DAMEFRISØR + ATTICOMATIC + IDEAL LIVING + MOON IDLE – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 6.12.23
Hot on the heels of last month’s ‘Hidden Herd’ new music discovery night that featured Wooze, Welly, Lonnie Gunn and Owners Club (Review HERE), we are back at The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road for the December offering. Tonight’s lineup features another quartet of rising stars, these being DAMEFRISØR, AtticOmatic, Ideal Living and Moon Idle.
Heading the bill this evening are DAMEFRISØR which is pronounced “dame-eh-frizz-yuor”). The lineup features Kazhi Jahfar (vocals), Nyle Dowd (drums), Garin Curtis (guitar), Jamie Brown (guitar), Sam Nobbs (synth & keys) and Megan Jenkins (bass). They apparently formed at a Bristol club night back in 2019 and their alternative sound combines elements of post-rock, shoegaze and dance with driving rhythms and swirling guitars. The band’s debut release was ‘And You Know’ which dropped in April 2021. Five months after this their ‘Do You Think I’m Special?’ and ‘2-HEH-V’ (as in “too heavy”) tunes were released, and their debut extended play ‘Island Of Light’, which was produced with Alex Greaves (Working Men’s Club, bdrmm, LICE), dropped back in February. DAMEFRISØR is a name that more and more folk are becoming aware of on account of them having played shows across the country at festivals like Dot to Dot, Sŵn, Ceremony and This Must Be The Place, as well as supporting acts that include Katy J Pearson, Squid, Folly Group, KEG and the rather wonderful VLURE. Steve Lamacq is a fan and landed them a place on the BBC Radio 6 Music Playlist. Add to that the fact that DAMEFRISØR have in excess of 200,000 streams on Spotify and it’s clear they are a band on the up.
Not long before the band took to The Hope & Ruin stage, the PA soundsystem had ‘Before We Begin’ blasting out. This being my favourite Broadcast song ever and the hairs on my t-shirted arms stood to attention in appreciation. I was primed for the arrival of DAMEFRISØR, whose set commences 13 minutes later than expected. They finally get under way at 10:28pm, a mere 32 minutes before curfew. The delay was a knock on effect from the late soundchecks which ran past the 8pm opening time. I must confess that prior to their opening bars of this set, I had actually never knowingly heard a single note by the band, but I had read a recent review by one of our team and it appeared that they would certainly tick all of my music boxes. My eyes were liking what I was seeing judging by their kit gathered on stage. This included a Elektron Octatrack MKII sampler which Kazhi pressed just prior to opening number ‘52a’, (with its opening drone sounds), was the first of a run of four selections from their 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP. The sound it made excited me very much. Also on offer was a Roland VT-4 vocal transformer which Kazhi tweaked throughout their 29 minute set. He also at times had a tambourine on the go. Megan was quietly going about her business with her Squier Mustang bass guitar, Garin was plucking his Fender Jaguar guitar, Nile was behind the drumkit and had a cowbell as well, Jamie was to the rear on his Fender Telecaster guitar, and finally Sam was operating modular synth case full of wires, Roland drum pads and another unit.
The initial droning of ‘52a’ morphed and the tune built and built after a couple of minutes. I noted that Kahzi was shaking his hands in the exact same manner as Fontaines D.C Grian Chatten does. I enjoyed this opening number. Selection two was ‘Above Board’ which had the vibe of Horrors, and it was lucky number three for me as the opening bars of ‘The Grip’ sounded out. You might as well refer to this as ‘Transmission V2’ by Joy Division. This tune was absolutely brilliant and my hairs were standing on end again! The fourth and final selection from the EP was the drumming and blippy key led Joy Division/Horrors hybrid ‘D.O.D’, which vocally and musically sounded like a voice from the music of my past, Dean Piavani from Portion Control, who I once interview at The Zap Club for a fanzine I used to produce.
A trio of thus far unreleased material followed in the form of ‘SOL’, ‘Clouds’ and ‘Basilimus’. ‘SOL’ has a repeated echoey synth beat until the midway point and then the dual guitars and pounding drums cause the tune to wonderfully explode. ‘Clouds’ is even better and reaffirms my Portion Control notion. This tune whipped me up into a frenzy of joy, I wasn’t the only one. It was as though Kazhi was at any minute going to shout “lager, lager, larger” as in Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’, it was that good. ‘Basilimus’ was the bastard son of ‘Walk On Gilded Splinters’ by The Flowerpot Men meets The Prodigy and Brighton band Ditz. This trio of tunes seriously need to see the light of day, very soon! They are even better than their material released thus far, with the exception of tonight’s pounding closing number, the 2021 single ‘2-HEH‐V’ with its memorable “Are you over it yet, ‘cos I’am” lyrics. This really had the vibe of a track I must have heard John Peel play back in the day, but obviously didn’t. It’s retro but also so now!
This set had lasted a mere 29 minutes, until 10:57pm, but this was enough for this performance to go crashing into my Top 10 Performances of 2023, and as you know, I’ve witnessed literally hundreds! In less than half an hour I had gone from never hearing them, to immediately being one of my favourite bands at the moment. They have replaced the void left by Priestgate. DAMEFRISØR are a must see act for anyone who loves synth music, EBM sounds with industrial style synth dance beats, and even those of a Goth persuasion.
DAMEFRISØR:
Kazhi Jahfar – vocals
Nyle Dowd – drums
Garin Curtis – guitar
Jamie Brown – guitar
Sam Nobbs – synth/keys
Megan Jenkins – bass
DAMEFRISØR setlist:
‘52a’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘Above Board’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘The Grip’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘D.O.D’ (from 2023 ‘Island Of Light’ EP)
‘SOL’ (unreleased)
‘Clouds’ (unreleased)
‘Basilimus’ (unreleased)
‘2-HEH‐V’ (from 2021 ‘Do You Think I’m Special?’ / ‘2-HEH-V’ single)
The ‘Hidden Herd’ night kicked off with alternative band Moon Idle who formed in Brighton last year and are Quilla Robinson (vocals/guitar/keys), Jasper Fergus (guitar), Felix Burton (drums) and Martin Eddington (bass). They are a young but talented outfit who mainly used to attend the WaterBear college here in town. Influenced by Massive Attack, Mazzy Star and Radiohead, the four-piece draw on a wide variety of genres, including trip-hop, Latin-jazz and dream pop. Despite only emerging at the start of 2023, the relative newcomers have already unveiled a steady stream of superb singles in ‘Moments’, ‘Makeup’ and ‘Mirror’, which ramped up to the release of their five-track debut EP ‘Kindly’ at the end of August. As well as being championed by Alyx Holcombe on her BBC Music Introducing Rock show on Radio 1 and Melita Dennett on BBC Music Introducing, they’ve also headlined Green Door Store, shared the stage with KEG and Modern Woman and played Sofar Sounds.
This was to be my second helping of Moon Idle loveliness, having first witnessed their live set back in September at the Green Door Store’s ‘2 3 4 Fest’. Tonight we were served half a dozen self-penned compositions throughout their tight and captivating performance that ran from 8:08pm to 8:40pm. Half of the set was culled from their ‘Kindly’ EP and the other half as far as I can tell remain unreleased. Their instruments of choice were Nord Electro 6D keys and Fender Telecaster by Quilla, a Fender Jazzmaster guitar by Jasper, Fender Mustang bass by Martin, and Felix was on drums.
The quartet opened with ‘The Avenue’ from the EP and I’m immediately drawn to Quilla’s ethereal vocals and dreamy keyboard patterns, this certainly secured my interest. ‘Makeup’ (also from the EP) is up next and sees Quilla switch from keys to her Fender Telecaster which is strummed for an echoey beat, and they offer up more dreamy sounds. ‘Seed’, the first of the unreleased numbers is next and it’s here that I noted that both Jasper and Martin play their instruments on short straps, which is the opposite to say Peter Hook’s low slung bass. Quilla’s voice is fabulous on this tune and delivers in an understated way, as she also does for ‘Moments’, from the ‘Kindly’ EP, as she glides between guitar and keys. Each vocal is delivered with a soulful purpose at a slower rate to that of the drums and yet this somehow works in their favour. They see us out with the remaining to be recorded tracks ‘Girl In Blue’ and ‘Delay Me’, with the latter reminding me of the bass cuts of Jah Wobble (former PiL) courtesy of Martin, and Jasper was on serious foot-pedal action, and Quilla uses a guitar slide. I can see there’s definite potential here and it’s clear they have an exciting future ahead.
Moon Idle:
Quilla Robinson – vocals/guitar/keys
Jasper Fergus – guitar
Felix Burton – drums
Martin Eddington – bass
Moon Idle setlist:
‘The Avenue’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Makeup’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Seed’ (unreleased)
‘Moments’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Girl In Blue’ (unreleased)
‘Delay Me’ (unreleased)
The second band for the evening are Brighton-based art-rockers Ideal Living who state they play “Post spook knit wear rock”. They formed in late 2022, and were originally called D.L.D. after the condition Developmental Learning Disorder, which covers dyslexia, autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Ideal Living seems to have an expanding lineup and are led by vocalist/bassist Billy Marsh. Accompanying him are Austin (guitar and backing vocals), Alyx (bass and backing vocals), Miles (keyboard and backing vocals), Bertie (drums and backing vocals), and Jamie Broughton (trumpet). The band have spent much of this year playing sell out support shows in Brighton with bands such as The Cool Greenhouse, ELLiS·D, Flip Top Head and Alien Chicks, as well as their own jam-packed headline dates at Green Door Store and The Hope & Ruin, and indeed this evening where they have a hoard of fans in attendance.
It is said that their dark, “spooky” sound is inspired by the work of a variety of bands and artists such as Opus Kink, Leonard Cohen, Fat White Family and Portishead. They unveiled their debut single ‘Sanity’ a few months ago, which is a teaser ahead of their forthcoming first EP ‘A Modern World History’. ‘Sanity’ like their other songs from their 30 minute set tonight (which runs from 8:55pm to 9:25pm) combines a plethora of lush instrumentation to create an oppressive wall of sound that fluctuates between dynamic extremes, featuring metronomic drumming and warbling keys that underpin twanging baritone guitar.
The instruments on offer for their lively and varied performance are a Revelation RJT-60 B 6 string bass being commandeered by frontman-vocalist Billy who seems quite a character with his bucket hat and flashers mac; there’s a second bass courtesy of a Fender Jazz in the hands of Alyx; Miles (who I have previously seen at the head of Brighton outfit Soft Top) is taking care of the Nord Electro 3 with a compact Teenage Engineering OP-1 (which is very similar to a mechanical typing keyboard with plastic keys); Austin is on Fender guitar, Bertie is behind the drumkit; and finally multi-instrumentalist Jamie Broughton pops up on trumpet, egg shaker, single drum, and Melodica.
From the very off it’s evident that they have many fans in the house and fill the venue with more punters than for the other bands this evening. I must say I do find this rather annoying, when fans simply turn up for one act very shortly before they are on and then leave immediately after that act’s set has finished. Yeah OK support your mates, but have the courtesy to check out the others on the bill…rant over! As is the case with fellow Brighton band Welly, Ideal Living has the feeling of being one person’s band supplemented by their mates. Now that’s certainly not meant to diminish all of the efforts of the other players, it’s just the fact that both frontmen are so charismatic, that it’s nye on impossible for your eyes to ever stray from what they are up to. Billy’s singing certainly has an angry edge to it and was often quite staccato and sharp, but this didn’t initially show itself for opener ‘Come To Me’, which had a Happy Mondays vibe but at half speed.
Their ‘Sanity’ single is given an airing, which Billy states “is available on all streaming platforms!”. For this spoken word delivered jerky rhythmed tune, Jamie switches from trumpet to….wait for it….video camera! Hopefully the result will see the light of day. He then switches to Melodica during the same song. Meanwhile Billy is certainly holding fort with his animated facial expressions, exaggerated movements and vocal delivery. ‘Spooky Central’ sees the other five bandmates all on backing vocals at the same time. It is a spooky tune indeed. ‘March’ was next, which witnessed Jamie on single drum and Bertie on the other drums from the drumkit. This had the vibe of a marching band and thus soldiers “marching” along. Billy performed the closest Ian Curtis dance I’ve ever seen on this track. This number was a real crowd pleaser. Billy then told us next tune ‘Roam’ is his favourite. This benefitted from acapella vocals from them all at the end. They signed off with ‘Down’ which had an OP-1 led Sparks sounding beat which bopped along nicely in an almost disco way. More Ian Curtis moves were afoot. I have to inform Billy That (for me) ‘Down’ is actually better than ‘Roam’. And that was it and at 9:25pm they vacated the stage to deafening applause.
Ideal Living:
Billy Marsh – lead vocals/bass
Austin – guitar/backing vocals
Alyx – bass/backing vocals
Miles – keyboard/backing vocals
Bertie – drums/backing vocals
Jamie Broughton – trumpet, Melodica, egg shaker, drum
Freddy – saxophonist (not present tonight)
Ideal Living setlist:
‘Come To Me’ (unreleased)
’Sanity’ (2023 single)
‘Spooky Central’ (unreleased)
‘March’ (unreleased)
‘Roam’ (unreleased)
‘Down’ (unreleased)
The penultimate act of the night was Brighton five-piece AtticOmatic who are purveyors of a brooding yet uplifting post-punk sound that blends elements of jazz, hip-hop and spoken word. The outfit consists of Lorcán Forder (vocals, guitar and synth), Kam vocals, keyboards and recorder), Kai Raghunath (drums), Ollie (synth, percussion and guitar) and Marie Freiss (bass) and they entertained us for half an hour from 9:42pm to 10:12pm. The equipment on offer was Gretsch guitar (with lead vocals) from Lorcán; ASM Hydrasynth keyboard, Nord Electro 2 and recorder (as well as vocals) from Kam; Kai was on drums; Ollie was flitting between Gretsch guitar, Korg keys, Roland SP-404 sampling workstation, tambourine and assisting with the ASM Hydrasynth keyboard and Nord Electro 2; and Marie was on Fender bass guitar duties.
Comprised of swirling synths and mysterious atmospherics, their unique string of singles to date – including 2022 standout ‘Spiritual Imposter’ – are kaleidoscopic concoctions that defy genre boundaries. Live, the band have toured the UK as well as various European cities and appeared at a host of festivals including Platform B’s Official Opening Party at this year’s The Great Escape Festival and last year’s Victorious Festival. Their early 2023 single ‘Dun Dun’ was championed by Nabihah Iqbal on BBC Radio 6 Music and its follow-up ‘These Hands’ arrived in September and tomorrow (7th December) sees the release of their ‘Thoughtless’ single to build on the quintet’s solid momentum.
AtticOmatic followed on from Ideal Living and as stated above, the room had at the beginning of their set massively emptied out, although during their 30 minute entertainment feast, it did manage to start to fill up again. They kick off with a trio of singles from this year, ‘These Hands’ (with Kam on vocals), ‘Thoughtless’ (with mainly Lorcán on vocals) and the popular ‘Dun Dun’. During ‘Thoughtless’ Ollie switches from stage right (our left) to the other side in order to duet with Kam on the shared keys. Marie’s bass was on fire during this number! Kam’s vocal delivery at this point certainly reminded me of Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins fame, and in the same tune Marie also has a go on vocals. Lorcán shows us exactly how fab his vocals are for ‘Dun Dun’ and is arguably the highlight of their set.
The (as far as I can tell) unreleased tunes came next – ‘Featherweight’, ‘10’ (which we are told is about going out after 10pm and not feeling safe), the jazz infused ‘Which Road’ and ‘Stayin In’ which Kam refers to as a “lullaby” and she sounds like Lily Fontaine from English Teacher with the spoken word delivery, prior to the drums kicking in and the outfit going into uber funk mode in order to round off the set.
AtticOmatic:
Kam – vocals/keyboards/recorder
Lorcán Forder – vocals/guitar/synth
Kai Raghunath – drums
Ollie – synth, percussion/guitar
Marie Freiss – bass
AtticOmatic setlist:
‘These Hands’ (a 2023 single)
‘Thoughtless’ (a 2023 single)
‘Dun Dun’ (a 2023 single)
‘Featherweight’ (unreleased)
‘10’ (unreleased)
‘Which Road’ (unreleased)
‘Stayin In’ (unreleased)
Just to translate the old fashioned Danish/Nordic word of “DAMEFRISØR” to English.
Dame = Lady
Frisør = Hairdresser
So Lady-hairdresser (singular) – a hairdresser for ladies (The gender of the hairdresser is not assumed – could be any gender)