Let’s face it, life without gigs is proving to be something of a bore. However, it does mean we’ve had plenty of time to catch up with some of the music that’s come out of Brighton recently. Here’s our round-up of new local releases – including singles from Oli Spleen & Nick Hudson, Octopuses, Gulls and Eva And The Blue Dive. There’s also a debut EP from Melt Plastic Group and albums from Porridge Radio, Night House, Slum Of Legs, Elle Osborne and Wax Machine.

Oli Spleen & Nick Hudson
‘Just A Dream’ / ’Roman Candles’

Teaming up songwriter Oli Spleen (Pink Narcissus) and pianist Nick Hudson (The Academy Of Sun), this double A-side trails a full album, ‘Night Sweats & Fever Dreams’, tackling the theme of HIV and AIDS. Spleen has hit a purple patch recently, following up last year’s epic ‘Gaslight Illuminations’ album with February’s covers set ‘My Pal Foot Foot’ and other one-off singles. ‘Just A Dream’ is a stately, piano ballad drifting through the neighbourhood of Leonard Cohen, while Hudson adds his voice to the ghostly, cabaret waltz of ‘Roman Candles’. Sharpening each other’s skills, that album will be one to watch. (SH)

Octopuses
‘Yesterday Man’
Octopuses are one of those bands whose very name brings a smile to our face. What’s more, we always know we’re going to have a great time at their gigs. They’ve just released the first single from their forthcoming album ‘Labyrinthitis’ which begins with a spoken intro over woozy guitar before exploding into a psychedelic pop-punk kaleidoscope of sound. The two Alans, Grice on drums and Odgers on guitar, shine on this rifftastic adventure while Adam Bell’s vocal veers on punk rock snarly. This song is a complete joy and guaranteed to be a live show favourite. (SC)

Gulls
‘Shame Shame Shame’
There’s something refreshingly upfront about Gulls’ approach to political punk. There are no shades of guilt or nihilistic dead-ends here. “Fascists, we are coming for you!” is the lead line of their latest single which, as you might have guessed, takes on the rise of the alt-right. Indeed, the chorus of ‘Shame Shame Shame’ is so on-message it feels like it was written for a protest march. The rip-roaring guitar and drums give the track the oomph it requires, while Rhi Kavok’s dextrous and sarcastic vocals keep things buoyant despite the sense that it’s a new and worrying trend she’s railing against. (BB)

Eva And The Blue Dive
‘Written In Red’

‘Written In Red’ opens with fingerpicked acoustic guitar and softly sung vocals, but to its credit it doesn’t go where you might expect. Instead, the song opens up in stages (including a neat bass break), before turning into an expansive uptempo ballad. Eva And The Blue Dive are only a folk band in the widest sense of the term; there’s a whole lot of indie and pop going on here too. The song is Eva’s first release since her 2016 ‘Fragmentation’ EP and is the first of four singles primed for release this year which will make up the next EP. The strength of the singing alone makes this a promising start. (BB)

Melt Plastic Group
‘Fresh Plastic’

Melt Plastic Group’s debut EP, released back in Feb, begins with an 11-minute epic called ‘Rebirth Of The Turkey’, which gives you an indication of the wayward ambition of the band as well as the sense of humour that lies just beneath the squalls of reverb and delay. The four tracks on the EP offer engrossing routes through krautrock territory, each with driving basslines, inventive percussive patterns and strange guitar noises. Citing Black Sabbath and Can as influences, this new Brighton trio have pitched their stall squarely in the midst of the city’s curiously active psych scene. Acid Box were quick to latch on and offered Melt Plastic Group their second ever gig with Japanese Television at the Hope & Ruin. (BB)

Night House
‘Everyone Is Watching From Afar’

From the opening track ‘To Be With’ and throughout, this is sumptuous electronica with a natural feel. Nicholas Williams’ soft falsetto voice dances around sampled and acoustic strings. Ellie Ford’s beautiful harp playing is heavily featured to great effect and she shares lead vocals on the beautifully arranged ‘The Roots In The Wires’. There’s a pastoral feel on several songs particularly on the more traditional instrumentation of ‘Blackberry Wood’. Whether simplistic or complex, the songs work individually or as a complete piece. Let’s hope they can reschedule the cancelled launch party at St Nicholas’s Church post-lockdown. Go here for the video of current single ‘Bloodlines’. (SC)

Slum Of Legs
‘Slum Of Legs’

It’s been a couple of years since we last witnessed the raucous tumble of Slum Of Legs live but this brilliant, life-grabbing album makes the wait for their return worthwhile. The six-piece Slums crush together elements of DIY indiepop and avant-garde experimentalism, flooding their songs with streams of vivid synth and insistent, circling violin, but never at the expense of the unfailingly melodic songwriting. Principal vocalist Tamsin Chapman throws in lyrical references from art to architecture, Debenhams to Pokemon and the emotional directness of songs like ‘Benetint & Malevolence’ and ‘RUTHE14ME’ hits home among the killer tunes. (SH)

Porridge Radio
‘Every Bad’

When Dana Margolin’s Porridge Radio demos started circulating online back in 2015, they introduced us to a songwriter of dry humour and prodigious talent, and vital second album proper ‘Every Bad’ at last brings her band to welcome international recognition. The emotional power-play of ‘Give/Take’ is the most immediate way in to Porridge Radio’s world, while Margolin explores new levels of conflicted, self-lacerating honesty on ‘Sweet’ and ‘Long’. Serendipitously, the yearning pleas of ‘Lilac’ (“I want us to be kinder”) chime with the looking-out-for-one-another social mood of lockdown Britain, making Porridge Radio (pictured above) the unexpected sound of now. (SH)

Wax Machine
‘Earthsong Of Silence’

Wax Machine’s recent album launch at the Hope ended in ruin when it was drowned under the first wave of Covid cancellations. This is a shame, because ‘Earthsong Of Silence’ is a beautiful body of work. Pastoral and dreamlike, it shimmers jazzily along like a troupe of wood nymphs tripping on funkadelic fungi. Elements of English folk, West Coast psych and spiritual jazz are stirred into the cauldron, and we’re especially partial to Isobel Jones’s flute-work, which skips and floats on top of the mix. Hopefully this summer will see Wax Machine re-emerge in full bloom. (GR)

Elle Osborne
‘You See A Rook On Its Own, It’s A Crow’

Even if you haven’t heard her previous three albums, you’ll still find something reassuringly familiar in Elle Osborne’s voice, as her spacious melodies envelop you like hypnotic lullabies. Evoking the likes of The Unthanks, ‘You See A Rook On Its Own, It’s A Crow’ (out 5th June) features a varied mix of instrumentation, from country fiddle to eastern European-infused accordion. There’s also a bit of Farfisa-style organ in there. This should come as no surprise though — it was mixed and engineered by Stereolab keyboardist Joe Watson. Surely this alone will be sufficient to pique the interest of the Brightonian indie crowd. (GR)

Words by Ben Bailey, Gary Rose, Steve Clements and Stuart Huggett
Photo by El Hardwick