BRIGHTONSFINEST MUSIC GUIDE ISSUE 15

ISSUE 15 14 - 20 AUGUST 2018

LIVE & ALBUM REVIEWS MUSIC NEWS GIG LISTINGS OUT OF TOWN

IDLES JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE

ISSUE 15

CONTENTS IDLES IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot chats to Jeff Hemmings about their new album, personal tradegy and the band’s collective focus in their work

4 LISTINGS

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Our recommended listings and previews of this week’s gigs

ALBUMS Check out the latest album releases

CEO: Frank Sansom EDITOR: Daniel White PRODUCTION: Adam Kidd, Jonski Mason

LIVE REVIEWS

COVER SHOT: Jamie MacMillan

Brighton Pride and Love BN1 Festival feature in this week’s reviews

CONTRIBUTORS: Jeff Hemmings, Iain Lauder, Ben Noble, Liam McMillen, Ben Walker, Christian Middleton, Kelly Westlake, Paul Hill, Chloe Hashemi, Dan Whitehouse, Annie Roberts

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OUT OF TOWN

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Our favourite upcoming gigs outside of Brighton

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NEWS

BRINGING THE ARTISTS CLOSER TO YOU...

Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, aka Sleaford Mods, have announced their new five-track self-titled EP, Sleaford Mods, which is to be released via Rough Trade Records on 14th September.

This is the band’s first new music since last year’s top 15 album English Tapas.

Elvis Costello has announced the release of Look Now, his first album with The Imposters since 2008’s Momofuku and his first album since the 2013 Roots collaboration, Wise Up Ghost. Look Now is an outstanding 12-strong addition to his song catalogue.

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On 19th October, alt synthpop pioneers Blancmange will release a new album of ten songs, titled Wanderlust.

Composed by Neil Arthur and arranged, co-produced and mixed with Benge at MemeTune Studios, Wanderlust follows last year’s album Unfurnished Rooms.

GIG LISTINGS The Hope & Ruin

PREVIEWS Green Door Store

Greenness Saturday 18th August Tickets: £5.50 Presented by FemFriday & Melting Vinyl

Hymn For Her Thursday 16th August Tickets: £10 Presented by MFC

Loa Loa Monday 20th August Tickets: £3 OTD Presented by sugar-free

Standard Jordan Friday 17th August Tickets: FREE

The Nude Party Tuesday 21st August Tickets: FREE Presented by Acid Box Red Rum Wednesday 22nd August Tickets: £5 Presented by One Inch Badge Ron Gallo Thursday 23rd August Tickets: £11.50 Presented by Love Thy Neighbour

Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar Astpai Tuesday 14th August Tickets: £4.40 Presented by sugar-free + Unfun Space Blood Wednesday 15th August Tickets: £5.50 Presented by Small Pond Gloo Friday 17th August Tickets: £5 OTD Presented by sugar-free & SMFB Hockey Dad Tuesday 21st August Tickets: £10 Presented by Lout Promotions Föllakzoid Thursday 23rd August Tickets: £14 Presented by One Inch Badge + Love Thy Neighbour DITZ Friday 24th August Tickets: FREE Presented by Neat Neat Neat

Resident Our Girl Wednesday 22nd August Tickets: FREE 6.30pm Slaves Thursday 23rd August Tickets: FREE 1pm

The Academy Of Sun Tuesday 21st August Tickets: £4 Presented by Brighton Noise Heavy Sugar Wednesday 22nd August Tickets: FREE Presented by Green Door Store Full Of Hell Friday 24th August Tickets: £11 Presented by Green Door Store

gloo – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar – Friday 17th August 2018 Formed in Littlehampton, gloo’s brand of angst-ridden punk-rock comes packed with just the right amount of melody to keep things interesting. They’re hitting town in support of their recently released, visceral debut album, A Pathetic Youth, which promises to blow the roof off Sticky Mike’s. With a support bill packed full of exciting local up-and-comers (Sit Down, Scab Hand, and Glove) this promises to be an unforgettably sweaty night.

The Fallen Leaves Saturday 25th August Tickets: £6.60 Presented by Spinning Chilli

Komedia Buck Meek Monday 20th August Tickets: £9 Presented by One Inch Badge The Rifles Thursday 23rd August Tickets: £21 Presented by Le Beat Bespoke

The Prince Albert The Courgettes Friday 24th August Tickets: £5.50 Presented by The Prince Albert

Greenness: Cyclicity EP Launch Party – The Hope & Ruin – Sat 18th August Greenness are hosting a party to celebrate their latest release: Cyclicity EP. The Brighton-based electro-acoustic duo are expanding their line-up on the night to six, to make this an extra-special performance. There are also free digital copies of the new EP for everyone who attends the event. The bill features The Case Of Us, and an opening set from ethereal acapella loop artist Yazmyn Hendrix. This certainly sounds like a night to remember.

Concorde 2 Skid Row Sunday 19th August Tickets: £25 Presented by Skid Row The Wildhearts Monday 20th August Tickets: £20 Presented by MJR live Ozomatli Thursday 23rd August Tickets: £19.25 Presented by One Inch Badge PP Arnold & Geno Washington Sunday 26th August Tickets: £27

PI OF CK T WE HE EK

Kevin Morby – The Haunt – Thursday 23rd August 2018 After cancelling his Haunt show last November, Kevin Morby is back and in exactly the same venue for what is sure to be an absolute treat. One of the most prolific musicians on the circuit, last year’s City Music was his most complete work yet. A sweeping, delicate and dusky slice of Americana, it was an absolute delight, wowing critics and audiences alike.

With a vast and unique back-catalogue, he seems a perfect fit for The Haunt.

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IDLES With a new album out later this month, Jeff Hemmings caught up with IDLES’ frontman Joe Talbot to talk addiction, facism and the upcoming release of Joy As An Act Of Resistance

“

We lived that ‘joy as an act of resistance’ first. I went through trauma.

My partner helped me a lot with my addiction and my grief, and helped me open up and be more vulnerable, which is what the album is all about... allowing your audience to see your vulnerability

”

Joy As An Act Of Resistance Out: 31st August via Partisan Records

Every now and then a band will turn up and simply blow almost everything out of the water. With its sheer vitality, its life affirming qualities, and its bravado.

IDLES are one of those. Taking their cue from what is almost universally regarded as an incredibly vibrant period of musicmaking – the post-punk era – Bristol’s IDLES are fearless adventurers, and socio-political questioners, perfectly in tune with the chaotic and uncertain times we live in.

They released their powerful debut album Brutalism in 2016 to high acclaim. The massively anticipated Joy As An Act Of Resistance is their follow up, with quickly sold out dates through the summer and autumn cementing their status as perhaps the most exciting band on the planet right now.

“We started out during university. Dev (Adam Devonshire, bassist) and I decided that Dj’ing wasn’t enough and we thought we’d give it a go,” says frontman Joe Talbot. “We all met through Dj’ing, at the Bat Cave, in The Elbow Room’s Pool Bar, the room upstairs. Loads of B-sides, and proto-typical music of the stuff we liked at the time, a lot of post-punk, goth and garage. Everything we loved about music, we loved for the same reasons and we clicked immediately and had loads of great ideas. So, we cracked on.

“The meaning of Bat Cave as a night is the same meaning as IDLES, which is trying to inject the passion back into it.

Unadulterated passion. Not looking for kudos, but looking to evoke meaning and feeling behind all the things that music is about.”

More than just a band dishing out song after unconnected song, IDLES are a political-art collective of like-minded individuals, looking to make sense of their world, and using what they have learnt and know, to disseminate messages about subjects and ideas like masculinity and femininity, hatred and communion, and vulnerability. It’s about opening dialogues, with the starting point being what you love.

Where does the album title come from, is it a lyric in one of the songs? “No, no, no.

Every track was the same. The idea was to give ourselves a brief to work towards, so that the record we were making had a concise dedication to it. All our individual dialects and languages within our own art form comes out; we’ve all been given a purpose as individuals that we can work towards in a synchronised way.”

However, it wasn’t so easy at the beginning, a huge false start de-railing the initial plans for the new album, as well as tragedy and sufferance, including addiction, and the still-born death of Talbot’s

child, Agatha. “After writing the second album we realised none of the songs fitted in, so we got rid of 15, 20 tracks, and started again. And we lived that ‘joy as an act of resistance’ first. I improved, I went to counselling. I went through trauma, which made me address joy as an act of resistance even more. And my partner helped me a lot with my addiction and my grief, and helped me open up and be more vulnerable, which is what the album is all about. Which is being vulnerable, and allowing your audience to see your vulnerability, as an inclusive tool to open minds and hearts for a better result.

“Obviously we are in a time where things like Brexit and such is a result of sectarian and defensive thinking. And we want to come to a better future. And by doing that as liberals we found ourselves surrounded by people who called themselves liberals that were acting fascistically on the internet. Just calling people stupid and racist isn’t helping anything. So, we wanted to come to a better result with our art and our music.

“We did that thing that bands do, resisting that first album’s success, and trying to ignore it. What we needed to do was embrace that success, and be aware of our audience as a way of infecting our art. We kind of see a different way of responsibility to our messages, and changing our music accordingly, and embracing it, and enjoying ourselves. So, every song, every lyric, every piece of art, everything that is on that record – visually and aurally – is joy as an act of resistance, in our lives. The whole album is about looking at grand political issues but reducing them to what is important, and what politics is about, the welfare of an individual, and the beauty of humans as individuals, so that they can feel safe, and keep their family and friends safe.”

To read the full interview visit Brightonsfinest.com/Idles

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LIVE REVIEWS

ALBUM REVIEWS James – Living In Extraordinary Times Out: 3rd August 2018

Remarkably for a band on their 15th studio album, James sound as fresh, driven and fired up as they have ever done. Maybe it’s these extraordinary times that we exist in that have energised the band, but it feels like a record that could easily slot in amongst their finest. Most bands just rehash their heritage, so James’ will to keep pushing forward places them standing alone amongst their original peers.

Oh Sees are their own creature entirely. Each album feels as though a tear in our reality has appeared and the band have briefly seeped through to our realm. Smote Reverser finds the band stretching themselves even further, taking their more manic side and pushing it to the limit.

It’s an album that’s peppered with potential classics, piled high with experimental jams, sounding like some dark, wizardly enchantment.

Oh Sees – Smote Reverser Out: 17th August 2018

There is no bigger event in Brighton than Pride, and this year’s celebration of equality broke all records with an estimated 450,000 in town. Sets from Pixie Lott and Louise washed over the audience before Ella Eyre and Britney Spears resuscitated the main stage with circus freaks, bearded ladies, pole dancers, risqué outfits, you name it. And most of all, hits, hits, hits.

After the madness and hedonism of the Saturday, a sense of calm descended over Preston Park for Love BN1. The first few acts barely settled on stage before being whisked off again before Gabrielle, Raye and Jess Glynne built up nicely to the main act, Nile Rodgers. After the preceding 36 hours, it was time to celebrate and that’s exactly what the party-goers did.

Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/live

Read the full reviews at Brightonsfinest.com/albums

NIGHTLIFE

OUT OF TOWN

Bushbaby b2b Freddie Martin Friday 17th August Patterns, 11pm - 4am

Sir Coxsone’s Rubadub Club Friday 17th August Komedia, 11pm - 3am

The Lemon Twigs Wednesday 15th August The Lexington, London 7.30pm

AK Patterson Wednesday 15th August St Pancras Old Church, London, 7.30pm

AC Slater / Cause N Affect Friday 17th August The Arch 11pm - 5am

Sasha Friday 17th August Concorde 2 11pm - 4am

Weyfest Friday 17th - Sunday 19th August Tilford, Farnham, Surrey

African Night Fever: 15 Year Celebration Party Saturday 18th August Ropetackle Arts Centre, 8pm

Artificial Intelligence Friday 17th August Hideout 11pm - 5am

Drum ‘n’ Breakz Saturday 18th August Hideout 11pm - 5am

Fatboy Slim Sunday 19th August Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, 12pm

Suzanne Vega Sunday 19th August De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill On Sea, 8pm

Soulful Strut Saturday 18th August Green Door Store 11pm - 4am

Dr Cryptic Saturday 18th August Volks 11pm - 6.30am

Phoebe Bridgers Tuesday 21st August Scala, London 7.30pm

The Black Angels Wednesday 22nd August KOKO, London 7pm

Full event listings at Brightonsfinest.com/listings

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