ATTICOMATIC + MILO KORBENSKI + DLD – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 29.3.23
After seeing Flip Top Head at The Hope & Ruin the previous Wednesday (You can read our report HERE), the following week some of their band members were back on stage at the Green Door Store in their other bands. Headliners AtticOmatic included Ollie and Marie, while Bertie swapped vocals for drums for the opening act, DLD. Completing the bill at the Green Door Store courtesy of local promoter ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ was Milo Korbenski.
AtticOmatic
Headliners AtticOmatic (stylised as Attic’O’Matic) are a Brighton based quintet comprising of Kam and Lorcan, who share vocal duties, Kai on drums, Marie on bass and Ollie on synth, guitar and percussion. By incorporating elements of R&B, hip-hop, jazz, electronica and indie-pop AtticOmatic create unique stunning dreamy danceable soundscapes.
Before coming on stage at the Green Door Store, the band had decorated the stage with plastic flowers. What looked like heather on the mic stands, red and white flowers across the front of the stage and ivy over the speakers. Less of the faux flora, onto the music.
AtticOmatic started their set with ‘59 Boo’ with its electronic dance sound. For the second song of the set, ‘John Doe’ there was the first of several instrument changes, with Lotrcan and Ollie swapping guitar and synth. This song had more of a laid-back dreamy soundscape bordering on shoegaze.
The quality of the soundscapes that AtticOmatic created were a key to their sound and the quality of their live performance. The band were very tight musically. The variation in the volume and tempo within songs was very subtle and not sharp, abrupt changes.
The third song, ‘Spiritual Imposter’, a single from last year, was a very sparse, but effective, arrangement. As well as its simplicity, the shared vocals between Kam and Lorcan worked particularly well on this song, as throughout the set. The vastly differing vocal style of the two main singers complemented each other perfectly. Kam had a beautiful angelic, ethereal voice, whereas Lorcan was an angrier and stark delivery.
There was a very space age futuristic sounding synth intro to their next song, ‘Men With Money’, as it blended into a dreamy, very moody sound with an understated dance beat.
One of the many highlights in AtticOmatic’s set was ‘Faithless’, a more complex up-tempo number. I’d describe it, and much of the set, as shoegaze dream pop jazz, you can dance to. ‘Faithless’ built to a wall of beautiful sound with Ollie’s chanting adding another layer to Kam’s and Lorcan’s vocals.
The whole of AtticOmatic’s performance was underpinned by the rhythm provided by Kai’s drums and Marie’s bass. On ‘Featherweight’ Marie’s quality basslines really came into their own.
As well as many unreleased gems, the crowd at the Green Door Store were treated to very new tracks with ‘Ounces’ being introduced as “a new song only written yesterday”. This song saw Kam playing the recorder. From a slow minimal start, ‘Ounces’ built up the volume into a dance track. By this stage of the song the mixed-up sound was almost as if each band member was playing separately, but it all held together coherently. The band brought the tempo and volume back down in the last few notes. Only a musically very tight band can do that so smoothly and seemingly effortlessly.
The band were clearly enjoying themselves as much as the audience were. Bassist Marie stepped forward from her place at the back of the stage to say something to the audience. Ollie joked in a friendly way, “That’s the first time I’ve heard Marie speak.”
The penultimate song of AtticOmatic’s set ‘Laminar Flow’ had a great dance drum beat and bassline. Lorcan’s spoken word delivery was echoed by Kam’s dreamlike singing. Yet again their different vocal styles harmonised well.
Before the final number in their set, AtticOmatic asked “Does anyone mind if we get a bit weird?”. That last song was their most recent release ‘Dun Dun’. The spaced-out intro grew into another impressive soundscape with some intricate guitar playing. Lorcan broke out into robotic dancing. His singing on this song switched between spoken word narrative and more conventional singing, while backed by Kam chanting. This song, like so many in AtticOmatic’s set, sat on the right side of that thin line between controlled and chaotic.
After a very short break, AtticOmatic returned to a very crowded stage with the members from the opening band DLD. The two bands played ‘Raggy Rumba’, with its very Latin dance beat. As ‘Raggy Rumba’ was about the only lyric, it was almost an instrumental. A fitting end to a quality and thoroughly entertaining performance.
The band got a great reception at the start of their set and an even better one at its close. Many in the audience were dancing along during AtticOmatic’s set. It was one of those performances that genuinely left the crowd buzzing.
AtticOmatic:
Kam – vocals, keyboards and recorder
Lorcan – vocals, guitar and synth
Kai – drums
Ollie – synth, percussion and guitar
Marie – bass
AtticOmatic setlist:
‘59 Boo’
‘John Doe’
‘Spiritual Imposter’ (a 2022 single release)
‘Men With Money’
‘These Hands’
‘Faithless’
‘Featherweight’
‘Ounces’
‘Laminar Flow’
‘Dun Dun’ (a 2023 single release)
(encore)
‘Raggy Rumba’ (with DLD)
DLD
Opening for AtticOmatic were DLD a local five-piece “Post spook knitwear rock” band. Now there’s a new genre to me. DLD are led by Billy on lead vocals. The rest of the band consists of fellow bassist Alyx, with Austin on guitar, Mile on keyboards and Bertie on drums.
DLD kicked off the evening’s entertainment with a good post-punk guitar number. Their second track had a very melancholy start. Billy’s spoken word delivery had a dark, angry, menacing feel as he stared out into the audience.
Billy’s singing had an angry edge to it and was often quite staccato and sharp. The rest of the band provided backing vocals. In particular, bassist Alyx provided a good contrast to Billy’s style. The voices across the band worked well together.
The next three songs demonstrated DLD’s different styles. The first was a rock song with a louder edge, and fast guitars, especially from Austin at the far side of the stage. By contrast, the next track had a simple arrangement centred around the guitar and keyboards. This was followed by more pop dance number pop, which after another dark menacing start was quite happy, closing with an instrumental frenzy.
Billy and the rest of the band were thrilled to be performing. This was obvious, even before Billy announced mid-set, “Hello Green Door Store. We’re DLD. In the big time now and very excited”. He thanked the audience for coming down early to see them and joked, “We only thought we’d be playing to a few people and Bertie’s girlfriend”.
For me the highlight of a very good set by DLD was the song with the working title ‘Spooky Central’. The intro to this song reminded me of ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’ by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue (without the orchestral backing). It grew to be an angry shouting rant.
After checking the time left in their set, Bertie on drums said 5 minutes was only enough time for one song. A pity as most of the audience were hoping for at least two more songs.
After the usual thanks to the other bands later on the bill, venue and promoter, Billy proclaimed “There’s so much hate around. If you’re here with somebody, have a cuddle. If you don’t know someone, do ask their permission first”. There was plenty of consensual cuddling during the last song of the set.
I’m still no nearer knowing what “Post spook knitwear rock” is. Given the variety in the set from the loud rock guitar to the moodier start to ‘Spooky Central’, it covers quite a variety of styles.
DLD didn’t have a set list as such, as most of their songs were working titles. If their material was a work in progress, the future is very promising for DLD. Either way I, along with the sizable crowd at the Green Door Store, enjoyed DLD’s lively and varied performance.
If you want to catch DLD live, they are back at the Green Door on 8th April for the free ‘The Last Supper Fest 2023’ and again on 24th April supporting ELLis*D, tickets available from HERE.
DLD take their name from the condition Developmental Learning Disorder, which covers dyslexia, autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They hope to help empower people with neuro diversity.
DLD:
Billy – lead vocals and bass
Austin – guitar and backing vocals
Alyx – bass and backing vocals
Miles – keyboard and backing vocals
Bertie – drums and backing vocals
Milo Korbenski
The middle act on the bill was Milo Korbenski, who is an enigmatic Brighton-based solo musician. His music is a haunted take on lo-fi indie. For his live performance Milo was joined onstage by four other musicians, a bassist, two other guitarists and a drummer.
The first thing to notice about Milo was his very striking look with a cowboy hat and facemask. The facemask wasn’t the type associated with the Lone Ranger; it covered his whole face with holes for his mouth and nose and eyes. More surgical than wild west.
There was a strong country influence to Milo Korbenski’s sound. On several songs he delivered a story telling narrative style. The second song in the set had a very sad feel, with the line “… each night I pray I don’t wake up…” which he explained as about a fella who falls in love with a witch. He explained the next song was on a similar theme, but from the other point of view.
The audience took their time returning for Milo Korbenski’s set. By a few songs in, the crowd had grown and many were enthusiastically dancing along to the music.
Milo explained that it was his first time playing live this year, and with a whole new band too. It didn’t show.
‘Virginia Slaughter’ had a big guitar sound which developed into a very fast guitar section later in the song. The solid quality drumming set the fast tempo to be matched by the other musicians. The following song had a more melodic guitar sound.
When Milo announced that the next song was to be the last, there were a few groans in the audience, who wanted a longer set. That last song ‘Angelina’ was very country music, and was probably the loudest song of the set.
The crowd enjoyed Milo Korbenski’s performance based on the very good reception they gave.
Milo Korbenski’s band members:
Milo Korbenski – guitar/lead vocal
Rhys Bury – drums/vocals
Leo Nathan – guitar/vocals
Harry Dean – guitar
Lars Larson – bass
