We’ve got more genres than you can shake a stick at for this week’s selection of new music. There’s surf rock, psychedelia, post rock, mind bending electronica, indie and art rock.
Bombay Potatoes is the new single from The Space Agency. It’s surf rock, with an eastern flavour. It’s out on 26th August, and the launch party is at the Horse & Groom on Saturday 31st.
Spit Shake Sisters recently lost their keyboard player, so they’ve put out the last recordings they made with him for free. Overdope and Modern Drugs Make Aliens are on Bandcamp now for download:
Electric Soft Parade have also put a track up for free download. 1969, which isn’t on new album Idiots, features Matt Eaton from Pure Conjecture on backing vocals, and you can get hold of it by signing up to their mailing list
Samuel Organ is better known as one third of Brighton Prog Jazz titans Physics House Band. Not content with knocking our socks off with that, he’s put out a free three track EP called Y:
The Bear is the title track from the new Chris T-T and the Hoodrats album of the same name. The album’s not out until 7th October but if you pre order the album from Xtra Mile Recordings, you get a download of The Bear.
I am L is the stage name of Laura May Brophy. Lion Heart is a track that she’s recently put up on Soundcloud which recalls Brighton’s own Bat For Lashes:
Finally, White Peaks have made their Turbluence EP free for download. Of the two tracks of atmospheric rock we prefer the second, Omnipresence, with it’s big post-rock finish:
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
Earlier this week we pre-empted our regular weekend gig picks by putting up a separate post about Thursday night’s gigs with a choice of Moulettes, AK/DK or The New Union. Here’s the rest of what we recommend this weekend:
Our choice for Friday Night is Clowns, who are headlining at the Prince Albert. Clowns are a real must-see band. If you haven’t seen them, then this should be your Friday night sorted. Support comes from Mum, Dad & The Kids, Little Bird and Downing Street Years.
We haven’t mentioned Tyrannosaurus Dead for a while on the blog, but they’re on the bill on Saturday night at the Green Door Store (headlined by the Bastards of hate). Also on Saturday at The Hope is Rotait, who we’ve been meaning to catch for a while, supported by Simonne & The Dark Stars, Mishkin Fitzgerald from BirdEatsBaby and Paul Diello.
The big gig on Sunday night is Physics House Band, who are guaranteed to blow the roof off at the Green Door Store. Watch out if you’re catching a train out of town! Support comes from Shrine and Ojo de Gringa. We also spotted that over the road at the Prince Albert, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers are launching their new single, with Al Chamberlain also on the bill.
Not content with being a third of one of Brighton’s best and busiest upcoming bands, Samuel Organ of Physics House Band is a man of many talents. The band also put on a monthly night called Kaleidescope at Sticky Mike’s which always features some of Brighton’s best electronica, and now Sam has started a record label – kldscp – whose first release is a seven track compilation of lovely, local downtempo beats:
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kldscp[001] opens with Aadvarks which recently appeared on Luo’s lush Antidote EP. Next is a Written in Waters remix, completely transformed from the band’s more familiar sound. There’s also a Physics House Band demo on there, and a Samuel Organ solo track. There’s choral ambience from Coral ŸS and effervescent electronica Caveman Genius. The highlight for us is the track by Foreign Skin – a slice of gorgeous balearic chill out.
The full tracklist is:
Luo – Aardvarks
Written In Waters – The Fall (AZEDIA Remix)
The Physics House Band – The Underlying Fluctuation (Teratology Demo)
Foreign Skin – Hoi Sum
Coral ŸS – Lumi
Caveman Genius – Bone Machines
Samuel Organ – Tisno
Last night’s Source New Music revisited the notion of the night having a curator, rather than being put together as a collaboration between the Source and Brighton Dome. A few months ago Beatabet collective picked the bands that played, last night Innerstrings Light Show did the choosing.
The first band they picked were Reds, an experimental psychedelic collective. Reds gigs are all improvised on the night – everything you hear is for the first time. Their sound is ambitious, droning and dark; a good introduction to the night ahead.
After Reds, Baal Fire played downstairs in the bar area. Baal Fire is one man with his guitar, but to listen to his music you’d think that there was a whole band – the guitar was played with a violin bow then sampled an looped, building up layers of sound. Ball Fire’s tone was glacial – big slow motion, musical landscape to lose yourself in.
Baron were up next upstairs on the main stage. They weren’t quite as psychedelic as either of the previous two acts, but they were a lot more accessible. Their sound had a lot more krautrock influences, song based structures and vocals, but were still quite out there. I was torn though – I didn’t know if I wanted Baron to get some catchy choruses, or properly wig out at the end of their set.
It was all change again at the end of their set, with Pete Fij & Terry Bickers picking up the baton downstairs. Pete and Terry were the highlight of the evening – sure, Physics House Band were the headliners, but I’d seen them a few weeks ago at Sea Monsters. I’d never seen Pete Fij & Terry Bickers live before, so it was a real treat. Their real skill was making it look so effortless. It might have looked like two guys on guitars, but the playing was immaculate, Pete had a fantastic voice, and their songs were great. On top of all that, they were the only band of the evening to make any kind of engagement with the crowd.
The night belonged to Physics House Band though. Fresh from announcing their debut release (see our blog post from last week), the band’s support has never been bigger, and onstage at the Dome Studio Theatre, they’ve never sounded bigger. I’m always transfixed when I see them – not just by the talent and musicianship of any one player, but they way that they all play so tightly together. A mean feat if they were playing music in standard time signatures, let along when they’re playing their take on prog jazz. And it was loud – my god, it was loud – but that just added to the intensity of it all. The combination of the visuals, the music and the volume was truly awesome. Good work Physics House Band, Innerstrings Light Show, Brighton Source and the team at the Dome.
Here’s our pick of the local bands playing in Brighton this weekend. As always, you’re spoiled for choice – there’s some fantastic bands playing, and we’re a bit torn ourselves.
Tonight we were planning to go and see Bent Cousin at Sticky Mike’s, but sadly that’s been cancelled. Instead, we’d recommend heading down to the Green Door Store for an event called Hooray For Love! Well, it is Valentines day. Transformer headline, supported by Bob Wants His Head Back, Fire Eyes and Duke of Burgundy. Doors are 5pm, music starts at 7.30pm, so it will have already kicked off by the time I post this.
Friday night Run Young Lovers headline the Haunt, supported by Tiny Dragons and Daniel & The Scandals. Meanwhile, Simonne & The Dark Stars headline the Seven Stars, and Carnival Collective take over the Blind Tiger.
Saturday Night our friends over at Brighton Noise are putting on their third regular gig. Noise Night three has a fantastic line up – AKDK, P for Persia and Black Black Hills. Over at the Dome Studio Theatre, Source New Music have invited Innerstrings Light Show to work with them on the line up for their monthly gig. The brilliant Physics House Band headline, supported by Baron, Reds, Pete Fij & Terry Bickers and Baal Fire.
Then on Sunday is the gig that we’re most looking forward to – Dome Studio Theatre host the Nordic Giants for the launch of their new single Speed The Crows Nest, and they promise a set of new songs and new films. Support comes from Brighton Music Blog favourite Abi Wade and Saturday Sun.
Physics House Band have announced their debut release. Despite the impression you might get from it’s name, Horizons / Rapture isn’t a double a side, but a twenty-six minute long six track “psychedelic excursion” (their description), none of whose titles are either Horizons or Rapture. It’s coming out on 15th April on Blood and Biscuits records, who put out Tall Ships’ album last year.
It’s available to pre-order now over on the Blood and Biscuits website on cd or 180mg vinyl in a variety of packages ranging from just the album up to a deluxe package where you get the LP, the CD, a T-Shirt, a poster and a set of Liner Notes.
To whet our appetite, the band have put out a video for Abraxical Solapse, which features on the album, and also appeared on the recent Sea Monsters 3 compilation:
Full track list is:
Side A
1. ObeliskMonolith
2. Abraxical Solapse
3. Hollow Mountain
Side B
4. Teratology
5. The Spectral Beyond
6. Titan
Another weekend, another blog post flagging up our pick of the Brighton Bands playing live this weekend.
Our call for Thursday night is the launch of the Self Help Group‘s debut album Not Waving But Drowning. The gig at the Albert has been sold out for a little while, so well done if you’ve got a ticket. Tomorrow night is also the next Spirit of Gravity night at the Green Door Store, headlined by Sarah Angliss (who’s also a member of SpaceDog). There’s talk of robots, and that’s enough for us.
On Friday night Nick Cave is allowing an audience into his last rehearsal before he goes on tour. Resident Records, The Quietus and a few other places held competitions to win tickets. We were unlucky so we don’t even know where it is but it’s definitely the hot ticket of the night. We’re hoping to see The New Union at the Green Door Store, who are supporting the 1975 – that’s another sold out gig though, sorry!
Saturday night we recommend that you pay a visit to the Physics House Band’s regular night Kaleidoscope at Sticky Mike’s. Physics House Band aren’t performing – they are playing next weekend though, at the next Source New Music Night – but Sam is DJing and live music comes from Luo, who we like so much we’ve seen them twice this year.
Saturday night was One Inch Badge’s own choice of local bands. There was one change from the original line up – unfortunately Soccer 96 couldn’t make it, but we’ll get to that later. Queues were building up before the doors even opened – After a Source cover and loads of storming shows, The Physics House Band are one of Brighton’s hottest tickets at the moment.
Luo
Luo were the first band to play. They mixed glitchy electronica with lush guitars – think Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross remixed by Plaid. It wasn’t all instrumental though – they were joined onstage for a track by Jacko Hooper, who played earlier this week. It was all really lovely stuff, who I’d love to find out more about, but search engines are no help whatsoever (“Did you mean ‘Lou’?” – No Google, if I’d meant Lou, I would have typed Lou).
Squadron Leaders
Next up were The Squadron Leaders, a surf rock three piece. I had a glance at their set list before they started, and wondered how they were going to play fifteen or twenty songs when most other bands were only playing five or six in their allocated sets. The answer was that they sped through their short songs, barely stopping for breath. The crowd loved it, but it was a little dispiriting to hear references to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack – there’s a whole genre out there beyond Dick Dale.
Ed Prosek
The extra act on the bill following Soccer 96’s cancellation was Ed Prosek, who acknowledged that an acoustic folk act didn’t quite sit with the rest of the bands on the line up. Ed’s Californian optimism meant that he was undeterred though, and the crowd soon warmed to him and his band made up of cello, double bass and mandolin. The highlight of their set was a cover of Paul Simon’s Homeward Bound, currently featuring on a cheese advert. Obviously.
Phoria
Phoria were on the bill at October’s Source New Music night last year, but I was a bit distracted and didn’t really pay enough attention. What I missed was ambitious, intelligent songs, aiming for somewhere between Coldplay and Radiohead. Epic stuff.
Physics House Band
The stars of last night’s show were The Physics House Band though. On paper they could sound difficult – non-standard time signatures, jazz, prog… In reality, they’re a fantastic prospect. Each individual player is a virtuoso, but they aren’t just tremendous musicians individually – together you won’t find a tighter set of musicians. But it’s not all just about the musicianship, their live show is also one of the most energetic in town. Being an amazing band is about being different, and being better, and Physics House Band have that in spades.
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