The Brighton Festival is fully under way with its brilliant programme of theatre, comedy, art, dance, talks, debate, cabaret and music, music music. CMU's sister publication, ThreeWeeks, is covering it all, and you can check the coverage at http://www.threeweeks.co.uk, with music reviews here each day in the CMU Daily. Look, here's some now.
The Art Of Listening
An alternately mind-numbing and fascinating journey into the weird world of 'experimental' sound, I stopped searching for deeper meaning behind the technical tamperings as it gave me a headache, and simply found myself intrigued by the sheer bizarreness of seven inventive performances. Timely plucks and squeals from a violin built up the sound of an old boiler, while recordings from travels abroad tackled a new way to encapsulate the character of a country. Suddenly, the carpet-seated audience were plunged into darkness, and surrounded by skulking performers voicing creepy, piercing sounds and cooing at us like we were babies, before the lights came on and the evening was rounded off with a wonderfully daft medley of emotionally delivered TV jingles. If you get the chance to attend such an event in the future, bring an open mind - and a set of earplugs just in case.
Friends' Meeting House, 8 May, 8.00pm, £8.00 (£5.00), fringe pp26.
tw rating 3/5
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She Said!
The huge, inflatable and up-turned purple cow that is UdderBELLY was the bizarre and surprisingly formal venue for the intimate performance of Brighton band 'She Said!'. The gig began with a number of classic covers, including a rocking Patsy Cline hit, before the band moved on to their own songs and finished with their current single 'The Curse Of...'. There was a collection of passionate instrumentals, specifically involving the group's charismatic bass player, as well as an inspiring vocal performance by lead singer Dominique Noiret. The audience, all seated to begin with, were brought to life by this unique mix of country, rock and acoustic specialities, and whilst some relaxed with a beer, others were up on their feet, enjoying the energetic sounds. A truly enlightening performance.
UdderBELLY, 8 May, 7:00pm, £8.00 (£6.00), fringe pp9.
tw rating 4/5
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ThreeWeeks in Brighton is only possible because of the kind support of Latest 7 http://www.latest7.co.uk - plus tune into the Latest radio show, every afternoon on Radio Reverb, listen online via http://www.latest7.co.uk/radio