Taken from his forthcoming album Make Me Believe In Hope ( a rather wonderfully positive sentiment) here’s a new song from Bright Light Bright Light - a bowling lane smooth piece of electronic pop called How To Make A Heart. Retaining his very 90’s dance influence, this is more like slow motion Bright Light Bright Light – nothing is too rushed, the song gradually evolving from its slow fluent electronic beginning towards an elevated chorus punctuated toward the end with glossy keyboard stabs.
A number of the songs on the Bright Light Bright Light album have been co-written with Andy Chatterley who has previously produced and written for the likes of Kylie and the Pussycat Dolls, so it doesn’t take a significant amount of brainpower to deduce that it's going to be a pop-punch full of gigantically hooky classic synth-dance pop songs. If we could drink the tunes of Bright Light Bright Light they'd be a cocktail of smoothies and champagne - shiny, unruffled and yet full of bubbles. We’re looking forward to taking a big gulp.
Fans of hip waggling arms in the air brit-synth pop will probably find much satisfaction from welsh stargazing dance floor fillers Friends Electric. Having remixed the likes of Breaking More Waves favourites Ellie Goulding and Bright Light Bright Light (which we remind you of below) their new single Golden Blood is the follow up to Wall of Arms, which we featured here and is released towards the end of November. It’s a blissful nugget of pop carefully wrapped by four men and their computers, that sounds both effortlessly cool and uplifting in its musicality, if that makes any sense.
To quote a certain Mr Pete Tong, as we hit Friday, this is the official start to the weekend. We hope you’re asking, because we’re dancing. The video of the track can be found below.
Tell anyone that you’ve been to a multi band event or festival and the inevitable question you will be asked is this. “Who was the best?” It’s a question we hate because, like a long term relationship, we prefer to consider the sum of the parts rather than individual moments. The overall consensus from those attending In The City seemed to be that after being out in the wastelands, the 2010 event was fresh, focussed, re-energised and had re-established itself on the map. However, in order to explain why In The City was very good, to get the sum of the parts, it is necessary to review the elements that make up the whole.
We recently suggested that Clock Opera are never likely to write another song as good as Once and For All. On the basis of their In The City show we were wrong. Their last two numbers, the cataclysmic Lesson Number 7 and another tune of unknown title that started as a gentle electronic hymn and then grew into a snarling tempestuous beast were incredible. Lead singer Guy Connelly, dressed in a t-shirt emblazoned with keyboards, sang with leg trembling passion. The rhythmic digits of Piece of String were punctuated with the whole band bashing cans, jugs and other random implements to create an exciting crashing rhythm - it was no surprise to find that they were greeted with a loud cheer by the Roadhouse crowd, who included producer and potential pop king Starsmith. On the basis of the set, when Clock Opera get an album out, it could be a contender for a Mercury prize nomination – intelligent, interesting and unique.
Worship may be less original – there’s an obvious Radiohead comparison to be made, but their clattering drums, moody soundscapes and haunting beats which are defined on Collateral and song Three Wolves are still worthy of attention. Despite the bands surly atmospheric dark technoid-indie-rock sound there was a moment of humour in the set. “How are you?” their lead singer questioned. “How are you?” replied a member of the audience. The singer replied that he was a bit tired – it was a long way from their hometown of Reading. “Stop moaning,” someone else shouted. “I’m not moaning, he asked,” was the response, which raised a small ripple of laughter.
Over in the Mint Lounge Bright Light Bright Light did their very musical best to get cool music industry types dancing. Everyone one of Rod Thomas’s songs was filled with 90’s influenced synth pop joy. He’d probably hate us for saying it but D:Ream sprang to mind. Disco Moment with its Moroder throb and anthemic chorus and the soaring dance floor friendly Cry At Films were screaming for a handbag to shimmy round, bottle of WKD in hand.
A quick run through a couple of rainy, boozy streets found a small crowd watching starlet in the making Spark. In a past review we criticised the lack of emotional impact of Sparks songs, but there’s no doubt that her super confident strutting and striding pop works. Like Marina and the Diamonds raised on a diet of Rhianna, Spark owned the stage, prowling like a caged tiger. “This is a masterpiece,” she belted out. Although masterpiece may be an over exaggeration, she certainly knows how to perform a good pop song.
We first wrote about Glasser back in February 2010 and since then have noticed gradually increasing coverage, particularly on the blogs, about this mystical U.S performer. Glasser was like the new Enya it’s OK to like, or Clannad on dance pills, ghoulishly prowling the dry ice filled stage like a witchdoctor conjuring a spell, as tribal drums and icy Fever Ray styled electronic rhythms floated and ebbed through the room, gradually drawing people in to her lair. There was no in between song banter, just a precise execution of vibey music. Expect her slow build rise to continue.
Our final act of the day was Manchester’s Dutch Uncles. Despite taking the stage to big cheers from a now (drunken?) up for it crowd, and blazing through a fast paced set that included opener Face In, Fragrant and The Ink, the band seemed to have little of the class of any of the other bands seen that evening. Seen it all before writhing indie math pop got the better of us and sent us home to bed, after what had, as a sum of the parts, been an excellent In The City.
Our recent post about a band who are currently surfing the buzz wave – The Vaccines – suggested that the journey to commercial success is like heading north from the south coast on a dirty bus but then switching to a train halfway. Sometimes artists and bands have to jump the bus and get on that groovy train. Remember White Lies ? Case in point. Rod Thomas has done just that and the results are excellent. Bright Light Bright Light is his new project and Love Part II is the debut release on the Virgin funded Popjustice Hi-Fi label. Even the song is about giving things another go – another attempt at love as it were.
Filled with electronic handclaps and euphoric firework synths that whoosh, sparkle and wriggle around in the sky, Love Part II is a hooky belter. From what we’ve heard of the other Bright Light Bright Light material it’s all equally as loveable, displaying a big nod to 90’s mainstream dance pop culture. One tracked indie kids will vomit in their pints of cider, rock fans will turn their headphones blasting Sepultura up even louder – but those who believe, as we do, that the basic construct of good pop music is made from a great tune that connects and stimulates the mind to leave a feeling of exhilaration will embrace Bright Light Bright Light. Love Part II is out today. If you like it please don’t grab it illegally, do the artist a favour and buy it.
When you list famous musical cities it’s unlikely that the words Portsmouth or Southsea will crop up. Too close to London and lacking the artistic bond of Brighton, Portsmouth has always been the UK’s south-central second rate cousin in terms of music. Portsmouth may possess a small but thriving grassroots scene, the hub of which is Southsea’s Albert Road area, but the size of the place, the lack of quality small music venues (the Wedgewood Rooms excepted), combined with the lack of vision and entrepreneurial foresight of many (but not all) local bands and promoters means that Portsmouth often exists in its own little pond, where even the smallest fish can seem like a shark.
Yet last Saturday Portsmouth put itself a little more on the musical map, with the annual event that is Southsea Fest. It’s a multi-gig, multi-venue one day festival where one wristband allows access to everything. It enabled Portsmouth to look outwards as well as inwards, showcasing a significant number of up and coming national bands as well as the talent that lurks within.
There was a slow burning buzz of anticipation for Southsea Fest 2010, more so than similar events in other towns, particularly since the addition of Pulled Apart by Horses who by all accounts played a sweaty and messily fun gig at the tiny café sized Edge of The Wedge. This was a case of Portsmouth’s musical backwater status working in its favour – many of those attending were proud that Portsmouth was putting on such an event – there was no resigned ‘seen it all before attitude’ and good weather helped build the upbeat vibe. Southsea Fest had a d-i-y feel to it, staff mainly being volunteers - which led to a few venues running behind schedule - but nobody seemed to mind.
“Do you ever wake yourself up shouting at yourself?” asked Ollie from Oxford three piece Ute, beginning their lunch time slot in the Edge of the Wedge. Ute were the perfect wakeup call – complex arrangements and intricate rhythms that veered from shouty acoustic thrashes to desolate pastoral pop. Add in Ollie’s comical sense of storytelling – at one point he explained his ‘Pin-up’ labelled belt was purchased yesterday after his old one broke whilst eating pizza – and Southsea Fest delivered a pleasing start to the day.
The Edwardian elegance of the Kings Theatre, with its Italian Renaissance décor and high ceilings played host to four bands who dealt in similar sonic architecture – tunes that filled the space with their expansiveness and occasional bombast. Three of these gropus hailed from Portsmouth and its environs – but it was Londoners Revere who really excelled.
The words “All roads lead south,” sung by The Dawn Chorus seemed highly relevant for the festival. Their mix of acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, accordion, keys, drums and a trumpet player who at one point blasted out his sound from the balcony had moments of tenderness, passion and melancholy. With a drummer who provided a rabble rousing impersonation of Frank Turner on the uplifting Carnivalesque, The Dawn Chorus filled the space of the Kings Theatre with that good old fashioned virtue of excellent musicianship.
Revere raised the stakes even higher. With their chartered accountant attire of black waistcoats and smart clothes this eight piece played incredible widescreen sculptures that built to huge crescendos like Sigur Ros with more guitars or Mogwai with more strings. Backed by projections of grey landscapes and balloons floating skywards, their music also aimed for the stars, full of sweeping strings and transcendent noise. Words such as euphoric, cinematic and majestic came to mind. This was a band who really knew how to fill the tall space, the power of The Escape Artist virtually lifting the roof off as the projections flashed up the words “Fade out of sight, step out of the light.” Powerful and masterful Revere were utterly incredible.
The B of the Bang had a virtually impossible act to follow. Thwarted by a technical hitch where a spilt bottle shorted out some equipment, the band struggled bravely on, but their sound seemed low-key after Revere. They finally hit their stride with a new song The Forest, the result being a bassy grunge-funk groove that seemed to merge 70’s Starsky & Hutch rhythms and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor into something new. Requests from the audience for the missing Alaska led to boos when it couldn’t be played because of the gremlins in the machine. “Just because we’re in a theatre doesn’t mean this is panto,” responded lead singer Chris Whitear before managing to get the electronics working so that the song could be played out.
There’s a military, chest banging, call to arms exuberance to The Strange Death of Liberal England, and this was taken one step further in the Kings Theatre, with an orchestra, marching soldier drummers parading down the aisles and air raid sirens played from the balconies. It was big, a little ridiculous and visually entertaining. Lead singer Adam Woolway’s parrot screech of a vocal was neatly juxtaposed against the bigger orchestral moments – his passionate rasp fighting solo against the orchestra on A Day Another Day, but it didn’t sit comfortably with everyone in the audience, the back rows of the stalls slowly emptying as the bands performance continued.
From the opulence of the Kings Theatre, over the road at The Loft – a grubby worn out pub, Manchester’s Cats In Paris did their very best to confound the indie kids with a set of genre bending oddness. Keyboards that sounded like rock guitars, violins thrown in from nowhere, jittery song structures and a lead singer that could do a good job as a Huw Stephens double act. Schizo-pop strangeness of the craziest order.
Run Toto Run continued the Manchester assault, although in this case it was full of darker jerky synth stabs, breathy feminine vocals and quirky but loveable song structures. Occasionally it appeared the boy-girl-boy three piece wanted to step out and make a big commercial dance-pop song, but are just a little bit more comfortable in their own non-conformity to do so. Run Toto Run are a band who have fully made the transition from sunshine folk tweeness to dark electronic pop eccentricity – the smooth sultry sounds of Out of Order and other new tracks banishing their old singles to the trash can. It will be interesting to see where they go next.
Fresh from their first ever London gig the night before Newcastle’s Let’s Buy Happiness played to a fairly small Southsea crowd. Lead singer Sarah Hall beckoned for the audience to come closer and the band won punters over with their utterly beguiling beauty. Spacious layered guitars formed soaring soundscapes with Sarah’s delicate Cocteau Twins referencing vocals caressing the ears. Let’s Buy Happiness made a compelling case for being your new favourite band with the songs Dead Legs, Six Wolves and Works Better On Paper all confirming their ability to create indie music that is graceful and elegantly ethereal.
From chiming indie to 90’s influenced synth pop, Swansea’s Bright Light Bright Light showed exactly why they’ve recently been signed to the new Virgin funded Popjustice Hi-Fi Label. Gracious melodies, gorgeous smooth vocals and hooky as hell choruses that got drunken girls dancing; they provided an exciting and welcome respite for those who found the likes of Pulled Apart by Horses just a little bit too intensely masculine. Ten out of ten for the way lead singer / keyboard player Rod Thomas assertively but politely replied to one drunk girls question of “Do you do cover versions?” He really doesn’t need to do covers when he’s got a case full of glitzy high-fiving pop monsters of his own such as Love Part II which shimmied to the dance-floor with its jubilant call of “I’m in love again.”
In a bizarre, but quite possibly brilliant piece of programming the act to follow Bright Light Bright Light was Cardiff’s Islet. With not one ounce of melody Islet charged straight into the audience with a rhythmic based core of yelping, growling, screaming and unhinged racket. How a band can be quite so rubbish and yet terrifyingly brilliant is perplexing. They really are exporters of the avant-garde and the extraordinary. Taking instruments off stage into the crowd, straining war cries off microphone, using the walls and implements of the venue as percussion to hit plus on the spot jogging, Islet blistered with energy, challenging ideas of what entertainment, art and performance are about. Who cares what the songs sound like? This is a band to experience, not sit at home and listen to.
With Islet having provided one of the most fascinating performances of the day, Southsea Fest 2010 had provided a rich tapestry of eclectic new music for a bargain price.
It seems that the UK’s appetite for music festivals is insatiable. As summer closes tents are packed away, mud (or sunblock) is scraped off unwashed bodies and weary cider hangovers are kissed goodbye. Instead music festivals head indoors, where at least the countries unpredictable weather can’t hamper the venues, although the streets can still be awash with downpours and cider hangovers can continue to be a real possibility. Bowlie 2 curated by Belle and Sebastian, Nightmare Before Christmas curated by Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the NME Weekender at Camber Sands, In The City at Manchester, Wish You Were Here in Cambridge, indoor multi-venue festivals are taking over.
Southsea Fest is one of the smaller, but growing independent festivals of this nature. Starting as just a 2 venue charity event in 2007 it has now grown to a 16 venue affair based in Southsea, Portsmouth. Southsea Fest has expanded from beyond its local scene origins to feature a significant number of national bands, a number of whom have been featured in the past on Breaking More Waves. The event does however give significant support to local artists, with a high number of such acts on the bill, this is invaluable in a city not known for a high quality musical output or national success.
Last year Southsea Fest had a certain scuzzy, dirty, sunshine addled d-i-y pub crawl charm to it with what appeared to be mainly lager fuelled local punters stumbling randomly between pubs and bars that were often running behind schedule; but nobody seemed to care. The weather was good and whatever music played provided a soundtrack to getting drunk. Southsea Fest may not have the high quality ‘as built’ venues (the Wedgewood Rooms and Kings Theatre being the exceptions) that some other towns have, the spot on high level organisation, or the expensive marketing budget behind it, but it still represents a fun-filled day of emerging music.
You can grab a ticket for Southsea Fest which takes place on the 18th September 2010 and find the full line up on the website here. We will carry a full review very soon after and will also be tweeting from the event . Keep up with those tweets by following us on twitter here.
If you’re going, we highly recommend the following five bands. All come with the Breaking More Waves rubber stamp approval on them. All are so blindingly good you’ll need sunglasses. Click on the bands name to access their Myspace or website.
This will be the second visit to Portsmouth for Manchester’s Run Toto Run. (The first was reviewed here). From warped fancy dress cover versions of Bowie and Passion Pit (which has clocked up over 225,000 views on You Tube), to twinkling fairy light stages, Run Toto Run have a neat line in imagination. The band are two sexy boys and one sexy girl making a whole bunch of devilishly sexy synth songs. Think a sexier Hot Chip or an even sexier The Knife. Basically sexy. They used to have a far more twee folk sound but they’ve gradually evolved and now they’re making darker, glitchier, electronic pop. They’ve been reviewed as “Pleasingly gaspy and saucy,” by The Guardian and have supported the likes of Ellie Goulding, Miike Snow and Everything Everything. With edible pop songs such as Did You Hear That and Catch My Breath (below) Run Toto Run are an absolute must see at Southsea Fest.
Islet are like nothing else. Part performance art. Part indie mental experimentalists. This Cardiff band turn heads wherever they play. Expect instrument swapping, a primal racket of noise that goes in any direction, chanting, yelping, improvisation and a chaotic thrash-whack energy that destroys the boundaries between artist and audience. Their music is highly challenging, occasionally absorbing, often infuriating and abstractly odd. However their performances are nothing short of startling. Trust us, even if you can't stand their sound they'll thrill the pants off you and make you question every live performance you've ever seen. Go watch.
Their music has already been described by this blog as the stuff that will “make you fall in love.” Sean Adams of Drowned In Sound has also got in on the act calling Let’s Buy Happiness “one of the most thrilling new bands I’ve seen in years.” Hailing from Newcastle the group have already released their debut EP No Hot Ashes, played the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury after making it through to the final of the festival’s emerging bands competition and are due to release their debut single proper Six Wolves on October 18th. Firmly filed in our Ones To Watch for 2011 drawer, Let’s Buy Happiness drench their songs in atmospheric otherworldly guitars and vocals reminiscent of Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays or Liz Fraser of The Cocteau Twins. Undeniably beautiful.
Returning to Southsea Fest following an exhilarating performance last year, this eight piece London outfit possess enough drama, emotion, atmosphere and excitement in their songs to be comparable to an epic movie. Strings, brass, guitars and vocals combine to create a huge sound reminiscent of early Arcade Fire, Mono and Broken Records. Gypsy-folk, post-rock and epic indie collide head on. Be prepared to batten down the hatches for Revere who will be bringing their immense songs from their album Hey! Selim which we reviewed with much praise here.
You may have heard of Bright Light Bright Light before - the singers real name is Rod Thomas. He’s been around the musical block for a while. Rod is a Welsh do it your self music making whiz-kid who has now changed his operations to the Bright Light Bright Light banner and bagged a deal with the newly formed Popjustice Hi-Fi record label, which has been created by freelance journalist Peter Robinson - the man who runs the Popjustice website and writes for the NME. His new single Love Part II released on the 13th September is a stellar piece of 80’s referencing electro pop with enough modern production values to make it a tune for 2010. The future shines brightly with Bright Light Bright Light who Huw Stephens of Radio 1 called “A one-man swoon machine.”
