ZOONI + HANYA + CIEL – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 17.01.20
The second day of Love Thy Neighbour’s Triptych event takes place on a very busy Brighton Friday. There is an air of excitement as everyone’s weekend is just beginning. The Hope And Ruin hosts the event again in their intimate upstairs room. On the lineup for tonight is Zooni, HANYA and CIEL bringing an indie, shoegaze grunge and art rock night of tunes for us to enjoy.
CIEL
First to the stage at 8:30 is CIEL, a female-fronted Brighton based 4 piece. After being involved in different projects in the Dutch indie scene, frontwoman Michelle Hindriks moved to Brighton mid-2018. CIEL’s latest work sees a set of moody alt-pop songs that merges shoegaze with post punk, dusty Americana, noir rock and dream pop. The songs are produced by Penelope Isles’ Jack Wolter who performed on the first night of this year’s triptych under the project ‘Cubzoa’ (you can find last nights review HERE).
They play room-filling sounds with the use of deep muddy bass, punchy drums and sharp hanging guitar. As they move through their set, it takes a turn into a more shoegaze led direction with waves of wet, luscious sound washing over the audience while Michelle’s ethereal voice cuts through like a lighthouse over the inky sea. These tracks are clearly Slowdive/My Bloody Valentine inspired. The purple and blue lights move around her head like a halo. They move on from this quite Hardcore gaze and take the set into more of a grunge/electronic movement with the song ‘Pictures’ which is surprisingly delightful with a driving drum beat. They then play 3 songs from their new EP and I can say they are all good! They leave the stage at 9pm to very solid applause.
CIEL are playing The Hope And Ruin again on the 2nd of February. Grab your tickets HERE.
The track released for the limited Triptych vinyl is the song ‘Days’.
HANYA
Next to the stage is HANYA at 9:20. Two-piece turned four-piece HANYA comprised of Heather Sheret, Jack Watkins and Ben Varnes have been making waves this year. Featured in Clash Magazine as ‘one of the best voices in music today’ their upcoming EP is set to continue their upward trajectory. Shoegaze sensibilities, folded with the grunge psychedelia. The female-fronted band launch into a set of powerful rock tunes combined with distortion dripping riffs. The sound of the gig is really well mixed with sounds of sharp drums coming through the crunchy pedal-driven guitars and bass. Heather proceeds to show real vocal range switching from sweet to powerful vibrato without being jarring. They play a 6 song set covering a vast range of genres including dream pop, shoegaze and 60’s/70’s psychedelia. It is joked that even if you wanted the vinyl for tonight that you couldn’t because her dad just bought the last one.
They end on the song ‘Dream Wife’ which is an absolute banger
I would highly recommend keeping these guys on your radar as they have a new EP due in February.
The song used on the limited triptych vinyl is ‘I’ll Do It Tomorrow’.
HANYA setlist:
‘Cement’
‘I’ll Do It Tomorrow’ (from 2020’s ‘I’ll Do It Tomorrow’ single)
‘Honey’ (from 2018’s ‘I Used To Love You, Now I Don’t’ EP)
‘Radio’ (from 2018’s ‘I Used To Love You, Now I Don’t’ EP)
‘Everyone’s Tired’
‘Dream Wife’ (from 2019’s ‘Dream Wife’ single)
Zooni
Last to the stage and rounding off the night is the 4 piece Zooni. An Art-Pop band from Brighton with a powerful yet fragile mix of poetic lyrics and transcendent textures. They wash hypnotic beats with delicate piano and angular guitars. The four-piece provides deep bassy beats with a great voice and the use of an acoustic guitar to create a kind of Indie rock/soft art theme which is enjoyable and captivating to witness. The production on all of the tracks is really tight and polished. They all seem to be really nice friendly guys and are close friends. They shout out Andy from Love Thy neighbour halfway through the set.
The atmosphere of the night is constructive and everyone is really enjoying the vibe these guys are providing. One of the songs includes the use of bongos in combination with the drum kit to create some interesting sounds that are not out of place with the rest of the music. They are experimental with their use of sound, but are not as experimental with their music. They show a clear mastery of their instruments which culminates within their last song of the night ‘Cotton Blue’ which features some more funky notes and provides a guitar solo to really finish on a good note.
The song on the limited vinyl is the track ‘Oh Well’ and is also available to stream.
Zooni setlist
‘Dissolve’
‘Death March’
‘SAS’
‘The Deets’
‘Fam Grnd’
‘A Flat’ (from 2019’s ‘Zooni’ EP)
‘Cotton Blue’ (from 2019’s ‘Zooni’ EP)
Read our Triptych Day 1 report HERE.
Read our Triptych Day 3 report HERE.
Visit and ‘LIKE’ our ‘What’s On – from Brighton and Hove News’ Facebook page HERE.
