Category: BR Content

Review by John Noblet

A woefully undocumented aspect of Birmingham’s music scene (but also one of the richest) is it’s Reggae, and all it’s glorious offshoots. And before you scream UB40…

July’s Simmer Down Festival attracted thousands of happy participants and a legendary Jamaican headliner, Half Pint, to Handsworth Park. However outside a few online listings and suburban websites you’ll find barely a mention.

Organisations including Jam Jar and Friendly Fire promote a constant schedule of Reggae artists and events without much mainstream support, whilst Steel Pulse remain unrecognised by the Birmingham Walk of Stars – all as Birmingham’s music press are busily rehashing the latest bloodless, NME sanctioned trend. Again.

1EYE are a part of Birmingham’s  Reggae scene that deserve attention, primarily because they have great songs delivered with a cheeky, easy going charisma that you’d have to work hard to resist. And it’s all here tonight at the Hare and Hounds; even though, to start with, it seems as if circumstances are working against them.

The Hare & Hounds crowd feel a bit unresponsive at first, although this could be more to do with problems with the microphone – lead singer Dex delivers a full verse or so that’s completely inaudible. That sort of thing will confuse most audiences. But thankfully, the technical issues get sorted out fairly quickly, the band act like there’s nothing to worry about, and the crowd start to warm up.

1EYE’s influences are fairly obvious – the kind of seventies Reggae that’s now thought of as ‘classic’. And they’re so good at replicating this sort of sound that if John Holt were to come back from the dead, or Ken Boothe were in the UK on tour, 1EYE would make a comfortable backing band. As they did supporting Jimmy Cliff in 2012.

However, 1EYE are far from a bunch of faceless session musicians – the brass section are particularly watchable; all daft suits, silly dances and unbeatable solos. A good front man will make or break any a band and 1EYE have two.

Alek could be the kind of guy you bring “if you want to say something without talking”; such is the man’s size. But he’s the sweet voiced singer of the band, looking positively adorable is his pastel blue jacket and white vest combination. Whilst Dex is smaller, darker skinned, and the MC; his face twitching in time to the music whenever he’s not on the mic.

On top of all this you’ve got two female backing singers adding sweet harmonies, keyboards and the kind of tight rhythm section that these sorts of bands can’t function without. It’s such a full sound that adding another musician on stage could be overkill.

Of course, it’s all over too quickly – and the last song of the night is the closest 1EYE have had to a hit so far, ‘Mr Bailiff’. BBC 1 Xtra’s Reggae pundit, David Rodigan, has described ‘Mr Baliff’ as having “serious pop cross over potential”; or if played at a family wedding it could get everyone dancing and still retain credibility.

So yeah, 1EYE played a great set. My only criticism is that at fifty minutes, I could have easily taken another half an hour or so. However, if you have even a passing interest in Reggae or Two Tone you’re making your life more miserable than it needs to be by not checking them out.

And even if you don’t, even if you’ve never been to a Reggae gig before, 1EYE are a gloriously accessible place to start. I’ll see you down the front.

For more on 1EYE, visit http://www.1eyeuk.com/

For further gigs at the Hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/

Above pic by R. Herdman

Seven dates into her Autumn/Winter tour of the UK, France and Germany, Daisy Chapman comes back to the Ort Café in Balsall Heath – performing on Weds Sept 14^th.

Armed with powerful vocals and her ‘trusted touring Roland RD-170’, the aspiring waitress from Bristol will be back in Birmingham for her first gig since the summer.

Having last played at the Ort Café in June, Ms Chapman (and band..? We’re not 100% sure) is (are?) still touring Europe with a now much more appropriate seasonal offering – her second studio album, Shameless Winter.

Produced by Ali Chant at Toybox Studios, who has recently produced Willy Moon and Gruff Rhys – as well as engineering for KT Tunstall, PJ Harvey and M. Ward, Shameless Winter is a 10 track delivery of piano led melodies and strong vocals.

Successor to her 10 track debut LP, The Green Eyed – released in 2010, Ms Chapman’s latest work was reportedly written on ‘on the road, whilst touring’; with the title track inspired by the Bristol home she often leaves and returns to.

Other songs have been born from personal or adopted experiences, including tales of Titanic survivors and the film Schindler’s List; with a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Disarm’ also featured.

Shameless Winter is Ms Chapman’s second album released through Dandyland, the German imprint she signed to whilst at university.

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Daisy Chapman Band will be performing at the Ort Café on Weds Sept 14^th – with support from Rhiannon Mair. Performances start from 8pm, with an entry charge of £4. Ed King will be there for a Birmingham Review

For further details of this gig, plus other listings from the Ort Café, visit http://ortcafe.co.uk/?page_id=304

For more on Daisy Chapman, including digital purchases of her entire solo portfolio, visit http://www.daisychapman.com

1EYE return to the Hare & Hounds on Saturday Sept 14^th, playing their first show at the Kings Heath venue since July.

Taking influences from artists such as John Holt, Ken Boothe and The Heptones, 1EYE have established their name on both the Birmingham Reggae and live circuits.

Boasting an ‘exciting new Reggae show’ 1EYE have built a reputation for high energy performances. Although how much ‘its sweet sounds and skanking licks will take you back to a classic Kingston vibe’ Birmingham Review cannot confirm, but would certainly welcome as September sets in.

Featuring a full line up of ten, 1EYE has a significant array of members – with many having established musical avenues outside of the band. Brothers Alek and Andy (1EYE’s lead vocals and saxophone) often appear as Plan B’s brass section, and were featured in the official video to ‘Love Goes Down’.

And whilst 1EYE’ssophomore album, Worries & Trouble, is still yet to be released – their debut, Whiskey Business, earned them support slots with Toots and the Maytals, UB40 and Musical Youth.

But it was perhaps their support of Jimmy Cliff’s UK tour in May 2012 that achieved the band’s most widespread attention to date – opening up for the legendary Cliff in Glasgow, London and at the Birmingham Ballroom.

1EYE will be performing at the Hare & Hounds on Saturday Sept 14^th, with local support from vocalists Keziasoul and Metz Jnr. DJ Neeko will also be playing Reggae and Dancehall.

John Noblet will be there for a Birmingham Review.

For more on 1EYE at the Hare & Hounds on Saturday Sept 14^th, including tickets, http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/event/?eventID=10028127

For more on 1EYE, visit http://www.1eyeuk.com/

For further gigs at the Hare & Hounds, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/event-listings/

Review by Matthew Osborne

“It sounds like they’re trying to land a plane in there,” exclaims Heather as she returns from the bathroom. She is referring to the way every wall in the building is vibrating, under a sonic assault from the terrifying sample box belonging to The Haxan Cloak.

“Still, at least I didn’t have to queue,” she says, nestling in beside me at a table we’ve procured in a dark corner of the room. She has a point, the female make up of tonight’s audience is noticeably thin on the ground, and I count only seven women besides Heather.

I admit, it was an unusual choice for date night; The Haxan Cloak followed by the similarly impenetrable and frequently unutterable F*ck Buttons. However, Heather had come with an open mind and so together we try to get into the avant-garde showpiece.

Although arriving a few minutes late was like entering a scene from a horror movie; there were no bloody corpses, but there was a real sense that if we didn’t stick together there might be.

I’ve always been open to scary music, and The Haxan Cloak’s Excavation will be another album I can add to the collection which comes out once in a while when I feel in the mood for a good dose of irrational fear and paranoia. I was hoping his live show would be something of an experience, equally as theatrical and menacing as the record, with a stage presence to enhance it.

But even though we watch The Haxan Cloak for his entire set, not once do we see his face. He is always looking down at his laptop/sample pad box of electronic tricks, and (save for some lighting) that is the extent of his live show.

Groups of men chat audibly over the music (probably about music) and despite Bobby Krlic’s attempts to bring it up to at least a dancing tempo on the odd occasion, the terrifying experience I had been hoping for is lost in the live setting.

(If you do want a terrifying experience, then I highly recommend listening to The Haxan Cloak after dark whilst walking through Canon Hill Park or any other wooded area. I thought I’d never get my briefs back to their brilliant white colour after that little excursion)

Next up on mine and Heather’s avant-garde date night was the frequently asterisked Fuck B*tton*; who, despite that moniker and the uncompromising wall of sound they call their music, made it to number 36 in the UK albums chart with their most recent album, Slow Focus. No mean feat considering the obstacles they’ve put in their place (the potentially alienating name and noise) and I was keen to get to the bottom of this emerging phenomenon.

Two guys turn up on stage – let’s call them Andrew and Ben – and despite the presence of a floor tom, open up with a sampled loop of the percussive album opener ‘Brainfreeze’. I quickly begin wondering why we watch these laptop acts in live settings, when standing in any room where the music is played VERY LOUDLY and accompanied by a light show would have an almost identical effect.

But despite a stage presence only a few notches up from The Haxan Cloak’s, there is something about Andrew and Ben’s performance which makes for a more immersive experience.

I find that by the second or third tune I become so absorbed that when I lean over to say something in Heather’s ear, she had gone missing. How could I have let this happen, on date night of all nights?

Fuck Bu**ons deal in great slabs of sound, as though they were loitering around at the fall of the Berlin Wall, and whilst David Hasslehoff crooned Germany into a brighter future were busy packing the most emotionally significant bits of rock into rucksacks. Then, through a number of processes too complex for me to explain, turned them into sound.

At extremely high volumes and with the right kind of visuals, there is something hypnotic about their music. There is also something quite unifying about FB, and this becomes apparent as the crowd slowly begin to rock to and fro as one entity.

I notice a lot of screaming down microphones from Andrew and Ben (though I wouldn’t have, had I not actually seen them screaming) their voices warped into some unholy winged predator, hungrily circling carrion. I can only imagine what they were howling, but some wordless message is conveyed to each of us standing there, oblivious that our partners had perhaps gone elsewhere.

Heather comes back before the end of the set; she had been trying out different areas of the room to see which spots gave the best sounds. So we stand in her pick of the optimum zones for the encore, which finishes in such a shrill wall of static that neither of us can hear the other during the drive home.

With this in mind, I would not recommend The Haxan Cloak nor Fuc* Butto*s for a date night.

But I would recommend The Haxan Cloak for headphone listening on night time walks, and FB for any existential crises encountered when forced to attend a gig by oneself.

Slow Focus, Fuck Buttons’ third studio album, is out now. For more details, alongside digital downloads, visit http://fuckbuttons.com/

For further gig listing at the Institute, visit http://mamacolive.com/theinstitute/listings/

Kicking off a worldwide tour, Fuck Buttons will be performing at the Birmingham Institute on Sunday Sept 8^th.

On the road with their third album, Slow Focus – released in July 2013, the Bristolian (it’s a word) button bashers will be moving up through England to Glasgow, over to Dublin and then back to Blighty for their final gig at Camden’s Electric Ballroom on Sept 17^th. Oddly, a Bristol date has not been confirmed.

Fuck Buttons will then play 15 dates across Europe and 10 dates across North America, before finishing their album tour at the Release the Bats festival in Melbourne on Oct 26^th.

Fuck Buttons formed in 2004, after Andrew Hung met Benjamin John Power at art school in Bristol.

After signing to ATP Recordings in 2007, Fuck Buttons released their first single through the label later that year – a tough wall of sound 7” titled ‘Bright Tomorrow’.

Starting with a standard 4 beat pentametre, and building into a synthesised cacophony with tortured screams underpinning the penultimate minute, ‘Bright Tomorrow’ set a precedent.  Fuck Buttons followed their debut single with ‘Colours Move’, an equally aggressive electronic assault – released on 12” and digital in early 2008.

Fuck Button’s debut album, a six track LP titled Street Horrrsing, was released in March the same year – with Mogwai guitarist, John Cummings, as producer.

The duo recruited Andrew Weatherall to work on their next album, Tarot Sport, which was released through ATP in October 2009.

Slow Focus, Fuck Button’s third album, was produced by Hung and Power themselves – and was released in July 2013. Slow Focus maintains the pneumatic beat driven backbone, behind fierce layers of sound, which have defined Fuck Buttons since their inception.

Fuck Buttons begin their worldwide tour, to promote Slow Focus, at the Birmingham Institute on Sunday Sept 8^th, with support from The Haxan Cloak. Matthew Osborne will be there for a Birmingham Review.

For more on Fuck Buttons at the Institute on Sept 8th, including info and tickets, visit http://mamacolive.com/theinstitute/listings/upcoming-events/15631/fck-buttons-special-guests/

For further gig listings at the Institute, visit http://mamacolive.com/theinstitute/listings/

For more on Fuck Buttons, visit http://fuckbuttons.com/