FROG CHILD + THE ORGAN GRINDER’S MONKEY + FRUITY WATER + BATTERY OPERATED ORCHESTRA + COUR’EN – THE ROSSI BAR, BRIGHTON 31.5.24
It’s certainly time that we checked out the free live electronic party night going by the title of ‘Midnight Salad’ which has been held from time to time at The Rossi Bar (which is located in Queens Road, just down from The Hope & Ruin in Brighton) since October 2021. The organisers label it as “Midnight Salad – live electronic night, designed for dancing and watching” and indeed that’s what the plan was for this night. There are 5 local electronic acts on the bill this evening of varying styles, capabilities, and journeys down their musical careers, but what they all share is the love for electronic music and so have thus all turned up to play for free for this free event, so well done to them all for that! Of the handful of acts tonight, we have previously reviewed two of them and so a trio of acts are an unknown quantity for us which could possibly freshen things up….or not!
First up tonight are Cour’en who are a mature couple consisting of Lou on vocals and guitar, plus Geoff on synths and they refer to themselves as “Feminist EBM influenced noise dance”. Their set commences from 8:38pm and runs until 9:17pm. As they take to the stage, one wouldn’t necessarily work out that they are into electronic music based on their folk and Americana looks, but when they begin, it’s even more of a surprise as we are talking in the same ideology as the earliest Cabaret Voltaire recordings. This is seriously out there stuff! There’s the normal Casio keys and other electronics on the go which produce monotonous drumming sounds, but then you add continually echoey spoken word deliveries and occasional use of a child’s size mini guitar, which is not so much played but attacked via, firstly a pink toothbrush and then an actual screwdriver, no wonder one of the strings had gone! Lou said that they had been together 38 years (as a couple I presume and not as a musical duo) and comically belittled Geoff throughout the set. The crowd laughed at her quips, but to be honest I felt sorry for Geoff for having to put up with the unfounded barrage.
Next up were the wonderful Newhaven based synthpop duo Battery Operated Orchestra who I have been following for nine years now. BOO consists of Brigitte Rose on lead vocals and synth, plus hubby Chris Black on backing vocals and keys. We are in their company from 9:28pm until 9:59pm. Their equipment is rather stripped back from previous live encounters, possibly owing to the size of the Rossi Bar basement stage, but they have still brought along two keyboards for Chris to tinker with, (which incidentally sit atop two new fancy flashing self-build LED light boxes) and Brigitte has a keyboard on a strap to wear like a guitar. I have seen them many times down the years but never before have I seen the duo so animated and like cheeky schoolchildren hamming it up. It actually adds to the warmth of their set which is pleasing and a friend who turned up who hasn’t seen them before was mightily impressed! Brie is being animated and expressive with her words, facial expressions and hand actions and Chris is well into Thomas Dolby mad scientist mode! The fun even extended to a new minimix for the final tune, their 2021 ‘Service Economy’ which began with the following lines “Ground floor: perfumery; Stationery and leather goods; Wigs and haberdashery; Kitchenware and food; Going up. First floor: telephones; Gents’ ready-made suits; Shirts, socks, ties, hats; Underwear and shoes; Going up. Second floor: carpets; Travel goods and beddings; Materials and soft furnishing; Restaurant and teas; Going down.” As ever, it had been a fab set to dance to and we were well and truly served!
BOO were certainly going to be hard to beat, but it was now the turn of the equally capable Brighton based Fruity Water duo who refer to themselves as “Just a couple of lads making some dreamy electro-pop”. These lads being Adam Bell on guitar & vocals, plus Alan Odgers on keyboard/synth/beats & vocals. They are the organisers of the ‘Midnight Salad’ events and we are in their company from 10:18pm until 10:45pm. Like BOO, we have seen Fruity Water on a number of previous occasions and this evening they are in their realm. They are clearly very much into their electronic club night as well as their music. Initially on the first number Adam’s guitar was drowning out all of the synth sounds, but this was immediately rectified for the rest of the set. It was pleasing to hear the Herbie Hancock sounding vocoder work on tune two, and from there the tracks were delivered in a continual varying speed dance mix, which the punters boogied too. So you have the psych guitarwork vs the synth beats on the go, which sounds like a clash, but strangely they harmonize very well together. Thankfully they played a long version of ‘Bye Bye Me’ from their 2018 ‘Thirst Takes’ album, which was literally immense and I shut my eyes and danced away so much I almost made myself dizzy and fell over! Track of the night hands down and yet another terrific set, in which they comically start packing their stuff away whilst adding beats to ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’ by Snap!
After a 17 minute hiatus on the live music front, things were back again with the mysteriously named The Organ Grinder’s Monkey which is the brainchild of Brighton-based musician/producer Ben Garnett, and so we are in his company for 27 minutes, from 11:02pm until 11:29pm. Notably there wasn’t a microphone stand on stage now, and so we were to be given electronic instrumental numbers via a snazzy compact Jamstik Studio MIDI Guitar and possibly a Jamstik Creator for everything else, presets et al. This was our debut encounter with Ben, but I’m sure that he will agree that this evening’s performance didn’t exactly go to plan, with the opening number clearly glitching on the sound and the second number having to be stopped and started again as the live parts and electronics were embarrassingly out of sync. There were bleeps and electronic drum beats a plenty on this set. Clearly Ben is a fan of Aphex Twin and the like, but sadly failed to hold quite a number of the audiences attention and several punter conversations were stuck up the longer the set ran for. This had a feeling of a bedroom based project that quite possibly needed some more work on.
Rounding off the night was local artist Frog Child, who I’d never heard of before…or so I thought! It only turned out the new side project from Fruity Water’s Alan Odgers who had previously taken the solo project out for a trio of live performances and is set to drop his debut single ‘2late2’ on 14th June – keep your eyes peeled! This set commenced at 11;42pm and ran until 12:11am. The Frog Child image I would suggest is based on Lucha libre the free fight professional wrestling garb from Mexico. The music is upbeat and the use of Ableton Push controller presets being the backbeat of the equipment with added vocals in a megamix style. Initially sounding like New Order at their latter stage most dancey and funky, the shuffling beats swung nicely, before changing and encompassing other genres including electro akin to Kraftwerk’s ‘Computer Love’ (this being ‘2late2’) and then mixing into Ivor Cutler’s ‘Pellets’ “Oh pellets rolling ’round my feet, look at the girl with the broken nose laughing out the window” lyrics with added electronic beats atop, which was pure genius and speeded up at the end and there we were in Scooter style Happy Hardcore and Party Animals Gabber territory. Then before we knew it Frog Child was giving us a drum and bass version of Nirvana. The punters really danced throughout this set, myself included, and I for one would like to see where Frog Child goes from here!
And there you have it! A night of highs and lows, but all for the common of getting the local electronic music scene out there! I enjoyed sharing music (and life) banter with fans and other music artists who had come along to give their support! Well done to ‘Midnight Salad’ and roll on the next event!
www.facebook.com/MidnightSaladClub
