With horizontal rain belting down outside, Portsmouth football club playing at home and the band being the early-afternoon opening act on The Loft stage, a tough gig was potentially awaiting Brighton’s LibraLibra at this year Dials Festival in Portsmouth. However, expectations didn’t match reality. The group’s unyielding and colourful noise-pop won the hearts of a decent sized crowd – lead singer Beth Cannon’s gutsy in the zone performance and huge vocal was an art form unto itself – and by the end of the day they were one of the talked about discoveries of the festival. Which brings me neatly onto their new single Skin and Bone (part of a double header set they released on Friday – the other track being Lillith). If you’re of the mind set that pop music in 2018 has largely become as sterile as a surgeon’s instrument in the operating room, then LibraLibra are here to come and infect things. Because Skin and Bone has absolutely no interest in being anything but as forceful as fuck. It’s a song that mixes a vocal delivery something akin to Beth Ditto of The Gossip and Toyah, slabs of dirty industrial noise, precision military drums and off-kilter on the edge ferociousness. It it was a person, you wouldn’t pick a fight with it. Skin & Bone will almost certainly scare your neighbours if you play it loud enough. So, you know what to do; throw open the windows wide and turn the volume up. Brutal and beautiful and bonkers. There’s definitely a space for that in pop right now. LibraLibra - Skin and Bone
In just under a two weeks, on Saturday 6th October Portsmouth’s Dials Festival returns for its third chapter following its first two editions in 2015 and 2016. It’s an event I’m pretty well versed in, after in 2015 having been invited to join the organising team because of my relative expertise in new music and help book some bands for the bill, for 2018 I seem to have ended up with the job title Festival Director and am one of the core organisers and financial backers of the event. I'm not quite sure how that's happened but it has. The Dials ethos is a little bit different from many multi-venue single wristband access events out there, although I must give a huge shout out to Reading’s brilliant Are You Listening Festival whose model we have partly taken on. It was that festival that inspired me to suggest to the team that the event should be not for profit and run in aid of a charity partner (Solent Mind) whilst raising awareness of what their organisation does and maybe even raise some funds along the way. We also thought it was important that, after hearing a number of reports from local artists that certain other bigger corporate festivals in the area weren’t paying the smaller artists instead offering a guest tickets as 'payment', we would offer virtually every band some form of cash return for playing. Sometimes this might only be enough to cover transport to the venue but at least it was some help to artists. You might think that paying artists was imperative, after all they make the festival, but it seems that some events have different ideas. This of course means that tickets are a little more expensive than some might expect, but £16 for a full day of live music which includes a host of up and coming bands including the likes of Estrons, Art School Girlfriend, Lauran Hibberd and Fröst who are all getting play on Radio 1 or BBC 6 Music, is to my mind still decent value. The reality is we couldn't make it any cheaper. Some artists have been wonderful though and agreed to waive their fee as the event is for charity and hardly any of the acts (including our headliners) have asked for guest list. I hope that our ethos of what we are trying to achieve will make both artists and audience feel invested in the festival and this will create a positive community spirit. It was something our previous events were praised for, as well the fact that all the venues are on just one street just a few minutes walk from each other, plus the large amount of women on the bill compared with other festivals, something which as Director I’ve pushed for again in 2018. If you haven’t got your ticket yet I recommend buying in advance, as they will be more expensive on the day. You can get them from the Dials website by clicking here. Now onto the music. Over the next 3 blog posts I will be providing tips and recommendations of acts to see at Dials Festival 2018. I’m dividing them into 3 sections – early afternoon, late afternoon and evening, based on the timetable (which you can see by clicking here). Previous experience has shown that not many people come to the festival early – but this year in particular I highly recommend you get down for the start. We have some really great acts at the bottom of the bill – who knows some of them might even be future headliners? Also, for some early arrivals there will be a few bonus goodies that make your £16 ticket even better value, which we’ll be revealing through our social media a few days before the event, so keep an eye out @dialsfestival. So here are three acts it’s worth getting out of bed for. You'd be a fool to miss them. Libra Libra 13.45-14.15 The Loft Brighton’s LibraLibra might only have 2 songs on line but they’ve already picked up attention because of their eccentrically maverick videos, powerful lyrics and uneasy claustrophobic music that mixes everything from Fever Ray like electronics to power-chord glam-guitars. The jewel in their crown however is the wonderful Beth Cannon whose mountainous vocal range can switch from baby sweet to operatic to rock goddess in a matter of seconds. Some of you might recognise Beth’s name (or voice) – she most recently has worked with Lost Horizons - the band formed by Simon Raymonde of The Cocteau Twins and Bella Union Records and Richie Thomas. Having already headlined a stage at Brighton’s Alt-Escape festival and with an appearance at the tastemaker led Off The Record Music Festival / Conference in Manchester in November on the cards this is a chance to catch a bubbling under band at their very early stages. They might be on early but they are guaranteed to wake you up with the beautiful noise they make.
Lauran Hibberd 14.45-15.20 The Loft It was only a year or so ago that the Isle of Wight’s Lauran Hibberd was playing to about 6 people in a pub just over the road from where she’s performing at Dials. Since that time, things have changed. Her song Call Shotgun has been BBC Introducing’s track of the week on Radio 1 and netted over 300,000 streams on Spotify. She’s supported Eliza & The Bear on tour and played the main stage at Bestival. Lauran’s ability to pen hooky fuzzy indie pop songs at an alarming rate is incredible and on stage her funny stories, wit and likeable personality engage as much as the tunes. Lauran is one of a number of acts playing Dials that (arguably) could already be significantly higher up the bill. Get down and see what the fuss is about.
Jerry Williams 15.30-16.00 The Vaults After Lauran Hibberd finishes you have 5 minutes for a quick break and then a 1-minute walk across the road to Vaults to see Portsmouth’s reigning indie queen Jerry Williams. Having already sold out the 400 capacity Wedgewood Rooms with her band, Dials will find Jerry performing a more low-key solo set in the intimate space of The Vaults. With a whole bunch of catchy personal pop songs such as Mother (5 million streams on Spotify and counting), Grab Life and Left and Right, this solo set will be another reminder of Jerry’s melodic talent. It may well be busy for this one!
Grab your ticket for Dials 2018 by clicking here. Late afternoon and evening recommendations coming soon…
Are you ready to be disturbed and exhilarated at the same time? Then take a look and listen to Tongues, the second single from one of Brighton’s most exciting new bands LibraLibra.
Delivered with a real physicality, Tongues is intense art-pop. Imagine Fever Ray in the asylum and you might be getting close. As you press play you'll probably think that the devil has crept into your stereo system – but stick with it and don’t be scared. The journey to hell can be full of thrills for those prepared to embrace it. For in the 3 minutes and 33 seconds that follow you’ll find an outlandish mix of tribal and military beats and vocals, electronics and a huge hollering chorus. Add to that an equally bizarre video featuring pink morph suited men, some violence and a child’s solo tea party and you can rest assured that if there were any worries about pop music losing its sense of weirdness LibraLibra are ensuring that’s not going to happen. They’re as gruesome as they are beautiful, but totally compelling in the drama they create. With further releases to come later this year and other live dates booked, it's worth keeping your dial on this lot. LibraLibra play a free single launch show at the Green Door Store in Brighton tonight with support from Yumi and the Weather and Blush. There are rumours of the venue being transformed into a giant womb tonight, so be prepared to walk not just through the green doors but a gaping vagina as well. LibraLibra - Tongues (Video)
Pop music needs free-spirits. If we didn’t have them then we’d be drowning in the bland. Thankfully LibraLibra, a new Brighton based project, wields its unconventional approach with a ferocious confidence. Debut single Animali ties together the musical out-there conviction of The Knife’s Shaking the Habitual album with a sound not dissimilar to that of tUnE-yArDs and in the process conjures up an invigorating song of colourful rhythms, tribal wails and shakes. It’s an art-school adventure that isn’t afraid to explore off the map and is all the more enjoyable for it. Animali also comes with probably the strangest pop music video you’ll see this week, with animal mask wearing people, BDSM ball gags, babies and blood all featuring. It’s fair to say this probably isn’t the sort of thing you’d see Drake or Taylor Swift shooting. LibraLibra is Beth Cannon and Joe Caple with additional musicians added for live performance. You might recognise Beth’s name (or voice) from her recent work with Bella Union man Simon Raymonde’s Lost Horizons project for which she provided some vocals – and what splendid vocals they are – urgent, gymnastic and powerful. Animali is a song that is bold, manically creative and just a little bit ridiculous. Thank goodness for mavericks. Catch LibraLibra in Brighton on the 28th April at the Bad Pond Festival, supporting Swedish Death Candy at the Boiler Room in Guildford in May, at Liverpool's Sound City and at the Alt-Escape part of Great Escape in Brighton. But before that be sure to check out the video below - it's one for all the animal lovers out there. LibraLibra - Animali (Video)
