Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Thirteen – Us Baby Bear Bones / Swamp

Posted on 13/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Us Baby Bear Bones debut EP What Starts With U Ends With An I was a long time coming. We first heard about it back in April last year and it finally got a release in June. It was well worth the wait through – Handmade packaging where the cover formed a small part of a much bigger image (which you can see slowly taking shape on their website as people buy copies of the EP), and five fantastic tracks which defy classification. Obtuse but accessible, a mixture of electronic and analogue instrumentation, catchy but without traditional choruses. Swamp was our favourite and you can listen to it here:

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Twelve – Black Rooster Black Shag / Run Baby

Posted on 12/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Despite being called End of Year Lists, most start to be formed in early November. By then most bands have put out everything for the year, before they go into hibernation for the winter. It’s always a pleasure to hear new music though, whenever it comes up, so when Run Baby popped into our in box in mid-November we were very happy, especially since it’s such a great track. Run Baby might not be the most original track in our Advent Calendar, but it is the most Rock’n’Roll.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Eleven – The Beautiful Word / Particles

Posted on 11/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Many months before Particles the album came out, Particles the single was released. We’ve been fans of The Beautiful Word since before we started the blog and over the years the band have grown up a lot. When Particles hit our stereo back in May we could hear straight away that this was the sound of a band who had grown into their sound. At the time the single came out we said that this was probably the best thing they’ve done. By the time we reviewed the album we were sure of it:

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Ten – Champione / The View

Posted on 10/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Rory Muldoon, aka Champione put out his debut EP Home earlier this year, and we liked it a lot. Most of the EP was instrumental house music, but he roped in Tiny Dragons’ Lizzie Massey for vocals on standout track The View:

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Nine – British Sea Power / Machineries of Joy

Posted on 09/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Most bands don’t get around to putting out one album per year, but in 2013 British Sea Power have managed two – the soundtrack to From The Sea To The Land Beyond (which they performed live at the Duke of Yorks earlier this year and released a week ago), and Machineries of Joy, hailed as both a mature album and one of their best. The single of the same name appeared in March and is the ninth door in our advent calendar:

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Eight – Cate Ferris / Blaze Bright

Posted on 08/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

One thing 2013 should be remembered for is the great summer we had. After a run of what felt like years of terrible, rainy, cold summers this year reminded us how summers ought to be. A good, hot summer deserves an appropriate soundtrack and Cate Ferris’ collaboration with reggae legend Nick Manasseh turned out to be just what we wanted to hear.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Seven – Fear of Men / Seer

Posted on 07/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

For most of this year Fear of Men have been working hard on the debut album, which is nearly finished and due to hit the shelves in April 2014. To tide us over until then, the band put out their previous 7” and cassette releases together as a compilation called Early Fragments, which came out on coloured vinyl, cd and download back in February, then on tape for Cassette Store Day in September. The compilation came out with one unreleased track – a new tune called Seer which is what we’re featuring in our Advent Calendar for you here.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Six – Nordic Giants / Neotenie

Posted on 06/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

It’s been a busy year for the Nordic Giants – after a few years in which they only managed to release two EPs / singles in total (which both featured the same lead track – Shine – which appeared in last year’s advent calendar), the band managed to release a single and a double EP in the last twelve months. Speed The Crow’s Nest appeared in February, and then in October the Build Seas, Dismantle Suns EP was released in two parts at either end of a near sell out national tour.

We’ve picked Neotenie as the choice for our Advent Calendar – it comprises of their classic cinematic sound overlaid with samples prophesising big changes ahead, not necessarily for the best. We could have picked any of the tracks from the EP though – all fantastic stuff.

New Music – Curxes, Blood Red Shoes, Nick Cave, Normanton Street, Omnivert

Posted on 05/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We might be approaching Christmas, but the new music keeps on coming, with five new tracks to share this week.

First up is Curxes with their new single Avant-Guarded. They hinted at the track with a series of videos on Youtube that we blogged about a couple of weeks ago. Avant-Guarded is another fantastic electro-pop assualt from the band and is out now to buy on Bandcamp.

On the first day of Christmas, Blood Red Shoes gave to us… The Perfect Mess. The band posted up QR codes in 10 cities across the world and said that they’d release the song once they were all found, which they were within 24 hours.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have recorded a new version of Higgs Boson Blues from this year’s Push The Sky Away. The new version is an epic, clocking in at more than nine minutes:

Normanton Street launch their Phoebe Freya EP on Friday Night at the Green Door Store. They’ve posted up one of the tracks – Juicy – as a taster on Soundcloud.

Finally Omnivert have got in touch to tell us about their new track which features Helen Ganya Brown, better known on the blog as Dog in the Snow. Chichijima is available as a name your prices download on Bandcamp.

Brighton Music Blog Advent Calendar Day Five – Foreign Skin / Hoi Sum

Posted on 05/12/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Back in March, The Physics House Band put out the first release on their new label kldscp (named after their regular Kaleidoscope club nights held at Sticky Mike’s). It was a seven track compilation of local electronica, and the standout track for us was the blissed out beats of Foreign Skin’s Hoi Sum. Hoi Sum means happy in Cantonese – Flavia Aliverti was born in Hong Kong – and the track is certainly devoid of any negativity. Best enjoyed on a hot sunny day with a cool drink close to hand.