BIBI CLUB + WINTER GARDENS + MOON IDLE – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 6.11.24
Right from the very start I must congratulate the Montreal-based duo Bibi Club for their tremendous effort of not only coming across from Canada to play a trio of headline gigs in the UK, but also the fact that last night they played Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh and then drove all the way down to Brighton’s Hope & Ruin in order to perform for us! Tomorrow they hit the Shacklewell Arms in London for their final night.
Bibi Club comprises of couple Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque and for their debut album,‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ they won the “Great Hope for 2023” award at the GAMIQ and were nominated in the “Revelation of the Year” category at the Gala de l’ADISQ. The album made it on the prestigious Polaris Music Prize 2023 Longlist, it was included among the best Quebec albums of 2022 according to Le Devoir, and it was raved about by CBC Music, Exclaim!, Cult Magazine and more.
On the international front, following praise from Les Inrocks, Tsugi, La Blogothèque, and Magic Magazine, some of their songs were added to the official playlist of France Inter, and the duo was deemed a “discovery” by the magazine Libération: “Minimalist but very well written, this is intimate music in which instruments, noise and (bilingual) vocals are interwoven smoothly, as it dabbles in the world of childhood dreams and games.” The song ‘Parasite’ made its way to BBC 6Music, and both KCRW and The Line of Best Fit found the duo to be among the best Canadian indie artists.
Last year the duo came to Brighton as part of The Great Escape new music festival and played a few times around town. You can see two of our reviews of their 12th May 2023 sets at the foot of this article!
This May they dropped their second long-player ‘Feu De Garde’ and are out on tour in order to promote it. Tonight at The Hope & Ruin, the duo gave us a dozen songs which lasted 63 minutes, from 9:45pm until 10:48pm. Adèle was stationed to the left of us and Nicolas aka Nico to the right. Adèle was taking care of the lead vocals which are in both English and French, Sequential Prophet-6 keys, cymbals and chimes as well as a shaker and Nico was thrashing around on his Guild Guitar (with tremolo) with it’s numerous foot pedals which defines their sound, as well as backing drum machine and presets, he occasionally turns up on backing vocals as well.
They commence with the first of a handful tracks in the set that are to be found on their new album, this opener being ‘Parc De Beauvoir’ which is a drum machine and guitar led retro sounding tune. It’s a promising start and they head into the first of two songs from 2022’s ‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ album, this being ‘Le Matin’, which this evening’s song is even meatier than on their record with its deepest bass notes thus far of the night. It’s a decent head-bobbing selection and is swiftly followed by the much faster beats of ‘L’île Aux Bleuets’ which is sung in French and I like this composition even more. I would suggest it’s akin to the speeded up vocals of French singer-songwriter Françoise Hardy. After this, there’s another cut from the new LP, this being the shoulder-shaking bum-wiggling Blur-sounding ‘Le Feu’, which is a truly solid number with some excellent guitar and Adèle’s vocals remind me of Halo Maud, who we recently reviewed. This is my new fave of their set thus far, it gives off a happy vibe.
Next up is their version of ‘J’ arrive à La Ville’, which was originally penned by American-Canadian singer-songwriter Lhasa De Sela who sadly passed away from breast cancer in Montreal in 2010 at the tender age of only 37. Tonight’s version is a faster affair than the original and in keeping with the Bibi Club sound. The duo then go off piste with a couple of unreleased songs, these being ‘Washing Machine’ followed by ‘Les Vagues’. During these two tunes, I hear nods to Ultravox! ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’, the sounds of The Pink Diamond Revue, The Cure and even Soft Cell’s ‘Sex Dwarf’.
It’s surprise time next as we are given their take on ‘Orgiastic’ which appears on ‘Peng!’ the debut studio album by English-French band Stereolab, which was originally released on 26th May 1992 in the UK and issued in the USA on 13th June 1995. Not surprisingly, tonight’s version too has the long drum machine intro, and Adèle utilises a shaker, before the booming psych backbeat properly kicks in and Nico’s off into the crowd and builds up a decent sweat as he puts his guitar through its paces.
Newbie ‘Shloshlo’ is up next and this has a booming dance beat backing and then Nico’s meaty guitar kicks in and is followed by Adèle’s sweet sounding vocals as she decides to get up close and stands on the floor speakers directly in front of me. Having got a tad enthusiastic during ‘Shloshlo’, there was a small intermission whilst Nico changed a guitar string. Once rectified, they performed their shortestest and most mellow, reflective, nostalgic metronomic number of the night, this was ‘Ce Qui Va Disparaître’ from ‘Feu De Garde’.
Their penultimate selection this evening is their second selection from their ‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ album, with the delivery of ‘Femme-Lady’ for which Adèle continually strikes the cymbal whilst delivering the French vocals. Myself and one of my colleagues pick up on the similarity to this and the work of Stereolab. The final song of the night is ‘Jean René’ which was originally recorded back in 2019 and came out on their ‘Bibi Club’ EP. It was then re-recorded for the deluxe edition of their ‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ long player. The backing beat immediately reminds me of Suicide’s epic ‘Ghost Rider’ and Nico strummed his guitar to this. Then halfway through Adèle suddenly delivers a “whoo” and the beat immediately seriously kicks in and Nico’s guitar suddenly sounds like New Order. They had saved the best to last and I loved it! It has been another enjoyable encounter and I hope they hop across the pond very soon!
Bibi Club:
Adèle Trottier-Rivard – lead vocals, synth, percussion
Nicolas Basque – guitar, vocals, presets
Bibi Club setlist:
‘Parc De Beauvoir’ (from 2024 ‘Feu De Garde’ album)
‘Le Matin’ (from 2022 ‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ album)
‘L’île Aux Bleuets’ (from 2024 ‘Feu De Garde’ album)
‘Le Feu’ (from 2024 ‘Feu De Garde’ album)
‘J’ arrive à La Ville’ (Lhasa De Sela cover)
‘Washing Machine’ (unreleased)
‘Les Vagues’ (unreleased)
‘Orgiastic’ (Stereolab cover)
‘Shloshlo’ (from 2024 ‘Feu De Garde’ album)
‘Ce Qui Va Disparaître’ (from 2024 ‘Feu De Garde’ album)
‘Femme-Lady’ (from 2022 ‘Le Soleil Et La Mer’ album)
‘Jean René’ (from 2019 ‘Bibi Club’ EP)
Kicking off proceedings this evening are Brighton alt-rock dream poppers Moon Idle who these days have expanded into a quintet. The band consists of Quilla Robinson (vocals, Nord Electro 6D keyboard and Squier guitar), Jasper Fergus (Fender guitar), Martin Eddington (Fender bass), Felix Burton (drums) and Elik Eddy (Squier guitar, keys, tambourine, shakers).
They take to the stage at 8:02pm and we are in their company for the next 32 minutes and during that time they play us a half-dozen self-penned tunes, commencing with ‘Godzilla’ which features dreamy vocals, constant drums, as well as some serious EBow action from Jasper on his guitar. Many of you would have seen an EBow used by guitarists before, where instead of playing the instrument with a plastic pick, they have a small block which emanates a blue light and this amplifies the string vibrations by using magnetic fields and thus providing a controllable feedback effect which gives the player a very smooth and sustained sound.
Selection two is titled ‘Seed’ and this has a more jazzy vibe, especially from the bass guitar which at this point is sounding higher than we are normally accustomed to. There are more dreamy vocals here as well. Next up is another slowie called ‘All The Same’ which benefits from good interplay between guitarist Jasper (who adjusts the foot pedals), Felix with his constant drums and Quilla’s keys and vocals atop. Interestingly Elik shuffles across to Quilla’s side and for some parts they both play the Nord to great effect. The melodic and louder ‘Gone’ comes next, which features a shuffly guitar beat and sweet vocals. Overall it’s a tight number with many layers.
The final two songs are ‘The Avenue’, which is found on their ‘Kindly’ EP which dropped last year, followed by ‘Girl In Blue’. The drums on ‘The Avenue’ initially sound like that novelty hit ‘Toast’ from 1978, but getting past that, the guitar is wonderfully clear and the sounds remind me of Strawberry Switchblade meets Everything But The Girl. ‘The Avenue’ is worthy of inclusion on any EP. ‘Girl In Blue’ is another tune with lots going on. It’s been a pleasant opening set and at 8:34pm that’s our lot.
Moon Idle:
Quilla Robinson – vocals, keyboard, guitar
Jasper Fergus – guitar
Martin Eddington – bass
Felix Burton – drums
Elik Eddy – guitar, tambourine, shakers, keys
Moon Idle setlist:
‘Godzilla’
‘Seed’
‘All The Same’
‘Gone’
‘The Avenue’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Girl In Blue’
Our debut encounter with East Sussex’s Winter Gardens was back in November 2018 when they were performing only their third ever gig. That night they were here at The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road as support to South Korean outfit Say Sue Me. It was evident that night that the band had absorbed influences from 80’s post-punk, Factory, Postcard, 4AD, Creation era bands, and mixed it all together to come up with their own blend of shoegaze dreampop. Winter Gardens then went on to share the billing with top acts including Gary Numan, Echo & The Bunnymen, and Modern English. Within months of forming they put out their debut 7” single titled ‘Coral Bells’ with the noteworthy B-side featuring their take on the Cocteau Twins ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’. A single launch party was organised and this included none other than Dev from IDLES playing a DJ set as part of the night. 2020 witnessed the band drop their marble magenta coloured 12” ‘Tapestry’ EP and ‘Laminar Flow Pt. II’ followed as a single in 2021 and their ‘Crystallise’ materialised the following year, and now they have dropped their unusual titled latest single ‘U/U’.
Since their inception 6 years ago, the band have undergone several personnel changes, but the mainstay has always been the couple of Ananda Howard on lead vocals and tambourine as well as Jamie Windless on guitars. These days the lineup is cemented by Jasmine Ardley (vocals, Korg synth, eggshaker), Connor McCorkindale (drums, drumpads, laptop, presets) and Ed Fair (bass).
This evening the quintet awarded us seven tracks which ran from 8:55pm until 9:26pm, commencing with a trio of unreleased songs: ‘Honeymooners’, ‘Anthroposcene’ and ‘Search Party’. They were starting as they meant to go on, as ‘Honeymooners’ was immense and had many layers of sound, which were driven by the drums. They segued straight into ‘Anthroposcene’ with its decent echoey guitar sound with lovely vocals on top. It’s here that my notes read “Blimey! Someone’s been practising!”. This was a fantastic delivery, as was ‘Search Party’ with its twin vocal deliveries from Ananda and Jasmine along with its Sisters Of Mercy sounding guitar. This track explodes near its ending and it’s right here that I honestly feel after all these years that Winter Gardens are now fully formed and ready to take on the world! My notes here stated “Fame beckons!”.
It’s now time for their latest ‘U/U’ single with its spoken word intro and droning synth sounds atop, prior to the drums kicking in. Tonight’s sound on this track is immense and I’m looking around at my three colleagues and we are all thinking the same! Song five is ‘Wonders Bleak’ which is from their ‘Tapestry’ EP. This has a spoken voice sample intro, followed by some goth vibes that Sisters Of Mercy and The Cure would be very proud of. My notes here read “All I can say…immense!”. There’s another spoken word intro on the unreleased ‘Hyacinth’ which says “Is it so hard to kiss me” in a voice similar to Malcolm McLaren’s. There’s more echoey guitar sounds here which interplay perfectly with Ed’s bass and Connor’s drums. Winter Gardens leave us with their 2021 ‘Laminar Flow Part II’ single, which, to me, starts like ‘Don’t You Want My Love’ by Felix, before morphing into a bass drum and keys led head bobber. It’s yet another immense delivery! The joint vocals on this worked really well and I have to say that this is by far the best set they have played that I have witnessed. I’m not alone here as my DJ acquaintance immediately offered them a BBC Introducing session on the back of tonight’s set!
Winter Gardens:
Ananda Howard – lead vocals, tambourine
Jamie Windless – guitars
Jasmine Ardley – vocals, synth, eggshaker
Connor McCorkindale – drums, drumpads, laptop, presets
Ed Fair – bass
Winter Gardens setlist:
‘Honeymooners’ (unreleased)
‘Anthroposcene’ (unreleased)
‘Search Party’ (unreleased)
‘U/U’ (a 2024 single)
‘Wonders Bleak’ (from 2020 ‘Tapestry’ EP)
‘Hyacinth’ (unreleased)
‘Laminar Flow Part II’ (a 2021 single)
