[Music] Albums Thread 2018

[Buzzer]

Numerous people are making the LCD comparison and I must admit don’t fully agree with it. I think my age plays a part here as my reference points go straight to Neu and Kraftwerk and skip past LCD.

What all three of us agree on though, is Hookworms new album is a stonker. I really hope this album takes them to the places they deserve to be in.

And if the think the album is good please please see them live. You will not regret it, this new stuff is just fantastic live.

I definitely get the Neu references. I'd add that I also get similarities to Ou Est Le Swimming Pool.

 

[spring hall convert]

Gives me an excuse to post this. What a performance.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFP3wlEcAUc

 

[Buzzer]

Are we all agreed that January and February so far has produced so much more quality music than last year?

There were great albums in 2017 but an awful lot of so-so music too. More than most years.

 

[Buzzer]

....And chuck Reverend and the Makers into that 'sounds like Hookworms' pot.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Are we all agreed that January and February so far has produced so much more quality music than last year?

There were great albums in 2017 but an awful lot of so-so music too. More than most years.

Yup. Remember that year about 7-8 poss 10 years ago which produced a ridiculous amount of new music? We all discussed and agreed on here. I think this year is going to be same.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Gives me an excuse to post this. What a performance.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFP3wlEcAUc

Is that a Grubbs Burgers tshirt on the drummer?

 

[spring hall convert]

Is that a Grubbs Burgers tshirt on the drummer?

Yup.

As I said above they have a lot of friends down here. Their first EP/ mini-album was released on Faux Discx and they played Brighton loads before the first album proper came out. Jon (pictured rocking said T-Shirt) fronts a wicked band called Cowtown that play down here once or twice a year and whose booking agent is a well known Brighton type. MJ (singer/keys) went out with Alana from Joanna Gruesome, who have big ties in Brighton these days and has also mastered/engineered/produced a number of records for various Brighton underground/ D.I.Y. types.

 

[Buzzer]

Yup. Remember that year about 7-8 poss 10 years ago which produced a ridiculous amount of new music? We all discussed and agreed on here. I think this year is going to be same.

Would that be the year The XX broke through? I recall that was a bumper year for music. Fever Ray, Goldfrapp, John Grant and a fair few others had massive albums around the dame time.

 

[spring hall convert]

Would that be the year The XX broke through? I recall that was a bumper year for music. Fever Ray, Goldfrapp, John Grant and a fair few others had massive albums around the dame time.

I sort of remember the whole block of 2008-10 being very strong but it could just be nostalgia.

 

[Buzzer]

Yup.

As I said above they have a lot of friends down here. Their first EP/ mini-album was released on Faux Discx and they played Brighton loads before the first album proper came out. Jon (pictured rocking said T-Shirt) fronts a wicked band called Cowtown that play down here once or twice a year and whose booking agent is a well known Brighton type. MJ (singer/keys) went out with Alana from Joanna Gruesome, who have big ties in Brighton these days and has also mastered/engineered/produced a number of records for various Brighton underground/ D.I.Y. types.

You're probably the best person to ask this on here. What's the deal with Brighton as being such a major player in the UK music scene nowadays? It seems to have shaken off it's long-held reputation for being a town that had bands with potential but lacked the hunger (or this is how it seemed to me).

The Great Escape and Resident Records are certainly big players in their respective circles and that's got to be a big draw for the town but is it the BIMM that's the biggest diffference? I notice that the likes of Simon Price lectures at BIMM so I'm guessing that a lot of youngsters are getting a huge help in discovering old(er) bands that they can draw influence from.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Finally downloaded her new album, Architect.
Still a fantastic singer.

 

[spring hall convert]

You're probably the best person to ask this on here. What's the deal with Brighton as being such a major player in the UK music scene nowadays? It seems to have shaken off it's long-held reputation for being a town that had bands with potential but lacked the hunger (or this is how it seemed to me).

The Great Escape and Resident Records are certainly big players in their respective circles and that's got to be a big draw for the town but is it the BIMM that's the biggest diffference? I notice that the likes of Simon Price lectures at BIMM so I'm guessing that a lot of youngsters are getting a huge help in discovering old(er) bands that they can draw influence from.

I think you've hit the two big nails on the head as it goes.

It seems to me that The Great Escape was the biggest factor;

- Opened up new/exisiting venues to the possibility of doing live music there.
- Provided a platform (now mainly through The Alt Escape) for local bands to achieve national recognition.
- The idea of moving to Brighton to 'make it' became a thing.

BIMM for all its faults, at the very least provided an overflowing well of competent musicians. In addition, the music business side of things is very well catered for there and those kids have started promoting gigs, running venues, managing acts etc......

Though none of this happens without a strong underground and a network of independent promoters. My worry is that Brighton starts to become a less desirable place to come to in comparison to Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester etc... because it's so expensive to live here. We've benefited undoubtedly from London becoming undesirable for precisely that reason.

My friends' band who have just been signed by a locally based national label that you'll all know were on the verge of moving away because for all the opportunity that was coming their way by virtue of being part of such a thriving scene, they just weren't getting time to write and record due to having to survive. When asked what they wanted by the label, they just said 'a bit of time (to record their album properly), we've got everything else.'

I remember when I was 18 (around 2000), you were lucky if there was a decent show here every week. Now it's rare there isn't something worth doing every night.

 

[Buzzer]

Cheers for the prompt and full response. I get your worry about it being expensive to live down here but that's surely if you're buying. Is it any more expensive to rent as a student than it ever has been? Genuine question as I don't know the answer.

What does fill me with hope that it continues to thrive is that although BIMM is producing some prodigious talent (Tigercub, IYES) it's also coming from the universities (Dream Wife, Esben and the Witch) and elsewhere in Sussex getting drawn into Brighton (Royal Blood, Rag n Bone Man, Oddfellow's Casino, Tusks). Also we do seem to have a lot more venues for live music than, say, 10-15 years ago (or maybe that's me misremembering) and often very affordable. The Green Door and Haunt often have bands on for well under a tenner.

 

[Machiavelli]

Cheers for the prompt and full response. I get your worry about it being expensive to live down here but that's surely if you're buying. Is it any more expensive to rent as a student than it ever has been? Genuine question as I don't know the answer.

What does fill me with hope that it continues to thrive is that although BIMM is producing some prodigious talent (Tigercub, IYES) it's also coming from the universities (Dream Wife, Esben and the Witch) and elsewhere in Sussex getting drawn into Brighton (Royal Blood, Rag n Bone Man, Oddfellow's Casino, Tusks). Also we do seem to have a lot more venues for live music than, say, 10-15 years ago (or maybe that's me misremembering) and often very affordable. The Green Door and Haunt often have bands on for well under a tenner.

Yes. It really is much more expensive to rent here than elsewhere, London excepted of course.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Cheers for the prompt and full response. I get your worry about it being expensive to live down here but that's surely if you're buying. Is it any more expensive to rent as a student than it ever has been? Genuine question as I don't know the answer.

What does fill me with hope that it continues to thrive is that although BIMM is producing some prodigious talent (Tigercub, IYES) it's also coming from the universities (Dream Wife, Esben and the Witch) and elsewhere in Sussex getting drawn into Brighton (Royal Blood, Rag n Bone Man, Oddfellow's Casino, Tusks). Also we do seem to have a lot more venues for live music than, say, 10-15 years ago (or maybe that's me misremembering) and often very affordable. The Green Door and Haunt often have bands on for well under a tenner.

I’ve heard rent for students is very high due to the city being quite small in relative terms but having two universities and a big county hospital fuelling demand for student accom.

 

[Buzzer]

Yes. It really is much more expensive to rent here than elsewhere, London excepted of course.

I recognise that it's expensive but from my renting days I remember it's always been like that so I was wondering if it's got any worse comparatively in the last few years. Once again, I've no agenda here, it's a genuine question because there doesn't seem to be any massive change in the Brighton demographic recently.

 

[Buzzer]

I’ve heard rent for students is very high due to the city being quite small in relative terms but having two universities and a big county hospital fuelling demand for student accom.

The universities having built a fair chunk of student housing: Co-Op in London Rd, Vogue Gyratory and there's more to come by the Market Diner and the Lewes Rd barracks. Saying that though, the council is clamping down very heavily on multiple occupancy conversions around my way (Elm Grove/Lewes Road) and the high property prices and ever stricter buy-to-let tax rules are seeing a lot of these houses sold and converted back to family houses.

 

[Machiavelli]

I recognise that it's expensive but from my renting days I remember it's always been like that so I was wondering if it's got any worse comparatively in the last few years. Once again, I've no agenda here, it's a genuine question because there doesn't seem to be any massive change in the Brighton demographic recently.

Broadly, the population -- in no small part driven by students -- has crept up, while the number of properties available hasn't kept pace. Students are regularly paying £500 a month rent. When I was one, I was paying £30 in Portsmouth.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The universities having built a fair chunk of student housing: Co-Op in London Rd, Vogue Gyratory and there's more to come by the Market Diner and the Lewes Rd barracks.

True. I think student numbers have been increasing as well though. I did a quick Google but couldn’t find anything to back this up.

 

[Buzzer]

True. I think student numbers have been increasing as well though. I did a quick Google but couldn’t find anything to back this up.

They are increasing and expected to continue to rise. I did some work up at Sussex Uni last year and this was widely repeated as a major reason for the major projects to build student housing.