Mutations, as per its name slightly changes in format each year as the team at Form Promotions experiment with different ways to blow our minds. Every year you are however guaranteed a treat. This year proved no exception, starting with three nights of artist currated parties at Chalk. The diversity of the line ups was exceptional, from London hip hop to Irish punk via jazz and fusion. Yes there are some gut wrenching clashes in the programming, but how privileged and lucky we are to be faced with those choices!
Tuesday:
Shelf Lives – Chalk
The dynamic duo hit quick with a beastie boys punk track vibe. Nasal vocals and thrashy guitars. ‘This is all your Shelf Lives!’ It’s strangely incongruous to the fact they are as good looking as Confidence Man. Who cares. They kick. Brighton legend Jules is held aloft and joins in chorus of ‘Shelf Lives’ before Girls like That slams in. (NM)
Lambrini Girls – Chalk
The baton is handed to our favorite local purveyors of righteous punk chaos on the decks who add some party vibes and silly samples before dropping a Ditz banger.
Coach Party – Chalk
The Isle of White band start with a nice lingering guitar line and a Kim Deal style rhythm on the bass. They are a band clearly attracting attention. Their Great Escape airstream set was rammed two years ago, although this writer frankly was not drawn in. Tonight in the dark we are more taken by the performance. This is a classic indie band doing a classic 90s indie sound, like a lab technician had grown pure Steve Lamacq sound in a petri dish. Fun enough but we are unlikely to improve their album sales. (NM)
Sprints – Chalk
The Irish punks are playing an hour and a half tonight. Their debut album drew repeated listens on this writer’s stereo, but their sold out Patterns set earlier in the year was an awkward affair, with at least one band member leaving within days of the show. How will they fair tonight? The opener is epic. Touching the Murder Capital and Bunneymen sound. By ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ there is no doubt and all memories of a weird gig are purged. This is the show we wanted then.
“Let’s have some fun” shouts Orla. This time we really do.
As the jagged guitar of ‘Heavy’ unleashes its restrained violence it’s clear Form’s faith in this act is deserved. We have a true headliner in the making. It’s exactly why the album was played on repeat at the start of the year. This is a great band. Old songs like ‘Letter to Self’ while new song ‘Happen’ is a tantalising promise of a future this band could achieve. (NM)
Wednesday:
Alabaster De Plume – Chalk
He is one of those artists who has musically passed us by whilst at the same time tickling our: ‘you must check him out radar’. Today is that day. We were not expecting this level of complex jazz intensity and artistic inventiveness. After a choral round of ‘For fucks sake’ he screams, “I love doing this shit.” We have a new love. What a treat to be at an event that finds a space for spiritual heavy jazz and punk on the same bill. This ensemble of drums, sax, oud and two bass guitars is deeply life affirming and has as much to offer the groin as the mind. A truly intoxicating brew with songs full of humour. (NM)
Arooj Aftab – Chalk
Arooj takes to the stage looking oozing New York sas and Velvet Underground cool. The music is however a mix of Asian sounds and a touch of fusion jazz. Normally that dreaded F word ought to be accompanied by warning alarms as it has the power to kill a review a stone cold dead. Not here though. The virtuoso band draw us in, while Arooj’s voice soars and her Spanish guitarist delivers flourishing solos that draw whoops from the crowd. A large amount of the songs are about booze. She the offers the crowd shots, and members of the front row actually get some.
On the next tune the strings dance delightfully. The lyrics, when in English and not Urdu have an air of the bits of Morrissey we remember loving . If proof were required of how special this night of the event has been, we leave, having spent hard earned funds, clutching albums from both performers. (NM)
Thursday:
Grove – Chalk
The set start slow and moody before ‘Bloodsucka’ hits with it raga dancehall. They are the distilled essence of young musical Bristol and they give it some. This is heavy party music and they work hard to vibe the crowd, her dreadlocks flying everywhere. ‘Feed My Desire’ is a particularly fun garage track. (NM)
Cassisdead – Chalk
The london artist is clearly what the notably younger crowd are ready for. Is that a smoke machine or a bunch of kids sneakily vaping? It’s not the most sold out crowd, but he captures the mood and gets it going, with his London hip hop that first came to this writer’s attention in the ‘Top Boy’ soundtrack.
After a track about too much skunk the Dj slams in some proper old school jungle. The crowd know every word.
‘Pat Earings’ dedicated to sex workers makes a stunning encore. All the band and crew then sit on the front of the stage and chat to their crowd. Unquestionably that is how to build your fan base. In a genre plagued with some dodgy lyrics what a delight to someone who combines edge with decency. (NM)
Friday:
Voyeur – Revenge
One of the true joys of multi venue events are gigs in the crazy colourful world of Revenge. We bound up the stares for New Yorkers; Voyeur. You might question whether the only record any of them own is Goo, but when it’s done this well we find ourselves bouncing back and forth to the glorious discordant noise. By track five we relent on our previous remark. They possibly own Doolittle too. What else do you need? (NM)
Honesty – Chalk
We enter Chalk to find Honesty hiding behind a net full of projections blocking the front of the stage. They play a fast double time dream pop, like a gabba remix of the Cocteau Twins. It will be interesting to hear how that sounds and we make a note to check out their debut on Partisan Records. As the skittering trip hoppy beats mutate a dry northern vocal kicks in with an echo of a monologue from Mike Leigh’s Naked. The sound is thick and the visuals beautiful but they make the performance very impersonal. (NM)
Alien Chicks – Chalk
The youthful Londoners are delightfully nuts. Fast short shots of explosive throbbing punk full of signature changes, in the style of minutemen and Cardiacs. Definitely one for the Pondies. New single Babe is a loud quiet banger with screams. When they go fierce, they go!!!! They would be a riot in a small room above a pub. The chance to test that assertion will surely happen soon enough in this fair city. The thrash punk death metal version of Teddy Bears Picnic brings a smile to this face. (NM)
Horse Jumper Of Love – Patterns
The band from Massachusetts offer a very different scene. Slow melodic warm tones wash through the room. A heavy enveloping drone. Definitely not a party but beautifully meditative. 18.40 at a multi-venue festival is perhaps not the time to really get taken in by this performance, but this band bear further investigation. (NM)
Font – Revenge
This band live have all the right ingredients including liberal use of Cowbell to get the party started hard. It is not for no reason that Form boss Alex Murry told us with real enthusiasm this was his must see pick of the whole line up. Next time we see them: we will know these songs and it will be devastating. Synths, percussion guitars and choruses. The Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire buttons are all being liberally deployed in the best of ways. The closing tune ‘It’ sees us arm in arm with total strangers, bouncing and pogoing with sheer joyous abandon. This band deserve to be huge. (NM)
STRFKR – Patterns
To describe STRFKR as an MGMT knock-off is actually a mighty compliment. The sonic resemblance is striking and STRFKR play a delightfully melodic, melancholic set. Most appropriately they are joined on stage at the finale by a crew of dancing astronauts and leaving with a lovely big smile plastered across the face appears mandatory. (JW)
The Orchestra of Now – Revenge
The seven piece really have their work cut out after Font but they step up to the plate admirably with an art rock mix dominated by Cello. Crescendos spin off each other. Like Black Country with a bit more up-tempo oomph. The drummer is noticeably off the scale in his talent as he underpins a conservatoire grade band play their symphony. (NM)
Snapped Ankles – Patterns
Now onto to the clash of the Festival: Warmdusher v Snapped Ankles. What a gutt wrenching heartbreaker that is. Owing largely to where our friends want to be we head for Patterns, knowing we are both loosing and winning either way. The venue is rammed and expectation builds. The familiar notes of ‘Johnny Guitar Calling Costa Berlin’ and we are off dancing in a delightful set. It feels perhaps more improvised than previous shows we have seen by them. The songs are lest distinguishable but the synth kraut rock grove pulsates away under the mellow lights. At one point frontman Austin splits the crowd and asks one half to make the sound of rutting foxes and the other half seagulls. Chaos ensues. (NM)
Ellis D – Dust
The last time we saw Ellis was at the 2022 Lewes Psychedelic Music Festival, surrounded on all sides by vinyl as he played in the Union Music record shop. That stripped back acoustic show has metamorphosed into something verging on the monumental. Heavy riffs and garage rock stompers abound at a sweaty and stylish show. Ellis D is evolving into a flamboyant and intense performer and if not quite yet born, his star is certainly beginning to form. (JW)
Silverbacks – Dust
File this one under “wow, where did that come from!?”. Yet another brilliant Dublin band has landed and, whisper it, they are so much more fun than their more portentous contemporaries over at Fontaines DC or Murder Capital Towers. Shy, slightly awkward and completely musically accomplished, supercute recent single “Selling Shovels” sums Silverback up perfectly and we urge you to seek them out. (JW)
Adult DVD – Dust
We have lift off! This is what Mutations is all about; booking a band on the edge of something big and letting them rip. Adult DVD fire up the synthesizers and Dust is transformed into a communal church of the rave. Singer Harry Hanson conducts the faithful and surely has the potential to be a frontman for the ages whilst the audience, fully juiced up in that slightly frenzied way only a late night festival crowd can be, absolutely love it. (JW)
Saturday
Plantoid – Revenge
Following up their fabulously frantic performance at this years’ Brighton Psychedelic festival, Plantoid release the discordant beast with another breathtaking set. Breakbeat fuses with classic rock licks with the whole thing drenched in a psych sensibility and any number of references can be namechecked in each song. This Bella Union band are signed for a reason and there is a depth to their music that demands repeated listening. (JW)
The New Eves – Revenge
A triumphant half hour from rising Brighton stars The New Eves who pound out an intense set to a rapt crowd. There’s a folk-horror quality to their sound and with more than a little drone, seemingly endless comparisons to The Velvet Underground are not wholly inaccurate. 2024 has been a breakout year for the New Eves and rightly so, and with hit single Astrolabe in hand, we wonder which direction they may take in 2025.Kneecap – Chalk (JW)
Kneecap – Chalk
Band of the moment; Kneecap take to the stage to a chant of Free Palestine before a sample of Radie Peat sings out from the backing track. “This is the first time we’ve had a proper tour bus!” Then ‘Better Way To Live’ featuring a sampled vocal from Grian Chatten leaps out to a huge reaction from the Rowdy Crowd. The transformation from the Great Escape headline on the same stage is huge. The love the crowd feels is apparent, and the film was perfect. No longer cheeky outsiders: they are now heir apparent to super star status. ‘Sick in the Head’ is slamming and sexy and people dance accordingly. The mosh pit extends way down the side of the bar. Live ‘Yer Sniffer Dogs are Shit’ is a monster. We are invited to throw our drugs on stage, so the band can dispose of them, on their bus. By the end of the set DJ Provai is crowd surfing ad the crowd is going mental.
Hamish Hawk – Revenge
It’s pretty much fair to say that Brighton has fallen in love with Hamish Hawk. He’s headlined the Komedia, he popped into a bustling Resident Records over the summer on the release tour for his latest LP “A Firmer Hand” and he continues to charm us all. The proximity between his bright, warm, you-granny-would-love-him persona and the darkness that resides within his rock n roll crooner music is fascinating. This is an intense, heartfelt and engaging performance from a very classy gentleman.
Sad Dads – The Hope and Ruin
It would be easy cast Sad Dads aside as a novelty act but the sheer energy and emotion they generate, plus the fact that SOURCE has been going for about 9 hours now and delirium is creeping in that we too end up pogoing around to recent single release “Surf Instructor” makes any meaningful review irrelevant. It’s time to dance. We may regret this in the morning.
Mould – Dust
Bristol band Mould are all dirty dive melodic punk with great fugazi hooks. What is not to like about this live mixture of Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi and a bit more Fugazi with lyrics by Wild Billy Childish had he come from the south west and not Kent and a bassist who prowls the stage like Wilko Johnson. We have some serious therapeutic good times dancing to this slinky punk dancey magic. ‘Glow’ is almost ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ or ‘Under the Bridge’. It’s as lovely as those ingredients and suggests the band has future anthem in the making. They finish with new single Chunks Under strobes.
Yard – Dust
Yard are an Irish version of Suuns. Heavy and industrial; dancey yet throbby. It’s so good we don’t really want to make more notes. A perfect end to the weekend on a high to a filthy new band. All that is left to note, is that any band who can get the combined members of Enola Gay and CLT DRP to dance that hard down the front of their show is probably ‘A Ok’.
Keg – The Hope and Ruin
That’s it. We’ve made it to the end. And what better way to round it all off than a balls-to-the-wall, let’s-all-take-out-tops off menagerie that is a Keg show. It starts off fairly serene but soon degenerates and by the end we’re not even sure what it is we’ve been listening to. There’s psych synths, there’s ska grooves, there’s rawk guitars and there’s even a trombone. And there’s frontman “Albert” conducting the whole shameless ceremony in fine style. Definitely time for bed.
Form Presents: Mutations Festival 2024
Various Venues – 5th to 9th November
Words: Nick McAllister and Jason Warner
Photos: Stan O’Shea and Jason Warner
