Viva Brighton Issue #58 December 2017
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MUSIC<br />
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Ben Bailey rounds up the local music scene<br />
FUJIYA & MIYAGI<br />
Thu 7, Patterns, 7pm, £10.50<br />
Ten years ago Dave Best<br />
was working in Amex<br />
on Edward Street when<br />
a track from his band’s<br />
record Transparent Things<br />
got picked up for a Jaguar advert. It was around that<br />
time that he was able to quit his day job and commit<br />
to music. Four albums later Fujiya & Miyagi are<br />
stopping off at their hometown as part of a twomonth<br />
European tour. Now self-sufficient with<br />
their own label, the band have honed and reaffirmed<br />
their signature style of electropop. Inspired by<br />
krautrock acts like Can, and with inevitable traces of<br />
New Order, their music matches bare and driving<br />
beats to whispered vocals, often with a cryptic scientific<br />
turn of phrase. They’re back in town for the<br />
ten-year anniversary of their breakthrough album<br />
with an offer of a reissue on transparent vinyl.<br />
EMMA GATRILL<br />
Thu 7, <strong>Brighton</strong> Museum, 8pm, £8<br />
Emma Gatrill has played with Laura Marling, Rozi<br />
Plain and Broken Social Scene, but her solo stuff is<br />
bewitching on its own terms. Her 2012 debut was<br />
a collection of intimate songs inspired by her newfound<br />
love of the harp. This year’s follow-up, Cocoon,<br />
saw her palette expand to include strings, synths<br />
and tap shoes. There’s a quiet intensity to Gatrill’s<br />
music: it’s somewhat introverted, but also evocative<br />
and tuneful, with songs roaming through themes<br />
like Greek mythology and climate change. It’ll be<br />
a pleasure to hear all this in the setting of <strong>Brighton</strong><br />
Museum at this Spectrum winter special, and as a<br />
bonus there’ll be sets from local singer-songwriters<br />
Sharon Lewis and M Butterfly.<br />
THE FICTION AISLE<br />
Wed 13, Hope & Ruin, 7.45pm, £8<br />
Tom White’s latest single<br />
as The Fiction Aisle sounds<br />
like a forgotten crooner<br />
classic from the 60s, with<br />
lavish production and<br />
flowing chords. It’s a sumptuous piece of pop, and<br />
almost a world away from the guitar indie he was<br />
known for making with Electric Soft Parade. Tom’s<br />
brother and former bandmate, Alex White, also<br />
makes an appearance with a new solo act which<br />
apparently includes sea shanties, Irish folk ballads<br />
and possibly some Todd Rundgren covers. London’s<br />
Younghusband are on the bill too, as is Rose Elinor<br />
Dougall. A founder member of The Pipettes, Rose<br />
is now found making wistful electropop of her own<br />
or collaborating with the likes of Mark Ronson and<br />
Baxy Dury. This gig should be a fun reunion for the<br />
<strong>Brighton</strong> noughties indie scene.<br />
THE ELEVATORS<br />
Sat 16, Brunswick, 8pm, £10<br />
After 25 years of gigging, <strong>Brighton</strong>/Lewes blues band<br />
The Elevators are calling it a day with a farewell<br />
show at their favourite local venue. Fans of classic<br />
bluesmen like BB King and T Bone Walker will<br />
appreciate the band’s laidback pace, understated<br />
guitar work and occasionally cheeky vocals. They’re<br />
known for playing in the Chicago style, but much of<br />
their sound comes via the British blues legends of the<br />
60s. So don’t be surprised if they drop a few tracks<br />
by Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton into the mix.<br />
Tonight’s show sees the group in its big-band guise,<br />
a line-up they call The Elevator Blues Orchestra.<br />
You can expect a full horn section, special guests and<br />
maybe even a sentimental send off.<br />
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