TOKiMONSTA

Eventually found the Jazz Place after initially going down the wrong street (does anyone else still have trouble navigating the south lanes?) all the while getting heavily rained on.  It’d been a while since that last time I’d been down in the Jazz Place and it was good to be there again as I’ve some fond memories of that cosy basement.  Blue Daisy took the controls as first live act of the evening and was warming into his set when I arrived.  Playing what I suspect were mostly his own cuts, Blue Daisy played a set with a lot more groove than I had been expecting, mixing some very deep and atmospheric sounds with precision assaults of crushing beats.  It put me in mind of one of my favourite Warp artists, Clark.  Especially the crushing mile-wide repetitive beats of what I think I recognised as his own ‘Hunterz’.  On tonight’s evidence I got the distinct impression Blue Daisy will among the most interesting artists in electronic music over the next few years both live and producing beats.

TOKiMONSTA came straight after Blue Daisy’s seamless groove with 45 mins that veered between cosmic hip-hop and some good old-fashioned rave inspired anthemic moments.  Chief among the latter and getting a great reaction from the crowd were her own cuts using samples of of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s ‘I Chase the Devil’ and The Loonies ‘I Got Five on It’.  It all got very muddled up during TOKi’s set as her concoction of gnarling sub-bass and shimmering scatter-gun beats combined to addle my mind.  The only thing I clearly remember is not being able to leave the dancefloor.  And there I pretty much stayed until the end of the following set of Slugabed.

Big ups to Donky Pitch for putting on a night of such unique quality.  One of the organisers told me they are simply interested in playing music and putting on artists that they really want to hear, and hopefully this will be what a number of others will want to hear also.  The crowd was a good mix of those who wanted to have a bit of a party and those more content to head nod, but it was clear the vast majority were drawn there for the music.  With a music policy at the intersection between British dubstep, west coast hip-hop and Scandinavian skwee, a place where a great deal of innovative and exciting artists are creating some amazing music, Donky Pitch is well placed to showcase it in Brighton for our distinct pleasure.

Donky Pitch DJs have a residency every 3rd Saturday at The Globe. 9pm-1am

Find out more about Donky Pitch here

Listen to Donky Pitch guest mixes here

Review by Paul Clare

Breakestra

A rainy Sunday night in November may not seem the ideal time for a storming bundle of funk and soul but no surprises really that the fine men from Playgroup did not disappoint.  Arriving windswept and drenched is not the way I would have chosen to begin my evening, but nonetheless, the Concorde was bordering on full, and fiery support from The Impellers and Brighton based The Grand Majestic soon had the place getting their soggy feet into gear.

The main event opened up with front man Miles Tackett on the microphone, whose vocals sit not uncomfortably next to those of any soul singer worth mentioning, which is not unimpressive, considering he’s a nice white boy from LA.  The raw groove continued unbroken as guest vocalist ‘Aphrodite’ took to the stage, where she remained, shakin’ her ass, for the next hour and a half.

The California based group set themselves apart from other ‘funk and soul orchestras’, largely by completely eradicating all the gaps from their set.  The endless parade of seamless funk largely consisted of breaks from their latest release ‘Dusk till Dawn’ but also included homages to songs from every great era of funk and soul music including James Brown, Sam and Dave and even (rather unexpectedly) Johnny Cash.

The sheer stamina that the band demonstrated on all fronts was stunning, playing for well over an hour and a half non-stop, with blistering solos, ceaseless groove and constant grin-inducing hip swinging led by the unbelievable Aphrodite.  When the evening came to a close amidst a positive sea of desperate desire for more, it was down to drummer Shawn O’Shady to inform us that it was down to the Concorde’s confused licence police calling a halt to proceedings.  I left as soaked in the funk-sweat as I had been by the rain upon my arrival.  Good times.

Words: Jon Waller

Photos by Marek Richter

The Field delivered a cracking early show at Brighton’s Audio on Wednesday. So much so that it left me feeling annoyed at having to go home in preparation for work the next day. It’s sad I know but the pain of midweek adventures outweighs the pleasures these days. This would have been a perfect Friday / Saturday slot filler… the hour long gig could have so easily have fitted into an entire night.

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Last weekend saw the return of The Blind Tiger club, Brighton’s occasional speakeasy, this time hosted at the former public records library on New Street. The weekend did not get off to a promising start when my much-anticipated plans for attendance at the Thursday night warm up sadly fell at the last hurdle, with a family engagement and M25 based traffic jam resulting in my very late arrival on the Friday. The weekend was rescued when the promoters took pity and kindly invited us back for Saturday’s festivities.

Brighton based Playgroup have been hosting parties in various guises since 2006, although this was only the Blind Tiger Club’s second outing, the inaugural event winning the Brighton Festival Fringe Award for Most Groundbreaking Show earlier this year. Organiser Declan Cassidy explained his concept of a festival within a club, the idea that a good night out doesn’t have to centre around a big name headliner and legions of adoring fans. One of the best things about festivals is coming away feeling like you’ve discovered new bands, rather than being aggressively marketed a must-see performance. It seems like this is something Playgroup strive to facilitate. The information prior to the event listed few of the acts who were actually playing, which led to pleasant surprises all the way through.

Headlining both Friday and Saturday nights were the Correspondents, London based swing-hop duo. If you’re wondering if a yet another new genre has just been invented there, you might not be alone, unless you’ve seen these geniuses at any one of many festival appearances over the summer, in which case you know exactly how they manage to merge together wide ranging jazz influences with some big beats in their own magic formula. This is the sort of music that is made for live performance, or at least the type of live performance that I want to watch. As the years go on I find I’m less and less interested in the type of gig that involves a lot of standing still looking pensive, there’s opportunity enough for that at home on my sofa.

Another highlight for me were the previously unknown to me Baca Maraca, multi instrumented outfit with fantastic female vocalist who played in the dusty basement of the venue on Saturday night. I’m struggling to find any online source for these guys, please point me in the right direction via the comments below if you can help.

I’d never been inside this building before, which has apparently been serving as an art gallery in recent days, so I don’t know whether the shabbiness and dilapidation were endemic when Playgroup got the keys, or whether the effects were exaggerated for the speakeasy attendee’s benefit, but for me the ambiance was a wholly refreshing antidote to the ever present chrome, lights and lasers set up and general shininess which feature in so many clubs these days. It was certainly a stark and pleasant contrast to the last time I ventured out clubbing, on a somewhat ill-fated mission to the Funky Budha Lounge where my friend was sent home to put on some long trousers. As it was, the vast majority seemed to have taken the 1920s theme on board when it came to wardrobe choices, the odd person present in jeans and a t shirt looked somewhat out of place. However, it was to my eyes entirely without pretence, and you probably could have come in your pjs for all anyone on the door would have noticed or cared. There is a fine line between shabby chic and being dripped on from the ceiling and peeling your feet off the floor with every step but the right side of this was definitely successfully achieved.

Like all fledgling festivals, there were some organisational issues to contend with. I’m not sure whether the outdoor portaloos were a plumbing based necessity, or an attempt to enhance the festival vibe (I’m hoping the former) but the capacity of the four cubicles was stretched to breaking point fairly early on. I am told there were overcrowding issues on the stairs on the Friday but by Saturday night this was being effectively managed by the security. I hasten to add that these are minor quibbles.

I was excited to hear about plans for a Playgroup festival, potentially making its debut next summer. After the disappointment that was Beachdown (still no refunds from those shysters for most folks, it seems), Brighton needs a fresh approach to a local festival, focussing on true local talent, giving overpaid has-been superstars a wide berth. Perhaps the guys at Playgroup will be the ones to get the balance right and establish the successful festival that Brighton deserves. In the meantime, keep an eye out for their upcoming Halloween mashup headlining Evil Nine, which will take over the Komedia on the 31st.

Photos and words by Paul Clare

To be perfectly honest the prospect of White Air Festival didn’t exactly have me brimming with anticipation and excitement. Yeah, I did want to see Biffy Clyro in their new role as rocks next big thing (last time I saw them was a decidedly small affair in a church in Norwich) and then there were two of Brighton’s finest live acts, British Sea Power and the up-and-coming Doll and the Kicks. Oh, and Doves were playing too. But not being big into my extreme sports unless you count badminton meant White Air approached without a great deal of fanfare for me. Oh, and Doves were playing too.

White Air was coming to Brighton for the first time after spending the last 12 years down on the Isle of Wight where it had built itself in to ‘Europe’s Biggest Extreme Sports and Music Festival’. Over the three days it had lined up 30+ sports and activities that festival goers could watch or if they were feeling more energetic and daring they could have a go. Being the outdoorsy and active types, the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy were both heavily involved in the festival and to open the weekend the Red Arrows were out in force at 11am in a super loud flyover which must have caused a few residents of the city to fear an air strike. The various activities included water-based sports like windsurfing; wakeboarding; kite-surfing; jet skis; high-diving and the epically named Thundercats. For those who don’t like to get wet there was BMX; inline-skating; mountain bikes; mountain boards; skateboarding; parkour (those guys who run and leap over building and urban areas) and… Yoyo-ing!

Sadly I was combining my visit to the festival with having also to go to work each day. With most displays finishing around 6pm this meant I did miss almost everything worth seeing by the time I was able to get down to Madeira Drive. The festival was set up in a long strip from near the Volks as far as Concorde2 at the far end. This layout encouraged the punters to check out the different stalls and activities and they made their way to the live stage and/or bar. One thing I saw which looked like fun was something called ‘brush-boarding’ which is a kind of dry slope surfing on huge spinning electric toothbrushes. The main area of activity was definitely the Freesports Park. Here there were guys, some on two wheels, some on four tearing down ramps and practicing airborne tricks for the entertainment of onlookers. After taking this in for some time and listening to the PA explain some of the tricks to the uneducated I decided I’d better head down to the live arena to see The Lemonheads. I was looking forward to hearing some good American slack rock, and hell, maybe Kate Moss or Liv Tyler would make a surprise appearance (they provide guest vocals on the bands new covers album ‘Varshons’). Lemonheads sounded great and while small in the number the crowd were enjoying themselves in the late afternoon sunshine.

From here on it was the music that took centre stage but I did get the chance to see close up some impressive tricks performed during a streetboard (similar to a skateboard but longer and with larger wheels) competition back in the Freesports Park. But back to the live arena I soon went as the always superb British Sea Power were next on. Happily the crowd had grown in size somewhat as the day headed into dusk. BSP are nature boys at heart liking nothing more than a good hike in the country or a spot of bird watching, not your typical extra-curricular interests for rock musicians. The stage was garlanded with branches and foliage and the band took to the stage. BSP announced their arrival at White Air by sounding air raid sirens (I looked around for returning Red Arrows) and then went headlong into one of their searing rock anthems. Lead singer Yan told the crowd that he was pleased but surprised to be on after The Lemonheads. Too modest by half I thought as BSP gave a far more exciting and engaging performance that was as varied as it was purposeful. But then BSP do seem like such thoroughly nice chaps. From my point of view, I thought it was awesome that the band explicitly made sure us photographers could stay in the pit all set long and not just the usual three songs. Lots of highlights to the set but if I had to pick one song it would have to be ‘Remember Me’ just before the end. Seeing guitarist get into the spirit of the festival and attempt a bit of on-stage skateboarding when he clearly hadn’t set foot on one before was quite endearing.

White Lies were the next band on and seemed to have rather a lot of fans in the crowd. This lent to a pretty moody and disgruntled atmosphere building when the band were kept off stage for an hour longer than scheduled. Even the comperes were encouraging the crowd to boo. And sure enough when White Lies came out they have to take some jeering. But admirably, the band sucked it up, and told the crowd they’d make up for being so late (not their fault they did protest). White Lies played a quick-fire 6 song that started with the radio bothering ‘Farewell to the Fairground’. It was all a bit landfill-indie to my ears but the crowd seemed to be having a good time and so did the band.

Biffy Clyro were undoubtedly what everyone was there to see and the arena was the fullest it would be all weekend. I must admit the Biff have mainly passed me by a bit since that night in the Norwich church. I enjoyed ‘Vertigo of Bliss’ a lot but musically this just hasn’t been where my head has been for a while. Biffy are a band that don’t mess around on stage, its just lots of punchy riffing, soaring Scottish harmonies and some rousing choruses. It was big, it wasn’t too clever, but it was a lot of fun. And they finished with ‘Mountains’.

Day two and I decided I’d only head down to the fest late on as I’d missed most of the sports anyway. So we got there and went straight to the arena to watch The Cribs. The only reason being to see the one time Smith Johnny Marr playing live. The Cribs’ appeal beats me however, even with Mr Marr and we were pretty thankful when they’d finished so we could go get another beer and await Doves. Now I’ve always had a soft spot for Doves and to get to see them live for the first time is long overdue. The band have been playing together for such a long time now and coming off the back of the festival season and the tour for ‘Kingdom of Rust’ they knew exactly what to do and how to go about it. It wasn’t the most exciting show I’ve ever seen but a very solid set with songs from across their four albums. The visuals were also a bit of a treat with their idiosyncratic videos being projected behind them. Jimi Goodwin got in a few Quadrophenia references and commented on how beautiful the pier looked in the night time view. Yeah, we see it all the time mate! They finished with their most joyous number ‘There Goes the Fear’ which sent most people home pretty happy.

All in all a decently run festival, with all kinds of things to try out. Even if you don’t want to go particularly extreme there were small workshops for having a go. It’s a particularly good event to go to with kids due to the active element and not a big emphasis on Brighton usual strength, drinking. I’d say if you were going to White Air simply for the bands and hanging out then you’d struggle to justify the ticket price but it’s not really aimed at that kind of audience. Only on an anecdotal level, it seems that a hell of a lot of people got in for free so not sure how successful it was for the organisers but the festival definitely offers something different in Brighton and it would be a shame to see another locally held festival go down the tube eh?

Photos and words by Paul Clare

Gang up are the cream of the cool kids in Brighton, a collective that came together after a couple of beers… like how most good things are spawned, that love sexy and beautiful photography. Last Monday was their launch night and while this post is not exactly “hot off the press” (my apologies for the delay) we got a few sexy shots that were too good to keep. On the way was Garage Studios papping a shot of (nearly) everyone that arrived so keep an eye out for this little project. It was rumoured that over 300 people made it, milling around checking out the magazines that were hanging from the celling. I am not sure if this was a tactic that is common in the bank to stop you from taxing the Biros, but either way it looked pretty cool.

It seemed that just about anyone who’s anyone was there, the recently wed Mr and Mrs Kendal of the Source, You Got Papped, Tim Richardson..and a lot of faces from the ‘Brighton scene’. Sam Hiscox, Dark Daze, Sally Reynolds, Louie Banks and stylists Ophelia Fancy that make up the members of the magazine schmoozed the crowds and beautiful girls were strutting. Not a bad night for a random Monday. This was all housed in the underground, industrial setting of the Old Music Library to create an uber cool feel, quite Vice, but with out the Hoxton hair and bad attitude.

GangUp ‘The Issue’ is a lavish 104 page bespoke magazine featuring nine all-girl editorials of cutting edge photography and no adverts. We aren’t writers, we make pictures and tell you stories, hopefully you’ll find them hot and sticky and maybe even kinda wrong, but never short of beautiful.

A few words from Sam Hiscox at the end sums up what its all about:

Bruised, sexy, skin.

Photos by Mary Pryce

The Sian Alive Group. Photos Mike Burnell www.iso400.com

I can’t believe another Loop has come and gone. There were bands, there were glowsticks, there was the inevitable rain – but none of those things are mutually exclusive and this year’s Loop Festival was distinctly different.

The weather didn’t help. It was the third year of Loop Festival and probably for a lot of people who’ve packed this yearly electronic music and art festival, there was the natural expectation of Victoria Gardens, the stomping ground across from University of Brighton, to be taken over COMPLETELY. Like the lady boys never happened. However, this didn’t happen.

The forecast of heavens opening meant the organisers headed for cover. In this case, cover took the form of none other than the Brighton Dome, Corn Exchange and Playhouse complex. This is not the setting most people think of for a festival that’s quite youth-culture oriented, not the playground for the festival types.

Yet, when I arrived on Saturday, a few hours later than I had intented, there was a spill of bodies across the gallery floor in Dome Concert Hall, spread across beanbags, glitter and paint streaked across cheeks. The Corn Exchange felt like a slightly humid front room.

I caught a bit of We Have Band in the Dome Concert Hall, where there were lots of people sitting in the aisles and also standing in the centre. We Have Band have that 80s vocal sound down, dark throaty singing, with a pretty girl in the middle banging on a percussion pad. My friend asked if that’s all she did. No – she sings. They’re all about the bass and drums. Unlike drum n bass. All in all, I enjoyed the band and smarted when my friend said he was bored and wanted to leave. A shame. We Have Bass are Thomas, Dede and Darren Bancroft.

We Have Band – You Came Out (Live in Paris @ La Maroquinerie. February 2009) from We Have Band on Vimeo.

Then Datarock came on, wearing red Adidas tracksuits and these black sunglasses. They looked like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, like that futuristic band. More to follow….!

Photos by Marek Richter

You might be thinking that Capel, near Horsham, isn’t exactly Brighton… and you’d be right. Capel is a good 45 minutes drive away, but the fact that the organizers and many of the acts come from down here is enough for us. The Firegathering Festival is a 3 day event held on farm land in the beautiful English countryside. Surrounded by nature and all enclosed in an open green area, with a large fire burning directly in the centre, the location is perfect for such an event. The site isn’t massive but it doesn’t need to be any bigger at the current volumes. One downfall with larger festivals can be the sheer scale of the site – you are constantly dredging back and forth between your tent and the action. The Firegathering is currently at a perfect size and that is partly what makes it a moderately undiscovered and unspoilt gem.

The Firegathering is a Community Interest Company (CIC) set up to promote brilliant live music, circus arts, cabaret and much more without financial profit being the catalyst. The Firegathering Festival is really good fun, friendly & affordable.

The festival has been running since 2004, originally based in Suffolk, and has seen a good level of growth with each year. It is the brainchild of 5 Brighton based individuals who run a business together during the day (Firetoys.com), however this business plays no commercial part in the event itself. The festival is run for love rather than financial gain. Corporate sponsorship is nowhere to be seen and everything is aimed at being as eco conscious as possible. The food on offer is all organic, mainly vegetarian, and locally sourced. My only complaint would be the lack of meat on offer, it seems all the meat options sold out so quickly that us carnivores were left hungry.

The entertainment at the festival is all aimed around the circus theme with an abundant array of jugglers and performers. The ethos of the festival is to get stuck in and have ago – and so they did adults and children alike.

The main stage kept the show going with a constant flow of bands while another smaller tent was set up with a much more intimate feel. Comedy acts and various performers could be caught in the circus. This also included some entertainment of a more blue nature. From scantily clad burlesque dancers, to a naked lady completely covered head to toe in gold, pulling a balloon from her arse. All flawlessly choreographed to the tune of Spandau Ballet’s gold! You don’t see that every day. This was late at night I should add, so adults only.

For those wishing to wind down after a long night of festivities a healing area was provided. “The Orchid”, as it was known, was tucked away in a secluded area behind the main stage – offering a quiet place to take some time out. Various types of massage and meditation being on offer or if like myself you could just sit back, sip at your beer and soak in the sun.

I’m usually not the hippie type, and a festival mainly of live bands is not usually my fortay but I can happily say I would return to the Firegathering. The experience for me was a camping trip with lots of laid on entertainment. A nice change from other larger more hectic commercial festivals. The next festival for me to attend is Sonar in Barcelona and I am pretty sure that won’t leave me feeling as relaxed and content as the Firegathering.

http://www.firegathering.co.uk/

Photo by Dan Dennison (dnnsn.com)

The 4th Great Escape Festival brought joy aplenty to a rainy mid-May in Brighton. After last year’s experience spending valuable gig time stood in queues, I decided this year to try beating the queues by seeing smaller acts. Research was required, especially seeing as this year seemed to be quite a mixed bag in terms of quality of acts for some reason (seriously). Here are the results:

Thursday

Nullifier were 8 energetic blokes bouncing around the stage in the Freebutt and were full of promise. With what must have been only 30 or so people in the room, it was pretty easy for the lead singer to get in amongst the crowd, as he kept coming off the stage. The place may have stunk of poo, but Nullifier certainly did not with their wacky keyboard sounds which well suited their song about space travel “Burn up on ReEntry”, which was the highlight of the set. One for signing and nurturing for sure.

Mean Poppa Lean were a change to the originally billed band at Prince Albert. Christian, the lead singer was suitably dressed for the occasion with his silky shirt, short shorts and curtain waistcoat. Mean Poppa Lean got the crowd going with their funky rock, accompanied by the semi naked Horny Brassholes. The song “Sheryl Crow” one of the best of the set; however the last song elevated the hotness of the room to the max with “Hot Times, How Hot”. Christian implored the crowd to get dancing, sing along and literally get down to the floor.  Each band member got introduced and did a solo. Very good, with some mild elements reminiscent of Fun Lovin’ Criminals sort of but mostly funky goodness.

On arrival at Ocean Rooms, we endured Cursive; an American rock band who clearly had some kind of small following, but the emphasis being on small. It was all about the next act on.

Cockandbullkid had the crowd in the basement of Ocean Rooms instant attention as soon as first track “Impossible” started off this exciting set, despite her microphone not even being on. Anita held the audience in captivation throughout with her flawless voice belting out soulful electro pop with such effortless style; a true star performer holding everyone’s gaze.  Anita Blay’s set excited me further about her debut album, songs with catchy beats and poignant lyrics which reflect her true artistic talents. With a collection of songs including “Sinners”, “On My Own” and “I’m Not Sorry”, Cockandbullkid is definitely something to keep an eye out for; which is exactly what the Great Escape is about.

We came into the Komedia to see the end of The Rumblestrips gig. After previously seeing them before it was evermore evident what rousing crowd-pleasers they are and a great way to end the first night.

Friday

Betty And The Werewolves at The Hope were a great first act of the night to see. Defying the odds playing on a somehow wobbly stage and avoiding keyboard accidents; Betty And The Werewolves were clearly excited to be there (so much so they forgot the name of one of their songs) and it showed in their sterling performance.  New single “David Cassidy” was one of the highlights, as well as “Heathcliff” and “Wind-Up. They proved to be much more than your average girls-with-guitar bands and were very enjoyable; enough to get the audience howling for more.

My Tiger My Timing brought their “wonky pop music” to the Ocean Rooms basement which gradually got busier. MTMT are the kind of band that swap instruments, all have vocal input and generally muck in.  “This is Not the Fire”, their debut single (Produced by Andy Spence of New Young Pony Club) is a great indie/pop single, which like most of their songs is layer upon layer of mesmerizing rhythms, melodies and harmonies. Hopefully there are many good things to come from this band.

Canadian Post-Punk band We Are Wolves (so many wolf related bands this year) got better more towards the end of the set, although for most of their set they were pretty average – they sounded better on their Myspace page. Time for a drink…

Ulterior were the sorriest sight ever. I have never seen so few people at a gig. Looking and sounding like some awful throwback band (leather trousers, long hair errrrgh), we went upstairs to see who else was playing in the hope of something better. Little did we know that we had swapped one throwback with another. For it was Hot Leg; Justin Hawkins’ new band which just sounded like another Darkness rehash complete with usual dodgy costumes. Dear oh dear, give it up Hawkins! To be fair there was bigger crowd than downstairs. However I’m sure they were there probably for the sake of having a gawp at Mr Hawkins. We decided to leave and head to Cella Sanctuary in Hove, where there was a late night bar and DJ. I don’t think I have ever seen someone getting so into DJing from a laptop. It was a good venue but pretty dead so that was the end of Friday night.

Saturday

Saturday’s Great Escape entertainment began at Hector’s House, where we went to see Tommy Tokyo & Starving for my Gravy, a Norwegian band with a similar sound to Modest Mouse except they are stranger and have a bit more of a diverse sound. It’s not everyday you have a man shouting down a megaphone in the pub.

Then it was off to Volks on the seafront for The Voluntary Butler Scheme, one man band Rob Jones with his looping device in order to create songs with many layers of quirky instruments’, surface tapping and backing vocals to sing along to. His songs left us all grinning like Cheshire cats, with his charming lyrics. There is something of Jarvis Cocker about Rob Jones. One of my favourites of the weekend, who I shall definitely investigate further.

At the Hope, unsigned band Televised Crimewave brought a welcomed element of chaos. Compared to The Smiths and Blur, I could see the slight resemblance in their sound. Front man Daniel Wilson was at one with the crowd; jumping and leaping around off stage like Damon Albarn in the early days of Blur. One for those who like it raw and loud should definitely check them out.

Unfortunately completely unrelated to the performance, I was pretty distracted from Official Secrets Act due to it being so overly hot! Impressively the band played on despite sweatbox conditions. If you like British New Wave then check them out. We left their sweltering headline set and embraced the cool Brighton air.

Considering we did not have to queue once at all to see any of the bands shows that it still is possible to catch any many upcoming and new bands as possible. To be honest, if you’re trying to see more established acts like Kasabian and Idlewild at a new music festival then you’re kind of missing the point; go see them on tour! Although it is a gamble seeing unsigned/newly signed acts, when you do find a new band you like then great but even if you don’t  then you’re free to roam with the wristband of dreams and see another (unless like with Hot Leg you want the cheap laugh option).

Words: The Mexican

Photos by Marek Richter

This Friday saw the Launch of Brighton’s Loop festival with their very own club event. I’m not too sure what happened here but the persons in attendance was limited. That’s a tactful and polite way of saying it was pretty damn empty. Is Brighton just not interested in artists like Nathan Fake or is the fact that no one has ever heard of The Jam the problem? Well let’s fill you in know if that is the case. The Jam is the new name for the Water margin, so for those people (including myself) who still call it Sumo’s, let’s quit and get with the time.

Kliks head man Lee Smith played first with some tracks perfect for the warm up slot – wholly suited to Nathan’s attack of beats and sounds. Lee Smith fans may also have been confused as the promotional material stated “Lee Smith from The Click”. With that aside he introduced Nathan with Damian Lazarus’ – Moment. A track that keeps growing on me with its effortless female vocals – Lazarus’ own singing aside!

Fake cuts quite a striking image, crazy hair, pouty mouth and I noticed that he does a cute pointy pose thing with his foot when deep in concerntration. Passionately hammering away, doubled up over the laptop and mixer he is quite the dancer too. I think he played the Sky was Pink at one point but overall used the oppertunity to show us his darker side of harder edge techno and new album “Hard Islands”. It’s a shame about the promotion, there could have been an excellent atmosphere if there were more people. Overall some fantastic techno and great blurpy noises that sadly seemed to echo in a sparce room…