Category: CULTURE (2022)

Words by Ed King / Pics and artwork supplied by Kikimora

On Saturday 23 March, Kikimora will be holding their second event at The Yard in Moseley – the longstanding garden centre on Oxford Road that those crazy Kikimora kids have renamed Babicabin (which we think is possibly a smidge better name than The Yard… I mean, come on).

Tickets are priced at £8.50, not bad for a Saturday night out, and can be purchased here: www.kikimorarecords.com/live/babicabin-ii

This time the event is called Night of the Moth – in part, because moths are a vibrant and mysterious creature that spreads their wings and declare their colours to the cosmos at night.

And in other parts, because their showing The Rebirth of Mothra – the 1996 Japanese kaiju film about a giant three-headed space dragon and a mother/son fighting family of super moths. Oh, and there will be facepainting. So, you know, something for all.

But the real reason is the premiere of Rosie Tee’s music video for her latest single, ‘Night Creature’, which is set for release on Monday 25 March – out on Kikimora Records, which was set up by Rosie Tee and Emily Doyle in 2023.

Kikimora are a new local imprint and collective of creatives who ‘are growing a fruitful community of artists and listeners’ and ‘produce enchanting events’. Which they are, and they do. They also really like mushrooms.

(Click here to read our interview with Rosie and Emily about Kikimora, conducted in Moseley Bog in October last year – and we apologise for the Exorcist-type photography… our DSLR had seen better days.)

We’ve had a sneak peak at the video for ‘Night Creature’ and it’s definitely worth checking out, and very much at home amongst avant garde arts and crafts and a battle to the death between mythical creatures. And as embarrassing as this is for people who write for a living, we’re struggling to properly describe it – although references to The Blair Witch Project, Daft Punk, Willy Wonka’s staff, and Peter Greenaway did appear in our draft copy.

But direct form the source, Kikimora describe the video for ‘Night Creature’ thus: “Filmed by our good friends Broaden in the grounds of an ex-garden centre, it’s equal parts Blair Witch and Mighty Boosh.

“Follow Rosie into a party in a remote forest. Creatures real and imagined scurry amongst the neon lights and pulsing synthesisers, all set to a bouncing bassline…”

So, we got the Blair Witch bit right. Probably a good idea to head over to The Yar… achem, Babicabin on Saturday to find a description for yourself. And if you get really stuck, there will be a Q&A with Rosie Tee, director George Webster, and producer Bryony Simcox after the screening.

Hyperbole and anecdotes aside, the last event at Babicabin, Moths of the Moon, was a real special treat – click here to see our coverage of it.

Kikimora pride themselves in creating events which are friendly, fun, and fantastically more creative than your standard night out. So, on our hearty recommendation, it would be a good idea to just go and embrace all that is (literally and figuratively) on the table. We are pretty sure you won’t regret it.

More to come on the releases from Kikimora too, as Rosie Tee’s album that features ‘Night Creature’ will be released in April.

In the meantime, because we’re not allowed to jump the gun and show you the video for ‘Night Creature’ – which you really should watch – here’s a clip of a giant moth tragically giving up her life to save her lava son… at least, we think that’s what’s going on. Enjoy.

Rebirth of Mothra (Mothra’s death)

Night of the Moth comes to the Babicabin/The Yard on Oxford Rd in Moseley on Saturday 23 March – with tickets priced at £8.50. For more information and link to online tickets visit: www.kikimorarecords.com/live/babicabin-ii

For more on Kikimora visit www.kikimorarecords.com or follow them on Instagram at www.instagram.com/kikimorarecords

Words by Ed King / Pics by Connor Pope

Hundreds of people joined in solidarity with Palestine on Thursday 2 November, as a peaceful protest was staged at New Street Station – aiming to cause ‘mass disruption’ at the busy commuter hotspot.

Protest organisers were building on the momentum and attention gained by a similar protest at Liverpool Street Station in London on 31 October, calling for the UK government and Westminster to use their position on the global stage to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip – one of the two Palestinian territories in the Middle East, alongside the West Bank.

Organisers further called for the international community to stop their arms trade with Israel, which according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) generated £387 million for Britian through issued Single Individual Export Licenses (SIELs) from 2016 to 2020.

Ahead of the New Street Station demonstration, organisers expressed thanks to organisations Jewish Voice for Peace (United States) and Sisters Uncut – the latter a UK based charity ‘taking direct action for domestic violence services’ who were involved in the Liverpool Street Station protest.

Reports claim the protest began at around 4pm, with the final attendees having left the station by 8pm. Birmingham Review could find no significant incidents from the Birmingham New Street demonstration reported by British Transport Police, who were “aware of planned protests” taking place at stations across the UK.

Hamas, who took control of the Gaza Strip in 2026, after the last legislative election to be held in the territory, led attacks on Israel on 7 October – using a combination of missile attacks and ground invasion, reportedly killing over 1400 civilians and soldiers and kidnapping around 200 more.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF), who withdrew their longstanding military occupation of the Gaza Strip on 12 September 2005, initially retaliated with air strikes, and followed with a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after giving civilians living there instructions to evacuate.

At the time of writing, over 9000 people have been reported to have been killed by the IDF operations in Gaza following the 7 October attacks.

All figures quoted have been corroborated by Al-Jazeera, an award winning news outlet based in Qatar and covering stories across the Middle East.

In solidarity with Palestine protest @ New Street Station – Thursday 2 November / Connor Pope

Words & pics by Ed King

Kikimora is a new Birmingham born record label, set up to champion the wonderfully weird and eclectic musical mesh the city of a thousand trades can produce.

Launched by Rosie Tee and Emily Doyle, both established musicians on the Birmingham scene – one a first honours Birmingham Conservatoire graduate and the other a rock and roller who plays in some of Birmingham’s edgiest bands – the fledgling imprint has ambitions to nurture a new artistic collective in the second city.

And with one mini festival in Manchester already under their belt, a gig at an 1800’s pump house in Lichfield on 7 October – In the Bellows (click here for details) – and an existing network featuring some seriously creative creatives, they’ve already got some skin in the game.

Oh, and they like mushrooms (not the late September psychedelics, at least not to our knowledge) – featuring fungi on their logo and inviting Birmingham Review into the dappled shade of Moseley Bog for an interview. Either that, or it’s a mafia hit.

“We are both really interested in the idea of building an eco-system,” explains Emily, as she scuffs up the undergrowth searching for spores, “and in a forest, mushrooms are the glue that hold everything together and link everything up.”

“It’s like the mycelium,” confirms Rosie, “like it’s really small, but it will branch out. Because at the moment, as an arts scene, it’s just challenging. And we’re going to have to pull our resources much more than we have done.

“Birmingham, especially, has got this… it’s almost like you can turn over a log and see this really busy grass roots and DIY scene underneath, but I kind of want to permanently turn over the log so it’s more widely recognised.”

Despite housing the UK’s second largest metropolitan populous, with over 1.1m people living in the city, it can be hard to get a hundred people in a room in Birmingham.

National promoters consistently skip the second city on their UK tours, citing difficulties selling tickets as the main reason for the cut. And if anyone reading this has ever tried to promote a gig in the heart of the Midlands… well, you’ll have some sense of solidarity. But what will Kikimora bring to steady this already shaky creative industry table?

“We want to make events that are more immersive and an experience,” tells Emily, “with visuals, with a really eclectic line up; events where you might see one thing on the bill that you’re like ‘that’s my bag, that’s up my alley’ – say, an electronica act – but then there this weird experimental jazz act also on and you don’t know that’s up your alley… yet.”

Rosie continues: “For the music we’re into, you look at band’s gig list and you see them rocking up at the same venues and similarly always miss Birmingham. Emily travelled to Cardiff the other day to see a band that would never come to Birmingham, but we’d like to bring them to the city.

“And we want to be more than just promoters, we really want to platform the music. Like I said about turning the log over earlier, we’re all really busy creative people doing really exciting stuff and working on our own thing, and we’re thinking ‘is there a way to pull that together?’ I think a label is a great way to do that, because you’re putting an official link between different bands.”

It worked for Giles Petterson, so why not. And ever since the heavy metal and rave scenes, Birmingham has not really punched its weight when breaking new genres. Perhaps the time for Kikimora has come.

“There’s some absolutely incredible music coming out of Birmingham,” continues Rosie, picking her way through the fauna – Emily is busy investigating an overturned log. “And when people look at labels and promoters from other cities, they can piece together the collective around it all. That is happening in other pockets of Birmingham, but we just want to do that for us – to get those bands in and get Birmingham recognised.”

The golden fleece, one that many an inspired Brum based artist and promoter have sought to hang on their wall. But how will Kikimora make the changes they want to see and the city to embrace?

“It’s to do with press, it’s to do with radio, and just mouth to mouth and artist to artist,” explains Rosie, “saying to a band from Manchester, ‘come and gig with us in Birmingham and maybe we’ll come up and gig with you in Manchester.’ That kind of gig swapping; it’s a DIY way of doing things, but it works.”

“It’s going to be a case of just running at it and seeing what happens,” adds Emily, distracted by a large white mushroom surrounded by moss. “I don’t think we claim to have a magic solution… it’s idealistic, but the energy is there for it.”

Passion and vigour are great and will get you so far. So far. But at the end of the day, a label needs product – and even with unshakable aims and ambitions, if there’s nothing to stick on Spotify then it’s not going to work. Or sell. What can the eager to be educated public put on their Kikimora Christmas list?

“The first release will be Rosie Tee,” tells Rosie, “and the new EP I’m working on at the moment, Night Creature. As we’re new and self-funded, we thought it makes sense – from a strategic point of view – to release something first I was going to put out anyway. And this is a good opportunity to marry the start of this label with a release we’re already sitting on.

“But one of the easiest things we can offer up in the early days is DJ sets; Emily is far more seasoned than I am, but it’s something I’ve wanted to get into in a really long time. As a music lover, its good being able to share findings – and it’s a good way to work out what this ‘Kikimora sound’ is.”

“It’s curating on the fly a bit,” adds Emily. “Oh, look at these…” And we stop to examine more mushrooms, this time nestled on the fallen branch of a tree that did not survive the last of Birmingham’s visiting storms.

Cutting across the path, it has become something beyond what it once was – and something else has, for now at least, made the detritus and debris it’s home. There’s another metaphor in there somewhere.

But whilst Kikimora may be idealistic, their word, both women behind the new label are established enough to know the pragmatism needed to make a dream a reality. And they’re not alone, with the ‘network’ they refer to including sought after and exciting Birmingham bands and artists.

“We’ve got so many ideas within our own network at the minute, I feel like we’d need to get through those first,” continues Rosie – as I push for the release schedules of year two, three, four…

“And in order to give all these things the time and energy they deserve, we’ll need to space these things out. I think that’s an important thing to say, that we’re not in any rush. We’re not going anywhere – so, we’re just going take as much time as we need on these things.”

Sounds like a plan, many races are lost because they simply start out being run too fast. And neither Rosie Tee nor Emily Doyle will be leaving the Brum bubble anytime soon.

“At the end of the day,” concludes Emily, as we make out way back out of the wilderness, “we’re doing this because it’s something we really love and want to see happen.”

Kikimora are promoting In the Bellows at the Sandfields Pumping Station in Lichfield on 7 October, in collaboration with Lichfield Arts – presenting Me Lost Me, Zyggurat, Alys Rain.

Tickets are priced at £15. For more event information and links to online sales, visit: www.lichfieldarts.org.uk/in-the-bellows

For more on Kikimora follow them on Instagram at: www.instagram.com/kikimorarecords

Words by Emily Doyle / Photographs by Connor Pope

Brit Award Winner and Walsall native Jorja Smith appeared at Bene Culture this weekend to celebrate the launch of her highly anticipated second album, Falling or flying.

After summer single ‘Little Things’ stormed the airwaves, Jorja returns with Falling or flying. Her sophomore album, following on from 2018’s Lost & Found, sees her stepping into a new era of her music, with features from British rapper J Hus and Jamaican singer Lila Iké.

Following an excitable queue snaking round the side of the Custard Factory, fans were welcomed into the store to explore an exhibition and pop up shop. An exclusive collab with Bene Culture forms the centerpiece, with a table of exclusive stamps for shoppers to customise their purchases.

The walls are adorned with photos and collages from the album artwork, and the dress Smith wears on the cover hangs in the window.

And what’s a party without good food; local favourites Only Jerkin’ are keeping everyone well fed with Caribbean style fried chicken and cauliflower, while Big Kid Ice Cream are back in town offering such esoteric flavours as “Champagne and Maraschino Cherry” and “McDonald’s fries”. Peak “mood drinks” have furnished the pop up with a well stocked fridge of their beverages for caffeine enjoyers and avoiders alike.

With a buzz that looks set to build as the weekend grows on, it’s heartening to see one of Birmingham’s success stories celebrating with the community that got them there.

Jorja Smith at Bene Culture, Custard Factory – Friday 29 September / Connor Pope

For more on Jorja Smith visit www.jorjasmith.com

For more events at Bene Culture visit www.beneculture.com

Words by Ed King / Photography by Connor Pope

On Friday 8 September, upstairs at Tilt, fifty people will be thumbing through the pages of their very own limited edition new zine, Instrumental. Well, forty-nine. Birmingham Review has bagged one already.

A sixteen-page exploration of the relationship between a musician and their musical hardware – presented in high contrast red, white, and black – Instrumental is series of five self-narrated love letters, where musicians from the second city talk about a piece of kit, or instrument, they hold close to their creative heart.

Collated by proud Brummie Billy Beale, guitarist in The Devil and Saint Joseph, with photography from Ewan Williamson and Emily Doyle, Instrumental offers a rare and real insight into the personal journeys of sound from some of Birmingham’s more embedded musicians, in a colloquial tone you don’t have to be an engineer to enjoy.

As the copy on the front cover declares, Instrumental is about ‘Objects from Birmingham’s music scene in the words of their owners’. And it’s a fantastic piece of self-publishing.

“I’m a musician, and I think all musicians have this relationship with equipment,” explains Billy, nursing a half a Sunday-afternoon-something from Tilt’s wall mounted craft beer menu. “Some people are much more sort of utilitarian, and some people are more romantic or nerdy about it. I’m definitely more the latter.”

Beautifully anecdotal, this gorgeous looking zine is both funny and endearing – telling stories from the ethereal explanation of a hand-crafted sitar, to the near car toppling rescue of a Hammond T-Series amp that gives both this article and Instrumental’s first chapter their title. But being a part of the city’s music scene, and close to your subjects, was it hard to find the right voices?

“It really was just who was around, you know, who made the time for me,” admits Billy. “And I was conscious about getting a mixture of disciplines and styles and people from different backgrounds and stuff. So, it’s a naked attempt for me to just meet different people and ingratiate myself to them.”

One aspect of Instrumental that stood out was that no one featured in the zine is named in their story, leaving the content to take centre stage – save for a somewhat clandestine list of contributors on the acknowledgments page, you wouldn’t know who was in it. And you could argue with no byline there’s no ego, but in a world not known for shrinking violets…

“I think I always came to them with, like, this is the idea of it… and you’re not going to be in it. Your stuff will be in it, your words will be in it, but you won’t. And everyone was like, that’s fine. That’s cool.”

And on the flip side, was it ever in danger of becoming too geeky or too voluble? Once you opened the Pandora’s box of pedals and impulse musical purchases, was much left on the cutting room floor?

“Not really. I mean, there was one person gave us a lot of time was really super generous, but I had to just go through just think what’s the most sort of entertaining or informative parts of this,” Billy explains, as editors everywhere sigh in solidarity.

“But this is the thing, musicians love talking about stuff, although I think sometimes they’re quite cagey about it – if you’re at a gig for example, and it’s not a great environment to have a normal conversation.

“So, to create an environment where that’s what we’re doing, we’re talking about your stuff and your relationship to it, there wasn’t a lot I ended up binning because it was all good. And I wanted people to feel like their voices were in there.”

Instrumental screams honesty, with the lack of profile pics and personal recognition again leaving you to focus on the stories. And the storyteller free to tell them.

But what about the aesthetic, which looks great on screen (BR had been emailed a preview PDF before the interview) but throws more tactile punches when you hold it in your hand? Instrumental carries an immediate artistic impact from cover to cover, with the ultimate layout and design from Emily Doyle.

“I was looking at, would you believe it, 50s catalogues for guitars, and they just have this strange kind of visual language and identity. Other than front covers there’s no human element to them; but the design, the print style, was just really inspiring. So, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to talk to people that I know, that I’d like to get to know, but sort of divorce it from the people in that way, like a catalogue?

“I met Ewan (Williamson, photographer), here at Tilt actually, and I showed him the catalogues on my phone and explained it’s going to look a bit like this. Do you reckon you can shoot this? He is an absolute pro; he knows what he’s doing.

“Then when he was editing the photos, he was like ‘I’m just making sure you probably going to print either black and white or two colour, or whatever.’ And I was ‘yeah, just high contrast.’ He absolutely smashed it; I couldn’t be happier with the work everyone’s contributed really.”

Printed at Birmingham’s hidden design gem, The Holodeck, the style was further carried by the studio’s own approach. Billy adds: “I didn’t really choose the paper, and the colour formatting is just because of the printing method that The Holodeck does. But this was my ideal version all the way through.

“At the beginning I was thinking, can I afford it? Should I just get it done in black and white? And then it ended up being within budget to get it done exactly how I want to do it. It really works because the old catalogues would have been done in a very similar way.”

A self-published labour of love, only 50 copies of Instrumental have been printed and will be available to buy over the counter, for a mere £5, at the official yet low key launch event. And whilst Volume One is proudly emblazoned on the front, at the time of writing we can’t put money on the table over whether Volume Two (or Three) may appear.

“I’m kind of waiting to get this out there and see how it does,” tells Billy, “before I decide to put my energy into doing more. There’s a bit of momentum now that I’m promoting the launch, and people have said ‘Oh, I’d be up for doing this’, but I haven’t planned it yet.

“It’s I think, at best, it’s like to one or two other volumes, and then it will just be a nice little triptych or something.”

But the launch party we can confirm, at Tilt on Friday 8 September. And that it’s free to enter, with DJs from Birmingham’s recently launched Kikimora label playing from 5pm to 8pm – after which half the room will be heading to The Night Owl to see Brian Lightning.

“8 September, it’s a Friday,” reiterates Billy, “and it’s free in. Just please buy a zine if you come, and buy some beer and give Tilt some money. But just turn up. There’s a lot of gigs on, it’s a Friday night, so I’ve timed it so people can come on their way in or out of town – too or from work or a gig, whatever.”

“I hope it’s (Instrumental) just got its own identity, and it is what it is,” continues Billy, as we leave the science lab tables, chairs, and beautiful curved window of Tilt’s upstairs private hire, “and it resonates with people.

“But if you like grassroots music, scenes, live music, or you’ve ever been to your gig and saw someone and thought ‘they’ve got a good guitar, what keyboard are they using, how do they make that noise…?’ Then check it out.”

Instrumental will be launched at a free party at Tilt, Birmingham City Centre, on Friday 8 September – with DJs from Kikimora playing from 5pm to 8pm.

For more on Instrumental follow the zine’s Instagram account at www.instagram.com/instrumentalzine

For more on Tilt visit www.tiltbrum.com
For more on The Holodeck visit www.theholodeck.co.uk