‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’, LEWES PSYCHEDELIC FESTIVAL, ALL SAINTS CENTRE & UNION MUSIC STORE, LEWES 4.2.23
The historic town of Lewes was buzzing last Saturday. Not only on the account of Lewes FC aka ‘the Rooks’ thrashing Kingstonian FC 3-0 at the Dripping Pan to move up to seventh in the Isthmian League, with goals from Joe Taylor, Ryan Gondoh and Will Salmon, but also on the account of the annual ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ was in full flow.
The ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ is organised by concert promoters Melting Vinyl and international visual artist Innerstrings and again this year took place at the ancient setting of All Saints Centre located on Friar’s Walk. The building is one of a trio of community centres that are currently owned and managed by Lewes Town Council, the other two being Lewes Town Hall on the High Street and Malling Community Centre on Spences Lane. All three are available to hire for regular classes, one-off events and private functions, should anyone be interested in holding a local event.
Nearly forty-three years ago, back in September 1980, the redundant church of All Saints was given to Lewes Town Council to be used as a Community, Arts and Youth centre. For twenty years the centre was run by the charity known as the All Saints Youth & Arts Trust, who were granted a lease by the Town council.
In 2001, the Trust dissolved and handed the lease of the building back to Lewes Town Council. The Council has been directly-managing the All Saints Centre since that time. All Saints Centre is a hybrid venue functioning as both as a Village Hall and a Performing Arts Space. As the All Saints is currently run as a venue to hire, its strength lie in being a flexible, affordable, multi-use space. It might be surprising for you to learn that the acoustics in this building are absolutely perfect for music concerts. Inside it is basically like two squares in length by one square in width with a raised seating area on the opposite side to the stage which is around 3ft 6” high. The speaker system in the venue is crisp and clear and stays contained within the double-box design, unlike that of St. Peters Church in Brighton where the sound simply flies up into the rafters and is far from perfect. It is therefore not surprising to see why Melting Vinyl and Innerstrings have again opted for this building to host the 2023 Festival.
The former church’s main room thus gets renamed ‘Main Psych Room’ for a handful of live music sets, and to the rear of the building, accessed through the east side door, is the ‘Small Psych Room’, where two other early performances were held. Concurrently at Union Music Store, which is located across the street at 1 Lansdown Place, there were two other rather compact live music performances on the go.
Since 2009, ‘Lewes Psych Fest’ is known for its mind-expansive lineups with a range of psych wonders from Brighton and beyond. The whole idea of it is to bring together a wide variety of varying acts under the psych umbrella and to push the boundaries of the usual music performances, whether this be with the use of lesser seen instruments or even adapting items lying around and making sounds with them. Accompany this with rooms that are bathed in swirling liquid light, not unlike being in a giant lava lamp, and voilà you have the vibe!
The artists taking place this year in performance order are as follows:
VÄLVĒ ‘Small Psych Room’ 3:15pm
Rose Io ‘Union Music Store’ 3:15pm
Mark Peters ‘Small Psych Room’ 4:15pm
Sairie ‘Union Music Store’ 4:15pm
Oddfellow’s Casino ‘Main Psych Room’ 6:15pm
MEMORIALS ‘Main Psych Room’ 7:00pm
Karma Sheen/کارماشین ‘Main Psych Room’ 7:55pm
ACID KLAUS ‘Main Psych Room’ 8:55pm
TVAM ‘Main Psych Room’ 10:00pm
Sadly, there were two lots of performance clashes at the beginning of the event. Decisions had to be made! We honestly had no preference as to which ones we finally chose, but as we had to obtain our wristbands at the church, then the two performances at the adjoining ‘Small Psych Room’ were selected to review. We always endeavour to cover full music sets as opposed to dipping in and out. Knowing how compact the record shop was, it was not a foregone conclusion that we would be able to enter the shop for the performance as the festival was at full capacity. Obviously we could stand on the street peering through the window, but that would be blocking the narrow street. Therefore it was decided that I remain in place whilst our photographer for this event, Cherie Elody, endeavours to shoot all of the acts, which she successfully did.
VÄLVĒ ‘Small Psych Room’ 3:15pm
First up then for us at the 2023 ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ were VÄLVĒ, which is a gleaming lo-fi/avant-guard/sound project from Chlöe Herington. She is joined by fellow Chrome Hoof member, Emma Sullivan. They suggest that they offer “Folk lullabies re-imagined by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop”. It was pleasant to see the ‘Small Psych Room’ being transformed by the Innerstrings psychedelic lighting to accompany the sun streaming through the stained glass windows of this compact room. And indeed compact it was, as folks filled virtually all of the available space and I was informed that they were already operating the one out-one entry system already. This must have been encouraging for these performers, who transfixed us with their antics for 41 minutes from 3:15pm until 3:56pm
The ‘equipment’ used during this performance was the most ‘out there’ of the whole event. Along with the pleasant dual vocal harmonies, there was use of the more ‘normal’ instrumentation including bass guitar, Korg synth, clarinet, a tiny megaphone, and Melodica (which always reminds me of early New Order). Then add to that the ‘out there’ moving of sea shells in an old tobacco tin which was atop a block, which had a music box winding mechanism bolted to it, as well as a small metal chain draped over it. There was also a garden fork which clearly had never been near soil in its life, and that was wired up like a tiny car battery for sound effect. Also I mustn’t forget the bunch of nuts used as shakers.
Their opening number was reminiscent of music used in the mid 1970’s ‘Bagpuss’ kids TV show. An experimental tune about a French island had a decent Korg backbeat accompanied by the Melodica. There was a cover of a tune by folk singer Maggie Holland, after which the duo were joined by Craig Fortnum on guitar, who sat and played his instrument resting on his lap. Overall, I would quite say it was BBC Radiophonic Workshop material, but more akin to very early Cabaret Voltaire and possibly Psychic TV, but with ethereal harmonies. I’m sure the rather wonderful Hannah Peel would approve of VÄLVĒ.
valvemusic.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/chloeherington
Rose Io ‘Union Music Store’ 3:15pm
On my way to collect my ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ wristband, I deliberately briefly stopped outside ‘Union Music Store’ to see what was going down. In the corner of the unusual shaped shop was a young lady who was soundchecking. This was indeed songwriter and storyteller Rose Io. She was delicately tapping away at her keyboard in order to see if all was well with the sound. From what I heard, it was relaxing and almost dreamlike.
Rose is a founding member and songwriter for band Rokurokubi and is now performing as a solo artist, continuing to enchant audiences with jewel-like musical poetry and storytelling. Her songs are a mixture of the macabre, surreal and childlike, in the footsteps of outsider musicians such as Syd Barrett, Ivor Cutler and the Space Lady.
For the Festival, Rose’s attire was rather distinctive, some may see it as hippy-like with her long flowing locks. But it came across to me as if she had just walked off the film set of a period drama set between two local ‘Bloomsbury’ group properties, namely Charleston Farmhouse in Firle and Monk’s House in Rodmell. Enchanting, totally absorbing and yet otherworldly mysterious, just like the famous former property owners Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
www.youtube.com/@Rokurokubi
www.instagram.com/_rose__io
Mark Peters ‘Small Psych Room’ 4:15pm
The second and final act to play the ‘Small Psych Room’ at this year’s ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ was multi-instrumentalist songwriter and engineer Mark Peters and his two chums. Mark was this afternoon anchored to his two guitars (Squier Telecaster and a Fender), but on his recent October 2022 ‘Sundowning’ 3-track release, Mark played none other than nine instruments, those being guitar, bass, piano, banjo, lap steel, synthesizer, ukulele, harmonica, and percussion.
Mark, who has been known to collaborate with former Tangerine Dream member Ulrich Schnauss, began his total instrumental 45 minutes set from 4:15pm to 5:00pm. The other two band members were on drums and Fender bass. This was a more mainstream affair littered with floaty non-vocal compositions whose soundwaves were thrown around the compact room, or was it just the case of Mark shaking his guitar as he is playing it, as in the echoey background heard on the likes of The Smiths ‘How Soon Is Now?’.
The trio were pumping out a more usual psych set than that which went before, and at times had nods to the likes of Moon Duo meets The Moody Blues. The instrumental soundscapes came and went as the room full of punters watched motionless absorbing their psyched out vibe. Whereas the previous set had been wildly eclectic, this lot plough the same furrow for each composition and were quite honestly a little samey. Some might argue that many bands have made careers doing this eg the Ramones, but if only all of this afternoon’s tracks were as good as their final number, I would have left the annex a happier man. That’s not to say that others present weren’t blown away by the performance, judging by the very loud applause on set conclusion.
mark-peters.bandcamp.com
linktr.ee/mark_peters
Sairie ‘Union Music Store’ 4:15pm
Whilst Mark Peter’s was entertaining fans across the road at the rear of the former church, Brighton based Sairie were in action over at the ‘Union Music Store’. Sairie are listed as Emma Morton (vocals, autoharp), Jon Griffin (vocals, guitar) and Andy Thomas (bass), but this afternoon they are a quartet with an additional person sitting on the floor whilst playing another keyboard.
Sairie music is a mix of original and traditional folk, inspired by their shared love of dark tales, folklore, mystery and nature. Folk Radio UK have commented that “Their sound is utterly spellbinding and beautiful” and have also said that “Anticipation grows for where Sairie can take their open-eared psych-folk vision next.”. The outfit utilise autoharp, bass, guitars and Emma Morton’s Pentangle-esq vocals to spin a unique brand of gentle yet haunting folk music. I concur with this, based on the live clips that our photographer Cherie Elody captured instore for me.
Their 8-tune EP, ‘The Cinder Sheet’, dropped on 23rd September last year and you will be able to catch Sairie live in Brighton when they play The Prince Albert on Friday 17th February along with Green Diesel and Greenness. Tickets are available at the door on the night.
sairie.bandcamp.com
linktr.ee/sairieband
With around a 75 minute teatime gap in proceedings we headed into Lewes town for some nourishment and found it in Bill’s. Cherie enjoyed their coconut, spinach and green lentil soup with turmeric yoghurt and coriander accompanied with a side order of fries and I had the Santorini salad with watermelon, feta, mint, olives, cucumber, red onion, tomato, pumpkin seeds and date molasses. Both were most enjoyable. We headed on back to All Saints Centre to the ‘Main Psych Room’ for a handful of varying acts.
Oddfellow’s Casino ‘Main Psych Room’ 6:15pm
First up at 6:13pm were Oddfellow’s Casino which this evening is a seven-piece ensemble featuring music chosen by leadperson singer songwriter David ‘Oddfellow’ Bramwell, who has been quietly releasing albums since 2002 to critical acclaim. They hail from the mountains of Sussex and are an ensemble whose music blends pastoral folktronica and psychedelia with classic English pop. Author and radio broadcaster David Bramwell has been described as “an English Sufjan Stevens” by the Sunday Times.
The rear of the stage and the whole ceiling of the room is totally filled with Innerstrings swirling graphics and it feels as though we are on a trip at the first Isle of White counterculture festivals back in 1968 to 1970. The Oddfellow’s Casino music lyrics which explore themes of folklore, paganism, and ritual blend in very well with the vibe that is going down.
The instrumentation being utilised by the septet tonight includes David on vocals and Nord Electro 3 synth, with a Korg, xylophone, cornet, laptop, metal corn on the cob shape chime, clarinet, guitar, bass, drums, flute, JAS Musicals Limited harmonium (like Nico used to use) and an intriguing Akai EWI (‘electronic wind instrument’) plug-and-play USB connection to Mac or PC with custom Garritan Aria Player software which contains wind instrument sounds of sax, traditional EWI, flute, oboe, and EVI brass via multiple fingering modes. I had honestly never seen one of these in operation people and I found it most interesting indeed. The choice tune of tonight’s set being the opener from 2017’s ‘Oh, Sealand’ album, namely ‘Land Of The Cuckoo’.
oddfellowscasino.bandcamp.com
oddfellowscasino.com
MEMORIALS ‘Main Psych Room’ 7:00pm
A little later than planned, Brighton based MEMORIALS took to the stage at 7:07pm for a 41 minute set, concluding at 7:48pm. This duo consists of Verity Susman (Electrelane’s frontwoman) and Matthew Simms (Wire, Better Corners, It Hugs Back, UUUU). This partly explains why post-punk outfit Wire’s frontman, Colin Newman, was in attendance with his wife Malka Spigel-Newman, plus together they are Immersion, who are rather psychedelic sounding in an electronic instrumental style in themselves.
The MEMORIALS duo were juggling instruments including left-handed Fender guitar, drums, live tape looping (like ‘Winston’ from early days OMD), Korg synth and another keys, a saxophone, and Verity taking care of vocals, which were often offered in pseudo wailing style. Interestingly, at one stage during a more experimental number, Matthew laid his guitar flat onto his drumkit and hit the strings with his drumsticks – that’s a first for me! During this performance their sound veered from melodic songwriting to psychedelic noise, free jazz freakouts, spacerock, tape loops and drones, and then back again. You weren’t really sure what sound was coming next.
Their rumbly atmospheric soundscapes drill into your psyche. Thus if Stereolab were an experimental duo this would be it. At times they had the feel of one of Factory records’ more obscure acts and at other times we were in Rip Rig + Panic sax territory. I much preferred their more structured songs of their set and the heights were achieved via the metronomic drumming and fast keys with sax atop on their final number. MEMORIALS will be playing live in Brighton on Saturday 20th May, where they will be headlining at The Prince Albert as part of their 9-date UK tour. Purchase your Brighton gig tickets HERE.
memorialsmusic.bandcamp.com
memorialsmusic.carrd.co
Karma Sheen/کارماشین ‘Main Psych Room’ 7:55pm
Ten minutes later than planned at 8:05pm, it was the turn of the Karma Sheen/کارماشین quintet to entertain the punters with their 34 minute set that concluded at 8:39pm. Karma Sheen are an International Hindustani Classical Psychedelic rock group that create an eclectic mix of 60’s/70’s psychedelia, running through Hindustani classical sounds and Sufi-inspired lyrics that complete a psychic fuzz-toned sound. Enticing the masses into psychedelic trips and deep bass-driven rhythmic beats, Karma Sheen’s energy, passion, and devotion are carried into their live shows.
The instruments being utilised this evening were a sitar (which interestingly was invented in medieval India and flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India), a theremin (which is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer and is named after its inventor, Leon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928), Jackson guitar, and another guitar, Rickenbacker bass, drums, single panpipe, harmonium and of course Sameer Khan wailing vocals.
This outfit is clearly influenced by the Beatles trip to India in February 1968 when they travelled to Rishikesh in the north of the country to take part in a Transcendental Meditation (TM) training. Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar would have approved of the Karma Sheen/کارماشین sound if he was still with us. Sameer even lit a joss stick to add to the vibe. The funky guitar work at one point reminded me of Average White Band’s ‘Pick Up The Pieces’. It was handclaps a plenty for their forthcoming single which is set to drop in a few days. The Innerstrings visuals were the very best during this set. The band was very well received, but they weren’t my bag to be honest.
karmasheen.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/karma_sheen
ACID KLAUS ‘Main Psych Room’ 8:55pm
Later than planned, it was the turn of Sheffield’s Adrian Flanagan (AKA Acid Klaus) who’s spent two decades working on the fringes of alternative music as a songwriter, wordsmith, musician, producer, remixer, DJ and cultural agitator. Adrian and his three chums were here to entertain the packed crowd. Adrian is quite an outspoken character and a long-time purvey of electro-pop and he’s fought his way to his current place in the music scene through a variety of gruesome dances with the grim reaper, including a smash on the motorway that left him concussed for six months, but that still didn’t stop him taking to the stage mere days after coming off life support. When things like that happen to you, afterwards you arguably see the world differently. It’s your second chance and so grab life whilst you can. Adrian certainly did and recorded his uniquely titled ‘Step on My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ eleven song album, (which dropped last November) with the assistance of fellow Yorkshiremen Yard Act, who financed it and put it out. So that’s what frontman James Smith’s begging the crowd for money antics were for!
The instruments on stage tonight are Yamaha Reface YC synth, and another keys, Arturia keys, Roland drum pads and drums, and vocals with backing vocals, but most importantly for me was that Adrian’s second mic was a vocoder….oh happy days, it’s sci-fi robots, Kraftwerk and early Giorgio Moroder all over again…wonderful! Atop Adrian’s keys was a bottle of ‘Afrika red wine’ to aid with the Northern bravado of taking the mickey out of southern softies, something which Stranglers (and Wingmen) frontman Baz Warne does so well.
Tonight’s performance had the lot and ticked all of my boxes! Their opening number was the best tune I had heard all day and every track bar a slower one was dance central in its own different sounding way. We had ‘Elevate’, the female vocals of which reminded me of Janet Planet from Confidence Man, there was a tune sung in Welsh by Kathryn with Adrian on vocoder. The third number might just as well be culled from Giorgio Moroder classic 1979 ‘E=MC²’ album. Another track reminded me of The Shamen’s latter hit ‘Destination Eschaton’, and another was ensconced in Lords Of Acid territory. There was a talky rap number which saw Adrian take centre stage over a booming beat. All throughout the performance I had the KLF mentality of “we are going to f*cking do what we want whether you like it or not!”. Acid Klaus produces the Acid/Techno/Electro/Industrial/Belgian New Beat/Rave music that no one makes anymore…but now they do…got it! Worth the entry fee alone and shame it ended at 9:35pm. It’s a shame that Acid Klaus only really looks to play festival gigs and currently have no concerts booked for the south as I would go and see them at the drop of a hat. Best performance of ‘Lewes Psych Fest’!.
acidklaus.bandcamp.com
linktr.ee/acidklaus
TVAM ‘Main Psych Room’ 10:00pm
Well where do you go from there? TVAM I guess, the act that I had most been looking forward to seeing at the festival, having been on board with their sound over the past 6 years having first encountered as a solo act at The Great Escape on 19th May 2017 at Patterns. TVAM is the project alias of Manchester-based musician/producer Joe Oxley, whose sound takes the listener on a spiritual journey through complex sonic capabilities and mechanical rhythms. TVAM’s sound is not afraid to be a sheer melting pot of creative endeavours, with nuances of neo-psychedelia, shoegaze, electronica, ambiance, Krautrock, and alternative rock gloriously spilling out over the brim.
Tonight’s 59 minute set began bang on time at 10pm and ran a minute shy of the 11pm curfew. The instruments on offer were Fender guitar, two Korg keys, Arturia Mini Brute 2 semi-modular analog synthesizer, a twiddly knobs Wasp analogue synth and a laptop. As usual, TVAM had brought along their own backing films which work in tandem with the trio of Joe and his mates Jason Hargreaves (keys) and Liam Stewart (drums). The vocals are shown across the backdrop behind the band so that we can understand what Joe is singing about. This is rather handy as the TVAM vocal style isn’t that clear as they are slowly delivered echoey reverb affairs.
The songs were culled from the ‘High Art Lite’ and ‘Psychic Data’ albums and prior to the start of the performance I was under the impression that my favourite song (again) was going to be ‘Porsche Majeure’, with its combination of screaming style Gary Numan synth sound plus forceful Fender guitar antics, and indeed it was a fantastic delivery, but it was nearly eclipsed by final number ‘Total Immersion’. This is an instrumental body absorbing number which is arguably the best ever tune that Neu! never wrote! The Krautrock metronomic drumming and beat akin to a mixture of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ and The Modern Lovers ‘Roadrunner’, certainly meant it was close eyes time for me in order to float away by the music! It was terrific and a fab way to end the ‘Lewes Psych Fest’ which had been another sold out success! Roll on 2024!
t-v-a-m.bandcamp.com
linktr.ee/_TVAM
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