ULTRA SUNN + MASSIVE LUXURY OVERDOSE – ALPHABET, BRIGHTON 30.3.24
For tonight’s live music instalment we made our way to Alphabet which is the audio-led venue and hi-fi pub which can be found in central Brighton a stone’s throw away from the main clock tower. Many of you may know the building under its previous guise of the Rialto. The event this evening is one of the first monthly nights being put on by ‘Paradise Noir’ with the first having taken place on Halloween (27th October) last year. Our team were invited to that night, which featured live performances from London based darkwave act Analog Dance as well as Brighton via Bradford industrial dance punk Polite Bureaux, but sadly we were already committed to attend another performance elsewhere in town. However we are aiming to cover Polite Bureaux’s debut album launch show at The Prince Albert on 9th April – Tickets HERE. Shamefully it has taken us 6 months to attend our first ‘Paradise Noir’ live music club night event, but boy what bangin’ lineup it is tonight, with a headlining set coming from ULTRA SUNN and support courtesy of Maximum Luxury Overdose.
Tonight’s Brighton performance from ULTRA SUNN is I believe their first in our city and is one of only three in the country, with the others being last night in London at the Moth Club, and then tomorrow in Sheffield at the ‘Resistanz Festival’. From here they head off and play a host of dates across Europe and North America, including Bologna in Italy, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Paris, Brussels, Berlin and Warsaw in the mix. The tour is to promote their latest nine track release titled ‘US’ which is officially set to drop in various formats on 19th April – Find yours HERE.
We arrived at the Alphabet venue and unlike its previous incarnation, the Rialto, the entrance is not actually at the front of the building, but is now tucked around the right hand side near where Gamley’s toy shop used to be. This made this ‘Paradise Noir’ event feel more secretive and only those in the know would be able to find their way in. There’s no access to the Art Deco bar that the Rialto had, but I hope that it’s just being preserved for posterity behind the barricaded entrances. This was (or hopefully still is) a magnificent room and you felt that you were on an exquisite ocean liner from the 1920’s. Tonight however, it’s a different matter, as once through the door you are signalled to make your way up the steep staircase on the right which brings you out at the back of the high walled performance room. You immediately see the new bar in front of you and then on your left is the lookout post style DJ area above your head. To the front of the room that backs onto the street front is the high-rise stage area. As you would expect, the venue has the vibe of entering a batcave and virtually the only lighting is coming from several vertical thin white lights. It’s just perfect for Brighton’s new monthly Darkwave Club.
The venue fills up relatively quickly with souls of varying ages and style, but black being the colour of clothing of choice. Some have made more efforts than others, but the room is littered with a few glorious peacocks to keep the eyes entertained. Although we obviously have the ‘Spellbound’ nights in town, the nearest I can remember to this evening’s event in Brighton is when I sometimes used to frequent ‘Subterfuge’ which opened in 1981 and was located beneath the Apollo Hotel in Little Preston Street. Club nights would run from 10pm to 2am. Tonight’s doors opened shortly after 10pm and curfew was 3am, so there is a similarity here.
The DJ’s are spinning the usual goth and post punk tunes (cloned from my music collection) including ‘Incubus Succubus’ by Xmal Deutschland, ‘Tension’ by Killing Joke, ‘Lagartija Nick’ and ‘Dark Entries’ by Bauhaus, ‘Temple Of Love’ by The Sisters of Mercy, plus a host of tunes from The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees. These are all obviously enjoyable, but not hitting the darkwave (or industrial) mark like tonight’s bands to be honest. Maybe something more like ‘Stranger’ by Clan Of Xymox, ‘Ritual Noise’ by Covenant, ‘Headhunter’ by Front 242, ‘Neo Geisha’ by Zeromancer, and ‘Unveiling The Secret’ by Psyche would have been great!
We will come to Maximum Luxury Overdose’s opening set shortly, as we skip to the headliners ULTRA SUNN who performed no less than 14 compositions for us lucky punters. Their set lasted exactly 60 minutes, running from 11:17pm to 12:17am. The venue’s sound is great, with the soundsystem speakers situated high above us to either side of the stage, with I suspect other speakers beneath the stage. ULTRA SUNN enter stage left (our right) and as a live band they expand to a trio with Gaelle Souflet on keyboards and Sam Hugé on vocals, being joined by Alexis on keys and Roland drumpads. Both Gaelle and Alexis take to the stage and open with a slow chunky instrumental ‘Intro’ tune. After this track Sam makes his entrance to complete the lineup and they are away with a trio of tunes that segue into each other, beginning with the banging beats of ‘Some Ghosts Could Follow’ which reminds me of the German electronic music duo Seabound. This is the first of no less than 7 tracks from their forthcoming ‘US’ album which (as stated above) is set to drop on 19th April. The second instalment in the medley is ‘Young Foxes’ from their 2021 ‘Body Electric’ extended EP/mini album. The vocals on this EBM banger remind me of Reagan Jones from the band Iris who sadly disbanded in September 2021. The final tune in the medley is ‘The Speed’ which is found on ULTRA SUNN’s ‘Kill Your Idols’ extended EP/mini album from last year. This track benefits from awesome use of both keyboards as well as the repeated lines of “Everything’s the same; Everything’s the same” and “Everything is wrong; Everything is wrong”.
We are located at the very front of the crowd and to be honest, I’m already having a ball and this is only after four tunes! The next three tracks are played separately and all coming from their forthcoming ‘US’ album, beginning with ‘You & Me’ which has an intro that reminds me of Front 242 and then further on in the track, it gives me the similar vibes to the aforementioned Seabound as well as Sweden’s Covenant. Next up is ‘Broken Monsters’ which is another metronomic scorcher, and is followed by the machine gun style intro of ‘This Is Not About You’, which again has a terrific banging beat ahead of a quiet outro.
The next segment of the set features another trio of segued tracks, this time around it kicks off with ‘Lost And Found’ from the forthcoming album. This has a rave style keys signature which is very much welcome by yours truly, and to me it feels like a cross of Belgian New Beat vs VNV Nation. The second tune in the medley is ‘Out Of The Cage’ which can be located on their 2021 ‘Body Electric’ extended EP/mini album. This tune too reminds me of VNV Nation. The final one in this medley is last year’s ‘Can You Believe It’ from their ‘Kill Your Idols’ extended EP/mini album. It’s at this moment in the concert, I honestly start believing that I am watching the best live music that I have enjoyed all year so far. The notes I wrote whilst this track was playing said that this too has the same banging beat with the statement “OMFG!”.
The crowd were well behind the band as well, with many dancing in their different styles and showing their enthusiasm between live music breaks by hollering and clapping. Frontman Sam is certainly milking this and as a result this increases the vibes in the room. Two more songs from the forthcoming ‘US’ album are now given to us back to back, these being ‘The Truth’ and ‘Shake Your Demons’. With the former being a slower starter with bangs and handclaps prior to the Eurobeat sound kicking in. This has the vibe of Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and VNV Nation for me. The latter has a faster delivery which reminds me of Nitzer Ebb and VNV Nation again, that is until the quiet instrumental break which then gave way for a wondrous ‘Born Slippy’ (Underworld) similarity. This was the tune of the night and the deciding factor that I MUST own this forthcoming platter!
Turns out that ‘Shake Your Demons’ was the final number of the main set. We cried for more and were rewarded with two encore tunes, both of which can be found on their ‘Night Is Mine’ extended EP/mini album from back in 2022, these songs being ‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’ and ‘Night Is Mine’. ‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’ is another earworm tune due to its repeated title in the lyrics and ‘Obsession’ (Animotion song) backing beat. It’s chunky keys aplenty for the final number, which is yet another banger. After this the trio, who are suitably dressed in black, take their bows and vacate the stage. I have been to 30 concerts this year prior to this evening’s darkwave bash and ULTRA SUNN have been the most enjoyable thus far! I can’t really say more than that!
ULTRA SUNN:
Gaelle Souflet – keyboards
Sam Hugé – vocals
Alexis – keys, drumpads
ULTRA SUNN setlist:
‘Intro’
‘Some Ghosts Could Follow’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘Young Foxes’ (from 2021 ‘Body Electric’ extended EP/mini album)
‘The Speed’ (from 2023 ‘Kill Your Idols’ extended EP/mini album)
‘You & Me’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘Broken Monsters’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘This Is Not About You’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘Lost And Found’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘Out Of The Cage’ (from 2021 ‘Body Electric’ extended EP/mini album)
‘Can You Believe It’ (from 2023 ‘Kill Your Idols’ extended EP/mini album)
‘The Truth’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
‘Shake Your Demons’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘US’ album)
(encore)
‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’ (from 2022 ‘Night Is Mine’ extended EP/mini album)
‘Night Is Mine’ (from 2022 ‘Night Is Mine’ extended EP/mini album)
As mentioned above, the support tonight came courtesy of Brighton based Coldwave/EBM duo Maximum Luxury Overdose which consists of Lilya (vocals and laptop) and Caitlin (vocals and Squier bass guitar). They started out as a kind of avant garde noise thing and they thought that ‘Massive Luxury Overdose’ would be an amusing band name which they acquired from Swedish Europoppers ‘Army Of Lovers’ 1991 album of the same name. When ‘MLO’ record their material Lilya is in charge of beats and synths as well as half the vocals, and Caitlin is on bass guitar doing the other half of the vocals. They have performed a number of gigs since 2019, but are arguably mainly known as a group whose single releases get played at goth clubs internationally, rather than some hot local live act. Their last gig was on 1st March at ‘Kollaps’ which is a Queercentric Avant-Goth Party Collective and club night that happens at The Brunswick in Hove.
Tonight ‘MLO’ grace the stage at 10:29pm and perform a 7 track set across the next 27 minutes, until 10:56pm. They begin in almost darkness with ‘New Face’ from their 2021 ‘Prey’ single, which sees shared vocals as well as Caitlin’s bass being connected to an effects unit via a chord and the song has a slight gothic Arabic vibe mixed in with Sisters Of Mercy and Clan Of Xymox. This is followed by ‘Goddess’ off of their ‘WORK’ EP from 2020, which begins with some samples and then has a Cabaret Voltaire meets Xmal Deutschland backbeat and then an array of sharp electronic bursts hit my ears. I’m an absolute sucker for these sharp bleeps, which in the past were mastered by the likes of hard CORPS. Interestingly Caitlin is playing her bass with the use of a thin white strip of plastic as she runs it across the strings for an ethereal effect and Lilya delivers the lyrics in German. Track three is newbie ‘Crush’ which has a decent banging backbeat and is on this year’s ‘Electra Complex’ EP. After this we are given ‘Kiss And Tell’ from the same EP. This has a more standard style Depeche Mode beat.
‘Drive’ off of 2022’s ‘Climax’ EP is the duo’s next selection and this too is littered with those sharp electronic bleeps across a banging EDM beat. The thin white strip across the bass strings is back in action again. It’s here that I knew that I had to really endeavour to catch MLO live in action again. They signed off with ‘Huntress’ (from the 2021 ‘Prey’ EP) and ‘Theme From MLO’ (from 2024’s ‘Electra Complex’ EP). For ‘Huntress’ Caitlin played her bass with a violin bow atop the banging beat and Lilya uttered sedcuctive lyrics including “Do you want to go to bed with me”, and the sexy electronic vibe continued into ‘Theme From MLO’ with lyrics referencing “Sex, cocaine every night, every day”. This had been a most enjoyable debut encounter for me, and I trust that it won’t be the last.
Check out their releases on the Bandcamp page HERE.
Massive Luxury Overdose:
Lilya – vocals, beats, synths, laptop
Caitlin – vocals, bass
Massive Luxury Overdose setlist:
‘New Face’ (from 2021 ‘Prey’ single)
‘Goddess’ (from 2020 ‘WORK’ EP)
‘Crush’ (from 2024 ‘Electra Complex’ EP)
‘Kiss And Tell’ (from 2024 ‘Electra Complex’ EP)
‘Drive’ (from 2022 ‘Climax’ EP)
‘Huntress’ (from 2021 ‘Prey’ EP)
‘Theme From MLO’ (from 2024 ‘Electra Complex’ EP)
www.instagram.com/massivelvxuryoverdose
If this sounds like your bag, then the next ‘Paradise Noir’ event happening in Brighton will feature Patriarchy who will be closing their 30 date European tour at the Green Door Store on Sunday 28th April. Support for this night will come from London based artist Fat Concubine.
Patriarchy is a band lead by infamous LA songwriter and director Actually Huizenga, probing the soft underbelly of sex, power, subversion, and death – existing where desire and fear inevitably intertwine. Never shy about confronting the audience with visceral, somewhat unsettling live performances, Patriarchy marries the NSFW carnage with sounds spanning infectious electronic dance, crushing industrial metal, and suffocating experimental noise.
Patriarchy returns a year after their successful debut European tour to revisit some of their favourite places, especially The Netherlands for ‘Roadburn Fest‘, and to destroy some new cities along the way, including their first ever UK shows. Since their last visit, Patriarchy released ‘Forcefully Rearranged’, a collection of 16 remixes that have been taking over DJ sets worldwide – featuring remixes by some of industrial & dark waves favourite names: The Soft Moon, Choke Chain, Automelodi, Mvtant, Odonis Odonis, Rhys Fulber, Spike Hellis and many more.
Purchase your tickets for this night HERE.
