One Inch Badge Presents: The Best of Brighton

The Best of Brighton. This is one that anyone who is interested in the international music scene would be curious about. For years the Brighton music scene has been one synonymous with new music and has often been the trendsetter for ‘hip’ new music. The Great Escape, one of the world’s foremost music industry showcases is held there each year, so Brighton’s claim to be a home for music is well placed. Sea Monsters: The Best of Brighton is a snapshot of some of the key bands in the Brighton scene in 2011.

Now, to me, if you’re trying to show off how great the music of your area is, you don’t start your compilation CD with an out of tune guitar on a track that sounds like it was recorded on cheap tape recorder from the seventies. It sounds like a poor attempt at a demo by an old-school Californian dance hall act. But alas, these are the sounds of The Sticks and their “cool surf-rock” instrumental track, Night of Pleasure.

Thankfully, Pope Joan’s offering, Ground Is Shaky, follows and it’s altogether more together as a song. It’s exactly what one would expect from a new British band, guitar jabs, bouncing bass lines, and Vampire Weekend-esque rim hits and vocals. Innovative it is not, but as indie-pop goes, it’s very well done. The following track by Nullifier can be placed in the same Indie category. It adds a more synth edge to the genre, but really it’s just a variation on a theme and the same can be said for Hind Ear’s track. Here’s hoping that the standard Indie-pop ends with these bands…

Some respite comes in the form of Sons of Noel and Adrian and their quietly epic song, Black Side of the River. Almost Scandinavian orchestration gives way to an intimate, stripped down vocals, guitar and harp piece and is perhaps the most sweet and endearing of the compilation. There is something sweet about Us Baby Bear Bones’ Encore to a Fictional Idea, that precedes this, but the Sons’ track outstrips Bones’ contribution in both composition and sentiment. The upbeat and lo-fi Curly Hair has a charm to it too, and the tone of their lyrics definitely adds to this charm.

There then follows a number of tracks that are again a variation on a theme, but this time the theme is folk. They range from introspective, string driven songs like Jane Bartholomew’s Fiery Son, to the folk rock, full band songs like Salter Cane. They range in quality also, Stuart Warwick is chilling and beautiful, Bird Engine is somewhat cringeful, and Crowns on the Rats Orchestra nine minute epic, The Markov Charade/Markov Parade lies somewhere in between.

Brighton’s electro is represented by Soccer 96. ‘California’ blips and grooves along in the way electro tends to do. It’s quite a melodic track and shows that Brighton’s electronic underbelly can stand up with some of the best. The instrumental prog of Illness follow with the track ‘The Guardian’. As instrumentals go it ticks the all the boxes; the variety of parts, the odd times signatures, and the distorted guitars but besides that there isn’t anything spectacular here. The same can be said for the furious ‘Proof of Man’ by Cold Pumas. They attempt to channel old-school punk from both sides of the pond here, but all I hear is something brash and disjointed.

Drum Eyes are another 8-bit group, similar to the sounds of Soccer 96, but they’re altogether heavier which gives them an added edge, but as with a lot of heavy music, they tend to stray from the point and their offering clocks in at five minutes twenty, which is a good deal longer than it needed to be. Squadron Leader’s longwinded closer echoes The Sticks’ opener and that is one track I wish I hadn’t been reminded of…

I know I’m being hard on some of these bands, but I was hoping for something more spectacular from the home of new music in the UK. It seems to me that you could have gone into any town in England and picked out eighteen bands that sound exactly like this. In every town you’ll have your heavy bands, your electro bands, your gritty core of acoustic folk bands, your tight alt-pop bands and you’re left of centre soul/jazz/funk bands. Brighton is no different. Sons of Noel and Adrian and Soccer 96 are a notable exception, offering something a bit more than the standard, and maybe that’s enough, maybe that’s what makes Brighton shine. Yet I think that this compilation isn’t what makes Brighton stand out, but what makes it like everywhere else.

Drop-D Rating: 5/10

Published on Drop-D.ie, 13th June, 2011

To The Chase - When You Believed

To The Chase are a three-piece Indie/Soul band from Hackney, East London. With a claim to dominance over a myriad of musical styles, the band are releasing a number of singles in the run up to the release of their self-produced debut album, ‘Listen Close’, on their own label. The first single is entitled, ‘When You Believed’.

There is a serious energy to the title track, When You Believed, almost bordering on a fury. The drums are behind this, with drummer Jim Rooney refusing to sit idly by and play one snare/cymbal hit at a time. The sticks bounce of the skins at a rate of knots in each bar of the verse and chorus, relenting only at the stops in the pre-chorus and bridge. The self-produced trio are sure to have put a lot of effort into keeping things tight and it shows.

Complimenting the drums, the bass and guitar playing is equally as tight on the track, guitar screeches giving the intro some edge before the band fly into the indie-pop verses. The level of edge and intensity of this track in a much needed progression from the typically laid-back approach that many indie bands still cling to, and . The track is definitely more of a grower than a shower. The indie elements stand out initially, but the more energetic and intriguing elements shine through on further listens. Perhaps not the most interesting song in the world, but it’s an infectious one nonetheless.

On the flip side, we have the brass infused The Return. Sounding almost like the theme-tune to a cheesy 70’s detective show, the track revolves around the edgy three-note guitar line and the stabs of brass. It’s not all cheese however. In keeping with the more ‘poppy’ A-side, singer Aaron Kravitz keeps the vocal melody light, contrasting with the almost overpowering instrumentation.

This track seems to give a more ‘live’ feeling than When You Believed, serving to give the listener an inkling into the band’s live performance with the prominence of the brass section. First of five singles running up to the release of their debut album, it’ll be interesting to see if the band can push the genres any further. The band tells us, “each of the song’s are very different, you won’t hear any repetitive sounds here”. Well, we’ll see…

Published on Drop-D.ie, 22nd April 2011