LIBRALIBRA + MONAKIS + BELMONDO – BRIGHTON ELECTRIC STUDIOS 29.10.22
Brighton Electric studios, located at 43-45 Coombe Terrace, in Lewes Road, Brighton, were tonight hosting their first night of “Brighton Electric Presents”, which is aimed at showcasing local and touring talent. They are aiming to open their studio doors once a month to the general public by offering specially curated lineups.
Historically these premises were built in 1897 as the Brighton Corporation Tramways head office. The last tram arrived at Lewes Road depot in the early hours of 1st September 1939 – at about the same time Germany invaded Poland, and ignited the conflict that became World War II. The depot is now used as the Brighton Buses depot and the adjoining music studio complex was founded in 2000. It has 17 practice studios and 2 recording studios. There are several mix studios and a mastering suite, 175 capacity live venue/production studio, storage facilities, shop, vegan café, venue and bar.
Tonight was my first ever footsteps inside this mystical Tardis-like building. On entry I noted a fully stocked bar and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. This first night was sold out as it had been free admission with names given on entry. Folks had been encouraged to go in fancy dress, and a majority obliged. There were some fantastic examples on offer this evening, with the best being a chap inside a 9ft tall monster outfit with red eyes. There were ghouls and ghosts a plenty this evening to add to the really spooky vibe.
For “Brighton Electric Presents – Take 1” they had invited LibraLibra, Monakis and Belmondo along to show us punters what they had to offer.
We have seen live sets from both LibraLibra and Monakis of late, but this was our first encounter with Belmondo, who are named after the famed actor Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo of the ‘60s Nouvelle Vague scene, who passed away on 6th September 2021.
Beers purchased from the bar near the entrance, we made our way down to the end of the maze of rooms to the main studio room with its high walls and soundproofed ceiling and soundproofing on the windows. There were many ghouls and ghosts in the venue tonight and the atmosphere was fab from the very off as Belmondo set about showing us what they have to offer.
Brighton-based, multinational quartet Belmondo, boasts two musicians from France, one from Switzerland and one from here in the UK. They all met at University here in Brighton when studying for Music Degrees. They played their first gig this January although they technically started back at the tail end of 2019, but then Covid hit and messed everything up. They have gone on record by stating “We draw our creativity from different places, and it makes for this eclectic and raw sound. Our sound could be described as rock with some industrial and electronic elements”. Also noted was them taking inspiration from the likes of De Staat and Killing Joke.
The Belmondo name has been cropping up with regularity over the past three or so months on the Brighton gigging scene and now it’s finally nice to put faces to their name and hear them live and direct. The backbone of their sound is the dual vocal delivery of Kelan and Carmen each hold their own, with Carmen’s ice-cold lilting tones and Kelan’s evocative snarl offering something for every listener.
They began their 31 minute, 7 or possibly 8 song set at 8:41pm and concluded at 9:12pm. I believe they sneaked a quick two minute cover version at the end of their set which isn’t shown on their setlist. Carmen was using a Fender Precision bass, Kelan was on Fender guitar, Laurent on Squier Strat guitar, and Jules was on drums.
From the very beginning, the studio’s HK Audio speakers were being given a pounding by the indie rock style tunes. It’s a guitar frenzy throughout their performance and I know several people that will love them and as yet have failed to flag them up to me.
Roughly speaking, Carmen was in charge of the vocals for the first half of their set and Kelan for the second. Kelan joined us punters down on the wooden floor from his first vocal number, which was delivered venomously, whilst Carmen applied the backing vocals. There was some swapping around of the bass guitar as well. This is a tight unit that rocks and one I will no doubt be seeing more of in the future. They set the bar rather high with their set. It will be interesting to see this outfit play live in one of our city’s music venue pubs like The Hope & Ruin to judge if they can still pull off a decent set there.
Funnily enough, you can catch Belmondo live in Brighton at The Hope & Ruin on Wednesday 23rd November, when they will be on the bill with Krush Puppies, as well as The Queen’s Head. Purchase your tickets HERE.
Belmondo :
Laurent Lesaffre – guitar
Jules Freiss – drums
Kelan Moore – vox/guitar
Carmen Mellino – vox/bass
Belmondo setlist:
‘Dancing With A Fool’
‘Moses’
‘Pachyderm’
‘RTD’
‘Slidey’
‘Bethlehem’
‘Gods’
Beers topped up, banter shared with the punters, staff and band’s, it was now thirty-one minutes after Belmondo had vacated the stage and the turn of Brighton based noise-trio James, Aaron and Joe, who collectively are Monakis to grace the stage for 32 minutes commencing at 9:43pm.
Debuting in December 2019, Monakis are an outfit that we have already covered on a number of occasions and thus will cut to the chase for this evening! As always, they launched their aural assault with a crescendo of noise. Here is an act that is truly entertaining and on an upward journey.
I could swear that the sound engineer had turned up the volume. It felt like this red brick building was about to collapse under the pressure of the speaker vibrations caused by James’ Fender Jazz bass, Aaron’s Fender Jazzmaster guitar and Joe’s drumkit. Here is a band that should be supporting artists at the country’s premier rock establishments. Promoters take note!
Since their inception they have morphed from proto punks to the sons of Nirvana. James oozes enough attitude to fill Coombe Terrace by himself. They blasted out three of their five singles to date. The first of those played tonight was ‘Fake News’ which alone would entice your granny to go crowd surfing! But that was immediately followed by ‘Rich’ which was even better! Completing the singles trilogy was ‘Driptease’ with its screamed “Only at the weekend” lyrics.
This has quite possibly been the tightest set I’ve ever seen from them. If the National Grid is ever short of power, then they might like to harness these lads. Job done! Vacate stage at 10:15pm.
Monakis have bagged the highly prized support slot (along with Paris Blue) for the Kid Kapichi bash at The Crypt in Hastings on Friday 16th December – Purchase your tickets HERE.
Monakis:
James Porter – bass, vocals
Aaron Butler – guitar, vocals
Joe McTaggart – drums
Monakis setlist:
‘Punished’
‘War’
‘Fake News’
‘Rich’
‘Screw Loose’
‘Ride’
‘White Rabbit’
‘Driptease’
After a 28 minute live music hiatus, it was time to make our way back along the narrow corridor to witness LibraLibra live in action for exactly half an hour from 10:43pm. Here is another band that we have recently reviewed and so will just discuss tonight’s performance.
I’m rather liking this new streamlined version of the outfit with Beth on vocals, Guy on a Squier VI (six-string) bass and Nord Grand keyboard, as well him adding backing vocals when required, and for drummer Joe there was the addition of Moog Grandmother semi modular analog synth and Akai plus other box of tricks.
Joe put his electronics to work in order to summon the punters back into the room from the bar and outside seating area at the other end of the building by the use of searing electronic pulses that the BBC Radiophonic Workshop would be very proud of. They were loud and had the desired effect.
They opened their set with ‘Brainbeast’ and Beth started down with us punters, mind you the stage is only about 1.5 feet off the ground. It’s still loud in here as she belts out the lyrics as her chums back her up on bass and drums. I kid you not, the bass sound is so deep and heavy my whole body is under attack, I’m glad that I have been to the toilet! I resort to using ear defenders which is a rarity, as my teeth are chattering with the noise and the water in my inner ears is shaking. Jesus, will I ever hear again? I wonder if they can hear them in Hove? I’m surprised my glass of beer didn’t shatter!
We are informed that most of the songs tonight are relatively new. ‘Hydra’ gets an outing and is followed by ‘Lonely Girl’ which sees Beth in amongst us. Everyone is having a whale of a time. We are informed that it is drummer Joe’s birthday and we are instructed that as it’s Halloween time that we need to scream “Happy Birthday” to him. This was followed by their brand new single which drops on Monday 31st October, it is called ‘Frenemies’ This tune starts all serenely and then Beth screams the lines and hits the deck while backed by the bassist….cue pogoing!
Their penultimate number is titled ‘Mothers Ruin’ and is climaxed by ‘End Scene’ which reminds me of the beginning of ‘Here Comes The Night’ by Them, and that itself reminds me of mid 1960’s Rolling Stones. ‘End Scene’ is a joint vocal epic tune and deserves wider coverage and was the perfect way to round off the night, albeit loudly! It ended at 11:13pm with Beth saying “Happy Halloween, we love you, thank you Brighton”. It was a fabulous effort by the punters who dressed up this evening and it has been a truly memorable experience. Well done to all concerned.
LibraLibra:
Beth Cannon – lead vocals
Joe Caple – drums, keys, electronics
Guy Jones – keyboard, guitar, vocals
LibraLibra setlist:
‘Brainbeast’
‘Hydra’
‘Lonely Girl’
‘Frenemies’
‘Mothers Ruin’
‘End Scene’
