On an
intense July weekend, Kendal Calling, Standon Calling and Y Not filled the
fields of Britain with a wash of sweat, piss and rock music, but it was a rural
corner of Kent that drew our attention. That corner, my friends, is Leefest. Now in its tenth year, the three-day bash started out as the brainchild of one Lee Denny, who aged sixteen threw a festival in his back garden when his parents went on holiday. This year, some of the country’s hottest new musical talents joined a uniquely immersive programme of live performance, art, theatre and more. Here’s what we made of it all.
L-R: Kapil Trivedi, Blaine Harrison, Jack Flanagan, Will Rees
Anyone
who’s been a music fan in the last decade will have had a brush or two with
Mystery Jets, the mop-haired pretty-boys from London who soundtracked most of
the noughties with their delightful indie jangles. But after a few years off
and with a new line-up partnering a more mature sonic presence, the foursome
are making their way back up the pecking order. Complete with cake and party
hats, they came to Norwich Waterfront for a celebratory blowout, featuring new
cuts and golden oldies.
London
outfit The Big Moon support. It’s
their first visit to our humble city and they’re on early, but after a year on
the road with everyone from Ezra Furman to The Maccabees, the quartet’s act is more
than ship-shape for supporting purposes. Cupid
is their latest single, a bouncy, spunky affair that translates fantastically
from record to a live setting. Nothing
Without You is upbeat and playful, as is a cover of Madonna’s Beautiful Stranger, complete with
screeching riffs and deal-with-it tempo changes. Better than the original? Duh.
Noise rock elements meet angelic harmonies on The Road, before Sucker
brings a grungey close to a phenomenal debut Norwich performance. The Big Moon
play The Lake Stage at Latitude this July – go see them, or regret when they
make it big time.
Telomere opens both Mystery Jets’ new record ‘Curve of the Earth’, and their set
tonight under the cover of darkness. Will Rees’ spine-tingling guitar scratches
fit gloriously into the grandeur of Blaine Harrisons’s keys and vocals, which glide
the space-age rock number to triumphant heights. Serotonin and Flash a Hungry
Smile light up the room in a synth-heavy extravaganza that shows how well
these songs have stood the test of time. Bassist-stroke-indie-dreamboat Jack
Flanagan is the youngest member (having joined full time in 2014) and is easily
the most delightful to watch. Adorned in an ankle length fur coat, he
introduces Midnight’s Mirror, “a
prog-rock exploration”, and an unexpected highlight of the show. It’s darker
and more off-piste than the sunshine pop numbers MJ fans are used to. But it
fits perfectly, Rees’ punchy riffs intertwining yet again with Harrison’s keys
and Flanagan’s murky bass. Kapil Trivedi completes the group, guiding “an old
one”, Half in Love With Elizabeth to
a powerful peak of nostalgia and energy from his position on the drums.
More cuts
from ‘Curve of the Earth’ fill the second half of the set; Bombay Blue starts downbeat before erupting into a storm of rock
fusion, Bubblegum (a strong contender
for song of the year) escalating the ambience tenfold. Musically, an almost
orchestral tone is adopted as ambitious levels of reverb fuse dazzling
synthesizers with modest yet powerful acoustic guitars, a scatty drum machine
pitter-pattering comfortably away in the background.
It’s Rees’
birthday, and he doesn’t escape without a sing-along and party hats being
passed into the audience. Young Love
adds to the celebratory vibe before Alice
Springs brings a spellbinding end to the main set. But everyone knows
there’s more to come. Someone Purer
heads up our encore, made all the more special as it’s the only cut from 2012’s
‘Radlands’ we hear. Harrison asks that his audience sing the first verse to Two Doors Down and we oblige of course,
before the band join in to finish, and Flakes
concludes our night of fun with a joyous sing-along and arm waves.
Five
records in, it may surprise some to see Mystery Jets playing a venue as small
as The Waterfront. But make no mistake, ten plus years of gigging has only seen
these dream boys grow into experienced and slick performers. And with the
incredible new album pushing them towards legendary status, I for one would not
be surprised if the best is yet to come.
Curve of the Earth by Mystery Jets is out now. Read my review here.
The clocks have changed, the sun
is out, it seems that spring is well and truly upon us. And better yet, as we mosey
through 2016 into sunny April, it’s not just the daffodils that are coming into
bloom. Some of the most exciting new acts on the circuit are bursting into life,
budding with fresh new musical blossoms in preparation for festival season,
which rumbles away promisingly on the horizon. Here are some of my picks of the
best new tracks you should check out this month.
YAK – HARBOUR THE FEELING
YAK are more of an enigma than a
band. Every song they release is unique, the only consistent factor being the vigorous
urgency running through the distorted guitars and gritty vocals. Harbour the Feeling may be one of YAK’s more
structured masterpieces, but genius-in-the-making Oli Burslem and company still
bend the norm through snarling riffs and hypnotically repetitive lyrics. There’s
even an accompanying video with a real yak in it. Sort of. Check it out now for
scenes of prog-rock lunacy and the odd celebrity cameo.
FFO: The White Stripes, TOY, Fat White Family Live: Birmingham (11/05), Sheffield (12/05), Glasgow (13/05), Manchester (14/05), Leeds (15/05), Reading (17/05), Bristol (18/05), Leicester (19/05), Southampton (20/05), Oxford (21/05), London (24/05) Facebook / Twitter
THE BIG MOON – CUPID
It’s apt that this London quartet
previously changed their name from ‘The Moon’ to ‘The Big Moon’, as all of
their happy go lucky singles are delightfully enormous. Cupid is about “a boy dressed as an angel downing cartons of
pineapple juice to make his spunk taste good”, guitarist Juliette Jackson tells
DIY. A bemusing yet innocent anecdote, and one that makes for a fantastic
single, which opens serenely before erupting into a crashing brawl of hormones
and tropical fruit. These gutsy rockers are on the road as well – definitely
worth catching in a town near you.
Norwich isn’t known for a lot of
things, but hopefully soon the ethereal music of Let’s Eat Grandma will change
that. The duo, comprising of best friends Rosa and Jenny, are only in their
teens but already they’ve signed a record deal with Transgressive and appear on
the cover of this month’s Loud and Quiet. In the latter, Stuart Stubbs describes
lead single Deep Six Textbook as, “a down-tempo, slightly psychedelic alt. pop
number full of wide-open space and pinned-on a drum track played somewhere in
the middle distance”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
If you haven’t heard of Black
Honey, you are missing out big time. Hailing from Brighton, the four-piece are as
cool as they come. Izzy B Phillips fronts the outfit, a fireball of sass and
sex appeal in flares and a beret, with boys in leather manning guitar, bass and
drums. The highly anticipated All My
Pride ups the ante in this group’s narrative, detailing a failed
relationship lyrically but telling a much bigger story in the delicious Britpop-y
instrumentals, which will worm into your brain and have you begging for more. Fortunately,
that’s just what we’re in for, as the four-track Headspin EP follows at the end
of the month.
After wowing the crowds at SXSW
with his stunning acoustic tunes last month, London singer/songwriter Isaac
Gracie has released Songs From My Bedroom,
featuring five such recordings. Leading the release, Terrified is an intimate and raw number, which showcases Gracie’s coarse
vocals and terrific songwriting skill. The rest of the EP follows suit, with an
echoic fascination wrapping around haunting lyrics. He has a short tour plotted
for next month, an absolute must-see if you feel like catching a sure-fire star
in the making.
FFO: James Bay, Lana Del Rey, Jeff Buckley
Live: Live at Leeds (30/04), Birmingham (09/05), London (10/05), Bristol (11/05), Liverpool (13/05), Newcastle (14/05), Glasgow (16/05), Brighton (19/05)
