Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 1 – Van Zon / Cannon Fodder

Posted on 20/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

There’s been times this year when it’s felt like I’ve been their biggest cheerleader, but I won’t make any kind of apology for that because there’s nobody quite like Van Zon, who have successfully mixed up post rock, folk and a bit of neo-classical to come up with a genre all of their own. They were the first gig I saw in 2024, my most seen band this year, and they’re looking to be one of the first bands I see next year too. The highlight for me was October’s Hidden Herd gig where they showcased the songs that they were just about to record for their debut EP (due to be released sometime next year), all of which felt like a step up from the high bar that they had already displayed. If you haven’t listened to Cannon Fodder yet, settle down and strap in for an epic eight minutes.

1 : Van Zon / Cannon Fodder

2 : Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006
3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers
4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 2 – Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006

Posted on 19/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

When I first heard 1st July 2006 it stopped me in my tracks – the combination of the non-standard time signature, Bertie’s spoken word segments which sometimes get overwhelmed by the rise and fall of the rich backing, alongside Bowie’s emotional vocals was a heady mix. It still moves me now – to cram so much into just four minutes is no mean feat.

2 : Flip Top Head / 1st July 2006

3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers
4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 3 – Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers

Posted on 18/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

About fifteen years ago I started taking my camera along to gigs – it could have been a fad but at the end of a gig at Latest Music Bar the support act asked if they could have a copy of my photos, which might just have been the spark of encouragement that has made me carry on for all this time. After her gig at the Rosehill in November this year Cate Ferris once again got in touch to ask for a copy of the photos from that night too. The first time I saw her live, it was just Cate and an acoustic guitar on stage, but as the years have rolled by she introduced looping pedals, samples and electronics. Back in 2009, Steve Baker was the guitarist in The Woo!Worths, and he has made the journey to music production over time putting out releases under the name Champion Fever. Somehow Blinkers is their very first collaboration – apparently Steve hadn’t even been to one of Cate’s gigs before this year – but what a banger it is.

3 : Cate Ferris & Champion Fever / Blinkers

4 : Ideal Living / Roam
5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 4 – Ideal Living / Roam

Posted on 17/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

How to describe Ideal Living? In an interview they described themselves as PostSpook Knitwear Rock, but maybe they were taking the piss. They cite Tom Waits and Ennio Morricone as influences, but they remind me at times of the bits of Arab Strap I love where the intensity of the music is matched by lyrics that are unafraid to push boundaries. They take their name from Joy Division’s first release An Ideal For Living, and you can see that Billy Marsh’s role as front man is inspired by Ian Curtis. The rest of the band are a Who’s Who from some of Brighton’s other great upcoming groups, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when one of these groups breaks through (and it will be when, not if).
Roam is a diatribe about how man has imposed himself on the countryside, inspired by the view from the top of the cliffs near the Marina looking down over Brighton, it’s closing refrain of hushed chants of “Concrete and plastic and silicon” electrifying the audience whenever I’ve seen it performed live.

4 : Ideal Living / Roam

5 : MEMORIALS / Lamplighter
6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake
7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 6 – Hutch / Ice on the Lake

Posted on 13/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

With immaculate timing, Hutch put out the second single from their Smile & Wave EP in what felt like the coldest week of winter back in February, and since then they’ve had a hectic year of live dates, the peak of which was surely headlining Green Door Store’s 234 Festival in September. Their more recent gigs have started to include some new material, so hopefully we’ll see a new release from the band before long.

6 : Hutch / Ice on the Lake

7 : Lime Garden / Pop Star
8 : Thomas Ducout / Feminina
9 : Jamie Broughton / The Sound
10 : David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 9 – Jamie Broughton / The Sound

Posted on 10/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

I only recently caught on to just how good Jamie Broughton’s musical output was, but now that I have I bang on about him to anyone who stands still near me for long enough. I was aware of who he was before then, popping up onstage for various other Brighton bands playing whatever instrument was required, but it was seeing him live playing a full set of his own songs that the penny dropped. Sounding not dissimilar to Tame Impala when Kevin Parker was hanging out with Melody Prochet, Jamie’s album Big Long Sun – now also the name of his group now he’s widened his horizons from playing everything himself – is a fuzzy 70s infused psych dream pop gem.
I’ve been told that Jamie has albums and albums worth of unreleased material, and right on cue a new single Heaven is By Your Side – still psych pop, but drawing it’s influences from the 60s rather than the 70s – has been released today. No doubt we’ll be hearing a lot from Jamie and Big Long Sun in 2025.

9: Jamie Broughton / The Sound

10: David Best / Terms & Conditions
11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog Top 20 2024 : 15-11

Posted on 06/12/2024 by brightonmusicblog

11 : Welly / Shopping
12 : Ellis D / Shakedown
13 : Ladylike / Horse’s Mouth
14 : AK/DK / Nobody Shouts
15 : The New Eves / Astrolabe
16 : Projector / Tastes Like Sarah
17 : Penelope Trappes / Sleep
18 : Lambrini Girls / Big Dick Energy
19 : Holiday Ghosts / Sublime Disconnect
20 : Plantoid / Modulator

Brighton Music Blog End of Year Top Twenty, 1 – Momotaro / Second Side

Posted on 24/12/2014 by brightonmusicblog

When I was going through my favourite Brighton based music of the last twelve months, there was one band who stood head and shoulders above the rest for me personally. A band who I got a bit evangelical about and told everyone I knew they had to listen to, including my friends from outside of Brighton. That band were Momotaro, who at the end of last year had a few demos up on Soundcloud and had given away the fantastic dubby Reverie in return for signing up to their mailing list, yet managed to come out with a fully formed album on the first of February this year. Second Side featured much improved versions of some of those demos that we’d already heard as well as tracks which they’d been refining live, where despite sounding electronic most of the instruments are played live making them considerably more engaging than someone with their head down behind a laptop. The addition of a bassist and a visual artist to their line up later in the year as well as the continual evolution of their electronic post trip hop sound has turned things up another notch, and with a new EP due imminently 2015 could be a very good year indeed for Momotaro.

Brighton Music Blog End of Year Top Twenty, 2 – Fear of Men / Loom

Posted on 23/12/2014 by brightonmusicblog

With the release of the first proper debut album (last year’s Early Fragments discounted because it was just a collection of singles), Fear of Men have finally come of age. As you would expect Loom has an abundance of cultural references set to classic indie pop, bookended with intimate vulnerability but packed with strength inbetween. The album got great reviews across the board – NME gave it 8/10, and The Line of Best Fit 9/10 – which scored the band a tour support with Pains of Being Pure at Heart giving them a ready built audience all across America and Europe before they returned to play their own headline homecoming show at The Hope in September. Fear of Men are already working on demos for their next album which we can’t wait to hear.

Brighton Music Blog End of Year Top Twenty, 4 – Gazelle Twin / Unflesh

Posted on 21/12/2014 by brightonmusicblog

As I said when I made the first post of our end of year round up anyone’s lists will always be subjective. Until everyone listens to the same music and responds to it in the same way we’ll still see lists we disagree with. Vive la difference I say. However we fully endorse the record that The Quietus have picked to top their end of year list. Unflesh by Gazelle Twin unsettled and impressed us in equal measures, it’s force multiplied by compelling live performances.