I first heard of Syd Arthur when someone pitched them to me as the future of Prog Rock music. With a name that merges Pink Floyd with The Kinks, and being on the Harvest record label (home to Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, Roy Harper and Deep Purple in their day) – from afar it looks good. Touring their newest album Sound Mirror, the young lads form Canterbury take influence from fellow Canterburians Soft Machine, Hatfield And The North and Caravan – all pioneers of the psychedelic-progressive rock scene in the 60s/70s.
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Cate Ferris – Latest Music Bar – 22nd September 2014
Transforming yourself from being a classic singer songwriter to a one-woman band is no easy feat, but that is what Brighton's blonde musical goddess did tonight, as she celebrated the release of her Disappear EP, the start of which will hopefully be another fruitful path for this very talented singer and musician.
The result of a successful Pledge campaign, and surrounded by an array of instruments – guitar, keyboards, flute and all manner of the weird and wonderful such as a megaphone, toy guitar, various exotic percussion and even an old fashioned tape player complete with cassette! – Ferris proceeded to beguile an audience all firmly rooting for her as she initially struggled with the intricacies of the set up and the songs before she was literally flying at the end, lost in music…
Layering beats, and guitar and synth lines, and a flute on one occasion, she gently built up the songs with the use of a loop station, while overlaying her voice, creating a one-woman symphony of lush textures, electronic beats and soulful harmonics. The one exception was the song Hurricane Skies that she performed on piano, featuring just her voice, and demonstrating a command of space, dynamics and controlled expression within the heartfelt music, and which is included on the new EP.
Initially inspired by the mini-symphonic and electronic sounds of Imogen Heap, Ferris has adapted seamlessly from being an acoustic singer songwriter with the voice of an angel, but remaining one who still writes sublime and beautifully crafted songs. Since her long spell with the hip-hop jazz maestros Dizraeli & The Small Gods, Ferris has learnt to dispense with her penchant for occasionally drifting into directionless writing, instead developing her more expressive and soulful side, but now complement by a r'n'b/folktronica style, such as on the exquisite Fly, a slow burner of a song that soon glides on a hi-hat beat and and increasingly layered vocals before fading out with just her voice.
It's really her soulful and expressive singing though that she brings to the party, a voice that is inflected with R'n'B stylings, and dripping with soulful abandon, and yet at times gently theatrical such as on her inventive take of Julie Andrews Doll On A Music Box. And the gently soulful-electronica of Giants and the title track of her new EP remind us again how much of a thoroughly Modern Millie, Cate really is.
Jeff Hemmings
The Growlers – Concorde 2 – 19th August 2014
I’d been looking forward to seeing the Growlers play ever since their packed-out gig at Green Door Store last year. This year the Growlers are on tour with Fat White Family and on each night of the tour they leave it up to fate to decide which band will headline and which will support with a mere toss of a coin which, not only is a brilliant way of keeping fans on their toes but also seems very in keeping with the quirky personalities of both Fat White Family and the Growlers.
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Moulettes – Interview – 2014
So, what exactly is a Moulette? An inter-web search reveals nothing except this band and some rather unlikely reference to a hairstyle, as defined by the rather wonderful Urban Dictionary: the moulette is a stylized modern mullet, originating in Canada. It is essentially a curly combination of hat hair (in Canadian winters, hats are a must), the mullet and the famous hair swoosh (optional but encouraged)." Could this be the inspiration for The Moulettes? As Hannah Moulette (they refer themselves individually as a Moulette) has said before: "… I had a free haircut one day that turned into a mullet. We were joking that it was a moule-ette…." So, there you have it, a female mullet!
Not that they 'wear mullets' of course, that would be crass. Instead, they are a remarkably intelligent unit of musicality, sensitivity and adventure, a wild fusion of classical, prog, rock, pop and 'fantasy folk'. Comparisons are nigh on impossible but Bellowhead springs to mind or maybe the crazy alt-prog 70s rockers Gentle Giant (look them up!)? In any case, they make fresh and original music, helmed by the core unit of Hannah Miller, Ruth Skipper, Jim Mortimore and Ollie Austin, although the extended Moulettes family runs into double digits including recent recruit Eliza Jaye. Moulettes are female AND male…
Now based in Brighton, I went to visit Ollie and Hannah at their Queens Park residence, where a welcoming atmosphere of coffee and biscuit making was in progress, although Ollie is in tour preparation mode, which means he's off the booze and on the de-caff… And, almost immediately upon arrival a parcel arrived with a new batch of their bespoke Moulettes tea towels, designed by Hannah. Excitedly examining the goods, Hannah and Ollie give the thumbs up, a piece of band merchandise that apparently sells very well at their gigs (someone else once told me that their biggest seller on the merch table was mugs…), alongside the usual CDs.
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