‘RUINFEST’ – VARIOUS ARTISTS – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 4.9.22
With certain 80’s music stars plying their usual ‘Ant-ics’ elsewhere in Brighton today, we decided to check out the ‘Kings Of The NEW Frontier’ and witness the exciting new blood that is coming through. We therefore headed on over to The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road in Brighton as they have teamed up with Sugar-Free Records and label/promoter Love Thy Neighbour to bring in-the-know punters the latest instalment of the venues ‘RuinFest’.
This mini-festival is supported by Arts Council England and Saturday’s proceedings were brought to us by Sugar-Free Records and Love Thy Neighbour was taking care of Sunday.
Saturday’s event ran from 2pm to 11pm and Sunday’s event ran from 3pm to 10pm. There were no less than eleven live performances going down on Day One and eight sets on Day Two as well as a 90 minute sustainable fashion workshop.
Taking part on Day One (Sugar-Free Records day) were:
Johnny Foreigner, CLT DRP, Blood Command, Plastics, All Better, Uzumaki, Brutalligators, H_ngm_n, Buds., CUTTING TIES and Making Friends.
Read about the bands on Day One HERE.
Taking part on Day Two (Love Thy Neighbour day) were:
BABii, Pholo, Jessica Winter, Speedboat, LibraLibra, SAD DADS, Gloop Unit, and Milo Korbenski.
Day Two (Love Thy Neighbour day):
Milo Korbenski (Downstairs Bar) 4:30pm
First up on Day Two of ‘RuinFest’ was Milo Korbenski who is a Brighton based artist who in 2020 dropped an EP with the intriguing title of ‘I’m So Tired But Not In A Tumblr Way I’m Just Always So Tired I Think I’m Unwell’. Must have had covid then me thinks! There are also four albums worth of material shown on Spotify under the same name as well.
Today’s audience is notable for mainly consisting of students, although the downstairs bar area is sadly a little sparse to begin with. This is going to be a brief encounter with Milo as his set only lasts a mere 19 minutes, running from 4:30pm to 4:49pm. The reason for this was that for the very first time he was joined by a brand new band who only started rehearsing two weeks earlier…..another Brighton & Hove News first gig exclusive! The new band members were Leaton on Squier guitar, Ant on Fender Precision bass and bv’s, and Rhys on drums and bv’s, with obviously Milo on lead vocals as well as a rather interesting and unusual John Douglas Oak guitar.
The vibes I acquired during this short set were Summer breezy sounds akin to New Zealand’s Fazerdaze (but with male vocals) and dare I say it, blues and Americana vibe akin to The Eagles, but more in a jangly guitar pop way. This most certainly is an encouraging start to proceedings. This was a very impressive first outing for a new band and they should be very proud of themselves!
Gloop Unit (Downstairs Bar) 5:30pm
After a 34 minute break in proceedings we were back on track with a new quartet out of London going by the name of Gloop Unit, who graced the downstairs performance area seven minutes earlier than published. Their “unidentifiable-sonic-mega-gunge” half hour set ran from 5:23pm to 5:53pm. To date, I believe that they have only released the one tune, ‘Imitation’, which dropped at the end of May.
The format the four guys were offering us consisted of a Behringer DeepMind 12 keyboard along with a separate Korg and vocals (the last number via a megaphone) , bass guitar and vocals, Gibson guitar, and drums. The vocals were shared between the keyboardist and bassist, with the keyboardist delivery manner coming in a short stutter delivery similar to Devo. The bassist had an unusual (but pleasant) delivery which at times was akin to Edwyn Collins (of Orange Juice fame) or Richard Hawley. They were playing quirky funky toe tapping material and it’s fair to say that they don’t play what they look like. This was a most pleasant surprise, although their set was only around a half dozen of numbers. I rather enjoyed the keyboard work and they were strangely reminiscent of A Certain Ratio on a lazy Sunday afternoon, especially with their tune ‘Thunder’.
I have an inkling that they may be Talking Heads fans, if you catch my drift. I enjoyed them more than I thought that I was going to.
SAD DADS (Upstairs Venue) 6pm
A mere seven minutes had passed and it was time to check out the first of the acts appearing on stage at the first floor venue. Brighton based SAD DADS (written in capitals) fitted the bill and played a set just over the half hour mark from 6pm to 6:32pm.
This duo of Owen Bullock and Dan Cox should not be confused with the outfit from Athens, Georgia with the same name. In this lot’s own words they are “Curators of Shitepop. Home-brewed indie-pop goodness”. These two lads looked familiar to me, and then it came to me, they were both in an outfit called Toast along with Lime Garden’s Annabel Whittle (drums) and Leila Deeley (guitar). We reviewed them here at The Hope & Ruin back in January as part of promoter Love Thy Neighbour’s annual ‘Triptych’ events – Read our account HERE. Owen is also the drummer for Hutch who we also reviewed at the ‘Triptych’ event – See the account HERE.
SAD DADS dropped their debut on 4th December 2020 in the form of ‘A Sad Dads Christmas’. This was followed by ‘Pleasure Beach‘ at the end of February 2021. Back to tonight and it was a yeee hawww as we were off with SAD DADS. Their number was bolstered by a couple of chums which afforded them the live format of lead vocals and acoustic guitar (for Owen), Westfield bass and bv’s, Fender Mustang guitar, and drums. Sunglasses were the order of the day for this quartet and Owen’s vocal delivery reminded me of Damon Albarn.
With the first number under their belts, they launched into a random tune that involved asking where the nearest graveyard is. There was banter between the guys as in a mock phone call. It wasn’t doing it for me and don’t mention “Pilot Simulator”. Why don’t they just stick to the Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers sound achieved for tune two and drop the twaddle? The third number’s vocals were delivered like Mark E Smith as if he was in a country band. ‘Aliens’ dun country, nope not for me! ‘You’re Gorgeous’ (a Babybird cover) was their highlight, although the final number had some balls, especially on the drums. They should (in my opinion) produce more tunes like this one as it was like playing Cornershop’s ‘Brimful Of Asha’ at 78 rpm.
LibraLibra (Downstairs Bar) 6:30pm
We whizzed back downstairs at 6:32pm and immediately LibraLibra started their 36 minute set, which concluded at 7:08pm. We have reviewed LibraLibra a few times before, one of these was here at The Hope & Ruin last December – Read our account HERE.
Back in 2020, the LibraLibra quartet of Beth Cannon (vox), Joe Caple (drums), Daniel Martell (guitar), and Guy Jones (bass and keys) released the ‘Panic Buy’ single as well as the six track ‘Hail Mary’ EP. However, this evening’s performance is their very first as a trio after the departure of Daniel Martell. Thus the format now is Beth (vocals), Guy sporting a striking cyan coloured suite on Squier 32 bass and bv’s plus Nord Grand keyboard, and completing the trio is Joe on drums and Moog Grandmother semi modular analog synth and Akai plus other box of tricks. It all looks rather impressive and tell you what…it is!
As with every previous encounter I have had with Beth, she truly belts her heart out. She really does give it her all as she feels every note and every lyric. Talk about should have won X-Factor or what! Not that you would ever catch me watching such drivel. Arguably the most powerful lungs in operation today! Her energy and enthusiasm is contagious and we feel as though today’s event has now really kicked off, especially as she was singing amongst the crowd.
LibraLibra are moving on and moving forward in an extremely positive way. They took the opportunity to debut some brand new tunes, such as ‘Sad Face’ (and the two final numbers) which I must report were all the choice tracks of the performance. They are heading in the right direction without a doubt. Joe’s drumming was quite frankly terrific. Their consistent set was an in-yer-face delivery that actually stopped passers by in the street as they stood and gawped through the large open street level windows at the band, and they stayed there for the duration of the set!
It’s really beyond me why this outfit isn’t bigger. The music industry needs to have a word with themselves. This is what it’s all about. I truly hope that someone brings the new material to the attention of a certain S. Raymonde Esq as I believe he will wish to release it! LibraLibra should really be off and heading towards denting the Official Charts. And so how would I best describe this outfit? Energy pop with a 21st Century punk vibe maybe. They are a versatile outfit that can switch from a 2am style Kate Bush/Ofra Haza sounding song to a borderline punk ditty. Even the final number which was getting its live debut tonight sounded in parts like ‘Here Comes The Night’ by The Them. LibraLibra are a truly theatrical outfit and it’s hats off to them! This is simply the best ‘LL’ performance I have seen to date and the new material will show this when released.
You can next catch LibraLibra performing live in Brighton, when they will be rockin’ on up at The Green Door Store on Friday 7th October in support of Gen And The Degenerates – I urge you to grab your tickets HERE. See you down the front!
Speedboat (Upstairs Venue) 7pm
Well where do you go from there? Upstairs actually! Rather sensibly Brighton based Speedboat had the savvy to wait for the hordes to climb the stairs in order to catch the whole of their 33 minute set, which should have begun at 7pm, but actually commenced at 7:09pm until 7:42pm. We last saw Speedboat at The Hope & Ruin last December – Check out or review HERE.
Speedboat have been on the case since 2017 and three year ago released their debut tune ‘Surf The Whip’. A trio of songs followed in the form of ‘High Rise Lover’, ‘For Jean’, and ‘bigboy123’, prior to the release of their two six track EP’s, ‘Split The Bill’ from February 2021 and ‘Better Men’ from back in June.
Speedboat aka Johnny and Will Griffiths aka the Blue Jean Brothers aka Musk and Hook – are just two boys, trying to be better men. Initially rejecting, and then taking inspiration from their Dad’s collection of 80’s pop, indie and new wave, the brothers settled on the name Speedboat as something which encapsulated their widescreen new wave inspired synth pop.
Their setup this evening is Roland D-50 keys and vox, and cut off bass, and the other on distinctive short cut guitar with another keyboard. They begin with ‘Madeira Nights’, the lead track from last year’s ‘Split The Bill’ EP, which I immediately brought to the attention of a former Sigue Sigue Sputnik band member who loved it, as it was very SSS rock’n’roll style. The direction changed with song two which could have been Nik Kershaw or similar. Song three reminded me of A-ha and tune four recalled Strawberry Alarm Clock’s ‘Incense & Peppermints’ (from 1967) meets The Cure for some strange reason. Tune five was very much like Talk Talk. Tune six sounded like a clash of early to mid 1980’s Pino Palladino bass meets funky New Order. It was for me the best one so far. The following number was a faster tune that could very well have been made by Devo or someone similar. This was followed by another faster one that sounded like Daniel Miller’s Silicon Teens played at 78rpm. The final number had vocoder style vox a la Will Powers ‘Kissing With Confidence’ meets Herbie Hancock.
During their set, I was wondering whether they are a band that is maybe 37 years too late or in fact if they are starting a resurgence of that sound, as we all know music works in circles. At the moment they are an outfit that are ploughing their own furrow. They certainly ground me down and they caught me unawares especially after the LibraLibra set, but I loved them and so did the punters. The screams of joy got louder with each tune. Someone in the venue was clearly in the zone as immediately after the Speedboat set had concluded, we were treated to a number of Sparks tunes of the speaker system, starting with 1974’s hit ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’ and 1994’s ‘When Do I get to Sing “My Way”’. Fabulous stuff!
Jessica Winter (Upstairs Venue) 8pm
After a break of 22 enjoyable minutes listening to Sparks, we were off again. This time it was the turn of Jessica Winter to perform her 28 minute set from 8:06pm to 8:34pm.
The blurb of this artist states that they “sit outside genre, scene or group, defined not by sound but by song. Previously supported by Dazed, Wonderland, Annie Mac BBC Radio 1, Mary Anne Hobbs BBC 6 Music, KEXP ‘Song of the Day’, KCRW as well as touring with Death Grips and Lynks”.
Jessica was also known as 50% of Pregoblin, who dropped the electronic pop ‘Combustion’ single back in 2019, the other half being Alex Sebley. Jessica has been rather prolific of late on the solo releases front, which started in May 2020 with the five tune ‘Sad Music’ EP, which got a ‘(Chambermix)’ release just three months later. October last year saw the release of six songs under the banner of……wait for it……’More Sad Music’.
Interestingly enough Jessica (who looks similar in appearance to Michelle Hindriks from CIEL, who was spotted downstairs) was the first of three solo acts to round off ‘RuinFest’ 2022. The mood for the set was created with the addition of ground floor lighting. Although a solo act, a trio of mics were primed and ready to go as they offered different types of sound for the vocals, which was interesting. A laptop and Komplete Kontrol A61 keyboard was also in use throughout the set. Jessica is clearly a dab hand at the keys as the fingers whizzed their way across the notes in rapid succession.
This modern pop style performance reminded me of a Molly Nilsson set, but with more oomph like Girli. Here is an act that seriously must play the Heaven nightclub in London if they haven’t already done so, as they would go down a storm. We had operatic vocal styles over rap with infused Numanesque vocals, as well as enforced high pitch Noosha Fox style vocals. “I feel like dancing. I feel like screaming” was the order of the day for this decent set. One of the tunes started like ‘The Lebanon’ by The Human League, which is a good thing. To say that Jessica’s performance was a success, would be totally playing it down as the applause was almost deafening after each tune and it was rising the scale the longer it went on. My colleague who had hot-footed it from Brighton & Hove Albion’s thumping of Leicester City, conveyed that this was “the most commercially friendly act that he had seen here since Dua Lipa a number of years ago”. 17th January 2016 to be precise. Make of that as you will.
Pholo (Upstairs Venue) 8:50pm
After 14 minutes respite, it was now the turn of Pholo, who hails from Nottingham, to run us through his 34 minute bash. Since the beginning of 2020, he has uploaded one EP and no less than 27 songs, one of which is his remix of Charli XCX ‘CLAWS’.
His DJ set was aimed at linking straight into tonight’s headliners set, and thus the dynamics of the night changed into a more clubby vibe. The equipment of choice were twin Pioneer decks with buttons and bleeps for getting folks in the mood. He bopped as the crowd whooped and danced along to his cutz. We jumped and we bounced in anticipation…………..until his set finished at 9:24pm.
BABii (Upstairs Venue) 9:20pm
We have finally come to the final act of ‘RuinFest’ 2022, electronic polymath Babii (stylized as BABii and which is pronounced ‘’Bah-bi’) to run through her 54 minute set, which began at 9:24pm and was to conclude at 10:18pm. We have had the pleasure of witnessing Daisy Emily Warne aka BABii live on a number of occasions, one of these was last December at The Prince Albert – Read our review of that night HERE.
BABii’s journey began back in 2018 when her ‘Phantom’ dropped. A number of real quality releases have followed on from there including nine tune ‘Hiide’ (2019), ten track ‘Miirror’ (2021) and in July, the eleven cut collaborative mixtape ‘Screamer’ featuring collaborations with a wealth of influential producers such as Iglooghost, umru (Charli XCX, Dorian Electra), SV1, Jennifer Walton (Kero Kero Bonito) and Warpstr (Yung Kayo), ‘Screamer’ was apparently created on both sides of the Atlantic, but assuringly it takes a heavy influence from British dance music with musical touchstones from bassline, garage and drum and bass.
Not surprisingly, BABii started off by informing us that she “has a new mixtape that she’s gonna play some songs for us”. The equipment of choice being Roland drum pads, a laptop and box of tricks on the floor. She added that it was going to be an “experimental set for us guys”. To get us punters in the zone, there was no stage lighting for her first number, BABii simply held a lit torch. The sweet harmonious electronic tunes flowed through the air and the audience were rather enthusiastic for her set that was filled with some lazer action and lumping electronic beats.
The last time I saw her live in Brighton (see above link), she had a table on stage with tin foil on the top and she climbed on it and the lazers bounced off the table and around the room for great effect. Sadly this was missing this time around and so the lighting wasn’t as good as previously. We did however have lots of bouncy trip hop drum n bass synth sounds. ‘Butterfly 11’ from the latest ‘Screamer’ release was rather haunting to start with until the beat seriously kicked in.
We pleaded for encore tracks and we had them in the form of ‘BRUiiSE’ (from last year’s ‘MiiRROR’ album) and one other. I’m sorry I would have written more on the BABii set, but to be honest I was far too busy dancing and having a really great time x.
The ‘RuinFest’ Day One review can be read HERE.
