SPANG SISTERS + HUTCH + LUCY FELIZ – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 28.1.22
Triptych is an annual series of three music events and three EP record releases brought to you by Brighton’s finger on the pulse label and promoters ‘Love Thy Neighbour’.
This year is ‘Triptych V’ and after a 2021 sabbatical due to covid, the promoter, venue and bands taking part this time around are all raring to go! These events are all held at The Hope & Ruin which is located on Queens Road in Brighton and the selected 2022 dates were eventually finalised as Thursday 27th, Friday 28th and Saturday 29th January.
Over the past four Triptych’s, Love Thy Neighbour have carefully selected a trio of their favourite artists and bands who all performed showcase sets on the night in question to eager Brighton music lovers who gathered on the first floor of the venue. The artists have always greatly varied in style, but have one thing in common, namely, they are all on the way up!
To accompany the event, each night has carried a vinyl record release featuring a chosen number from each of the acts performing on that evening. These vinyl releases have immediately become seriously collectible as they have been limited to a mere 15 copies available for purchase each night! Yes, that’s correct, just 15. So across the three nights there are only a total of 45 pieces of yummy vinyl, so collectors take note! Triptych 2022 is no exception and this year’s are all three track 7” clear vinyl offerings.
The nine acts included are:
Night 1: Thursday 27th January – Lambrini Girls | Sit Down | Wife Swap USA
Night 2: Friday 28th January – Spang Sisters | Hutch | Lucy Feliz
Night 3: Saturday 29th January – Public Body | Porchlight | Toast
So this evening it’s the turn of Spang Sisters, Hutch and Lucy Feliz.
First up this evening from 8:35pm was the rather wonderful Lucy Feliz who I had previously been checking out on her Bandcamp page, by listening to her beautifully crafted ‘Last Of The Sun’ ten tune album out on Scotland’s OK Pal Records which saw the light of day in August 2020.
With tracks featured on BBC Music Introducing Mixes and 6 Music, the immersive collection of songs was recorded in New Zealand’s Sitting Room with award-winning producer Ben Edwards (Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin, Nadia Reid, Aldous Harding). Saturated with a dream-like quality, it allows the listener to lose themselves in the ethereal realm, with psychedelic guitars and ghostly ivories. We see the attention shift away from the realism of personal histories to a more fluid terrain. For Feliz, ‘Last Of The Sun’ is a mystic affair that conjures skipping school on the first warm day of summer to practice astral projection in a teenage bedroom, determined to transcend the day-to-day by any means necessary.
According to her Bandcamp page, Lucy’s work is described as thus: “Expressed in a hybrid of celestial folk, psych fuzz and Lynchian nostalgia, Lucy explores themes of shame and mortality, by harnessing the cyclical nature of human experience, guided by the path of the sun”. So in a nutshell it’s wonderfully dreamy and if you are a fan of Slowdive, Jerry Burns track ‘Pale Red’ or a fan of Norwegian songstress Emilie Nicolas, then Lucy Feliz is a must for you!
I must confess that Lucy’s 29 minute set (which ended at 9:04pm) wasn’t long enough for me! We were served a handful of tunes from the ‘Last Of The Sun’ album as well as the song found on the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ 7” single release, namely ‘Forget Me Nots’. The venue was filling up very nicely during the set and Lucy and her chums (Emily on Korg keys, Chris on Fender Jaguar guitar, Jacob on unusual 5-string Mayons bass and Mr Jack on drums) must have been very pleased indeed for the large early attendance.
Lucy’s melodic sounds benefit from her angelic voice and she can certainly play her Fender Telecaster guitar rather well, as can Chris on his ‘Jaguar’, which at times he made sound just like Richard Hawley material. It was thoroughly enjoyable for me and I intend to see her playing live again. Talking of which…………..
You will be able to check out Lucy with her full band next performing live in Brighton on 3rd March, when they will be headlining The Prince Albert. Grab your tickets HERE and HERE.
Lucy Feliz setlist:
‘Cowgirl’
‘Magic Hour’
‘Forget Me Nots’
‘Mars’
‘Last Laugh’
‘Paradise’
Check Lucy out on Bandcamp.
After a 20 minute respite in the live music, things got going again at 9:24pm with the arrival of Brighton based soft-psychers Hutch or as they refer to themselves as self proclaimed “Twang pop post-yacht-rock soft psych”. They formed at the beginning of lockdown in the Sackville Road area of town as three housemates (Jack, Dan and Charlie) and now reside in the Brunswick area. Live sessions filmed during lockdown outline their harmony heavy approach, but playing live has cemented Hutch’s much more experimental and psychedelic live sound. They draw influence from bands such as Kikagaku Moyo and Babe Rainbow.
A trio of things immediately became apparent on their arrival. One – the lighting was noticeably much brighter and thus easier for the four lady photographers camped at the front of the crowd to obtain arguably better shots. Two – Hutch’s lead vocalist, Jack Pritchard, was noticeably absent. You can’t really fail to notice this as he’s quite a tall lad with flowing locks and a giant smile. And three – there was the addition of a female harpist stage left (our right). So what was going on?
Possibly previous act Lucy Feliz had requested moody lighting during her set with her chums or Hutch wanted to brighten up the stage. We learned that Jack was unwell. Don’t worry Hutch fans, it’s not covid just tonsillitis. The new harpist was Eva Lunny who is the younger sister of Phoebe Lunny who rocked the joint last night at The Hope & Ruin with her band Lambrini Girls as well as Wife Swap USA. You can read all about last night’s shenanigans HERE.
In a short space of time Hutch have managed to get a vast amount of live experience under their belt. They have played with bands such as Oracle Sisters, Do Nothing, Folly Group and the Goa Express. The year ahead promises to be an exciting time for Hutch.
This evening they performed half a dozen tunes along with a harp intro from Eva to start with. Dan strummed away with his Fender guitar, whilst Charlie slapped the bass and Owen teased the drums. They felt different this evening from previous encounters. Not surprising really when your frontman is unwell, but it was a valiant effort by the rest of the band.
The first full band track was ‘The Bow’ and clearly someone has been listening to The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’! Mid set they charmed the packed crowd by flagging up the existence of a store located at 69 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4EB, namely ‘The Radiator Centre’. Who’d have thought it eh, a local shop getting its own homage. They followed this with their contribution to the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ 7” single release for this evening, in the form of ‘Charge Me Up’. This always reminds me of The Foundations ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’.
‘Mechanical Bull’ and ‘SANDWORMS’ concluded their short and sweet set. They were my colleagues’ choice act of the evening and quite possibly with many others who were attending tonight.
Hutch this evening were:
Dan Shepherd – Lead Guitar BV’s
Eva Lunny – Harp
Owen Bullock – Drums and BV’s
Charlie Bogg – Lead Vocals and Bass
Hutch setlist:
‘Harp Intro’
‘The Bow’
‘Potted Plants’
‘Radiator Centre’
‘Charge Me Up’
‘Mechanical Bull’
‘SANDWORMS’
Find them on Instagram.
The clock had moved on and at 10:19pm it was time for the punters to experience a 47 minute set from the Spang Sisters, who clearly aren’t sisters at all.
Their official blurb reads as thus:
“The Spang began life some 250 million years ago as a shapeless gaseous entity, consisting for the most part of vapour mass. Over time however, it expanded into the minds of two young men (Jules Gibbons and Rachid Fakhre) and convinced them to go out and buy some guitars and chorus pedals. What you now see is the jangly, sun drenched end point of millennia’s worth of evolution. They deliver intricate ballads of loneliness and joy. Expect a melange of folk-rock and r&b flecked bedroom pop”. Right then, got that? OK I will move on…….
This evening Jules Gibbons and Rachid Fakhre had brought along some chums to bolster their numbers and thus the format for the first tune only as just a trio as they performed ‘Caves Of Altamira’ from the ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ 7” single release. For me – and quite probably just myself and my colleague – I found this a worryingly dreary start. Would things get better when the remaining three members took to the stage?
Thus we now had Casio keys, a flute, a trombone, guitar and vocals with no shoes and odd socks, drums and bass. We were informed that we were going to be getting laid back jazz. I noted that there was quite a considerable amount of talking from the crowd during this set, despite the request on the poster located on the entrance down downstairs, specifically requesting folks from doing this. Maybe they were excited to witness the Spang Sisters or maybe they were bored? I noted that my new photographer friend Helena was seriously loving it, unlike myself. It certainly wasn’t my bag, but I did stay for the full duration of the set, unlike my colleague who was tempted away by the bangin’ choonz emanating up through the floorboards from the ground floor courtesy of Chris Childs of Brighton band H_ngm_n and friend on the decks.
Skylounge Mazak isn’t my thing whatsoever, but I think they too had written a song in reference to a Brighton shop in the form of ‘Mac Donor’ (116 St James’s Street, Kemptown, Brighton, BN2 1TH) which they said was RIP. I think there was a tune called ‘Totally Feelings’ too, as well as ‘The Ballad Of Joyce Vincent’, which they said was actually a sad song, but sounds happy. This as well as a tune they played titled ‘Jenny’, can be located on their self-titled 2021 album.
Their set finished at 11:06pm and I cheered myself up by having some banter with Jack and Lily from Penelope Isles who were present this evening. In fact, they are often seen out and about taking in the delights of the varied Brighton music scene – well done them!
Check out Spang Sisters on Bandcamp.
Read our report of ‘Triptych V’ Day One HERE.
Read our report on ‘Triptych V’ Day Three HERE.
