‘TRIPTYCH’ – HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 18-19-20.1.19
Some of the Brighton & Hove News music team have been camped in Queens Road, Brighton at the Hope & Ruin for the past three nights in order to report on this years annual ‘Triptych’ concerts.
The Triptych being a series of three music events and three 8” lathe-cut vinyl EP releases brought to you by Brighton’s ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ label and promoters. Yes, that’s correct eight inch records and not 7”. These vinyl releases were seriously limited with a mere 20 copies available for purchase each night! Yes, that’s correct just 20. So across the three nights there were only a total of 60 pieces of yummy vinyl, so collectors take note!
The events ran on Friday 18th, Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th January and featured a trio of ‘Love Thy Neighbours’ favourite bands performing music sets per evening.
The nine artists who participated were:
Friday Triptych: Heirloom, GURU, SKiNNY MiLK
Saturday Triptych: Hollow Hand, RADIDAS, Winter Gardens
Sunday Triptych: Bloom, Emma Gatrill, A Lily 
Friday Triptych: 18th January 2019
The opening night was not surprisingly packed, with the relatively youngish crowd getting ready to rock. First up were SKiNNY MiLK who are Johnny Hart (vocals/bass) and Tim Cox (stix). The guys formed in Brighton in 2016 as a psychedelic garage punk duo. From their inception, they have toured relentlessly and at the same time they have been releasing multiple EPs and singles in between their hectic tour schedule. SKiNNY MiLK are showing no signs of slowing down. – just like their music!
They were a great choice of opening act and when they took to the stage they both immediately took their tops off to reveal a whole host of tattoos as if to indicate to the crowd that this was their uniform for the night and that they meant real business! From the very off the tunes were hard and fast and it’s quite incredible that this barrage of sound was emanating from just two geezers!
They opened their set with the tune found on the very special ‘Triptych’ 8” EP, namely ‘Alight’ and they continued in borderline metal and punk all the way through their set. The crowd loved them and Johnny and Tim had a fab time too.
They posted on social media “Last nights show was epic! I was an amazing way to start our 2019 in Brighton to a beautiful audience”. In summing up, SKiNNY MiLK made music that makes you feel alive! Standout track of the night was ‘Forever Changing’ which is a perfect blend of punk meets Motorhead!
SKiNNY MiLK setlist reads:
‘Alright’ (found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Here It Comes’, ‘Blood’, ‘Creature’, ‘What Will Be’, ‘Pain’, ‘Forever Changing’/’Tunnel Vision’, ‘Bones’, ‘Slip Down The Hole’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
Next up were GURU who are Tom (vocals), Kieran (guitar), Fergus (bass) and Simon (drums) and they are Brighton’s answer for the crown of purveyors of brutalist indie rock. They are well worth comparing to those initial Shame cuts or even elements of the Fat Whites. Picking apart modern relationships in an era of hyper-capitalism, a kind of barbed, deeply British take on art-punk. According to Bad Luck Magazine “Guru blend psychedelia with fuzz and punk to bring one of the most promising and unique new sounds. It’s harsh and in your face, with outstanding vocals, tasty riffs and heavy bass. These guys really know how to go hard. Yes, you will find them in the pub after”.
GURU took to ‘The Hope’s’ stage and it was clear that this quartet were going to give a highly charged performance. Vocalist Tom was surely psyching himself up and the other guys followed suit. These youngsters had a preference of plain white vests in order to soak up the sweat. Their half dozen tracks were just about long enough in order to get their ideas across, although I could have certainly done with even more. If the energy and sound of the likes of IDLES, BlackWaters and Fontaines D.C. are your bag, then you seriously need to see these lads perform live!
They should go far and as Tom said during their set “The future of Brighton is bright!” and that totally sums up the whole ‘Triptych’ feeling for Brighton talent!.
GURU’s setlist reads:
‘Cry Baby’, ‘Consumer Helpline’ (found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Fixation’, ‘Medicine Man’, ‘Suntrap’, ‘Narcissist’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
It was now time for the evenings headliners Heirloom to take to the stage. Heirloom are Sam Rivers (vocals/guitar), Jade Taaffe (vocals/bass), Christopher Hallen (backing vocals/guitar), B D (keys/ guitar) and Nick McGregor (drums).
After two raucous live performances it was now time to take the tempo down a notch or two. Heirloom’s sound opens with shared vocals – baritone and bittersweet alto. They interweave into the eternal, reminiscent of Nancy and Lee through the cult movie romance of a Tarantino lens. Layers of graceful reverb, delay and fuzz, amidst colourfully dark organ, surround Heirloom’s jangly guitars. According to Hidden Herd, Heirloom offer “Sleazy riffs, stabs of organ and icy boy/girl vocals, Brighton’s Heirloom sound like a decrepit saloon bar’s resident garage rockers, hired to conjure a vampiric atmosphere way out west”.
As my mate Julian conveyed to me after their set, he enjoys watching Heirloom play live as their performances build and build. I have to say that I most enjoyed their penultimate number ‘Bunny’ the most, whereas latest release ‘Speak In Tongues’ was surprisingly a rather funky affair. The guys are shortly off on tour with Demob Happy and will be playing with them in Brighton at the Concorde 2 on 2nd March.
Heirloom’s setlist reads:
‘Birth’, ‘Femme’, ‘I Spy/Jane’, ‘Sweet Thing’, ‘Bunny’, ‘Speak In Tongues’ (found on Triptych 8” single).
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
Saturday Triptych: 19th January 2019
Day two of the ‘Triptych’ event was opened by the excellent new Brighton band Winter Gardens, who are Ananda, Jim, Matt and Alex.
The Brighton & Hove New music team were very fortunate in catching the bands third ever gig back in November, when they were supporting Say Sue Me – read our report HERE.
Clearly the guys are still buzzing from their fourth ever concert, where they recently performed with Gary Numan, Echo & The Bunnymen and Maxïmo Park at the ‘Rockaway Beach’ indoor music festival in West Sussex.
Their ‘Triptych’ gig is their fifth outing and I must say that I enjoyed them just as much this time around. Twenty year old Ananda now looks even more like the Norwegian singer Aurora Aksnes who is two years her senior, Jim still has his KLF sticker on his guitar and their dream-pop/shoegaze set was the same corkers as gig number three and each track gets better and better. They have absorbed influences from 80’s post-punk, Factory, Postcard, 4AD, Creation era bands, and they successfully carried out a cover of the Cocteau Twins classic ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’, but it’s the final offering of ‘Hyacinth’, that is arguably their finest moment. It’s their counter offer to Penelope Isles wonderful ‘Gnarebone’ track. Incidentally the next Winter Gardens gig will feature Penelope Isles on the bill as well as a DJ set from IDLES. It’s going to be a special evening for Winter Gardens as it will be their debut 7” vinyl single release night for ‘Coral Bells’ which incidentally is available on bone coloured vinyl. Further details of the event HERE.
The band posted on social media “MASSIVE Thank you to Love Thy Neighbour for last nights Triptych eternally grateful to be part of this, we had a joyous old time!”.
Winter Gardens setlist reads:
‘Honeymooners’, ‘Coral Bells’, ‘Tapestry’ (found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Sweepy’, ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’, ‘Hyacinth’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
The next ‘Triptych’ act were RADIDAS who are a Brighton based electronic two piece featuring Conor Rowlan on vocals/keyboards and guitar and Joe Wilson on drums.
These lads are a classic case of they don’t look like the music they play, especially in the case of drummer Joe, who one may believe resides behind the kit of a heavy rock or death metal band. In fact they creatively infuse contemporary dance music with underground psychedelia in order to create their unique and fresh vibrant sound. Listening to them can send you from thinking about comparisons with the Dr Who theme to the Cocteau Twins and across to The Horrors and the chillin’ out sounds heard during the early mornings in sunny Ibiza. Based on their ‘Triptych’ gig I would seriously add to that aforementioned list the sounds akin to the wonderful 808 State and Herbie Hancock. They are unique and totally immersive and we would love to see them play live again.
RADIDAS setlist reads:
‘808 Esc’, ‘Miles Per Yeah’ (found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Lemonade’, ‘Do It’, ‘Shockwave’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
Headliners for the night were Hollow Hand who hail from Brighton and are spearheaded by vocalist/guitarist Max Kinghorn-Mills. The acts recent debut album, ‘Star Chamber’, which was unleashed in October 2018 via Talkshow Records was produced by Pan Andrs and Atlas Shrugs at Cosmic Ocean. Occupying a space between Super Furry Animals and Soft Machine. Anger has always been a natural response to injustice. But the work of Syd Barrett, The Grateful Dead (both acts who have influenced Hollow Hand) and countless other artists in the 1960s/1970s demonstrate how revolt can be achieved through aesthetics as well as the primal.
Hollow Hand this evening were a three piece outfit whose journey I would suggest also took us deeply into the style of latter and post Beatles Lennon and McCartney territory as well as even partly emulating Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and some elements of Squeeze thrown in for good measure. There was also a decent riff used in their tune entitled ‘End Of Everything’, which reminded me of Joy Division’s ‘Leaders Of Men’.
Hollow Hands setlist reads:
‘Ancestral Lands’, ‘End Of Everything’, ‘A World Outside’, ‘Made Up My Mind’, ‘Milestone’, ‘Blackberry Wine’, ‘It’s You’, ‘Chariot’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
Sunday Triptych: 20th January 2019
Day three of the ‘Triptych’ event was opened by A Lily which is a solo project from James Vella, who is based in Brighton. James appears as a member of other musical outfits, where he fits in nicely to their lineups, but with his ‘Triptych’ performance he controls his destiny of the performance.
A Lily was different in style from the other eight ‘Triptych’ performances as it was one continuous music mix, comprised of a theme of the opening composition from his August 2018 ‘Id-Dar Tal-Missier’ album and then various improvised variations from other material.
On his recorded matter James uses the “A Lily” name to encompass all of his solo music, his releases have covered broad stylistic ranges, from dark alt-pop to piano solos to mechanically-hearted electronica to abstract avant-garde. His ‘Triptych’ performance was a relaxing and interesting musical journey which could arguably be compared to a chilled out version of Bayonne.
A Lily setlist reads:
‘Banana Moth’, “Improvisations”.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
Next up was the Brighton based extremely talented and likeable multi-instrumentalist Emma Gatrill who was accompanied on stage by her friend Marcus Hamblett.
The Brighton and Hove News music team have been privileged to have witnessed Emma’s wonderful performances several times now and each occasion is a real treat. She perfectly combines her glorious and distinctive voice of an angel vocal harmonies with her harp, whilst at the same time adding layers of sounds from the effects from foot pedals, whilst her musical partner Marcus accompanies on electric guitar which was run through an analog device, thus producing a spellbinding sound.
The set included a wonderful rendition of the very gentle ‘Space’ in which the audience were asked to lightly jangle their keys as an accompaniment. She performed a cover of This Is The Kit’s ‘Two Wooden Spoons’ which can be found on the special ‘Triptych’ 8” vinyl. Emma’s final track was the stunningly beautiful ‘Skin’, which was a tad more uptempo that on previous occasions. The recording cannot begin to do justice to this track, you absolutely have to hear it performed live.
Emma is working on her next album which will be made with the support of the PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music fund – can’t wait to hear that one!
Emma Gatrill setlist reads:
‘Black Dog’, ‘Robin’, ‘Cocoon’, ‘Space’, ‘Two Wooden Spoons’ (This Is The Kit cover version found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Skin’.
Listen HERE and find out more HERE.
‘Triptych’ 2019 was brought to a close by Brighton based quartet Bloom who are a two girl-two boy outfit made up of Megan on vocals/keyboards/guitar, (who also plays live with the awesome Fröst), Emily (vocals/keyboards/guitar), Gruff (drums) and Scott on bass (who also plays live for CIEL).
The Bloom dream-pop sound is most pleasant indeed and my colleague who came with me to this event chirped at the end of their set that Bloom are one of his favourite top bands and this moment in time and we have seen them live several times now and I understand where he is coming from.
Although a four-piece live band, it’s the ladies that run the show with Megan Clifton host of ‘The Brighton Guide’ show on Radio Reverb taking the lead with Dundee born Emily complimenting her style. Far from me to discuss how old a lady is but when talking with Emily after their performance, she informed me of her age. I was stunned and afterwards asked my colleague to guess the figure. His genuine reply was “22 tops”. I will leave it there and suffice to say that there is one chuffed Dundonian in Brighton tonight!
During their set, Megan announced that their penultimate number ‘People Like You’ will be shortly coming out on a vinyl record that changes colour when you (carefully!) put a hair dryer to it. I have never heard of that before! The nearest I have to that is my treasured Kraftwerk ‘Neon Lights’ 12” luminous vinyl which when you hold it up to a light for about a minute with your hand on the vinyl, the record glows in the dark and leaves the impression of your hand for a while.
Bloom posted on social media “We had a really lovely time headlining the final Triptych performance last night. Big love to Love Thy Neighbour who put tonnes of work into these very well considered shows. A Lily and Emma Gatrill were both astonishingly good”.
Bloom setlist reads:
‘Try’, ‘I Know’, ‘Ground’ (found on Triptych 8” single), ‘Escape’, ‘Feeling’, ‘Pop Song 2’, ‘Tiny’, ‘Something’, ‘People Like You’, ‘Such A Shame’.
Listen to them HERE and find out more HERE.
And that my friends was that! Nine contrasting fab local Brighton based acts brought together over a three day period by Andy from Love Thy Neighbour – well done sir, great choices and we are already looking forward to ‘Triptych 2020’.
Right then, it’s now time for a rest……………………………..
