The Haunt was bustling with anticipation for London’s Telegram. The glam punk rockers are quickly making a name for themselves for playing high energy shows, and they didn’t disappoint. From the start the lead singer had to deal with a mic that was determined to interrupt their performance, but he never let it affect an extremely energetic show. The whole band looked and sounded rock n’ roll, taking their influences from a whole history of rock music, and creating a sound that holds its originality. Their short set was over all too quickly, although I’m pretty sure Telegram will be back touring very soon with their own headline slot. Who said rock music was dead?
With the amount of music that is produced these days, it is no wonder that the odd great band is missed. Early Ghost are one of those missed gems that you can’t understand why they are not on the radio, playing headline festivals, and bringing pleasure to the masses. Playing at The Hope, they produced a very polished sound which rewarded a very lucky audience who gambled with them over much hyped The Wytches. The Brighton/London 6-piece consist of three vocalist, electric guitars, bass, mandolin, keyboard, trumpet, sax, and drums – all interchanging instruments between each other throughout. Their sound mixes alternative folk with neo-psych rock, and takes influence from all over the world. Early Ghost’s performance absolutely blew me away, especially with their newest single ‘Everything Goes With It’. If you see their name on a bill somewhere, be sure to see them as I guarantee they will leave their mark on you.
I arrived at the Green Door Store in a bit of a daze, after sprinting from the last venue to catch the beginning of my chosen headliner, Younghusband. I walk through the drapes separating the bar from the stage, and I seemed to enter a melodic kaleidoscopic world. A massive projection took over the stage and the audiences mind. They were up against Wire on the festival bill, but the lucky few that chose them were treated to an outstanding show. Their mix of modern krautrock, shoegaze, and neo-psych hypnotised you, making you question how short an hour really is. It felt like I could have spent an eternity listening to them with each song seeming to merge with the last, getting lost in their compelling sonic driven rhythms. I left feeling uplifted and enthralled by one of the most exciting bands I’ve seen in a while.
Thinking that nothing would now top my evening after the last two amazing shows, I went to The Hope to catch the second half of Jesca Hoop's set. I couldn’t believe how busy it was, completely crammed. If I hadn’t barged by way into the room, I wouldn’t have got in. Its soon becomes apparent why – the American born singer songwriter is a special talent. On stage with just her electric guitar and her delicate voice, she had the audience in the palm of her hand, with each and every one of them fixated with her clever heart-wrenching songs. She is a true blue angel, giving lots of little anecdotes between her songs, “Sad songs make me happy, stimulants make me tired, depressants make me excited. That’s how things work for the Hoopster”. The whole crowd had fallen for her. Lucky they had as on numerous occasions she muddled up her songs, but with her American wit it all seemed to work in her favour. When she got it right though, it was great. Her recorded material crosses many genres, but from what I saw of the set it was mainly quaint folk blues. Her painfully beautiful music was an amazing finish to a brilliant evening, made even better by her breathtaking acapella encore.
A difficult early slot to play for the Brighton electronic artist, film-maker and sculptor, Bernholz. With syncopated soundscapes and bass heavy beats, it was a shame it wasn’t later in the day and people were a bit more loosened up. His very futuristic take on experimental pop melodies was intriguing, to say the least, and it kept the whole audience’s attention throughout. I’m sure given a fuller venue and a more relevant audience, Bernholz music would go down a storm.
On the last day of an eight day UK tour, Broadbay did a good job of playing Sticky Mikes Frog Bar, doing the earliest gig they have ever done. Bringing 90's grunge music back to the present day, their heavy riffs and dreamy chords made you want to put on your old baggy jeans and get out a Pavement or Dinosaur Jr CD. You can quickly understand why this local three piece are becoming one of Brighton’s most talked about live acts, as their first-rate musicianship (especially the drummer) is something every music lover will appreciate. Get the free download of their newest single, ‘Plasticine Deam’, from their Soundcloud or Bandcamp.
I stay to catch half of Black Fungus’s set before heading to see Fujiya & Miyagi. After listening to 2 songs and experiencing their cocky rock band attitude they had failed to convince me of their abilities. I go to the The Haunt which is suitably packed for Fujiya & Miyagi, one of Brigton’s biggest cult bands. As I arrived they were playing 'Knickerbocker' which had the audience in an elecro-funk bop. Although I did find their futuristic pop beats deeply infectious, their songs were lacking any lyrical relevance. For instance, the song ‘Collarbone’ included words from 'Dem Bones', “Shin bone connected to the knee bone. Knee bone connected to the thigh bone…..”. Credit to them for sticking with their sound after over a decade of making music, but their once original style has become repetitive. This is, of course, my own opinion, as the majority of the audience absolutely loved their performance.
Brighton based Monsters Build Mean Robots, part of the Brighton independent Nice Weather for Airstrikes, took their ambient post-rock to Sticky Mikes Frog Bar for an impressive set with an innovative and refreshing sound. Their songs slowly build up into a very uplifting climax before returning you back down to ground level. You find yourself surrounded by a swirling wash of cinematic soundscape, that is intense at times but overwhelmingly beautiful throughout. As a 4-piece, with the drummer also on guitar, it is quite a triumph how they make such a complete atmospheric sound.
The two and a half hour late-afternoon intermission give me time to check out the more arty Sharp Speak Seaview performance which had been going on all afternoon. Featuring a whole host or artists from Drill Festival including Wire and It Hugs, they put together a freely improvised electronic soundscape. I like to think I am very open minded when it comes to all things musical, and perhaps I didn’t understand what they were trying to get out of this performance, but this really pushed the boundaries of my understanding of what you can call music. On stage they had a whole assortment of different devices to disjoint and distort sound; synthesizers, pedals, samplers, laptops, keyboards, and instruments including a sax and melodica. A surprisingly full room had people intrigued by what sounds they were making, some tapping and nodding to the non-existent beat, and others with their eyes closed letting the music fill their imagination. To me, the best way I can describe what I heard was the unheard noise of nightmares. Is there a difference between music and noise?
The evening’s dose of music starts with some tricky decisions of who to see, as the choice was plentiful. I decided to try and catch snippets of all the bands playing in the seafront area. First was Plank at Audio. The instrumental band from Manchester produce experimental kraut-progressive rock, full of big riffs and mesmeric melodies. Their sound was a mix of well calculated soft metal with light elements of electronica, fantastically put together by three very talented musicians.
A brief jog to The Haunt to catch The Slow Revolt. His electronic techno R&B combined with his vocal talents was an exciting mixture. I can see big things for The Slow Revolt, as the impressive one man band could get any club moving, although, I found it was a familiar sound in an overpopulated electronic genre and it failed to keep my attention. So I left to see Tuval & The Heights at Sticky Mikes Frog Bar. There’s a lot of promise in this talented Brighton triplet. Lead by Tuval on lead guitar/vocals and backed by Edward on drums with Liam on bass, they all had an effortless swagger about them. Muttering between each other as they played, but never straying from the immensely tight beat they kept. As I listened, the name Jeff Buckley kept coming to mind, but done with a more modern stoner blues vibe.
Staying at Sticky Mikes Frog Bar as it soon nears its capacity, everybody is in high expectation for Rose Elinor Dougall. Most likely drawn in by her biog in the Drill Festival Program where she “spent the last couple of years touring the world with Mark Ronson with whom she wrote and recorded with”. The crowd weren’t disappointed by her lush alternative melodies, with music that is reminiscent of Stereolab’s infectious pop sound. Half way through, I made a quick exit to The Haunt to catch the Brisbane born but now Brighton based, Animal House. After just seeing this band once, you will instantly become lifetime fans and be on the constant lookout for their next gig. Fuelled by Aussy wit and giddy upbeat riffs, I challenge you not to smile whilst watching this 4-piece. Their music is best compared to the high energy sound of The Hives with the raw unhinged vocals of early Kings Of Leon. With songs like ‘Tequila’ and ‘Sour’ (about eating lemons) along with the constant banter with the audience, it’s hard not to love this band.
My headliner for the day was the Mercury Prize nominated, East India Youth. Dressed in a dapper suit, William Doyle is equipped with his laptop, a keyboard controller and a bass guitar. He started creating a layered minimal soundscape building up into an intense euphoric wash of sound, before seamlessly switching into the next song. Early on he played my favourite song of his, ‘Looking For Someone’, which showed us that his song writing and singing skills match his epic song craft. From then on, the sound became evermore techno sounding, which pleased everybody in Audio as, like him, they were getting lost in the atmospheric beats. At first I wasn’t sure why he was using a bass guitar, as his scratching and smashing didn’t match the music. Turns out he was feeding the bass through his keyboard to create a clever effect over the sound. His own unique take on electronic music was definitely a memorable experience, and you can see why there has been so much excitement around East India Youth and his absorbing sound.
psychedelic rock instrumentals, they are passionate, expressive and fun. I loved the melodic guitar lines and heavy riffs, fluid bass lines and particularly the ferocious drumming holding it all together. I thought their tour-de-force drummer was pulling some extraordinary faces during the show and soon found out why – the poor guy had split his hand open and was bleeding all over his snare drum. This only stopped him from performing for about thirty seconds while he taped his hand up and at the end of the show he held up his snare drum for all to see. It looked like a prop from a torture porn movie! Live they primarily play as a traditional guitar, bass and drums three-piece but also weave in some keyboard textures from the two guitarists. This worked particularly well on an early track which was built around a repeating synth arpeggio, the sort of thing Pete Townsend might have conjured up for The Who. I found some of the meandering sections between tracks, seguing one track into another, were not always as successful – in a live setting it's often preferable for a band to end tracks with a bang, if only to let you know it's your chance to applaud! I was impressed with the group, especially their drummers dedication in the face of adversity, and would gladly catch them live again.
Then I took a long stroll through freezing Brighton streets to try and catch Tigercub at Bleach. I made it in time to catch their last two songs, ending their set with their new single 'Centrefold'. These guys had a great live sound, really solid sounding guitar, bass and drums. Whenever I hear 'Centrefold' I imagine it's a drunken Nirvana covering Kiss' 'I Was Made For Lovin' You'. So far the jury is out on whether or not that's a good thing! I shall endeavour to catch a full set soon and give them more of a full appraisal.
Headlining Bleach on Friday night were Blood Red Shoes, a late edition to the festival line-up and a much smaller stage than this band are used to playing, having spent most of the last year heavily touring in support of their excellent eponymous album. It was cool to see them playing in this environment, where fans were given the chance to get right up in their faces. I was surprised, having previously seen them at a rammed Concorde 2, that the venue wasn't overwhelmed – with Bleach being so far from other festival venues I guess it took a bit of commitment to choose Blood Red Shoes. There was a decent crowd of excited fans and old friends of the band who all seemed ready to party, but I was expecting queues.
I got myself right up at the front to take some photos during the first half of their set but found that the vocal PA wasn't designed for the crowd to take up such a close proximity, the instruments hit you with full force but you're better of at the back of the room if you want to hear the vocals. I'm a real big fan of the new album, which now sounds fully road-worn, tracks like 'Perfect Mess' and 'Everything All At Once' sounded great, having picked up extra nuances from multiple live performances. The band seemed to be taking the chance to air some older favourites that they hadn't played live as often, there was an almost hysterical reaction from parts of the audience when they announced they were going to play 'The Silence and The Drones' from their third album, which was followed by an excellent rendition of 'Cold' which was the big single from that album. I retreated to the back just in time to watch recent single 'Animal' cause a mosh to break out. The band finished with the fearsome thrash of 'Je Me Perds' leaving a room full of smiling faces grinning from ear to ear.
Young Fathers were the most impressive band I saw at Drill Festival by far, maybe even be the best live show I've ever seen, so it's no surprise they have just seized the Mercury Prize for 2014. At first glance it seemed an odd choice to stage them on Sunday afternoon, especially considering rival Mercury nominee East India Youth was headlining on a Saturday night. The Haunt was a much better setting for this group than Audio would have been though and their live performance was dark and intense, the perfect match for their unique style of alternative, experimental hip hop. The way they constructed their show could almost be seen as performance art or even some sort of dark theatre piece. Young Fathers certainly don't stick to any traditional rules of stage craft which made this band one of the finest I have, and might ever, see.
I was finding it a bit tough waking up that Sunday so I decided the best thing to shift me into gear was to immerse myself in some really heavy sounds. I squeezed into a packed Albert to watch Brighton's premier doom quartet. Sea Bastard look like a group of grizzled Vikings and play exceptionally loud, powerful, slow droning metal. Their guitarist is a tattooed giant with the largest stack amp I've seen on The Albert's stage – using multiple amp heads and, from the sound of it, I expected he was combining bass and guitar amps. If I hadn't been shoulder to shoulder with a roomful of people I might have been knocked off my feet. I'm not a huge fan of the screaming vocal style and I'm personally not the sort of person who would listen to this band at home, but I thought it was a great show and amazing to experience that much sound being pumped out up close and personal.
I then took a chance and wandered into the Green Door Store to watch Wolverhampton's finest two-piece God Damn. These guys certainly packed a punch, playing solid hard rock that was very heavy but also more melodic than Sea Bastard and quicker paced. Singer-guitarist Thom Edward seemed to be having a bit of trouble with his guitar sound during the set, which really came into its own during their last couple of songs, including single 'Horus', after he had a final jiggle with his amps tone controls. He was using multiple amps to create a heavily layered guitar sound, punching in more volume and distortion as the songs graduated from open verses into massive choruses. The guys were really charming as well, part way through their set he mentioned that Zu were taking to the stage at The Albert across the way and he hoped we wouldn't all leave them to an empty room (sort of intimating that he'd be tempted to do the same if he wasn't playing)!
I had originally planned to go and see Zu but these guys were so charming and entertaining I foud myself staying through the whole set. They mentioned that Bjork's 'people' had decided to fund them recording a full-length album, which seems like a slightly incongruous pairing, but an exciting development for their future prospects. Once again, I'm not the biggest fan of screamed vocals, but there's certainly a lot I did enjoy about their riffs, relentless percussion and clever arrangements. After their set I did poke my head into The Albert in the hope of catching Zu, but as I suspected the room was impenetrable and I already felt quite satisfied by my brunch full of heavy rock.
Later that day I returned to The Albert to check out another group I had no previous experience of. London quartet Fossa seem to be at the very start of their journey but have developed a fantastic sound and a laid-back understated delivery. I'd heard nothing of the band before I arrived and was pleased to find them reminding me of some of my favourite bands, like Grizzly Bear or Radiohead, but they were far from a carbon copy of either. They had lots of great ideas bubbling away and tastefully created a great range of sounds and textures using pre-recorded loops alongside the drums and artfully choosing between keyboards, bass, guitar and acoustic guitar, depending on what the songs needed at any given moment. They were my favourite discovery of the festival, great jazzy beats with melancholy melodies and smooth flowing grooves punctuated by cutting ice cold telecaster motifs. Sometimes they strayed into unusual choices for complex vocal melodies, which reminded me of some moments from Everything Everything's repertoire that I find awkward, but Fossa never over-did things, to my taste. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for these guys in the future.
My final band of the festival were Samaris, back at the Green Door Store. They played pared-down deep house with live vocal and clarinet. I have to admit from the start that I prefer to see more live elements when I'm watching music being performed. Although it was obvious that the DJ in the three piece group was doing a lot to manipulate the sound we were hearing with his laptop, sampler and effects pedals, I often find I'm a little disconnected from the music when I can't see how it's being made and when a large percentage of it is pre-recorded. I felt like he could have delegated a little more live input to his clarinettist and singer, at times they seemed a little awkward and uncomfortable on the stage – not quite sure what to do with themselves. I think, perhaps, the band are more used to performing to larger crowds who totally surrender themselves to their mesmeric, relaxing grooves, as they often exchanged slightly bemused looks with one another. Their music was fantastic though, once I got over my initial reticence and allowed it to wash over me. The vocals were gorgeous and the solo clarinet wove beautiful spacious lines around the beats, it was a mellow end to the festival and a welcome change of pace after the heavy rock assault I'd chosen earlier in the day.
Adam Kidd
