Sunday 1 May 2016

The Great Escape 2016 - Preview / Recommendations (Saturday)


From my perspective the final day of the official Great Escape programme has less must sees than the previous two days. However, Saturday’s Alt Escape makes up for this with an abundance of choice, so there’s never going to be a dull moment on the streets of Brighton. These posts focus on the core event though, so in a similar manner to the two previous posts (here and here) I’ll waste no time and get straight on with recommending five acts that may be worth your while checking out.

The Big Moon 12:30 Komedia (Also playing at The Corn Exchange 19:15)

The Big Moon will be playing a huge venue (The Corn Exchange) later in the evening when they play support to The Mystery Jets, but early risers are advised to catch these Blog Sound of 2016 long list nominees earlier in the day at Komedia. Expect brash bold noisy guitar pop such as The Road, Sucker and new tune Cupid (below) to blow the cobwebs away.



Cadet 13:15 Paganini Ballroom

Grime isn’t a genre that you’d really expect to see on Breaking More Waves, but for me one of the beauties of Great Escape is to be able to sample something a little off your normal musical road map. As I listened to the festival’s Spotify playlist last month, Cadet’s track Stereotype stood out. With its honest lyrical delivery, he deals with the idea that stereotypes sadly often come from behaviours of reality - we're all likely to be our own stereotype.



Ary 15:30 Patterns Upstairs (Also playing at Stick Mike's Frog Bar 01:30 Saturday)

I first wrote about Norwegian pop singer Ary back in January and compared her to the likes of Aurora and Emilie Nicolas. After impressing audiences at other European new music festivals now she heads to the UK, hopefully to do the same there with her take on pulsing electronic Scandipop.



Holly Macve 18:45 Sallis Benny Theatre

From the Bella Union label comes Holly Macve, another artist I introduced on the blog relatively recently. Clearly inspired by American songwriters, Holly possesses a show stopping country tinged vocal that sounds as if it’s been beamed from 50 years past into the present. A must see.



Stevie Parker 19.45 Komedia Studio Bar

Gorgeous, laid back, keyboard based chill-pop from an artist from the Bristol area that is cropping up on the undercard of a lot of UK based festivals this year. Full confession; I’ve only heard one song (Never Be – streaming below), but it’s an enticing enough beauty to make me want to hear more. Stevie Parker is the last of my tips from the Great Escape 2016 official core programme.



Alt Escape Bonus Pick: Emily Burns 14.45 The Black Lion

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