DEATH AND VANILLA + THE DAYLIGHT – THE ROSE HILL TAVERN, BRIGHTON 18.4.23
Local concert promoters Melting Vinyl have organised tonight’s event which is full of swirling synthesizer sounds courtesy of Swedish cult atmospheric trio Death And Vanilla who formed in Malmö. The Rose Hill is the selected venue this time around. It is Brighton’s totally independent artist-led arts hub, venue, label and studio complex, and is located at 70-71 Rose Hill Terrace, which is nestled between London Road and Ditchling Road.
In 2017 Melting Vinyl brought over the trio of Marleen Nilsson, Anders Hansson and Magnus Bodin to appear at the wonderful Rialto Theatre in Brighton to perform (Read that review HERE.)
That Rialto concert had psychedelic liquid and live feed projections courtesy of Lewes based Innerstrings and they co-host the Lewes Psychedelic Festival and it was back in 2019 that Death And Vanilla made a return to Sussex by performing an enthralling set inside the hidden gem of Westgate Chapel in Lewes as part of the festival – Read our account of that HERE.
Finally after the enforced lockdowns, Death And Vanilla are now back in Brighton with us tonight. The trio revel in the warmth of older analogue instruments to create a more organic sound, each loose wire and off-kilter noise adding to the rich atmosphere. They create organic sounding electronic pop music in order to emulate the sounds of 60’s/70’s soundtracks, library music, German Krautrock, French Ye-ye pop and 60s psych.
This evening their equipment of choice is a Yamaha Reface CP Compact Electric Piano, plus a Yamaha Reface YC Synthesizer, which were both played by vocalist Marleen Nilsson; Anders Hansson was on red Fender guitar and SP-404 Sampling Workstation; and completing the trio is Magnus Bodin who takes care of a M4000D Mini Digital Mellotron, as well as the gorgeous sounding and looking Moog Grandmother semi-modular synth which gave out my favourite sounds of the night!
Death And Vanilla are here in Brighton because they released their new album titled ‘Flicker’ on 17th February. It is housed in a beautifully austere post-ironic de-constructed sleeve and is a modern reflection on these difficult times. They returned reborn, re-arranged and revitalised after assimilating dub reggae, the motorik spirals of Can, the modal meander of Philip Glass and The Cure’s dreamier pop sounds; plus the twice removed symphonic ambience of Spiritualized and Talking Heads under heavy manners from Brian Eno. By osmosis their period of transition since 2019’s much darker ‘Are You A Dreamer?’ has hatched new eclectic electronica anthems riddled with melody lines, and layered for lush love. ‘Flicker’ is available as a limited edition yellow vinyl option – details HERE.
If you are a fan of Saint Etienne, Stereolab, Broadcast and even Spaghetti Western film music, then it’s reasonable to steer you in the direction of Death And Vanilla for your enjoyment.
They began their 13 song set at 9:03pm with a simple “hello” from Marleen and entertained us for the next 73 minutes until the conclusion at 10:16pm. Due to the location of the venue, we knew that we wouldn’t be going home with our ears ringing, so every number was quiet and sedate as we the respectful crowd and they lapped up every note. The Innerstrings graphics enhanced the overall concert going experience.
They began with the first of eight numbers from the ‘Flicker’ album, that being ‘Baby Snakes’, which was akin to a dub style Saint Etienne synth tune. It was a good start! The swinging ‘Out For Magic’ (from the same album) swiftly followed. ‘Perpetuum Mobile’ was their third choice, an even more hip swinging number that gave off the air of an event like someone opening a mountain cabin door and the notes intriguingly drifted across the other side of the fjord towards us, it was very well revived.
Song four was ‘Mercury Rising’, which incidentally was still listed under its original working title of ‘Mop’ on their setlist. This began with birdsong before swiftly morphing into the likes of a combination of a later obscure Beatles number meets Saint Etienne (especially like Sarah Cracknell’s vocals) and Echobelly.
It was the turn of ‘Transparent Things’ next, that being the fifth in a row from the latest platter. This had a decent backbeat with echoey guitar atop and the keys in this one reminded me of the distant backing keys heard in ‘Right Here, Right Now’ by Fatboy Slim. After this tune, Marleen informed us that the next tune is 10 years old, it was ‘Rituals’ (from 2012’s self-titled ‘Death And Vanilla’ album) and as that kicked in we were thrust into serious Stereolab territory. It was fabulous and one of two of my choice tracks of the night!
They returned to ‘Flicker’ with a trio of songs consisting of ‘Find Another Illusion’, ‘Looking Glass’ and ‘Fearless’. ‘Find Another Illusion’ called on the expert guitar playing from Anders and there was a big cheer after this song had finished. ‘Looking Glass’ began with a haunting mood akin to Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’, I was waiting for a glockenspiel sound to arrive, but it didn’t on this number, but suddenly we were ensconced in New Order territory, especially their song ‘Elegia’ from 1985’s ‘Low-life’ album. Then ‘Looking Glass’ changed and we were back in Saint Etienne territory. ‘Fearless’ however began with an electronic sounding “Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather” ‘Venus In Furs’ (Velvet Underground) intro, which morphed into Kraftwerk ‘Man Machine’ and ‘Trans Europe Express’ territory courtesy of Magnus Bodin’s Moog and Mellotron action. My equal best song of the night!
2019’s ‘A Flaw In The Iris’ (from ‘Are You A Dreamer?’) was played for us next, the programmed drum beat reminded me of ‘This Is Not America’ by Pat Metheny & David Bowie. Marleen then informed us that “We’re gonna go out loud with the right song”, (that being ‘Necessary Distortions’) when they say loud, this equates to me in my house when the family are out and thus I can crank up the hi-fi system a few notches! The punters absorbed this vibe and I guarantee everyone was enjoying themselves at this moment in time. Marleen got out her two shakers and rattled away as Anders showed us exactly what he could do with his guitar, the crowd psyched out! It was a great way to end….
But no! There were to be two more songs for us! The first of which, like its predecessor was culled from the ‘To Where The Wild Things Are’ album, this being the melodic ‘The Optic Nerve’ with what sounded like a xylophone on the pre-sets and then the glockenspiel sound kicked in with the western Cowboy movie guitar and we were whisked away on to the open plains with Clint Eastwood on his horse.
The second encore track ‘Reality From Dream’ (from 2015 ‘California Owls’ EP) was a soft one and Marleen informed us that “it’s been a very long time since we have played this song”. It commenced with repetitive choral backing as sounded on a crackly old record and then Marleen’s vocals came in. They were surprisingly sung in German.
It was evident that Marleen and the boys were surprisingly taken aback with so much adulation after they had finished, let’s hope that they make a welcome return next year!
Check out Death And Vanilla music by visiting their Bandcamp page HERE.
Death And Vanilla:
Marleen Nilsson – vocals, keys, shakers
Anders Hansson – guitar, sampler
Magnus Bodin – Moog, Mellotron
Death And Vanilla setlist:
‘Baby Snakes’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Out For Magic’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Perpetuum Mobile’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Mercury Rising’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Transparent Things’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Rituals’ (from 2012 ‘Death And Vanilla’ album)
‘Find Another Illusion’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Looking Glass’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘Fearless’ (from 2023 ‘Flicker’ album)
‘A Flaw In The Iris’ (from 2019 ‘Are You A Dreamer?’ album)
‘Necessary Distortions’ (from 2015 ‘To Where The Wild Things Are’ album)
(encore)
‘The Optic Nerve’ (from 2015 ‘To Where The Wild Things Are’ album)
‘Reality From Dream’ (from 2015 ‘California Owls’ EP)
Support this evening came from The Daylight who are a genre-hopping indie act who originally hail from Hereford, but are now based in Brighton and London. They pride themselves on their unique poetic take on the everyday trials and tribulations, merging it with the familiar sounds of 90’s/00’s guitar music whilst retaining their own.
Although technically listed on some of their media a a duo, in fact this evening they are a quartet who are made up of frontman Jacob on lead vocals and Fender guitar, Alex on drums, Scott on Fender bass as well as backing vocals and completing the quartet is Charlotte on Yamaha Reface CP keys and Roland drum pads and also backing vocals.
Their 31 minute set ran from 8:03pm until 8:34pm and consisted of eight numbers, which began with ‘Department Of Dreams’, followed by their 2021 single ‘The Echo’ and then 2020 single ‘Ghosts’ which we are told was about friendships.
Their echoey guitar work had a true 90’s indie vibe as well as the essence of much work from The Cure. I thought to myself after choice track ‘Ghosts’, with its assimilation of everything Cure and Lloyd Cole had finished, that “here is an outfit that should really be playing at this year’s Great Escape new music festival in Brighton next month”.
‘Five Years’ followed. It’s not the David Bowie song but is a quiet reflective number that grew and grew the longer The Daylight played it as it morphed into ‘The Weather’. It was the turn of their 2022 next, that being ‘Hidden Love’, during which Babybird’s ‘You’re Gorgeous’ jumped into my head during the vocals, although musically the tune doesn’t sound anything like it at all.
Their penultimate number was a catchy ditty listed as ‘WYDA’ on the setlist, but as the chorus ran “what you doing, you doing, you doing alone”, I suspect that it’s safe to say that this is truly called ‘What You Doing Alone’. They bowed out with a song about whales or as Jacob said “that’s whales the animal, not Wales the country”. He then introduced it as ‘Orca’, it has a marching band style drum pattern courtesy of Alex and Jacob’s vocals were well into Robert Smith territory again.
It had been a fairly decent set from an outfit who we last covered when they supported Swim School back in February – Read that review HERE.
The Daylight:
Jacob Chandler – Guitar / vocals
Scott Johnson – Bass / backing vox
Charlotte Haywood – Keys / backing vox
Alex Probert-Jones – Drums
The Daylight setlist:
‘Department Of Dreams’
‘The Echo’ (a 2021 single)
‘Ghosts’ (a 2020 single)
‘Five Years’
‘The Weather’
‘Hidden Love’ (a 2022 single)
‘What You Doing Alone’
‘Orca’
