Category: MUSIC (2022)

Words by Sophie Hack / Pics by Emily Doyle

Hosted via Independent Venue Week, the black country quartet Chartreuse came home to the Hare and Hounds on Thursday, 1 February before heading to the USA on tour in March.

Showcasing their newest material from debut album Morning Ritual, Chartreuse’s unique blend of folk, jazz, and flickers of soul permeated through the sold-out Kings Heath crowd, a perfect introduction to the brighter, warmer days on the horizon.

Opener Wildforms (Dan Cippico) takes on a shape of their own with their handcrafted electronic sounds plucked straight from nature. Inside a web of wires, he takes what he’s foraged from his walks; creaking trees, swallow calls and underwater beetle chirps, and bends and shapes them into complex layers that build up a beautiful scenery.

Visuals from Guri Bosh show shoes warping into the grass similar to Midsommar and foxes backtrack away from the camera – the latter shot in Cippico’s back garden: “I set it up because I thought someone was coming into my garden, but it was a load of foxes and badgers. I gave some of it to Guri Bosh… the visuals were improvised off a previous set.”

Throughout the set Wildforms impressively commands the unpredictability of nature, flitting between one instrument to the next instinctively as the set morphs from whimsical, woodwind-led electronic to a scurry of drum and bass beats at the set’s climax.

This busyness is a translation of what’s going on inside his head: “As a teenager, the outdoors was always an escape – I had a really bad stammer and I wanted to get out and away from people, I didn’t feel judged by nature. With Wildforms, I was thinking: how can I translate what’s going on in my busy head and combine it all into one thing?”

The namesake of their debut album, Morning Ritual, is the first song that ushers in Chartreuse, a song that pours over the anxiety of not being good enough for a lover. The slightly spoken word track is the perfect introduction to the band’s glowing performance, with the popular ‘Switch It On Switch It Off’ following, which feels like the nostalgia and comfort from the low hum of the late summer.

Founding members Mike Wagstaff and Harriet Wilson’s folk beginnings are ghostly present in the band’s latest material, expanding into jazz and soul thanks to the addition of Mike’s brother Rory on drums and Perry Lovering on bass and keys.

Not much for talking, but with no need to explain, intimate lyrics shared between Wagstaff and Wilson occupy the room and linger between the more tender musical moments in ‘Whippet’ and ‘Swedish Water’. The brisker ‘Backstroke’ is a reminder of Radiohead’s lyrical rhythm on ‘In Rainbows’, while crowd favourites ‘Deep Fat’ and ‘Keep Checking Up On Me’ ache with loneliness and a despondent feeling for small town living.

The penultimate track ‘All Seeing All The Time’ swells with a sense of paranoia as drums keep pace, a mirror opposite to the last song ‘Sorcerer’s Eyes’, which calmly closes the show with a reflection on the ever-changing pace of life.

Throughout their five-year discography, Chartreuse have always been masters at capturing emotion from within the most unassuming places. Feeling listless in a new home and small town, the longing that stretches the span of both distance and time between lovers, and seeing the joy in a child’s small book on a train.

They take these small instances and construct something from the soul that breathes with life when performed live, serendipitous as this set feels like the perfect way to welcome in pinker skies from lighter days and the warmer months coming.

For more on Chartreuse visit: www.chartreuseband.com

For more on Wlidforms visit: www.wildforms.uk

For more on This Is Tmrw, including full events listings and links to online tickets sales, visit: www.thisistmrw.co.uk
For more from the Hare and Hounds (Kings Heath) visit: www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

Pics by Emily Doyle

Out on the road with her latest album, Approaching Singularity: Music For The End Of Time, Mary Ocher will be playing the clubs, venues, and “safe spaces to be weird” of Europe until near enough the end of March.

A 14 track journey through the dark corners of society and back out into the light, with an accompanying essay, Ocher’s 2023 LP sees collaboration with avant-garde luminaries including Italian composer Roberto Cacciapaglia to Mogwai’s Barry Burns.

There are also two tracks with percussion duo Your Government, who feature heavily across May Ocher’s back catalogue and co-released the titular LP Mary Ocher + Your Government in 2016.

Coming through Birmingham on one of her eight UK dates, with another two in the Republic of Ireland, Mary Ocher headlined an evening at Digbeth’s Centrala on Friday 26 January – with local support from Rosie Tee and Steckdose, and her French play pal for the evening Hassan K.

Emily Doyle was there to snap happy for a special PHOTO GALLERY for Birmingham Review, viddy below my droogs.

Mary Ocher + Rosie Tee, Hassan K, Steckdose @ Centrala 26.01.24 / Emily Doyle

For more on Mary Ocher visit www.maryocher.com

For more on Rosie Tee visit www.rosietee.uk
For more on Hassan K visit www.hassan-k.com
For more on Steckdose visit www.steckdose.bandcamp.com

For more from Centrala, including full listings and links to online tickets sales, visit www.centrala-space.org.uk

Words & pics by Matthew Osbourne

Across the course of a lifetime, priorities and attitudes around the end of the year’s festive fun can change. As children, the magic of Christmas pervades until the Santa bubble bursts. In adolescence, it is New Year festivities which hold a greater draw.

Then, in adulthood, the whole season can get a little routine… until of course you have children of your own and suddenly it promises enchanted rewards once again. And the chance of making it to midnight on the last day of the year is not only unlikely, but arguably undesirable.

So, Raver Tots’ NYE celebration, held between 4pm and 6pm on 31 December, seemed to be offering a compromise to those of us who have had kids, but still wonder from time to time where our old selves went.

Joining the queue, which stretched back down Lower Trinity Street from Zumhof Biergarten (the old Air nightclub and erstwhile home to dance music giant Godskitchen), I was reminded of a life I once lived, where the prospect of a night spent dancing to music throbbing at the walls was titillating. Inside, however, I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears – the nostalgia trip soon became a bass heavy reality.

Most playgroups I frequent are full of broken toys, tired tweed clad parents, and the lingering threat of Christianity. But the crowd at Raver Tots was made up of people I would have brushed shoulders with ten and twenty years ago, those hardcore clubbers who enjoyed the overstimulation of the early hours EDM back in the nineties and noughties. It was like a real rave, without the class A’s. And whilst I let my daughter Harper bosh a chocolate Christmas coin, her mum Sophie and I treated ourselves to one drink each from the bar.

Resident DJ Moody Mike was not playing sped up versions of Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig as I had feared either, but was instead spinning garage and house anthems with the promise of drum and bass legends DJ Phantasy & Shabba D on the decks later.

At full volume, with confetti cannons, strobe lights, pyrotechnics, and Lycra clad dancers, DJ Moody Mike tore through ‘Rewind’ by Craig David, ‘In Da Ghetto’ by J Balvin, and other choons from artists such as Skrillex and more. Parents and children alike were rapturous on the packed dancefloor. It was, however, a little overstimulating for Harper (despite coming up on her sugar high) so we headed upstairs where there was the promise of soft play.

Although walking into the marginally quieter ‘other room’, I was greeted by dozens of kids bobbing up and down on toy horses gliding through the gradually inflating crowd, which is possibly the trippiest thing I have seen post-parenting…

The soft play area was as small as an afterthought, but we stuck Harper in and tried to have a boogie to the still excellent music. She wasn’t having much of it though, despite our presumption that for a kid who loves to dance in the living room this would be the perfect event.

However, Harper is still young – and the Raver Tots events are so full on it is a little surprising there are not more lost children wandering about in tears. So, perhaps, in all fairness, a superclub for those still in single digits can be a little much on occasion.

But Raver Tots was so good that we will be looking out for other events in the future, and maybe our daughter is more techno than garage. Lord knows I’ve seen older people throw tantrums instead of shapes when Craig David gets played.

Raver Tots have events running up and down the UK, with their next Birmingham party at Zumhof Biergarten on 10 March 2024 – with Nicky Blackmarket and Sweet Female Attitude. For more info and links to online ticket sales visit: www.ravertots.co.uk/event/raver-tots-birmingham-4

For more on Raver Tots, visit: www.ravertots.co.uk

For more on Zumhof Biergarten visit: www.zumhof.co.uk

Words by Ray Vincent-Mills / Pics by Connor Pope

It’s a coats up to the chin kind of Saturday night in Moseley, and I am lost. Whoops, I think, the venue can’t be an old church or the M&S food hall…? Eventually I walk through a curved aged metal gate of a quaint garden centre, and I am greeted by decadent hot chocolate with a smile and a hat of whipped cream.

Kikimora records is the self-described ‘label, promoter & ecosystem’ started up by artists and wonky noise makers Emily Doyle and Rosie Tee. Tonight is their first live event joint in Birmingham and also Emily’s 30th birthday.

I head to the back, walking past open fires and rows of succulents, to order a plate of homemade perogies topped with melted butter and crispy onions. Mulled cider is making the rounds, as I head inside a cabin and don’t quite feel like I’m in Birmingham anymore.

I feel like I’ve been shrunken down and transported to someone’s Nan’s house who’s on her way to becoming a fairy godmother; simultaneously elvish and homely, with the remanence of the garden centre (Moseley Gifts & Gardens, a longstanding fixture on Oxford Road, tonight known as Babicabin) being complimented by bright visuals and DJs.

It’s announced that the band are starting, as duo Moths of the Moon enter the stage. It starts off with one half of them setting up a music box and a punch card, which sets the tone of temporary mysticism that floats between the artists.

The other musician has an array of instruments including but not limited to a clarinet, flute, violin, recorder, and a xylophone. “I love that woman, each song I’m like ooooh what is she going to pull out next,” I hear from the crowd behind me.

The anticipation is high as the set evolves into a multi-instrumental masterpiece. The vocals hold an eerie beauty to the ambient vaporwave, somewhat reminiscent of a haunting but its elves and gnomes instead of ghosts. It is intergalactic, pensive, and thoughtful, with the music box being swapped out for a synth responsible for various beeps and boops.

Time slows as there is no rush between songs for silky smooth transitions. The band’s authentic, mysterious, and humble nature translates through the genre bending set. The DIY fairy setting compliments the music perfectly. The woman on stage picks up what I think is a chest and turns it round to reveal a glistening elaborate red accordion. The orchestra packed between the two of the them continues as the set ends with her shaking a tambourine, like she’s trying to get lost in its scent.

Bodies sway wrapped up in coats scarves and hats in a way that highlights the spontaneity (and at times random nature) of the arts scene in Birmingham, one that holds creativity and community in its palm.

In the corner is a craft table equipped with books about plants and the human body, ready to be torn apart and trimmed for collage. I become immersed for a good half an hour sticking and cutting with a backdrop of linocuts of the Babicabin drying behind me. A cake is brought out for Emily’s birthday celebration which she accepts along with a “you’re all really nice, thank you for coming.”

“Emily for president!” someone shouts.

A group of friends catch up over collage as someone excitedly exhales: “Quickly put this there, it’s a monkey teapot.” The lights go up illuminating the intimate unique setting and as the plants go to sleep for the night people start to exit, out of the magic back to the real world.

For more on Moths of the Moon visit www.facebook.com/mothsofthemoon

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

Click here to read our interview with founders of Kikimora Records Emily Doyle and Rosie Tee.

Words by Sophie Hack / Pics by Nevaeh Anning

Quite easily the most important band in the UK, Bob Vylan are impossible to pigeon hole into a genre, only adding to their appeal. Hailing from London, the grime influences run deep while the metal, reggae, dub, and drum and bass that features across their discography makes every track bounce off one another, charging momentum.

That charge is felt even at doors at the O2 Institute, and the venue is impressively a third full for opening act Kid Bookie.

Beginning with the crowd raising middle fingers in the air and shouting “fuck ‘em”, Kid Bookie launches into their set, blending nu-metal and trap effortlessly through new single ‘A.I (Save Yourself)’. Kid Bookie brings the nostalgia from the likes of Limp Bizkit and Slipknot with them, uplifted to the modern age with lightning fast rap.

Even with the flu Kid Bookie is on their A game, uniting the outcasts with a cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ and then tearing them a new one – hyping the crowd into a split and mosh pit impressively so early into the night.

Second support, Panic Shack, cover everything from maternal stereotypes and annoying men in bars to the ick and lighters getting nicked, throughout their brash and brazen punk.

As the Cardiff group go into their almost acapella track with the lyrics “when we you look at me like that I don’t really like it”, I hear a group of lads behind me shout “smash”. The irony of this interaction isn’t lost on me and is as loud as Panic Shack’s screams of “hi-yah!” during ‘Jiu Jits You’.

Each Panic Shack track has this primal, non-stop garage drum beat that is so infectious, by the time the final two songs ‘The Ick’ and ‘Who’s Got My Lighter’ kick off, the room erupts. At the end of their set, the group collapses to the floor, satisfied with the chaos they’ve created.

Duo Bob Vylan (singer Bobby and drummer Bobbie) rose to popularity with 2021’s ‘We Live Here’, frankly calling out the racism within Britain. Despite their meteoric rise they’ve kept to the ground, helping at the merch stand tonight and remembering faces in the crowds before taking to the biggest stage in the venue.

The lights shine bright at the start of their set so Bob Vylan can take in the crowd, before going into metal-induced stretching and meditation. Crowd surfing begins from song one, including Bobby himself. They charge through ‘I Heard You Want Your Country Back’, ‘Northern Line’, and ‘We Live here’ with pure punk ferocity, showing you can be one of the best punk bands and not have a guitarist.

Their music is punk at the core with flicks of grime and Prodigy-esque heavy beats, concocting a recipe for rage and exhilaration. The floor shakes as the set continues, while cricket bats, t-shirts, and Monzo cards are thrown onto stage, to which Bobby clarifies the only things they want are “underwear, kefir, and Palestinian flags”.

Punk is a protest, and behind the chord progressions and strained shouting of lyrics, there needs to be a strong message for change. Bob Vylan are not ones to only talk the talk; they briefly mention they helped Soft Play come up with their new name (previously Slaves) and of course touch on the video from their Cambridge gig.

(On 4 November, Sleaford Mods cancelled their set after 80 minutes when a Palestinian flag was thrown on stage – the band have since released a statement via Twitter on 13 November. On 9 November at their gig, Bob Vylan called punk bands “cowardly” for not using their platform to make a statement over the Palestine/Israel conflict.)

Tonight, Bobby announces: “The issue isn’t Bob Vylan vs that band, it’s to keep our eyes on what is happening in Palestine and not get thrown into these silly little conflicts.” Chants of “free Palestine” also appeared through the set, along with Bobby declaring that their show is not one for anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, or any kind of racism.

What I rate was while introducing new single ‘He’s a Man’, Bobby invites the non-males to the front of the pit, with a roaring reception from the audience. Unfortunately, it seems a small minority of the crowd needs to listen a little harder to Bob Vylan, as a few misogynistic micro-aggressions become painstakingly clear under Bob Vylan’s politically charged lyrics.

And to the two men on separate occasions who grabbed me by the hips to get past me, do better.

As Bob Vylan end on ‘Wicked and Bad’ the havoc is unfathomable. Sparks fly from the stage as Bobby vaults into the crowd for the last time; no encore, none needed.

Bob Vylan have made a colossal impact on the punk scene in just over five years, hitting the nail on the head with the UK’s current political tension and not being afraid to call a politician “a little shit”.

Their new album, Humble As the Sun, is what they called ‘their best work yet’, and while there’s still unrest and injustice in the world thankfully we will have Bob Vylan being the voice for change.

Bob Vylan – with support from Panic Shack @ O2 Institute 18.11.23 / Nevaeh Anning

For more on Bob Vylan visit www.bobvylan.com or click here to listen to them on Spotify

For more on Kid Bookie visit www.kidbookie.com
For more on Panic Shack visit www.linktr.ee/panicshack

For more gigs at the O2 Institute visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham