MOON IDLE + MARTHA EVE + DBCOOPER HARPER – PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 12.3.25
Ahead of ‘Homegrown’, the multi-venue festival highlighting the best of Brighton’s music scene, there are a series of warm up events, ‘Homegrown In Bloom’. The latest of those free shows featured Moon Idle, Martha Eve and dbcooper at The Prince Albert.
Headlining were Moon Idle, an exciting independent alt rock/trip hop band, who emerged in 2023. Their sound draws on a wide variety of musical styles, including trip-hop, Latin jazz and dream pop. The Brighton four-piece are Quilla Robinson (vocals, keyboard and guitar), Martin Eddington (bass), Jasper Fergus (guitar) and Felix Burton (drums).
The experimental seemingly improvised sounds from Jasper’s guitar and pedal board and Quilla’s keyboard was an interesting intro, before Felix’s drums signalled the start of their first song of an amazing set ‘Avenue’. On this Qualla’s stunning dreamy vocals were sung over laid-back trip hop beats.
A new song ‘Orange’ was played live for the first time. It had many of Moon Idle’s signature sounds, such as Martin’s sublime understated bass lines and Felix’s quality tight drumming. On this, and all songs throughout Moon Idle’s set, each instrument and musician were given a place to shine within the songs, while working together without ever competing for space. Which probably explains why every time I see them play, I discover different parts within their songs. Like LA’s Warpaint in that respect.
‘Moments’ started with Jasper’s distinctive guitar. I’ve heard Quilla sing this beautifully many times, yet her vocals were even better at ‘Homegrown In Bloom’. There was real depth of quality in her voice, with a hauntingly striking solo to her own keyboard at one point, then rising with ease to match the music as the other band members rejoined. The band tweaked this song with more interesting effects from Jasper.
Jasper’s guitar was to the fore with great use of distortion on ‘Godzilla’. Its drums were reminiscent of Massive Attack. Quilla portrayed real emotions in her voice as she softly sang “take the pain away” over the distorted guitars. A little like Just Mustard, without the ear-splitting noise levels. Her haunting keys later in the song added to the pained lyrics, with her vocals rising spectacularly towards the end as if desperate for her words to be heard.
The contrast between Martin’s laid-back bass and Jasper’s intricate guitar worked so well on ‘Seed’, as Quilla sang tenderly hugging her guitar. There was a step change in tempo and volume for the start of ‘Girl In Blue’, while the clever clipped guitar sounds were a key feature on ‘Makeup’. The rise and fall in Quilla’s vocals on those and other songs was impressive and reminded me of Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays.
Moon Idle closed a quite brilliant performance with ‘Gone’. Felix’s upbeat drumming and Martin’s bass were more to the fore, while Jasper added a funkier jangly guitar. Quilla held those long and high notes so well in this song. There were many facets to that astonishing, almost mind boggling, closing number, which further underlined the expansion in Moon Idle’s sound.
The Brighton and Hove News Music Team have been singing the praises of Moon Idle for a while now, but I think that was arguably their best showing. The exciting new songs and interesting additions and tweaks to their older numbers, added more depth and variety to their undoubted quality. Definitely a band on the rise.
Moon Idle:
Quilla Robinson – vocals, keyboard and guitar
Martin Eddington – bass
Jasper Fergus – guitar
Felix Burton – drums
Moon Idle setlist:
‘The Avenue’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Oranges’ (unreleased)
‘Moments’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Godzilla’ (unreleased)
‘Seed’ (unreleased)
‘Girl In Blue’ (unreleased)
‘Makeup’ (from 2023 ‘Kindly’ EP)
‘Gone’ (unreleased)
Opening the evening’s entertainment were new local quartet dbcooper, who are Harvey Dent (guitar and lead vocals), Bailey Kent (lead guitar), Georgia Butler (bass and vocals) and Hannah Websdale (drums). Regular Brighton gig goers may have recognised Hannah as the drummer for Currls, and Georgia as the vocalist and guitarist for ladylike.
dbcooper started their set with an instrumental appropriately entitled ‘Intro’, before Harvey took lead vocals on ‘John Mullaney’s Divorce’ which initially began slowly with bursts of fuzzy guitar sounds. Harvey and Georgia took turns on lead vocals, with Georgia taking over on the dreamy ‘Joker 500’. The shared vocal later in the song worked well as did Hannah’s drumming leading the changes in tempo on this and other songs.
The already packed crowd at The Prince Albert was very appreciative of dbcooper, with loud cheers and applause from early in their set.
With Harvey back on lead vocals for ‘Goosey’ and Georgia for ‘Underwater’, these songs had a fresh 1990’s indie shoegaze feel. Think Slowdive with the volume turned up a bit. For me, dbcooper saved their best to last. ‘Cowboy Moustache’ had more of a direct hard-hitting start, with a slight mystical feel. A dreamier section with Harvey’s soft vocal was followed by a ramped up instrumental section which saw guitarist Bailey playing on their knees while also making maximum use of the effects from their pedal board.
dbcooper ended their set somewhat abruptly without any announcement. I and others were expecting another song, as the band started unplugging their instruments. From the quality of their performance, I and most people there would happily have carried on listening to them.
dbcooper:
Harvey Dent – guitar and lead vocals
Georgia Butler – bass and vocals
Hannah Websdale – drums
Bailey Kent – lead guitar
dbcooper setlist:
‘Intro’ (unreleased)
‘John Mullaney’s Divorce’ (unreleased)
‘Joker 500’ (unreleased)
‘Goosey’ (unreleased)
‘Underwater’ (unreleased)
‘Cowboy Moustache’ (unreleased)
www.instagram.com/whereisdbcooper
Second on stage was London based bedroom pop artist Martha Eve. She was joined by her band of Gabbie (keyboards), Tom (bass) and Jules (drums). Martha set the friendly welcoming tone of her set with a very cheerful “Hello”.
Opening with ‘Little Things’, the audience were hooked from that first song. Martha Eve had a very beautiful dreamy sound, which was a perfect match for Martha’s calm yet sultry vocals. ‘Orange’, an old song, which Martha said they had not played for a while, had a wonderfully laid-back relaxing feel which wouldn’t have been out of place in a late-night jazz club. Martha sang this, and the whole set, with a huge smile, which captured the mood of the evening perfectly. This song had many in the crowd swaying and moving along to the tune.
‘Oh What A Thing’ was introduced as a love song. It began as a solo by Martha with a minimal but fitting bass accompaniment, before the others joined gradually.
Martha commented on how it was good to see the venue “so nice and busy” to placate the title of her next song ‘I Hate This Place’. The thoughtful emotions in Martha’s voice matched the melancholy feel of the music well on this song. It closed with Martha’s and Gabbie’s shared vocals to Gabbie’s keyboard.
Martha had a fit of the giggles during ‘To Be Loved Again’, which given the relaxed friendly mood, somehow seemed to add to the experience. That fun giggling soon spread to the audience. After ‘Cold’ Martha said belatedly that was their last song. That was met by light-hearted mock booing, that the set had finished, and was soon followed by loud cheers from the appreciative crowd who, as I did, thoroughly enjoyed Martha Eve’s performance.
Martha Eve:
Martha Eve – vocals
Gabbie – keyboards and backing vocals
Tom – bass
Jules– drums
Martha Eve setlist:
‘Little Things’ (unreleased)
‘Orange’ (from 2023 ‘Disposable Girl’ EP)
‘Oh What A Thing’ (unreleased)
‘I Hate This Place’ (unreleased)
‘To Be Loved Again’ (unreleased)
‘Cold’ (from 2023 ‘Disposable Girl’ EP)
The bar has been set very high for the ‘Homegrown Festival’. If last Wednesday was anything to go by, Brighton gig goers are in for a real treat at ‘Homegrown’ on Saturday 12th April. You won’t want to miss out, get your tickets HERE.
