Live: M83 + Porcelain Raft @ Concorde 2, Brighton January 22nd 2012

Porcelain Raft and M83 certainly share a penchant for the ethereal, even if Porcelain Raft instantiate this through a totally unpretentious set of bedroom loops and samples and M83 do so through sheer size and spectacle. The opening act, a duo fronted by London-based Italian Mauro Remiddi and recently signed to Secretly Canadian, release their much-anticipated debut album ‘Strange Weekend’ on January 24th.

Though working within a similar sound-pallete, Porcelain Raft eschew the kind of sprawling, multi-layered, synthesized bombast of M83 in favour of some gentle backing drones, live drummer and fleeting guitars. It still swirls, but in tune with a classic 60s vibe, particularly on the mildly anthemic ‘Unless You Speak From Your Heart’. ‘Put Me To Sleep’ brews a powerful mood from stark beginnings anticipated in a searing, rushing ambience. 

‘Strange Weekend’ at Secretly Canadian

M83, having broken through in the UK on a previously unimaginable scale, largely due to the strength of ‘Midnight City’, released album ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ in the UK in 2011, the follow-up to 2008’s excellent Saturdays = Youth. The show began with this creature’s atmospheric entrance before a show dominated by older songs kicked into force. ‘Graveyard Girl’ was a mysterious absence; ‘Couleurs’ a predictable highlight with exaggerated middle-techno section. The airy strides of ‘Kim & Jessie’ as second song made way for a substantial section of the middle being made up of new, abstract and essentially more minimalistic, space-age and European themed dance tracks - altogether with less harmonies and more instrumental. Not quite so engaging on an individual level, though in the context of a live show defused the sheer power of their ‘wall of sound’ in to something with a little more dynamics.

M83 “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”

• Porcelain Raft - Put Me To Sleep (MP3)
• M83 - Midnight City (MP3)

London / Brighton Live (Oct. 17 - Oct. 23)

This week, the king of choral RnB, Active Child, plays a one-off show at St. Pancras Old Church, Philadelphia’s Sun Airway showcase at Hoxton Square and Male Bonding headline a night at The Garage with Gross Magic and The History of Apple Pie. Also in the city for the coming week are Spectrals, Babeshadow, Julian Cope, Real Estate, Spotlight Kid, Bear Driver, Bon Iver and Architecture In Helsinki. Full list below.

• Active Child - Playing House (ft. How To Dress Well) (MP3)
• Sun Airway - Infinity (MP3)
• Real Estate - It’s Real (MP3)

NO LADDER by COVES

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Monday

• Male Bonding, Gross Magic, The History Of Apple Pie @ The Garage, London (Tickets)***
• Spectrals @ Monto Water Rats, London (Tickets)

Tuesday

• Julian Cope @ Concorde 2, Brighton (Tickets)
• Sam Amidon @ Cecil Sharp House, London (Tickets)
• Babeshadow @ The Shacklewell Arms, London (Tickets)
• Real Estate @ Rough Trade East, London (In-store)***
• James Vincent McMorrow @ Rough Trade West, London (In-store)

Wednesday

• Active Child @ St. Pancras Old Church, London (Tickets)***

Thursday

• Spotlight Kid @ The Hope, Brighton (Tickets)***
• Veronica Falls + Echo Lake @ The Lexington, London (Tickets)
• Apparat + When Saints Go Machine @ KOKO, London (Tickets)

Friday

• How Yin + Spotlight Kid @ Hoxton Underbelly, London (Tickets)
• Morcheeba + Elizaveta @ KOKO, London (Tickets)
• Bear Driver @ The Victoria, Dalston, London (Tickets)

Saturday

• Jacques Greene + More @ Corsica Studios, London (Tickets)
• Flying Lotus + Antivj @ Roundhouse, London (Tickets)

Sunday

• Bon Iver + Kathleen Edwards @ Hammersmith Apollo, London (SOLD OUT)
• Architecture In Helsinki @ Heaven, London (Tickets)
• Real Estate + Spectrals @ Proud Brighton Ballrooms, Brighton (Tickets)
• Sun Airway + COVES @ Hoxton Sq. Bar & Kitchen, London (Tickets)

What have I missed? @thismusicwins

London / Brighton Live (Oct. 10 - Oct. 16)

Dirty Beaches + Ela Orleans @ Bush Hall, London (Monday)

A rare live date for brazened post-punk star Alexander Zhang Hungtai, but surely one of many more to come. I championed his track ‘Lone Runner’ back in August for its influence ‘squeezed from modern lo-fi, a smattering of 40s and 50s swing and pop…[and] bleak colourless imagery’. Support comes from Ela Orleans, purveyor of the other half of Dirty Beaches’ split 12” ‘Double Feature’.

Nadja + Petrels @ Cafe Oto, London (Wednesday)

Nadja are an experimental drone/noise metal act going strong since 2003. In support comes Petrels, a fascinating ritualistic choir act whose most recent album ‘Haeligewielle’, came out on Tartaruga Records in June.

Binnacle Festival 2011 @ The Old Blue Last, London (Sat + Sun)

A self-proclaimed ‘micro-festival’ at The Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch, which might be practically very small-scale but is packed full back-to-back with new, electronic talent. For many of the artists playing, this will be their first show. Favourites on these pages who will be in attendance include Acid Glasses (making their UK debut), Seams (who just released his Binnacle 2011 mix) and Conifers. You can read the full line-up over at Safe Concerts. Not to be missed for any London-based fans of experimental electronics and blissful lo-fi dance music. Grab MP3s from international debut-makers Sun Glitters and MOTHS below. Tickets here.

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Monday

• Still Corners @ Cafe Oto, London (Tickets)
• Dirty Beaches + Ela Orleans @ Bush Hall, London (Tickets)
• Mother Mother, Younghusband, Birdy Hunt @ The Lexington, London (Tickets)
• Iron & Wine + Fujiya & Miyagi @ Shephard’s Bush Empire, London (Tickets)

Tuesday

• Spiritualized @ Royal Albert Hall, London (Tickets)
• Fanzine @ Madame Jojo’s, London (Tickets)
• Still Corners @ Rough Trade East, London (In-store)

Wednesday

• Cloud Control + Born Blonde @ Scala, London (Tickets)
• Nadja + Petrels + The Plurals @ Cafe Oto, London (Tickets)

Thursday

• Mazes + Milk Maid @ The Lexington, London (Tickets)

Friday

• Mazes + Fear Of Men @ The Hope, Brighton (Tickets)
• The Kills @ Concorde 2, Brighton (Tickets)

Saturday

• James Vincent McMorrow + The Staves @ St. Bartholemew’s Church, Brighton (Tickets)
• Binnacle 2011 Festival (Day 1) @ The Old Blue Last, London (Tickets)
• Joy Orbison + Julio Bashmore @ Digital, Brighton (Tickets)
• Drums Of Death, Solar Bears + More @ The Macbeth, London (Tickets)

Sunday

• Apparat @ The Haunt, Brighton (Tickets)
• Binnacle Festival 2011 (Day 2) @ The Old Blue Last, London (Tickets)

What have I missed? Contact me via @thismusicwins / the comment box below, or on peter@thismusicwins.com

London and Brighton Live (Monday 3rd Oct - Sunday 9th Oct).

Monday

• Emmy The Great + Stealing Sheep @ Duke Of York’s Cinema, Brighton (Tickets)

Tuesday

• Is Tropical @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London (Tickets)
• Ben Howard + Dry The River @ Rough Trade East, London (In-store)

Wednesday

• SBTRKT + Becoming Real @ Audio, Brighton (Tickets)
• Meursault + Dark Captain Light Captain @ Hoxton Sq. Bar & Kitchen, London (Tickets)
• Michael Kiwanuka @ Rough Trade East, London (In-store)

Thursday

• Daedelus + Ambassadeurs @ Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton (Tickets)
• Gold Panda + Nathan Fake + Dam Mantle @ KOKO, London (Tickets)
• Sondre Lerche + Young Dreams @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London (Tickets)
• Alela Diane + Wild Divine @ St Pancras Old Church, London (Tickets)

Friday

• Cymbals @ Green Door Store, Brighton (Tickets)

Saturday

• The Antlers + Terrorvision @ Concorde 2, Brighton (Tickets)

Sunday

• Iron & Wine + Marketa Irglova @ Hackney Empire, London (Tickets)

Highlights.

• Alela Diane - White As Diamonds (MP3)
• Meursault - The Dirt & The Roots (MP3)
• Cymbals - Jane (MP3)
• Radiohead - Lotus Flower (SBTRKT Remix) (MP3)

Live: Timber Timbre @ Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton 01/09/2011

This week I’ve been rushed off my feet with gigs to go to; Mike Heron of The Incredible String band in London on Monday, Other Lives in the same city on Tuesday, and now Timber Timbre on Thursday night in Brighton. The mood the latter was fittingly the lowest, the low light levels, as if by candle light, really complementing the kind of haunted and dated blues-based mood which the Canadian three piece have mastered across recent works. 

I entered (late) to ‘Black Water’ from 2011’s Polaris Prize nominated LP “Creepin’ On Creepin’ On”. Positioned what I was told was around three songs in, the refreshingly lazy blues anthem revealed itself as the night progressed to be the tempo high point. Taylor Kirk’s vocals are incredibly distinctive if a little limited, but despite giving the music a wonderfully defining double layered texture, didn’t substantially develop into anything captivating or emotive. But aside from holding the attention of a blues half-enthusiast, why should they? No dynamic should come at the cost of honesty and conviction - and that there was, undoubtedly.

The show’s arrangement essentially was as the album title described it - ‘creeping on’ slowly with very little development outside of classic song-writing structures. Perhaps a little more courage, or a few more instrumentalists (though not to detract from my praise to the excellent pedal sounds and screeching violins) might have made it a little more memorable to the newcomer. Timber Timbre certainly do have one of the most pleasant blues skeletons around in order to work with, if only garnishing it as such was more their style. By the end of the show, it became clear that the performance was intended to be a little stark and understated, such is the nature of down-tempo blues music, that it drags its grandiose feet a little.

Timber Timbre - Black Water (MP3)

New: Gross Magic - Teen Jamz EP

Brighton’s latest musical phenomenon, Gross Magic, just dropped his debut ‘Teen Jamz EP’ via The Sounds Of Sweet Nothing, a five track effort beset with “unashamedly glam” (thanks Basement Fever), lo-fi recorded and pop-psychedelia tinged Bowie-esque melody, being launched at the Shacklewell Arms this Wenesday evening. There’s some rallying overtones of 90s grunge, Ariel Pink juxtapositions and a T-Rex influence which comes across with a terrifyingly powerful resonance; it seems the solo project of Sam McGarrigle (depicted above) will strike a chord with the international noise-pop scene as much as it might be readily championed by its veterans.

‘Teen Jamz’ finds the space to incorporate three new ‘jamz’ and does so with the inclusion of eponymous ‘Teen Jamz’, ‘Can’t Ignore My Heart’ and the delicacies of Gross Magic ballad (by these standards) ‘Dream Gurl’. Download the whole thing for £4 over at Band Camp with three bonus songs (making it an 8 track) or pre-order your purple vinyl from The Sounds Of Sweet Nothing by clicking here.

Gross Magic - Dream Gurl by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

Gross Magic - Teen Jamz by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

Gross Magic - Can’t Ignore My Heart by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing