GAPS single launch at the Green Door Store

Posted on 16/07/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Last night GAPS rounded off a mini tour to promote their debut 7” with a hometown gig at the Green Door Store.

The first support came from The Hundredth Anniversary, who were more together yet more relaxed than I’ve ever seen them. It’s still shoegaze, of sorts, but the angular drumming and tight rhythm section elevate them above the competition. The second support took things in a completely different direction – Laurie James Ross, better known as Eagles For Hands, played a set of House music using a table full of electronics controlling different channels and vocal samples. Sometimes things went a little bit garage and on some tracks the direction went a little bit deeper, but throughout the whole continuous set the Green Door Store sounded fantastic. Definitely one to watch.

The evening belonged to GAPS though. Their single Keep You / Cascade was released yesterday, and the duo were celebrating with a local gig. Ed was on the left on synths, drum pads and two microphones and Rachel filled the rest of the stage with guitars, more drums and more microphones. Their music has been described as folktronica, which probably fits with what they do on paper but doesn’t truly do justice to their sound. The best known examples of the genre seem to be electronica with a bit of folk added to make things more interesting or vice versa, but what we heard last night was a much more equal union of the two. AA side Cascade, with its long quiet seagull laden intro before the beats kick in, was dropped into the set early on, with flip side Keep You saved until the penultimate track. Discounting the gremlins before the end of the set GAPS played a great gig, making a sound that’s familiar, but unlike anyone else in town.

GAPS single launch gallery (click on the pics to view large):

GAPS

The Hundredth Anniversary

Eagles for Hands

GAPS – Keep You / Cascade 7” is out now on Sexbeat

GAPS next play live at 234 at the Green Door Store on the weekend of 3rd and 4th August.

Today’s new singles : The New Union / The New Union EP and Milk & Biscuits / Hairstyles

Posted on 02/06/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Today sees releases from two of our favourite bands at Brighton Music Blog. We’ve featured videos from both releases on the blog before, but these have appeared online so far before the release date that it’s worth reminding people about these again now that you can go and actually buy them.

The first is The New Union EP, by The New Union, on Two Sisters Records. The EP features four tracks – Staying Friends, Rushing Thoughts, Where Do You Think You’re Going Wrong and Forget Again – and is out now on iTunes, or on 12″ from the likes of Resident Records. The band are holding the single launch at the Book Club in London on Thursday for this release, but you’ll be able to catch them in Brighton again soon supporting IYES on 24th July at The Hope. Get your tickets early for this gig, because with a line up like that, it WILL sell out. Hopefully we’ll have an interview with the band to share with you before then.

Today’s other release is Hairstyles by Milk & Biscuits. Hairstyles is released on Big Salad Records, and is download only, available through iTunes (and probably some other places, although when this was written details weren’t confirmed). Milk & Biscuits play next Brighton gig is on 22nd June at the West Hill Centre.

New Singles – Shrine, The Wytches, Two Jackals (and a bonus remix from Curxes too)

Posted on 28/05/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Here’s a few new singles which have hit our radar recently.

First up is Shrine, who headlined Friday night at the Nice Weather For Airstrikes festival on friday night last week. Their new single is called Kursk. Here’s the video, and the soundcloud which has a free download option:

Next up is The Wytches. Beehive Queen is out on Hate Hate Hate records next monday, limited to 300 7″s, and the launch is at The Hope this saturday.

Cartagena by Two Jackals is out on Seven Dials Records on 1st June and was produced by Joel Cadbury and Pablo Clements from UNKLE.

Finally, we’ve got a remix of Further Still by Curxes. When we first posted about the track back in March we mentioned that there was a remix due, so here it is, with Avec Sans on the knobs, complete with a link to a free download:

The Beautiful Word – May Not Be Love

Posted on 15/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We posted up the hand made stop motion video for May Not Be Love by The Beautiful Word when it surfaced a few weeks back. The breezy summery pop track gets a proper release as a single today, available through the group’s bandcamp page, so we thought it was time to give you the full details. May Not Be Love is the first track from their first full studio sessions, funded by an appearance at T in the Park last year. The band are now looking for a label to put out the whole album recorded at the time.

Curxes / Further Still video

Posted on 09/04/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We haven’t stopped listening to the new Curxes single since we downloaded it nearly a fortnight. Now the duo have put up the accompanying video. I’ll let you watch the video to see the whole story, but the tag line put out with it reads “A lone taxidermist sets out to work on his most ambitious project yet”…

If you haven’t grabbed it yet, then you can head over to www.curxes.com for the latest download link.

The Electric Soft Parade single and album news

Posted on 27/03/2013 by brightonmusicblog

The White brothers are back! Not that they were ever really away, with Thomas’ Yalla being one of our favourite albums of last year, and Alex’s Interlocutor side project having played a few gigs recently, and both of them adding their helping hands to dozens of local bands. The last Electric Soft Parade album was back in 2006 though, so news that a new album – Idiots – is due in June is very welcome. The album will feature Lily which first appeared on 7″ at the tail end of 2011, which we loved. We’ve only just picked up on new single Brother, You Must Walk Your Path Alone, but it’s as gorgeous as anything they’ve done – melodic harmonies, a hint of country twang to the guitars, and a sparkling of their magic that distracts you from anything else your doing to make you lose yourself in the song. Lovely.

Brother, You Must Walk Your Path Alone is out now for download on Helium Records (or will be available on iTunes on April 16th)

Kovak – Radiate

Posted on 12/03/2013 by brightonmusicblog

We mentioned Radiate back in January before it was released. Now it’s been out, it’s also popped up in a few other forms. Here’s a remix by legendary producer Youth, and video that’s popped up on Youtube of an acoustic version from last year when they were recording their album in Spain:

You can buy Radiate on iTunes here.

Us Baby Bear Bones / What Starts with a U, Ends with an I

Posted on 05/03/2013 by brightonmusicblog

Us Baby Bear Bones have announced details of their debut EP. “What Starts with a U, Ends with an I” is being released on 10th June on Brighton Based label Love Thy Neighbour (who have also put out Abi Wade’s releases so far, as well as putting on countless great gigs around town).

The EP will be limited to 216 copies, the covers of which are a segment of a massive picture painted by band member Puff Gandolfo (have we mentioned how much we love the revival of proper rock star pseudonyms?).

The band gave us a taster last year uploading You to YouTube, and the EP will also include Rain which was previously available on the Sea Monsters 2 compilation. For now, you can grab Rain as a free download over on bandcamp:

Us Baby Bear Bones next gig is supporting Fiction at the Green Door Store on 19th March.

Tiny Dragons / Come Alive

Posted on 04/03/2013 by brightonmusicblog

About a year ago, we went along to see Tiny Dragons launching a single at the Prince Albert. So we were a bit confused by their press people sending us an email about their upcoming “debut single”. It turns out that this is their first single being run through the industry machine rather than being a home baked DIY affair. No matter – Come Alive is great. A bit more rock and a bit less funk than last time we saw them, but still as tight as they come.

It’s been a great year since we first spotted them. In that time they’ve supported Bastille, The Blockheads and the Fun Loving Criminals, and there’s a Stranglers support slot coming up too. They’re launching the EP this friday at Latest Music Bar. Tiny Dragons are a fantastic live band – it should be a great gig!

Woodpecker Wooliams – Gull

Posted on 10/12/2012 by brightonmusicblog

Since we’re starting to get into the Christmas spirit, we’re going to let you into a little secret – Woodpecker Wooliams is one of the artists still to feature in our Advent Calendar. We’re not going to tell you when yet though. We don’t want to give away all our surprises. You’ll just have to keep reading.

In the meantime though, here’s the video for her new single Gull, which is as bonkers, brilliant and beautiful as her album: