The Island Club are new and you should definitely, definitely learn about them, listen to them and embrace them. Do it fast, do it now, they won't be a small Brighton band for too much longer. They are a fresh breath upon a Brighton music scene that has longed for well-crafted pop musicianship and a penchant for churning out hook after hook. They played The Prince Albert tonight, a show put on by One Inch Badge, and managed to cram the venue to the point where it sold out, and rightly so, they deserved it.

Approaching the stage, it appeared as if they had been playing to sellout crowds for years, fine tuning their craft to the point where it had become second nature to play live. Note perfect, elegant, clean; it had all the makings of a band that couldn’t put a foot wrong. In fact, you almost got the sense that this was one of those rare intimate shows for bands that are well and truly established within their genre. It was not a set that was full of surprises or dives away from the norm for theatric gratifications but it was a set that well and truly displayed not only the universal accessibility of the group but also the clear distance that this band can go within the music world they are currently part of.

As far as frontmen go in this do or die music world, The Island Club are fortunate that they are made up of one of the most charismatic that are around. Full of wry jokes to the crowd, tongue in cheek references to the dire weather that rages outside whilst also balancing the capacity to have an outstanding voice that can fill The Prince Albert. The songs themselves wind around a newer Tame Impala-cum The 1975 sound; its pop-psychedelia drawn from the two wizards at the forefront of their respective genres. The set rarely dipped in form from the intro right through to the closing washes of ‘Your Time’. What was most intriguing about the band was how they approached the stage with vigour and determination. They understand the position of a relatively new band and that nothing can be taken for granted; they approached the stage with an intention to win the crowd, and not an easy crowd to win at that. Brighton, as widely understood, has an ability to draw fairly tame crowds and tonight was no change necessarily – it did become clear by the end however that The Island Club had manage to draw members of the crowd to shaking around a little, largely due to the addictive groove of the songs. It’s impossible not to dance and enjoy such warm music without a smut grin on your face like the kid who has just won a date with the awfully attractive girl.

More to the point however, The Island Club managed to pack soul into their set as they hadn’t just been gifted with this sellout tour as such; they are a local band that have managed to earn their stripes and produce a dedicated following. The energy and passion poured into their set was what often emerged more than the music. ‘Let Go’ was announced to be the next single they release and it’s easy to see why, it has a universal meaning and in turn, carries a universal sound. There’s no specific niche for the sound but that’s what works well, that’s why they can sell these venues out and if they carry on producing sets like this, more power to them. This meant something to them and credit certainly has to be given there. Lethargy was not on the menu. The melodies produced within the set were pure pop-hooks, nothing overly-fancy but incredibly captivating nevertheless. They are the like that would be nothing alien to the likes of Drake; they are big, bold melodies that just so happen to be placed upon a slightly psychedelic sound.

The contagious hook of ‘Paper Kiss’ engulfs the crowd within a delicately distorted fuzz, it’s large and takes the song by the horns when played live in the same fashion it does on record. The disco groove is embedded within the sound in an early Peace fashion, it fluctuates throughout and puts its colourful hands around the audience bringing them up to speed with what is occurring onstage. The expansive swells and drops in the psychedelia of ‘Sober’ is what points them in the direction of ‘Apocalypse Dreams’ style of Tame Impala. This is a group that really give a damn about how their sound transposes from record to how it does in a live setting; it’s a refreshing breath of summer to an otherwise wet evening. Make sure you catch them on the Brightonsfinest Alternative Escape stage.

Tom Churchill

Website: islandclubofficial.com
Facebook: facebook.com/theislandclubuk
Twitter: twitter.com/theislandclubuk