Category: BPreviews

Words by Ed King – follow him @EdKing2210 / Pics provided by Project SoundLounge

Project SoundLounge kicks off its three day festival tonight (Fri 8^th – Sun 10^thAug), promoting free concerts on a series of stages in & around the Birmingham Town Hall.

Starting with a four bill line up at the Town Hall, the first night of Project SoundLounge Festival 2014 presents a mix of live music, dance and performance.

Soul is high on the agenda, with local ensemble Antelope and solo artist Lumi HD both performing, alongside the seasoned Jazz/Blues/Gospel pianist Emmanuel Waldron.

The Forgotten Fairgound will also perform their twelve artist collaboration (nine musicians, three dancers) which explores ‘the theme of childhood imagination’. All gigs are free, with the Town Hall doors opening at 7pm.

But what is the Project SoundLounge Festival? The website tells us it ‘is an innovative and ambitious project model that places young people at the centre of the organisation’ – working with THSH to give them ‘the skills to shape and brand the youth programme (at THSH) whilst developing their skills as cultural leaders.’

So that’s a lot of boxes ticked.

The reality, the part of this that will give these ‘young people’ any real ‘skills as cultural leaders’ in the commercial world of music, the one that stands on its own two feet, is the line up – and that’s what attracted Birmingham Review’s attention in the first place. A bill so solid, in fact, that the free element initially passed us by. Project SoundLounge Festival 2014 just merited attention.

“The aim of the festival is to showcase Birmingham’s freshest emerging music talent of all genres,” explains the Project SoundLounge Festival team, “whilst giving young creatives the opportunity to programme, produce and promote a real music festival.” Plus they get to toy around with the Town Hall, not a bad stage to cut your promotional teeth on. But who’s the audience?

“We want to give the young people of Birmingham a chance to get involved with our city’s music scene and discover bands they might not have otherwise heard, which is why we were keen to make it a free event, so that everyone can just come along and listen to the amazing talent Birmingham has to offer.”

If someone mentions age again I might just give up; it’s a good line up, one that arguably justifies the event hyperbole or even a door charge. But with a team of nine (or seven, depending on which part of the website you read) all pitching in, and more than a few musicians knocking around this fair city, was it difficult to tie down the programme?

“Programming for the festival began with all team members proposing 10-15 local artists of different genres each, who they would like to see perform. We ended up with a database of much more than 15 artists each, so the three members heading up programming then took responsibility to whittle it down, find out artist availability, and shape a suitable and varied programme for the festival.” Ah democracy… Were there genre squabbles, a touch of plutonic nepotism? Was this lesson one?

“As a team, we are all interested in different genres of music, and were keen that the festival should reflect this diversity.” ARRGGHHH, NOT THE ‘D’ WORD… “We decided each day should therefore have a particular genre in mind; we planned for Friday to be jazz and soul, Saturday to be an eclectic carnival theme, and Sunday to be jazz and folk.”

And, to us at least, it’s a respectable representation; were the festival team happy with the end programme?  “On the whole, we’ve managed to deliver a programme relatively true to this initial idea – of course, the programming team did experience some difficulties here with artist availability, but it was all part of the learning experience for us.” The joys of diary juggling; there’s lesson one.

But the Project SoundLounge Festival has something to tempt the acts they approach – namely the Town Hall stage, or the very visible city centre locations they are hosting the Saturday shows in; exposure, and how to pitch it. So there’s lesson two.

Performing at the Town Hall tonight are Antelope – an eight piece ensemble playing across genres from D’n’B to Jazz, with a touch of ‘Midland’s Soul’; music to “get people up and moving” explains singer, Taan Parisse.

“We were approached by two of the Project SoundLounge team asking us take part and we were all over it,” continues Parisse. “We have a few pals who were involved in the festival last year that had a blast so being asked to headline this Friday is great. We haven’t played in Birmingham for a while; (tonight) we’ll be playing some tracks off both our 1st and 2nd EP’s as well as some tracks we haven’t showcased in Brum yet.”

Also on tonight’s Town Hall bill is Lumi HD, a Birmingham based Soul singer who “played at Sound Lounge Festival last year at the Symphony Hall Foyer, loved it and fortunately was invited back this year.”  Any changes in approach, now that you’re performing in the Town Hall? “I’ll be playing with the full(ish) band – which I love to do – a mix of tunes from my current EP, covers and fresh unheard songs of mine. It’s all quite ambient, at times moody, but should hopefully be a solid set.”

So far so good, with a respectable array of acts to cover the remaining weekend. Performing in the REP Theatre mezzanine, on Saturday afternoon – from 4pm onwards, is Hansu-Tori; a five piece Jazz ensemble with ‘a sound cleverly composed and layered with keys, trumpet, electronics, alto sax, bass and drums.’

Headed by pianist David Grey, a man who’s earned his musical stripes, Hansu-Tori “think the festival will showcase the high calibre music that’s coming out of the city. I hope it will encourage people to seek out vibrant new artists and support the live music that’s happening around them.”

And what can we expect from the quintet on Saturday? “We’ll be performing material from out new album ‘An Improvised Escape’ due for release in September.” Plugged like a professional; to get familiar with some more from David Grey, click on the links for a Birmingham Review of The Dark Red Room album and gig supporting Shabaha Hutchings & the Son of Kemet.

But to close the three day festival, Sunday reclaims the Town Hall stage with another four act line up; not a bad Sunday night gig for any local artist. “I’m pretty sure that we applied to play last year’s festival,” explains Rosie from The Mourning Suns – who make up ¼ of the final show, “and have been asked back for 2014.”

“We will be performing a set of our own songs,” continues Rosie, “mostly songs that will be featured on our album – to hopefully come out in October, but we might throw in a new one or two.

A few of us, including me, haven’t played at Birmingham Town Hall yet, and we are just thrilled to be doing so. Also, this show happens to be the last of our Summer tour shows, so I think our performance will have a nice vibe about it.”

And as for the Project SoundLounge Festival, which is now in its second year? “I hope it grows and grows, it’s a great thing for musicians in Birmingham.”

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Project SoundLounge Festival ’14 starts at the Town Hall tonight, continuing across various venues throughout the weekend (Fri 8^th – Sun 10^th August). All gigs are free – for further information, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/event/project-soundlounge/

For more on Project SoundLounge, visit http://projectsoundlounge.co.uk/

For more from the Tonw & Symphony Halls, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/ 

 

 

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Project SoundLounge Festival ’14 / Full line up – with links (where possible)

Town Hall, Friday 8 August, 7pm
Antelope
Emmanuel Waldron
The Forgotten Fairground
Lumi HD

Brindleyplace, Saturday 9 August, 1pm
Lobster
Beat Root
.44 Pistol

The Rep, Mezzanine, Saturday 9 August, 4pm
Hansu-Tori
Dantanna
Deaf Inspector

Town Hall, Sunday 10 August, 4pm
Boat to Row
Bonfire Radicals
The Mourning Suns
Tom Walker Trio

Louise Petit returns to Ort Café* tonight, with support from Jayne Powell + Daniel Sweeney. Doors open at 8:30pm, admission is £5.

Since the late 90’s, musical descriptions have generally been a teenage mugging of adjectives and nouns. But Louise Petit’s self declared ‘Folk tinged alt-Pop loveliness’ is as appropriate as you can get.

The Staffordshire singer/songwriter first blipped onto Birmingham Review’s radar just under a year ago; again playing at Ort Café, Petit was out in the real world promoting her Make a House a Home EP – a live endevour, recorded at ‘a secret house concert’ in April ‘13. It was a beautiful England summer evening, and as the rain lashed down the urine/smog coating of a battered No50 – actually reaching the gig got harder and harder.

It was Birmingham Review’s first coverage of Ort Café too, but by the time ‘soft’, ‘sincere’ and ‘red wine in a mug’ had been scribbled in a notebook (and our editor was safely tucked up in the venue’s last available chair) all was right with the world. There was even singing – and not just on stage.

Louise Petit and her accompaniment, Russ Sargeant (double bass/vocals) and Tim Heymerdinger (percussion/vocals), are a joy to watch; refined and skillful in all the right places. Petit’s lyrics lift her once again above the current Folk fallacies, and despite a disturbing penchant for Yuletide knitwear her public portfolio to date has been pretty exemplary.

Plus she has an album out too – Louder Than Your Drum, which will most likely be the centrepiece to this year’s touring. So in short, you’d be pushed to find a better time to see Louise Petit perform or to see her perform again.

Read Birmingham Review previous coverage of Louise Petit:

Louise Petit @ Ort Café, Sat 10^th Aug 2013

Louise Petit @ Ort Café, Sat 1^st Mar 2014

Louise Petit will be supported by Jayne Powell and Daniel Sweeney – in a change from the previously booked Debbie Kate.

Jayne Powell last played at Ort Café on Friday 4^th July, headlining with South Carolina’s Rachel & Friend in support. Powell had been on a ‘productive hiatus’ for a few years and is now back in the saddle after ‘setting up her power trio’.

Punching out Bluesy Americana, with a strong vocal lead that’s reminiscent (to us) of Aimee Mann (no bad thing), Powell has played with many of the great, good and good God not again of the Birmingham gig circuit – a bill with Louse Petit should be a memorable blend.

Daniel Sweeney is one third of Moseley’s Sylvia, who are currently working on their second album – scheduled for release later this year. Sylvia are a thoughtful withdrawal from the Pop/Blues/Folk/Monsters on the rest tonight’s bill, with Sweeney’s high end vocals leading their more delicate laments.

Not much more we can say on Sweeney as a solo artist, at this point, other than a strong suspicion that if autonomy’s going to work for him it’ll work at Ort Café.

Louise Petit return to Ort Café tonight, with support from Jayne Powell + Daniel Sweeney. Doors open at 8:30pm, admission is £5. For more info, visit http://ortcafe.co.uk/

*Ort Café closes from & including, 9^th to 25^th August

 

 

For more on Louise Petit, visit http://louisepetit.com/

For more on Jayne Powell, visit http://jaynepowell.co.uk/

For more on Sylvia/Daniel Sweeney, visit http://thisissylvia.com/

Subvert Soundsytem return to the Wagon & Horses in Digbeth tonight (Fri 25^th July), presenting live sets from Dantanna, Culture Dub Orchestra & Malarky, with DJ Christy. The night runs from 9pm to 3am with a £5 door charge.

Champions of the DIY party scene, Subvert reportedly started out as ‘a pair of JBL Control 10 speakers’ back in 2003; not much risk of Funktion-One nose bleed, but gets the job done.

Now ‘broadcasting’ through a stacked out touring rig & desk, the Midland’s based Soundsystem have been hosting parties that cut across Punk, Reggae, Ska and Dub – featuring local live acts alongside the occasional interloper.

Firm at the helm tonight are Dantanna, who first blipped on Birmingham Review’s screen thanks to John Noblet – read his last review of Dantanna here, from Subvert Soundsystem @ Wagon & Horse, Sat 29^th March.

Having over doubled (just) in size since conception, Dantanna now boast eleven members – playing their self described ‘music for cock knockers and party people’. And with nearly half of them on vocals at one point or another you can imagine how crowded the front of a Dantanna stage can get.

But they work, and they work hard; fronted by the illustrious Dan Skins, Dantanna are seldom far from some gig somewhere – maintaining a near constant presence on our aforementioned radar.

But see for yourself – watch Dantanna play at Manchester’s Band on the Wall below:

In support, well part of it, are Culture Dub Orchestra (CDO) – a six piece Midland’s ensemble, who came together from other musical endevours just over a year ago. And despite the seeming trend to call everything an ‘orchestra’ CDO defend their moniker with a bevy of accompaniment.

Plus Dub is right at the heart of them, with the importance of delivering it live also a key component. Taking inspiration from a spread of cultures and traditions, CDO present themselves as something defiantly worth a watch. But again, see for yourself below.

Culture Dub Orchestra @ The Bull’s Head

Bringing up the rear tonight are Malarky, a five piece mash up of Ska, Rock, Dub and approaches to hair. Stealing Tamar ‘Juganaut’ Bedward from the Dantanna line up there’s a strong Rap contingent to them now too. And as the promoters of tonight’s gig themselves admit, Malarky are a fusion of ‘punk, funk, ragga and something I’m not quite sure of but its good’. Fu*k it. Sold.

Watch Malarky on Gibbon TV, click here or on the image below:

Subvert Soundsytem present Dantanna, Culture Dub Orchestra & Malarky, with DJ Christy – at the Wagon & Horses in Digbeth tonight (Fri 25^th July). 9pm to 3am with a £5 door charge. For further info, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1508369529379325/

 

 

For more on Dantanna, visit http://dantanna.co.uk/

For more on Culture Dub Orchestra, visit http://www.cultureduborchestra.com/

For more on Malarky, visit http://malarkeyband.wix.com/malarkey

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For more on Subvert Soundsystem, visit https://www.facebook.com/SubvertSoundsystem

For more on the Wagon & Horses, visit http://www.wagonandhorsesdigbeth.com/