tonight. There’s another local date the weekend after next at Sticky Mikes before they properly head out on the road taking in London, Bournemouth, Southampton, Hastings and Dartford (as well as another Brighton date at Bleach on 26th November).
The band are rejuvenated having had a bit of a line up change recently, and support at tonight’s gig comes from Curxes, who we haven’t caught since their appearance at The Great Escape six months ago, so we’re looking forward to tonight.
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