Fun fact: Ġenn in Maltese means “crazy”. Why the linguistics lesson you ask? Because this Brighton-based band have a proudly worn Maltese heritage and the name is well chosen; when ĠENN let loose things get seriously frenetic.
The last time we saw singer Leona Farrugia and her wrecking crew they were busy blowing the roof off the cavernous All Saints Centre at the 2022 Lewes Psychedelic Festival, and what a show it was.
ĠENN are a mix of 70s psych and 90s alt rock and Farrugia’s vocals can really soar, but it is guitarist Janelle Borg that holds the key to the band’s sound. It is big and distorted and phased and delayed. The guitar sits atop drummer Sofia Rosa Cooper and bass player Leanne Zammit’s thumping rhythms, and in many ways it’s a vintage rock sound, although there’s nothing heritage about an urgent, high-energy performance such as this.
At times the PA struggles to cope with the size of it all and as the Lewes show demonstrated, ĠENN are best experienced on bigger stages. It’s where they’ll be soon enough. The band are off on a UK tour this autumn with a final date at the Green Door Store on 22nd November where you will have the chance to get genn with ĠENN. Grab a ticket now because they will all go.
Things get superheavy as German three-piece Jealous storm the stage. The band command the stage and demand all of our attention – we can only describe their music as industrial glam meets shoegaze disco-drone. Midway through an extensive European tour, the trio display the confidence of a band at the peak of their powers.
Taken from the very well received ‘Lover/What’s Your Damage?’ EP, lead single ‘K-Hole II’ has been a favourite on the SOURCE cassette deck for some time and it is a treat to welcome them to Brighton tonight. Drummer Findan Cote is an absolute animal and Dane Joe’s crunching bass adds to the mayhem. It is brutal stuff. Paz Bonfil’s spiky, sleazy, Santiago-esque guitar complements the pumped punk sound and the duelling vocals are deep in tone, dark in content.
On occasion it loses a little direction and focus and risks becoming an extended and rather pointless one-note jam session, but Jealous have the presence and the tunes to arrest the indulgences. The show climaxes with Joe wielding her bass in the middle of the crowd and then prostrate on the floor of the stage as the sizeable crowd roars its approval.
They may have broken the PA too. Quite a way to end the day, but perhaps not too surprising when something so heavy gets heaved so mercilessly through the speakers.
Hope & Ruin, Friday 30th September 2022
