Brighton Dome feat. 1

feat.

FKA twigs | Mogwai | Kele | Sarah Nicolls | How To Dress Well | Beatabet | First Aid Kit | Chicks on Speed | Simian Mobile Disco | Emptyset

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feat. 1 Welcome to the first ever issue of Brighton Dome feat. feat. is a free music & culture magazine featuring exclusive content, interviews, and photos of some of the world-leading, contemporary artists that set foot in Brighton Dome’s iconic venues.

We are dedicated to bringing the most exciting and interesting live work to Brighton, much of which is curated & produced by our own artistic team. This new magazine offers you exclusive insight into some of the artists we’re proud to present under our beautiful roof.

If you’re a Brighton-based creative, get published in feat. by sending us your photography, reviews, artwork or anything else that’s inspired you whilst at Brighton Dome.

You can send ideas & submissions for future issues to: emails@brightondome.org We’ll pick our favourite to print - and offer you some complimentary tickets if we do!

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Interview: Laura Ducceschi Brighton Dome’s Music Producer offers an insight into curating & producing a contemporary music programme…

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Feature: earsthetic

Interview: SPECTRUM

Introducing the week-long audio-visual programme earsthetic featuring Kele, Chicks on Speed and Simian Mobile Disco…

Creative Learning Manager Bex Fidler talks SPECTRUM a project to support & cultivate the local music scene…

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Interview: Beatabet Beatabet talk about collaborating with SPECTRUM and some exciting upcoming projects…

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Interview: Sarah Nicolls

Preview: How To Dress Well

earsthetic artist-in-residence Sarah Nicolls discusses the creation of her intriguing instrument ‘Inside-Out Piano’…

How To Dress Well is fast becoming one of America’s most original songwriters with new LP What Is This Heart…

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Interview: Mogwai

Review: FKA twigs

We catch up with Mogwai ahead of their gig at Brighton Dome in October…

A round up of what the critics and audience had to say after FKA twigs’ mesmerising performance at Brighton Dome…

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Listings

Preview: First Aid Kit

Take a look at what’s coming up at Brighton Dome over the next few months…

First Aid Kit head to Brighton in 2015 after winning the Nordic Prize and four Swedish Grammys…

An interview with

Brighton Dome

Laura Ducceschi Laura discusses her job as Music Producer at Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, her top picks for the season and the return of week-long visual-music programme earsthetic, featuring artists such as Chicks on Speed, Kele (Bloc Party) & Simian Mobile Disco…

Hey Laura! Care to introduce yourself?

Hall, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre. It was built for The Prince Regent - or King George IV as he later became – who had travelled the world a lot and been attracted by Indian and Arabic influences. He built this place as a getaway from London and my impression is that he came down here to play and have fun. The flair of Brighton - this mischief and sense of experiencing exciting things - is fun for us to play with as well.

I’m Laura Ducceschi, the music producer at Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival.

My job is to put together an eclectic, interesting programme of contemporary music and sound works of all genres for the year round artistic programme and annual Brighton Festival - the biggest mixed arts festival in England. Ultimately I see my job as a curator - which might sound a bit arbitrary – but it’s really important to have a balanced programme. We have three venues of very different capacities and we need to make sure there’s something to feed the tastes of the whole city and all its different communities. We are in a young, vibrant city and we want to make sure we present an interesting programme that reflects this.

And if you had to sum it up in three words?

Eclectic, contemporary, bold Who has the most enviable job at Brighton Dome?

I think I do! I hate to say it - I guess it’s down to opinion!

I believe very strongly in music as art, and I like to work from the perspective of it as art and an art form rather than just music. I’m also very fortunate that in my job I get to work both in the context of a big international arts festival and in the year round programme. I can actually focus on the curation and considerations of a balanced programme and exciting artists.

Tell us a little bit about Brighton Dome.

You must have seen an endless number of artists pass through. What makes a performance really stand out from the crowd?

It’s a beautiful, Indian and Arabic-inspired building that contains three very different performance spaces - the Concert

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feat. Laura Ducceschi As part of earsthetic, we’re working with Chicks on Speed on two events. They’ll be coming in and setting up an installation with us featuring their film Golden Gang. Then we’re going to present their live show Artstravaganza. We’re not going to have a stage, but instead build multiple plinths like you would find in a gallery. The piece will feature multiple projectors and the various gadgets they create music on. It’s a rare UK show; we’re flying them in for it.

I obviously work in live music as opposed to other elements of music, so if someone says ‘oh, it’s like listening to the album!’ then that’s a big fail, because at a show something unique and wonderful should happen that you could only experience in a live situation. An amazing show is all about artists who particularly belong in the live arena, more than in the studio.

It’s about them being in a wonderful headspace and in really good spirits, and then it’s about their musicianship and ability; when those three come together it’s pretty amazing.

Also as part of earsthetic, Emptyset - who I think are genius - will present a three projector piece. They’re on the Raster-Noton label, which is the source of many a fine artist, it will look and feel very special in there.

Kele’s (Bloc Party) new project is going to be in the Studio Theatre with his visual collaborators, and all the acts have great opening artists such as Gazelle Twin and AKDK with Metaluna.

Which shows are you most looking forward to over the next few months?

This is the second year of a programme we’re running called earsthetic (8-13 Dec). I mentioned treating music as art and a lot of artists cannot simply be put in a box of one discipline - it’s about elements coming together. earsthetic is a series of events that celebrate this - where the sonic and visual really intertwine from an early creation point. It exists to present artists and projects that are embedded in these two mediums from the start - works that could equally be presented in a gallery, arts space or live arts venue. Time is spent talking a project through with the artist to ensure the most ideal space is set up to honour the visual aspirations and inevitably we spend a day building it.

‘If someone says ‘Oh, it’s like listening to the album!’ then that’s a big fail, because at a show something unique and wonderful should happen that you could only experience in a live situation.’

There’s also Simian Mobile Disco - the visuals for their new Whorl project are created by Jack Featherstone and Hans Lo - I love their work and have wanted to work with Jack as a graphic artist for a long time. The visuals are a key element to the programme - we’ve decided to strip out the seating in the Concert Hall and we’re going for a massive, full width screen to present the show how it was intended when they designed it.

Emptyset, earsthetic, Sat 13 Dec

That sounds unmissable - and if you could bring any artist to your venue...

I’d bring two - Dolly Parton and Prince! Both are sensational performers. In fact, let’s get them to duet! earsthetic is produced and curated by Laura Ducceschi and runs at Brighton Dome from 8-13 Dec. Interview: Elliot Hancock, Songkick

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Brighton Dome

earsthetic

A week of immersive audio-visual events

Mon 8 – Sat 13 Dec

It’s a challenge to present audio-visual creations as whole artworks. They might be time-consuming to install, or very large, not to mention costly. This can mean that this boundary-breaking art-form is often not displayed at its best - or worse, not at all. earsthetic is an annual week-long programme dedicated to putting weight behind some of the best audio-visual artists and collaborators, giving you a rare chance to experience their work exactly as they imagined. earsthetic means more than just straight-forward gigs.

More than a gallery installation. It places an equal amount of attention on the quality of sound as the quality of what you see.

Think big-ness. Think immersion. Think beauty. And think sheer scale…

Mon 8 - Sat 13 Dec Sarah Nicolls - Inside-Out Piano Experimental pianist and earsthetic’s artist in residence Sarah Nicolls has invented an ‘Inside-Out Piano’, which will be installed in the Café-bar as an opportunity for members of the public to come and try it out for themselves.

Mon 8 - Sat 13 Dec Claudia Molitor - The View Behind My Desk Claudia Molitor is a composer and artist whose work draws on traditions of music and sound practices but also extends to video, performance and fine art. Her work often becomes a site where conventions of music notation and performance, and hierarchies of listening and seeing are explored.

Mon 8 - Sat 13 Dec Chicks on Speed - Golden Gang This is a chance to see a special screening of the collective’s short film Golden Gang; a piece of work based on Luis Buñuel’s iconic film L’Âge d’Or (The Golden Age) and created for the Der Stachel des Skorpions Ein Cadavre exquis project initiated by Munich-based artist group M+M.

feat. earsthetic

Mon 8 Dec The Works The Works is a regular night at Brighton Dome that provides a chance for theatre makers, dancers, choreographers and musicians to present their crossartform and interdisciplinary work in development.

Hosted and facilitated by dramaturg Lou Cope and earsthetic artist-in-residence Sarah Nicolls, this special edition is focussed on work by musicians and visually led artists.

Thu 11 Dec Kele With visuals by David Altweger An intimate gig with DJ, producer and lead singer of award-winning band Bloc Party where he’ll perform tracks from new album Trick, as well as music from his previous releases The Boxer and The Hunter.

Tue 9 Dec Chicks on Speed - Artstravaganza For 17 years, Chicks on Speed have forged an extraordinary career across music, fashion, art, styling and design, taking a fluid and dynamic approach to sophisticated DIY creative endeavour. After releasing their latest album Artstravaganza this autumn, they will perform a special live show amongst and upon plinths.

Fri 12 Dec Simian Mobile Disco With visuals by Jack Featherstone and Hans Lo Plus support from Gazelle Twin

Wed 10 Dec

With latest album Whorl - their stripped back follow up to 2012’s Unpatterns - released in early September, Simian Mobile Disco present a rare large-scale AV disco set of the LP, complemented by an impressive visual show.

Moments of Weightlessness Sarah Nicolls - Pendulum Piano World premiere Experimental pianist and earsthetic’s artist in residence Sarah Nicolls has recently created her second InsideOut Piano. Motivated by reaching inside the instrument more easily to play unusual sounds and revealing this ‘extended’ playing to the audience, the new instrument has some unexpected extra characteristics.

Sat 13 Dec Emptyset - Emptyset A/V Bristol-based production project Emptyset will examine the physical properties of sound through electromagnetism, architecture and process-based image-making in a live event that encompasses performance, installation work and audio-visuals.

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Brighton Dome

Sarah Nicolls Experimental pianist and earsthetic’s first artist in residence Sarah Nicolls discusses the creation of her ‘Inside-Out Piano’ and the development of her new piece Moments of Weightlessness, which pushes the boundaries of what a piano can do…

How did you get into experimental piano playing and composition?

music I make now, which I’d describe as lyrical with an experimental soundscape.

I started playing contemporary classical music in my postgrad year at the Guildhall. I discovered I had a knack for quick learning and enjoyed the human interaction of playing for living composers. I also loved the sounds that could be made in new music: things were allowed that were far from traditional classical music. Gradually over the following few years I focused increasingly on this music, getting more and more interested in piano pieces that also used electronic sound and multimedia presentation (pieces with video or live visuals). In 2005 I joined a band with Mira Calix and David Sheppard where we made our own music and this began my discovery of improvisation and composition. In 2008 I built the first Inside-Out Piano and because it was also back-to-front (!), I had to find a new way to play. This informed the

What does ‘preparing a piano’ mean? Why do you do it?

Basically it means to stick things between the strings, so that the piano sounds different, hopefully interesting, rich, strange or beautiful!

‘Currently I’m throwing everything up in the air (metaphorically and sometimes literally!), to see what sticks.

Recently, I’ve been ‘feeding’ socks to the piano strings…’

Who/what are your inspirations?

I’ve seen a lot of amazing theatre shows which have inspired me to try something more theatrical with the piano - particular shows by Kris Verdonck, Pina Bausch and Kira O-Reilly stand out. Musically, Phil Jeck’s

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Š Will Mower

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Brighton Dome I’m also hoping ultimately that the I-OP will be the best kind of grand for modern homes, as it will hopefully end up with the footprint of an upright...

How has the public responded to your Inside-Out Piano?

It hasn’t been installed before, so Brightoners - get out and play it while you can! But in general, when people see the piano, especially doing its tricks (I won’t give it away…), they just say ‘wow’, a lot!

You’re currently developing your piece Moments of Weightlessness at Brighton Dome with a specially designed second Inside-Out Piano. What extra characteristics does this one have?

That would be telling but suffice to say it might seem weightless at certain moments...

How are you exploring the subject of your journey into motherhood as part of the piece?

textures are extraordinarily ecstatic, there’s one very addictive track by Fridge, I love the paired-down triads of Laurence Crane and Steve Martland but also the totally up-to-date drama of Jenny Walshe’s visceral live performances.

Currently I’m throwing everything up in the air (metaphorically and sometimes literally!), to see what sticks. Recently, I’ve been ‘feeding’ socks to the piano strings… I’m fairly far from my comfort zone so it’s challenging and stimulating. How much we pare back to the music and metaphor will remain to be seen.

What is it about earsthetic that made you want to be a part of it?

You can play Sarah’s Inside-Out Piano from Mon 8 - Sat 13

earsthetic celebrates music with a visual element and for me, that’s the best of both worlds. I’ve spent a few years really diving into live electronics and how they are performed, for example, and I’ve had to face up to the fact that, for me, it *is* all about how the performance is conveyed - what the interaction with the audience is. Theatre as a medium seems very rich to me and I’m trying to explore that a bit.

Weightlessness on Wed 10 Dec. Interview: Sam Carelse

© Pete Boyd

During earsthetic, your fullyinteractive Inside-Out Piano will be installed in the Brighton Dome Cafébar. What motivated you to create this instrument?

Dec. Plus, see her astounding live performance Moments of

I had two basic motivations: to play ‘inside’ the piano more easily (i.e. on the strings) and to let the audience see this.

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feat. Mogwai

Mogwai We speak to Mogwai about new album Rave Tapes, their move into electronic sounds and creating the soundtrack for Les Revenants, ahead of their gig at Brighton Dome on 26 October.

The reviews for Rave Tapes discuss you being older and wiser… would you agree with that?!

Yeah, probably… we’re definitely older, and it would be a bit of a struggle to be any less wise, so I’m sure there’s been some kind of upward trajectory.

Much has been made in the press about your move into more electronic sounds - is that the result of new musical influences or a wish to expand the sound and what you can achieve as musicians?

I saw you in Brighton way back 1999 at Paradox during the Come On Die Young tour. It was loudest gig I’d ever been to… has that sheer volume of sound become an essential element of your live show?

I think it’s a happy coincidence. I personally feel that you should physically feel music as well as hear it. I think maybe sometimes in the past we’ve maybe gone a bit over the top, but it’s definitely important that you should hear music as a physical experience. I’ve got five monitors, so it’s pretty bloody loud for me too, to be honest!

I think it’s just the instrumentation we used to write the songs. For this record and a bit of the last one, Barry [Burns] used a lot of synthesisers and sequencers. With us, what we write the music on dictates what the main sound of the song is.

I read somewhere that at that Paradox show someone stole the Robocop figurine you used on stage to create sounds for Superheroes of BMX… did it ever turn up?

Who are you listening to nowadays? You’ve mentioned the likes of My Bloody Valentine, The God Machine, Low and Sonic Youth in the past as early influences, but who is being played on the tour bus now?

There’s always one bad egg! We didn’t find that one again, but we did find another in a toy shop about a year later, which we’ve now since lost…

A ton of different stuff! We’re all really into the new Plastikman record, and the last Bill Callahan record is really good. We listen to quite a lot of Sleep, Slayer and metal.

I loved Les Revenants - the soundtrack is such an essential part to creating the entire feel of the show. It’s not your first soundtrack either - how does the way you approach writing music for film / TV differ from that of a straight studio album?

I always think that if you’re soundtracking something, then the music shouldn’t be the primary focus… it should almost be unnoticeable, so I think we were conscious of that with Les Revenants - making it low-key.

They actually - at times - wanted us to do something stuff that was a bit more bombastic, and we really resisted. We thought it should be more part of it, rather than taking it over.

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See Mogwai at Brighton Dome on Sun 26 Oct Interview: Chris Challis

Listings

NOV

Check out what’s on over the next few months at Brighton Dome…

Rum & Bass Dennis Alcapone and The Dub Cats

Sat 1

The Kooks

Passenger

Fri 7

Sat 8 - Sun 9

Gregory Porter

The Blockheads

Wed 12

Sat 15

Pascuala Ilabaca & Fauna

The Specials

Sun 16

Mon 17

OCT

Mogwai

Little Dragon

SPECTRUM

Sun 26

Mon 17

Thu 20

How To Dress Well

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

Erasure

Imelda May

Mon 27

Wed 29

Sun 23

Tue 25

Lamb

SPECTRUM

Wed 29

Fri 31

Sharon Van Etten

SPECTRUM BYC Takover

Thu 27

Sat 29

DEC

Jon Hopkins

Thu 4

JAN

First Aid Kit

FEB

Ryan Adams

Sat 24

earsthetic

SPECTRUM

Sat 6

earsthetic

Claudia Molitor

Sarah Nicolls Inside Out Piano

Mon 8 - Sat 13 earsthetic

Golden Gang

Mon 8 - Sat 13 Mon 8 - Sat 15 earsthetic The Works

Mon 8 earsthetic

Moments of Weightlessness

earsthetic

Chicks on Speed Artstravaganza

The War on Drugs

Tue 9

Sun 22

Thu 19

earsthetic

Kele

Wed 10

Thu 11

earsthetic

earsthetic

Simian Mobile Disco

Emptyset

Fri 12

Sat 13

MAR

Royal Blood

The Unthanks

Sat 20

Wed 4

Jungle

Mon 2 Mar

Introducing

SPECTRUM SPECTRUM is a project that aims to support and cultivate the local music scene run by Brighton Dome’s creative learning team, in partnership with local record shop Resident.

We talk to Creative Learning Manager Bex Fidler about the aim of this exciting project…

Hi Bex! So first things first, how did SPECTRUM come about?

from Anti Ghost Moon Ray to Beatabet. Brighton is brilliant for that! I guess what we have is the venue.

Big stage, best lighting and sound, opportunities to bring in visuals or do something a bit different – even aerial dancers and giant dancing eyes like Flash Bang Band did once – that was a fun night! There’s also the opportunity to make videos in the venue with Site & Sound, we put on seminars for those who want to learn more about the industry, and there is the latest strand, Residencies, where artists who may already be collaborating in some way, have support to develop their live act. We are also able to keep the ticket prices low at £4 to encourage audiences to take a risk on a band they might not know.

Creating ‘access’ is a lot of what my role here entails – making the arts accessible. That’s really how SPECTRUM came about; a desire to make the venue accessible for local artists to have a good, professional platform, develop their craft and be heard. The talent in Brighton is constantly evolving and surprising; it’s a very exciting city for music. We used to be SOURCE New Music in partnership with Source magazine but when that finished it was exciting to join forces with Resident and re-launch as SPECTRUM in the spring.

So how does Brighton compare to other cities in terms of its music scene? Are we biased when we think it’s ahead of its game/pretty damn vibrant and diverse?

Who else is out there helping to cultivate the local scene and what does SPECTRUM offer that’s unique?

Brighton generally punches above its weight being a small city I reckon… and the music scene is no different in that sense. I don’t think we are biased, I do think it’s vibrant and diverse down here. I am amazed at how much is happening and if we had more money we could easily put on more gigs. There’s a certain

There’s a lot of playing opportunity in Brighton, loads of DIY labels and collectives putting on their own nights and supporting/creating the scene,

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Gazelle Twin © Victor Frankowski

Brighton Dome

feat. SPECTRUM Some of these are from when we were SOURCE New Music - specifically two of our nights collaborating with Brighton Youth Centre - seeing the lead singer of The Basis lean into the crowd and snog the girls, and A-M-I showing some serious guitar skills whilst climbing onto the PA - not to be advised or recommended. Getting all the members of Rum Committee onto the stage at the same time was memorable – definitely a herding cats situation. All the acts have brought something special to the nights to be honest, I can’t say there hasn’t been a night where something has lifted, moved or amazed me.

freedom of expression in Brighton and I think this is reflected in the music scene; people aren’t afraid to try something new or collaborate with others in a meaningful way. I definitely recognise that here there doesn’t seem to be as much ego - bands genuinely want to support each other and put on nights together or collaborate, rather than compete.

Are there any past SPECTRUM artists in particular that we should look out for?

The Physics House Band are amazing, Bunty is a magical force of creativity, Sam Walker – everyone should see him perform live, Cate Ferris is always a joy, Dog in the Snow are great and I think could go places, TRAAMS are a fantastic band and doing really well which is great to see. Gazelle Twin was particularly special in September – true artists putting out their work in arresting fashion.

There are loads! Years ago we had the wonderful Marika Hackman play – she’s deservedly doing really well at the moment, a pure and beautiful talent.

‘I definitely recognise that here there doesn’t seem to be as much ego - bands genuinely want to support each other and put on nights together or collaborate, rather than compete.’

Who has had a SPECTRUM Residency so far and what has it enabled them to do?

Bunty was the first artist to get involved and was already developing her live act with dancers and visuals. The residency offered her two weeks at Brighton Youth Centre and a day in the Studio Theatre with our technicians before she headlined the June show, which was brilliant and colourful and full of innovation and fun.

Finally, if I was in a brilliant band, how would I go about being part of SPECTRUM?

Why did you decide to partner up with Resident?

Like the facebook page facebook.com/ brightonspectrum to be kept up to date with the different gigs and drop us a line at spectrum@brightondome.org with a link to your music. We will add you to our brains and ears with a view to finding you a nice slot in the future. You will also be added to the mailing list so you get the odd newsletter which will tell you about Seminars, new Site & Sound videos, other opportunities or interesting events in the city that might be up your street.

Resident really love music – they’re not just a record shop. They give everything in there time and attention and show true passion. I really like that. It’s a hub of music appreciation, spreading the word and sharing what they’ve heard in a great way. It’s great to have Resident’s input and ideas in the programming aspect too.

What has been the weirdest/most memorable experience you’ve had at SPECTRUM?

Bunty © Studio 85

To find out more about SPECTRUM go to brightondome.org/join_in Interview: Lucy Brooks

Brighton Dome

Beatabet SPECTRUM artists Kassia Zermon (aka Bunty) and Abraham Moughrabi give us an insight into artist network Beatabet, a Brighton collective who support cross-artform collaborations and development...

Hello both! Perhaps you could introduce yourselves, and give us a “for dummies” introduction to Beatabet collective…

B: Hello Bunty here, aka Kassia Zermon. Good to meet ya. Beatabet collective is a network of artists and musicians who put on events, run residencies, and in recent years have set up a record label.

A: Hi, I’m Abe, I’m an artist, member of Resonators and co-director of Beatabet. The collective exists to provide support for developing projects and a platform on which they can be presented. Having fun with what we do and transmitting that positive energy to the audience is really the key.

A playful but dark aesthetic seems unique to many of your projects. It also feels like an identifiably ‘Brighton’ characteristic. Is it something you deliberately cultivate?

A: Well, inspiration is something that comes out of nowhere and at the same time, is everywhere! Right now my project seems to be quite electronicbased, but if one day I feel inspired to write a piece of chamber music, then I can.

Kassia – your Bunty project is on such a roll! Something particularly wonderful about it is its focus on really theatrical live performance. What kinds of reactions do you get from audiences when you play?

B: I’m glad you’re feelin’ refreshed by it!

The people that love it really love it, on the opposite side I think it has made a few people angry and confused [haha].

I do think that mainly people can’t help but get sucked in, especially if you give ‘em a helium balloon to hold.

B: I guess Brighton does seem to possess a sort of anarchistic, sardonic and hedonistic vibe which probably feeds its way into many artists work. Playfulness is definitely something worth cultivating.

A: Definitely Brighton! When you throw a bunch of artists together who come from different backgrounds and have such varying practices, the results are invariably chaotic. I think the “darkness” in Beatabet’s aesthetic is partly due to that disjointedness.

Can you tell us what you are working on right now?

A: If you’ve been to any of our recent events, you might have noticed a mock-TV-crew bouncing around interviewing people. I don’t want to give too much away, but we’ve been developing a big performance piece that involves every aspect of what we do. It’s very exciting!

Abe – people might be surprised to hear your electronic work, if they previously knew you from Resonators. Can you tell us about what inspires those sounds?

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Beatabet artists Abraham Moughrabi and Spacenoid play at SPECTRUM on Fri 31 Oct. Bunty’s Multimos album launches on 18 Nov Read full interview on brightondome.org Interview: Tom Sloan

Coming up at SPECTRUM…

Sat 29 Nov | Brighton Youth Centre Takover

Thu 20 Nov | King Lagoon’s Flying Swordfish Dance Band | Kalakuta Millionaires | Euphony

Fri 31 Oct | Speak Galactic | Blue Spectre | Spacenoid | Abraham Moughrabi

Sat 6 Dec | Soccer 96 | Hypnotized | + more tba

Brighton Dome

How To Dress Well He’s one of America’s most original and beguiling young songwriters - The Guardian went so far as to describe his music as ‘great American songs that could equally be strummed by Bon Iver or Bruce Springsteen’ - and such is the excitement surrounding him that a new How To Dress Well (known as Tom Krell to his chums) release or live date is something of an event.

His latest album, What Is This Heart?, is a moving piece of work; tackling ideas of anxiety, fear, nightmare, death, pain, pleasure, pride and shame, trust and commitment with an honesty and intimacy that is rare in the modern age. Coming two years after 2012’s much-loved Total Loss (itself released two years after his critically acclaimed debut Love Remains), his new album represents the next step in Krell’s unique and searching artistic trajectory; partly down to the way and the environment in which he wrote the songs.

‘I've always had a free-associative style of writing lyrics. I'll be writing and then I'll strike a chord and I'll be like, “Ooh, that feels really potent.” And then I'll loop it, put my headphones on, and try and just sing and let something be wrung out of me. With Love Remains and Total Loss, I was always afraid that I was going to lose it. This little thing popped up, and if I didn't seize it I was going to lose it,’ he explained to SPIN magazine.

William Basinski homage, and the third song is a Steve Reich homage. To me, that doesn't quite line up with me being anyone's favourite R&B artist.’

Packed with glitchy pop and distorted beats, his live shows are a mesmerising affair. Krell’s vocals - sung between two microphones and often a capella - is astonishing in its range, prompting The New York Times to hail his voice as ‘purposefully alien, like Antony Hegarty singing at the bottom of a coal mine… absorbing, dreamlike and jagged at just the right moments’. It’s this skill, alongside his prescient understanding of modern production techniques and an increasingly mature songwriting voice that asserts him as an artist of great courage, taste and craft. Don’t miss him.

‘With this record, I learned to be a bit more patient. Partially out of necessity — I was on tour so much that there were these unavoidable interruptions. But then I also just started to feel like, as things got interrupted, I was able to move from a very personal free association to more general free association.’

The result is an ambitious 21st century pop album that takes influence from artists as varied as Prince, Lou Reed, Burial and Tracy Chapman – creating and inhabiting its very own hinterland of fragility, sexuality and overwhelming joy as a result. Whilst much has been made of the R&B vibe so intertwined within his earlier work, the new album marks a different direction of sorts. As Krell explained himself in an interview with Pitchfork, ‘I think of myself as an experimental musician. You can call it R&B-influenced because of the way I sing, and that's fine -- that's just the way that my voice was psychically and physiologically structured. [on What Is This Heart?] the first song on the record is a

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How To Dress Well hits Brighton Dome on Mon 27 Oct Words: Chris Challis

© Victor Frankowski

F twigs ‘What is the gauge [of hype] these days? There’s no telling how well you’re doing because there’s someone out there posting pictures of their cats who has a million followers.’

FKA twigs - Interview Magazine Mercury Prize nominee FKA twigs recently opened her biggest UK tour to date in Brighton Dome’s Studio Theatre (2 Oct). Here’s a round up of what the critics & the audience had to say…

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Brighton Dome Entering a sparse, grungy stage illuminated by a series of flickering bulbs, a silhouetted FKA twigs effortlessly breathed her whispy tones into a still and mesmerized crowd. Ending her first few tracks to a ghostly silence, she proceeded to stare the audience into submission with her doe-like eyes.

Dry smoke, trippy light spectrums, an army two-piece and some sensual contemporary dance moves transported us to twigs’ dream-like trip-pop world that’s starting to dominate the electronic music scene. With airy, otherworldly vocals that soar as well as bite and songs that echo rebellion, she has concocted ‘LP1’ (2014) like a musical spell, resulting in a beautiful album that’s undeniably fresh sounding – her slick live performance adding a whole lot of magic to the mystique.

Performed live, Water Me and Two Weeks were taken to new highs - leaving the recordings in the dust - surprising us with unpredictable trills, beats and evocative pauses, stretching the songs out into a shared hypnotic trance, where you might suddenly find yourself swaying with your mouth open.

@BMWavesBlog Absolutely faultless performance by @FKAtwigs tonight in #Brighton. Vocally perfect, warped beats, dancing as if her body was an instrument

Count yourself lucky if you were there as I doubt she’ll be performing in a venue this size again.

Words: Lucy B If you’d like to see your gig review here, please send it to: emails@brightondome.org for the chance to win a pair of free tickets.

‘It was fascinating to see a pop star in waiting in such a small venue. We will never be this close to FKA twigs in concert again.’

Joe Fuller – Latest 7

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feat. FKA twigs

‘Looking around the venue, every face in the audience is transfixed.’

Andy Baker - SOURCE

‘Reeking of sex without pandering to obvious male fantasies, the erotically charged trip-hop ballads such as Water Me and Two Weeks radiated a sticky, humid, suffocating intimacy.‘ Stephan Dalton – The Times

@dc_orange Possibly the hottest room I've ever been in… #fkatwigs #brighton

@clarerwbullock Still reeling from @FKAtwigs Brighton show last night. Hypnotic, sensual...and that voice…

Tweet your #RapidReview of an event @brightdome (in one tweet – there’s the challenge) for your chance to win a £50 Brighton Dome voucher. We'll announce the winner at the end of the season.

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Brighton Dome

First Aid Kit They’ve shared the stage with artists including Jack White, Lykke Li and Ryan Adams, been hyped by Rolling Stone (who named their heart-wrenching song Emmylou from second album The Lion’s Roar as a ‘Single of the Year’ in 2012) and won both the Nordic Music Prize and four Swedish Grammys.

It’s fair to say that Klara and Johanna Söderberg - aka First Aid Kit have taken the music industry by storm in the last few years…not at all bad for a duo who first found fame when their cover version of Fleet Foxes’ Tiger Mountain Peasant Song on YouTube went viral back in 2008. Even an infamous endorsement from the PM hasn’t undermined their credibility…

The Swedish duo head to Brighton Dome in January, fresh from releasing their third studio album Stay Gold earlier this month; their first on a major label. A collection of ten alt-country and indie-folk tinged songs, the LP has been applauded by both critics and fans alike for its ambition and the musicians’ deft skill at storytelling (plus the fact it features a 13-piece orchestra). ‘First Aid Kit’s songs are as ancient as music itself, but as new as a freshly broken heart. Extraordinary’ proclaimed The Sunday Times, ‘Anything Jack White can do, they can do too. Twice over’ challenged Q, ‘The duo’s excellent third album has the sweetness of a babbling creek and the toughness of a sunbleached prairie’ praised Esquire.

Produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk) and arranged

by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, Broken Bells, Rilo Kiley) it’s a vibrant release; “we took new directions and turns with the arrangements, building them up and creating more dynamics, yet always following where the songs wanted to go,” the sisters explain. Citing the likes of Townes van Zandt, Simon & Garfunkel and Neko Case as influences, first single My Silver Lining made Billboard’s best tracks of 2014 back in July… with five months left in the year!

That Simon & Garfunkel link is never more obvious than when they play live. Intertwining dual vocal melody with a Dylan-esque guitar picking style, they can be mellow and reflective one moment, euphoric and energetic the next… with the occasional sing-a-long thrown in for good measure. No surprise then that the press are already describing First Aid Kit as ‘one of Scandinavia’s finest musical exports.’

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Catch them at Brighton Dome on Sat 24 Jan 2014.

Return tickets only - check back nearer to the date.

Words: Chris Challis

Cover Image: FKA twigs, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre, 2 Oct © Victor Frankowski Editor: Lucy Brooks

Designer: Will Mower

If you would like to submit reviews, previews or photographs to feature in the next issue of Brighton Dome feat. please contact: emails@brightondome.org

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feat. is a free music & culture magazine featuring exclusive content, interviews, and photos of some of the world-leading, contemporary artists that set foot in Brighton Dome’s iconic venues.

Brighton Dome is a multi-arts venue, hosting over 600 events every year spanning music, theatre, dance, comedy & more.

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