With Kachings reminisent to the beginning of Pink Floyd’s 1973 hit Money, it’s time for another new years even in Brighton. This list is a work in progress and will be updated with any changes up till new years day.

Our backings with Life, Supercharged and the Slackers Convention.

£32 to go to Digital?? Two words… blow me.

Happy New Year

The choice’s for this year are…

Venue: Audio

Featuring: 1920’s Secret Speakeasy – Support from Minimal Kids, Riva Star, Cagedbaby

Sold As: Our NYE parties are the stuff of Brighton legend, and this year we’re going all out with a celebration of the most decadent and debauched of all decades – the 1920s. With THREE separate arenas decked out in full ’20s style, and of course a killer line-up, it promises to be the biggest and best Audio NYE yet.

Above Audio // Step back in time to a roaring 1920’s speakeasy bar at Above Audio this NYE, replete with all the glamour and excess that the decade was famed for. The venue will be completely transformed with full 20’s decor, including decadent private booths, luxury full length drapes, and the legendary Above Audio cocktail bar in full effect. Hosting the speakeasy’s turntables, we’re honoured to welcome veteran Audio DJ Mex (Black Grass), who’ll be spinning his peerless selection of deep soul, hip-hop, disco and quality party anthems.

Terrace // Heading outside, our terrace hosts a very special 1920’s Cigar & Liqour Bar, where a full live jazz band will be on hand to entertain guests while they sample premium spirits and enjoy fine cigars at our walk-in art deco humidor. Whatever the weather, our fully-heated marquee ensures that the Above Audio Liqour & Cigar Bar will be the classiest smoking area in town this NYE.

Audio // As you’d expect, we’ve put together a killer line-up for the downstairs club. Local hero Cagedbaby takes a break from touring, remixing and producing Fatboy Slim (among many others) to drop one of his killer electro-disco-house sets. He’s joined by Riva Starr, one of the most talked-about talents in house right now, whose releases for Jesse Rose’s Frontroom label and Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried have catapulted him to club stardom. Support comes from Enzo Siffredi, whose cutting edge tech-house and signature minimal has made Audio clubnight Minimal Kids one of the biggest new parties of the year. Accompanying the sounds, we’ve commissioned some unique old-school video footage, including live real-time manipulation of video shot at the party itself.

Time: late etc…

Cost: £18 early bird tickets http://tinyurl.com/audionyetickets

Web: www.audiobrighton.com

Email: info@audiobrighton.com

Venue: Volks

Featuring: The Slackers Convention: Far Too Loud + Pav + LuQas + Dirtbomb + Pook + Mary Miss Fairy + Loop De Ville + Sidius + Stebo + Cut Loose DJs

Sold As: A dirty mix og breaks, beats and party nonsense.

Time: 11:00pm until 5:00am

Cost: £10.00 / £8.00 advance

Tickets: Advance tickets available from Flawless Clothing (Kensington Gardens, N Laines, Brighton) 01273 688484 / Rounder Records (S Laines, Brighton) 01273 325440 / Slackers Direct 07790030275.

Web: www.slackersconvention.com

Venue: Ocean Rooms

Featuring: Switch and Herve. Support from JAMES BRADY AND CASPER G’DAY, JAMES MOSS, CHRIS NATURAL (LUNARCY), JAMES D’LEY, FACEMAN, MATT POOK

Time: Doors 10 till 10

Cost: £17 early, £20 after

Sold As: NYE is the best night of the year and the biggest party not to be missed. Every year we have bought you something special including justice, hot chip, yoda, tiefschwarz and kenny dope some of these shows you don’t get to see again and this year is no different! We will completely decorate the club and this years theme is a white party! Transforming the venue with white 4 poster beds, a complete uv rave room with floods, strobes and extra sound. Wear white to join in the white carnival atmosphere. we will have the white hotel with the 4 poster beds, white performers, surgeons and nurses will keep you entertained!!!!!

Web: www.oceanrooms.co.uk

Tickets: ocean rooms 01273699069, Rounder Records Brighton Square, Resident Records Kensington Gardens, Dome Box Office 01273 709709. www.ticketweb.co.uk

Venue: Digital

Featuring: Pussycat Club New Years Eve – Fabulous Las Vegas: Nippa Downey + Audio Pimps + DJ Al Outram

Sold As: WANNA PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG? You can buy a combination ticket for a measly extra £7.50 which includes entry to the infamous DIGITAL NYE AFTERPARTY Once Pussycat draws to a close you will be whisked to the VIP ARCH whilst the venue is transformed for THE Afterparty with special guests BRODINSKI & Blah Blah Blah DJs – the after party runs till sun up least.

Time: 10:00pm

Cost: £32.50

Tickets: ents24

Web: www.yourfutureisdigital.com

Venue: Komedia

Featuring: Trailer Trash ! Presents: Pirates Of The Caribbean

Sold As: Cult movie-themed club extravaganza, featuring fire, aerial and burlesque live acts, plus rum-fuelled, raucous pirate bands and rock ‘n’ roll, neo-swing, dirty electro, soundtracks & classic hits from our resident DJs, to roll you giddy and uproarious into the unchartered waters of 2010. Dress shipshape – Win prizes!

From: 9:30pm until 2:00am

Cost: £14.00 / £16.50

Tickets: http://komediabrighton.ticketsolve.com/

Venue: The Funky Buddha

Featuring: Tru Thoughts New Years Eve Party: Robert Luis + Hint + Flevans

Sold As: For New Years Eve admission will be £12, Robert Luis and Hint will be joined by Flevans, but overall this night is about the music and having a regular quality party in Brighton, so from 21st January onwards this it will be FREE. Upcoming DJ guests include Quantic, Zed Bias, Nostalgia 77 and TM Juke.

Cost:Tickets available now for £11 exclusively at www.etchshop.co.uk or £15 on the night

Time: 10:00pm until 5:00am

Tickets: www.etchshop.co.uk

Venue: Jam

Featuring: Don’t stop Believing

Cost: £12 + Booking Fee

Sold As: We have brought together a line up of djs who are used to rockin’ parties around town into a collective playing a selection of their guiltiest pleasures for your NYE pleasure.

Venue: Concorde 2

Featuring: Supercharged: DJ Zinc + Loefah (DMZ) + DJ Nero + Brookes Brothers + The Qemists

Time: 9pm

Cost: £15.00 advance

Sold As: Supercharged presents a New Years Eve party like no other… the only place to see in 2010 @ Brightons legendary Concorde 2! With DJ Zinc, Loefah, Nero, Brookes Brothers, The Qemists, 2 Bit thugs and much more! Early bird tickets are only £15, on sale now!

Web: www.concorde2.co.uk

Web: www.againstthegrainrecords.com

Email: hello@concorde2.co.uk

Venue: The Old Market

Featuring: Holdup!

Sold As: Holdup! will be holding its 6th New years eve party in the sumptious surroundings of the Old Market Hove this year. (our regular venue Life will be holding a dance/house music new years eve party). The night will begin at 9pm and roll on through midnight and our usual wild indie celebrations all the way through to 3am . All our favourite indie tunes will be banged out by our resident djs and a top night is guaranteed! If you have never been to the old market before you are in for a treat as its a beautiful venue, we will of course add our own touches with a balloon net and the like. ace .

Time: 9pm

Cost: £12

Tickets: www.ticketweb.co.uk or next week at rounder or the old market itself, plus there is a 24 hour telephone booking line on 08444771000

Venue: Life

Featuring: Maxxi Soundsystem / Kliks / Schtumm / She Likes Parties - IDJUT BOYS, MAXXI SOUNDSYSTEM, JOHNNY ROCKS, ALI BROADCAST, SENOR MICK, AFFY, PAN/TONE Live (Sender/Cereal Killers), LEE SMITH, ANWAR, TOM RIDSDALE, Little Miss Bicks, Dr Dreidal (Popstarz / Shibby Shabblers)

Sold As: This is LIFE’s first NYE party and we have been working hard to make sure it will be the best way to seen in the next decade. In brief we will have 4 seperate areas incorporating 3 programmed events with their own artist line up and decor. Some of the event will be in spaces adjacent to the LIFE club itself but all our guests will be fully protected from the elements as the entire front of the venue will be covered in a huge heated marquee!

Time: 10pm – 6am

Cost: Early Bird Tickets £17.50

Tickets: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64946

Photo by Martina Woerz

Their self titled 2008 debut album is full of funky tunes inspired by disco and Brazilian music (whilst occasionally sounding a bit 80s in a good way), as well as floaty daydreamer songs with electro-synth elements; pretty much something for everyone. The crowd were quite a good reflection of this what with quite a varying age range of people at the show; and thankfully not just full of pretentious indie kids. Anyone who’s a sucker for the cow bell would definitely have loved this. Was surprised Friendly Fires were playing at Digital and not somewhere bigger but this sold out gig got everyone dancing pretty much non-stop on the Brighton leg of their tour. Sadly there was not enough room for the St Albans trio to instigate a conga line as they had done at Coachella festival stateside the week before. However they brought the party spirit to town bigtime.

With lighting reminiscent to 90’s era Top of The Pops, Friendly Fires came on and performed a tight set, transferring all the suaveness from the record and more for the night’s performance. “Jump in the Pool” started of the proceedings nicely with its samba rhythm. “Lovesick” and “Photobooth” made me feel like I was at some disco in the 80s but loved it; especially “In the Hospital” with its impressive percussion efforts. One of the best moments of the gig was when they played Skeleton Boy. As well as a flawless performance just looking round at everyone dancing so angular like as if they were in the video was great. The added saxophone was a good addition to this song (a re-released single) which has been so key for raising profile for the band in these last few months. The dreaminess of “Paris” lived up to its lyric “We’re gonna lose ourselves, I promise” for sure, which pretty much summed up the night.

Catch them if you can at Creamfields. Or if you’re lucky enough; go see them support Blur at their Hyde Park shows this summer. I’m sure they will have nicer ladies loos than Digital; no toilet seats, no proper door locks and so fucking dark it’s not cool!

http://www.myspace.com/friendlyfires

Words: The Mexican

Photo by Suki Hosha

It’s not often that I find myself and assorted friends assembled on the seafront waiting for a repeat performance from a band we saw, in almost identical circumstances, one year previously, but last Sunday we were thus positioned, shivering none too slightly in the fading not-quite-summer sun; drinking cider from plastic glasses on the terrace outside Coalition, watching nearby Digital fill up with Whitest Boy Alive fans. 

I attended last year’s gig purely on the strength of lead singer Erlend Oye’s work with his acoustic band, Kings of Convenience, and was impressed by how well the tracks translated from the recording to the stage and the tightness of the sound. Since then, as predicted, Whitest Boy Alive has gone from strength to strength, touring in Europe and South America to critical acclaim and releasing their second album, Rules. 

I have my reservations about Digital as a live venue, where its strengths most certainly don’t lie. This was exemplified for me at last year’s Of Montreal gig where my position near the back meant I could neither hear not see anything worth reporting. With my vertically challenged stature, I am used to the main visual feature of gigs being the back of other people’s heads, but as I believe music is primarily for listening to this isn’t a problem, except at venues which pack in so many fans that people are forced to stand behind speakers or in other acoustically unsatisfactory locations. In any case, on Sunday I made sure not to be in this unfortunate position and by the time the warm up act had taken to the stage, we had secured our position near the front of the crowd, conveniently underneath the dripping pipe from the toilets above. 

Despite the misleading impression created by the name they share with a large Christian organisation, The New Wine were a good choice for a warm up act. Hailing from Bergen, Norway, like Erlend Oye himself, I wondered if they were perhaps old friends as they seem to share a great many musical influences, or perhaps they’re just really big fans of WBA. In any case, they did exactly what a support band should do, playing a solid, upbeat set, mercifully without any hint of Christian Rock. 

As Whitest Boy Alive took to the stage, a swift look around at the crowd showed a number of fans sporting Erlend-style glasses, for what I assume to be stylistic rather than optometrical reasons.  Erlend himself is as geeky and understated as we remember him. Perhaps his modest attire is secretly as carefully crafted as that of the tight-trousered, asymmetrically-haired brigade but something tells this isn’t the case. 

Since last year, fourth member Daniel Nentwig (Rhodes & Crumar) has joined the band full time, bringing the band’s full complement to four. The remaining members are  Marcin Oz on bass and Sebastian Maschat on drums, looking somewhat stoned tonight, although in fairness this could be an olfactory reaction to whoever it was in the front few rows suffering from some serious anus problems at the beginning of the set. 

The set began with a selection from recent release Rules, and went on to include some hits from Dreams, with a few humorous covers thrown in for good measure –  a rendition of Prodigy’s outer space and  a few bars of Arman Van Helden’s classic you don’t even know me of particular note. Highlights for me were Golden Cage – a dance routine on stage here from bassist Marcin Oz and Erlend which I would love to believe was impromptu but was just a little too good not to have been choreographed;  and opening track Keep a Secret. The whole set flowed seamlessly, which was no surprise to me given Erlend’s demonstrable attention to detail. If you look closely, he is filling the role of conductor as well as lead guitar in this band, giving directions to the other band members, the sound and lighting team and even the audience, correcting us when we get it wrong. 

My overwhelming impression of this band, and I undoubtedly said this last year too, is their evident happiness which I so appreciate in a musical world too often featuring misunderstood shoegazing miseries. They actually look like they’re having fun, which given that they spend their days playing music, is hardly too much to ask. By the end of the gig they were down in the crowd, dancing with all of us, which put paid to my note-taking. I even managed to catch a drumstick, which given that I have trouble catching lighters and pens was quite an achievement. 

I was surprised to see mixed reviews of Rules appearing online, some suggesting that the band is moving backwards from its original mandate as a step away from Erlend’s traditional acoustic sound to electronic dance music, others bandying words like flat and subdued, suggesting that Whitest Boy Alive’s sound is less suited to bars and clubs than “the headphones of people walking down empty streets” (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12830-rules/) and perhaps this is so, on listening to the recording – however, for me, the band’s remarkable ability to translate their studio album to a quite different live experience is one of the many beautiful things about the Whitest Boy Alive.

Whitest Boy Alive at Brighton Coalition last year:

http://www.brightonfusion.co.uk/live/2008/05/19/whitest-boy-alive-special-guests-rubies/

A-Trak Photo by Angela Boatwright

The Blah Blah Blah boys had Fake Blood Digital only a few weeks and now comes the news that A-Trak is coming just before Easter. He’ll be here on Thursday 9th April. What’s even better is the next day is a bank holiday so people don’t have to work the next day.

So who is he anyway? There seems to be three sections to who A-Trak is. First he was DMC Champion when he was 15 and basically won everything and retired from the DJ battle scene a few years later. Then he landed the job as Kanye West’s DJ which saw his profile rise even more and now in the last few years he’s moved away from the  scene but still drops some hip-hop and showcases his scratching skills during his sets. He even has his own label, Fool’s Gold!

He’s got a Fabric CD dropping a few days before the gig at Digital and a another mix album on Thrive Records in America that’s just come out so he’s been busy. That’s before mentioning that he just did 9 gigs in 3 days in Miami at WMC.

He’s only doing a handful of UK dates so make sure you catch him and £9 is a bargain to see this guy!!

Check out the Blah Blah Blah blog for more info on the show and to keep up with A-Trak check out his website/blog, Myspace and Twitter.

09/04/09

Photo from Bromberger's MySpace

B-Side & Modelisme records are teaming up for another scorching event. Providing the best underground house, minimal and tech at one of Brighton’s most intimate venues – Micro. Located right next door to digital for those not in the know.

Sebastien Bromberger (Modelisme records, FR)
Tiger Lilly / Alex Downey

Live visuals provided by Lucid:House

Free Before 12:00 /£5.00 after / £3:00 [nus]
Selected bottles £1.90 / Vodka & Mixer £2.50 / Selected shots £1.50

Please note there are NO advance tickets for this event and Micro has a very limited capacity so please arrive early.

BIO: Sebastien Bromberger manages the label “Modelisme” he created with his buddy Laurent Cristofol also a member of the duet “Electronic Data Processing”.

A youngster in the 80’s, he got hit by the post punk, new wave, electro and techno pop period and it was during a trip to Belgium in 1990 that he fell hard for the acid house and techno music.

Born in marseille he started mixing in 1993 and composing in 1996. From then on a true musical complicity will start his long time friend Laurent and a few noteworthy releases with french labels such as Algorythm, Doug Dunner and Music First (96-98).

Micro (Located Next to Digital)
187-193 Kings Rd Arches
Brighton

27/03/09

Photo by Eliot Gill

2009 sees The whitest Boy Alive return with a highly anticipated new album, entitled Rules. The album follows up 2006’s successful Dreams which introduced Erlend Øye’s side project to the world. Erlend better known for his work with the Kings of Convenience has created, along with the rest of the band, a unique and truly original project. The Whitest Boy Alive was originally meant to be an electronic project, instead the band rightly chose to go down the strictly live instrumental route. With their new album they have pushed this even further recording all tracks live without the use of any effects.

Rules will be released March 3rd 2009. To coincide with the album release, TWA will be touring once again, and luckily will be hitting the Brighton shores for a second time. A number of lucky people got the chance to see them last year at Coalition, now they will be back to take the stage at Digital.

Some tracks from the new album are available on their Myspace.

Rules Tracklist

01. Keep a Secret
02. Intentions
03. Courage
04. Timebomb
05. Rollercoaster Ride
06. High On The Heels
07. 1517
08. Gravity
09. Promise Less Or Do More
10. Dead End
11. Island

Read Brighton Fusion’s previous review to get a feel of what their shows are like: whitest boy alive with special guests rubies

www.whitestboyalive.com

www.myspace.com/thewhitestboyalive

www.yourfutureisdigital.com/brighton

Photo from John Digweed's website

Here’s one to keep the message boards chatting. It has been over half a decade since John Digweed last played in Brighton and Digital have got in there and got him booked. Brighton residents will remember Digweed’s Bedrock Records night which used to take place at the now defunct Beach club. That’s Brighton Coalition to all the students and new comers! No doubt this will be a welcome return for Brighton’s many lost progressive house fans – the majority of which have been wallowing in self pity since the nights demise. Digweed was voted the world’s number one DJ by DJ Mag’s top 100 list in 2001, remaining in the top 10 for the past decade. Although there are no guarantees that the voters involved are not retarded, we can at least take solace in the fact that it’s not Mixmag.

Digweed will be joined on the night by Scott Bradford. Bradford and DJ partner Scooby are the founders of Digital Newcastle’s Shindig night. 

Tickets available at £13.50

Digital 11/04/09

One of the most popular DJ’s and producers of the moment, and still going from strength to strength. Jamie Jones is a refreshing booking in the sea of Brighton’s events.

Biog from www.outlar.com:

Jamie Jones Intro: Jamie Jones is best known for the deep minimal track ‘Amazon’. Released on Dan Ghenacia’s Freak n’Chic output at the start of the year, the 12″ has since become the label’s biggest-selling single. ‘Amazon’ proved to be especially popular with the Germans, popping up on Tiesfchwarz’s ‘Fabric 29′, closing out the RA.005 podcast by Kiki, and Steve Bug’s ‘Bugnology 2′ compilations.

As a DJ, Londoners will recognise Jamie from his Sunday afterhours sessions at the T-Bar and his DJsCanDance parties where he plays what he describes as “a mixed bag of mainly deep house and techno”, appealing to both the Crosstown Rebels mob and those who like their beats and bleeps served up on M_nus. These days Jamie is also a regular at Fabric, touted as “one to watch” by the club’s booking manager.

24/01/09

David Morris aka Boy 8-Bit. Photo nabbed from his myspace.

Mid-January is upon us. You’re broke and broken. Yawning through family togetherness, followed by dulling the senses with mates out drinks and parties and then a near spiritual vacuum at the realisation that it all cost more than you were expecting. Anyone up for Supercharged then?

If you’re saving yourself, you might be well-armed with the knowledge that a gem of a gig is on in March, which is plenty of time to restore the life forces.

London’s bass-fuelled electro-muncher Boy 8-Bit will be playing on Saturday 14th March at Digital along with Fake Blood, who played last autumn at Digital (apparently a steaming show) as part of the Annie Mac line-up.

Expect some breaks broken by fidgety house chunks and  earfuls of trendy noise that’s actually pretty good. That’s not a backhanded compliment, but it’s easy to dismiss artists who feature heavily on the blogosphere – well it is for me – and I think this is a show not to be missed as Mad Decent’s latest addition is gonna hit our rocky beach hard and fast.

Featured on labels such as Southern Fried and Skint, the boy may be South London but he ain’t a stranger to these sunny Brighton shores. Boy 8-Bit was last down in Brighton in May 08 as part of the Blah blah blah night – mm, that would have been a good one to go to.

Even if you’d spent all of last year living under West Pier, I’m willing to put money down that you heard 2008’s “The Suspense is Killing Me” or at the very least caught the sound leaking out of a nu-rave spotty teen’s headphones ambling down the seafrong and that maybe was a mix featuring one of Boy 8-Bit’s tunes. Just maybe.

Still in the dark? I’ve nabbed some tracks and mixes from  a June 2008 post he made on Mad Decent.

In the Together mix, Boy 8-Bit largely gets stuck into his own tracks and he includes “The Suspense Is Killing Me”, “Ready For War”, “The Cricket Scores”, and  “Fog Bank” plus he also adds his remixes of Pomomofo’s “Back At the Club” and Devils Gun’s “Gold Dust”.

Plus I’ve tagged on “Ghost House”, Boy 8-Bit’s answer to “The Suspense is Killing Me”.

So there. It’s win-win for everyone.

Download audio file (boy8bit_togethermix.mp3)

Boy 8-Bit Together Mix

Download audio file (GhostHouse_SuspenseIsKillingMePtII.mp3)

Boy 8-Bit – Ghost House

Admittedly, it’s taken a while to get this post up. However the hangover nearly did last that long despite the lovely (though slightly shy of the predicted serving time) pies from Due South.

Wondering what the DiMAS this is all about?

“The DiMAS came about through the work of SCIP and Wired Sussex delivering the legendary Brighton and Hove Web Awards down the years. We recognised that the digital cluster in the south (and especially in Brighton) had become much more than the web agencies alone and we wanted to reflect that in these awards whilst maintaining that uniquely Brighton spirit which always made the Web Awards such an entertaining evening.”

Alex and Chris of FatDrop

The evening, like many networking nights in Brighton, consisted of the usual suspects in the digital word, including Twitter people meeting up ‘in real life’ for the first time, which can be very exciting (especially if your name is @prycie). But the blend of music and digital is what has led FatDrop a place on the Fusion walls and leaving the night clutching their award (I am sure I noticed a sly call to their mothers at one point too).

FatDrop provide record labels with a web application that enables them to get their artist’s promos into the right hands, digitally. A monthly subscription with no contract is pretty much all that is needed to get you going, and this offers labels the opportunity to self-promote without the need of pressing demo CDs whilst also complimenting their PR. We all know how easy it is to push a button (I write this multi-tasking, ferociously bidding on eBay) and to be able to click ‘download’ rather than actually putting on a CD can be considered a reflection of how the music industry desires a shift towards digital from the physical format – thus perfect for the lazy, web-savvy people that we have evolved into.

On their books at the moment are Brighton’s Skint Recordand the label of long-haired wonder Rob Da Bank, Sunday Best.

So considering this was a breakthrough award, I think that the horizon is looking decidedly peachy for the boys. Having been recently featured on the Guardians’ Elevator pitch and interviewed by the ultimate girl geek Jemima Kiss, they explain to her how they have grown 400% in the last year and have over 100 labels to look after.

We all have an affinity in Brighton for local talent, and since the city is so small, we find we are all bizarrely connected in someway or another, a discovery made when knocking back the fourth bottle of wine of the evening. Chris and Alex are bright and charming in a cool, aloof kinda way, and it could not be denied the best men won that evening.

Other highlights of the DiMAS awards included voting with glow sticks for a geeky animation award that was very fun and quirky, Kevin Carey’s incredibly moving speech on the web/usability and modern day attitudes, and finally, free goodie bags of sweets with popping candy. On rolled many a smart arses pretending the candy was MDMA and necking handfuls. It’s a shame that the chairs were not cleared at the end for a bit of a dance, something that made the mediocre DJing seem even more so. Or maybe we were all just a little bit conscious that Jesus doesn’t like drum and bass.