Musée imaginaire

Fantasy mixtape

Factory Floor - Fallback

Zola Jesus - Seekir

Jamie Lidell - Big Love

JETS feat. Jamie Lidell - Midas Touch

TEED - Lion, The Lion

Hercules & the Love Affair - Blind

Hercules & the Love Affair - Belong

Battilus - Concrete (Andy Stott remix)

The 21st century grunge wave

Yuck!

https://soundcloud.com/yuck

Parakeet

https://soundcloud.com/parakeet

The History of Apple Pie

https://soundcloud.com/thehistoryofapplepie

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

https://soundcloud.com/pias/jeremy-the-pains-of-being-pure

Silversun PIckups

https://soundcloud.com/silversunpickups

Peepholes - 'The Overspill!' [Upset the Rhythm]

They are a one part Brighton (via Northern Ireland via Bahrain) and one part London team that have been brewing something special since 2006 with their warbling synthetic explorations into sound. On and off they have played inspiring live shows, released cassettes, an EP on defunct Brighton indie label Hungry for Power, mini album ‘Caligula’ and now their first full length sees the dark of the night, powered by ingeniously innovative music catalogger Upset the Rhythm. This is their third outing with UtR, but this release goes one stage further and makes a bold statement. Now their sound is firmly formulated, the tea bag has been drained, leaving an unexpected pungent Peepholes concentrate behind and is ready to serve.

In the past they worked with sound engineer extraordinaire Shelley Ostapovitch best known for her involvement with Throbbing Gristle and Hidden Cameras to create mini ‘Caligula’, but this time round Peepholes synth operator Nick Carlisle takes the reins. And the fact it is Nick is testament to the new confidence Peepholes must have found with this LP. The distant rattle and explorations of the previous releases fade in into the background and the new sound rears a concoction of visceral 80s post punk synth stylings mixed with tufts of tribal witchiness and a tab of krautrock to rocket along. More simply put its like Factory Floor just let their hair down.

On the surface the general construction of songs appears to consist of a filthy pulsating electronic bass, intricately placed rhythmical smatterings from the drums provided by Katia Barrett, layered with sweeter synth sounds and haunting delayed vocals. If this music was a place it would be an abandoned warehouse ravished by paganic miscreants aka the Aztec zone meets the Industrial zone. These overarching feelings soon become irrelevant when each individual track is savoured for its own unique twists and turns. And if that all sounds too chaotic, at times the aural outpourings converge, they become aqueous; stand out songs form that are ready for a right remixing or formulated for the dancefloor? There is the second track 'Conversation' with its lyrical mantra: 'hustler, gaylord, his law, conversation' packed up against militant drums, haunting layered male/female vocals and 80s science program synths. Then there is the machine generated pan pipe jump up of 'Keyhain', with ghostly vocals singing: 'how did you break the keychain, don't ever change the lock'. And lastly marching title track ' The Overspill!', dragging along traces of delayed bass and undercover media whoring lyric 'saw your face on a poster'. This is preceded by album closer 'Living in Qatar', that keeps the pop treadmill alive for a time before dissolving into a hypnotic haunted kraut inspired ramble.

The Overspill! With it's one exclamation (could have easily been three or four), reflects the new found sound ideals of it's label UtR and provides evidence of a band in it's hey day. Here are of some of the most atmospherically interesting, creative and original sounds around, yeah they have been in and out of the wash a few times, but its enough to get that perfect faded look, where their ear catching aloofness has crystallised to leave behind an intriguing formation.

The Great Escape 2012: highlights

Com Truise - http://soundcloud.com/com-truise
At Audio there is a fair sized crowd gathered for this splendid Ghostly International artist stopping over at TEG as part of his summer European tour. There’s much swaying and toe tapping and it’s a fair reaction - the live show demonstrates a unique blend of downtempo italo disco, miami sunsets and post dubstep breaks. Accompanied by a live drummer, 2 laptops and some colour clashing projections, this musician appears to effortlessly combine body twitching beats with a laidback synth ride.

Hannah Cohen - http://soundcloud.com/cooperative-music-spain/hannah-cohen-don-t-say
There are a bundle of female singer songwriters at TEG this year. Abi Wade with her cello, Nicole Atkins with her tales of transplanting herself across continents and Martha Paton doing it for Guildford. But Inside Brighton’s Unitarian Chapel this evening another worldly force has been engaged and is channeling it’s energy through Bella Union’s Hannah Cohen. The acoustics of the venue are perfect for the atmospheric minimalism of her work to unravel in front of a mainly civilisedly seated audience. Her ethereal vocals weave their way around delicately plucked strings, transporting the audience to another plane. Her set is based on her April time album ‘Child Bride’, initially formed through playing after hours at New York house parties, she covers those universal human themes of love and loneliness.

Francois & The Atlases - http://www.francoisandtheatlasmountains.com
This 4 piece started the year with new album E Volo Love and begin their festival tour with TEG. And they could be just another indie band. But get closer to the stage and there are 4 french musicians merging strains of keyboard with guitar sounds and drums often beaten by hand, in an imaginative and innovative way. This translates to Francois galavanting round the globe for influences that start with French chanson and end with Africa, taking in the Middle Eastern and the Western digitalisation of music. E Volo Love is their latest album that demonstrates this.

Trust - http://soundcloud.com/triangleboy/trust-candy-walls
Trust is Robert Alfons with collaborator Maya Postepski, they join the dots between New York with their initial releases ‘Candy Walls’ and ‘Bulbform’ having been on Brooklyn based label Sacred Bones and Toronto as they are now signed to Arts & Crafts. At TEG they play to a bustling Psychosocial giving out haunting beats and brooding vocals that come mixed with a swirl of smoke, blues lights and darkness, providing the ideal backdrop for tracks lifted from their long player TRST.

O Children - http://och4lyf.tumblr.com - http://soundcloud.com/deadlypeople
It’s getting close to midnight on the final day of TEG, it seems a shame that the levels of new music will slip back down to their baseline in a few days. But before it’s over there is hope at the Hope. O Children take to the stage the packed out queued in venue and they have a mixture of intrigue and hooks landing somewhere between Joy Division and The Killers, it’s great way to round things off.

The Repeat Prescriptions, Green Door Store, 22 January 2012

The Self Help Group, Green Door Store, Brighton

They're a six piece, got 2 guitars, banjo, xylophone and one of those skiffle box drums. They have sad songs, happy songs and gorgeous folky 3 way harmonies and each song has an interesting story behind it ... There's the one about a Seattle based crime solving super hero Phoenix Jones. Then there's the one about some 1930s Glasgow school kids that read a comic book about a vampire that lives in a graveyard, this in turn leads to 200 school kids spending a night in their local cemetery together looking out for said vampire. And then there is the twisted one about the kid that celebrated the end of the world by swimming in a river but then drowned. It's all enough to keep the audience well entertained tonight and for the band to go home having sold some cds and made a few new fans. A Brighton collective worth looking out for.

The Self Help Group on Facebook

The Self Help Group on Twitter

The Self Help Group on Band Camp

The Self Help Group on mySpace

Best albums of 2011

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake [Island]
Peepholes - Caligula [Upset the Rhythm]
Peaking Lights - 936 [Not Not Fun]
Maria Minerva - Cabaret Cixous [Not Not Fun]
Teeth - Whatever [Moshi Moshi]
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time [Sunday Best]
Deerhoof vs Evil [ATP Recordings]
Yuck - Yuck [Mercury Records]
Art Department - The Drawing Board [Crosstown Rebels]
Crystal Stilts - In Love with Oblivion [Foruna Pop]

Favourite songs for the first half of 2011

true widow - skull eyes
This song (and band) just took me by surprise. One day it somehow showed itself up amongst all the usual inbox drivel, I was drawn in and clicked. And I got what one could describe as The Kills gone sludge or Yuck slowed down. It was melancholy vocals with a solid yet sleepy warm fuzziness that won me over.    

yuck - get away
This song is a pop song and it just sticks.

peaking lights - all the sun that shines
Lo fi indie dub psych out, something new and interesting.

fear of men - spirit house (cassette mix)
Released in August 2011 on Italian Beach Babes and underhyped. But there it is an eerily catchy guitar song about liars and dreaming with pretty backing vocals reminiscent of old style 4AD outputtings.

braids - lemonade
crystal slits - through the floor
factory floor - (REALLOVE) - Optimo Remix
teeth - shawty
craft spells - after the moment

Ulrich Schnauss: Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes (Rocket Girl)

These are ephemeral twilight till dawn sound constructions flowing down River Melancholy. These are remix highlights of German born Ulrich Schnauss, for the first time collated on this Rocket Girl (powered by Spacemen 3) release. Schnauss is known for his atmospheric synth outings that combine the spirits of shoegaze, krautrock and dreamy electronica: On the one hand he is inspired by Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine, on the other you have Tangerine Dream, the Orb and 808 State. He stretches these influences out and fuses them back together with contemporary music to create amorphous agitated ambient tracks littered with jagged beats.

Schnauss: You may have heard of him from his keyboard contributions as part of the Engineers and Longview, or you may have noticed his production talents at work with Kirsty Hawkshaw (of ‘It’s A Fine Day’ fame) and Exit Calm. Even if his CV doesn’t sound familiar his work may have infiltrated your consciousness through the medium of car adverts or computer games. Maybe you heard about 2 of his past record labels suing Guns N’ Roses for alleged copyright infringement? Hmmm.

Anyway, here is the sound of a producer/musician accomplished in his original brief of creating otherworldly headphone music. And it opens with, former Bella Union belles, Howling Bells’ reworked ‘Setting Sun’ that slowly dissolves into ‘Ghost in the Graveyard’ by ‘A Sunny Day in Glasgow’, full of backwards reverb and Linda Lamb like vocals. And just in case you thought the carrier bag sunshine sparkle of shoegaze was well over, there are artists cloaked within this collection that show this is not the case. For instance, there are new gazers Asobi Seksu, off of One Little Indian, presenting their reworked ‘Strawberries’ single, along with a made over ‘Coastline’ from Rachel Goswell, singer from seminal shoegazers Slowdive. Yep, old and new they are all present and still drifting.

This is a collection of tracks that are worth exploring and dreaming to. In Schnauss’ own words “ the original songs are already great in their own right -  which made it really inspiring to work with them”. And it shows.

Bestest of 2009

The XX - The XX

Micachu & The Shapes - Jewellery

Silversun Pickups - Swoon