Apologies for the very contrived title. I was trying to think of something that encompassed the idea of chilled/cool with my hometown of Brighton. In my humble opinion, Brighton is synonymous with coolness anyway but I was after a pun-ny title and that was the best I could come up with. There is a method in my madness so bear with me and I promise no more bad puns.
I've been listening to one of the best Brighton-based bands around at the moment, Fujiya and Miyagi - in particular their Ventriloquizzing album that came out earlier this year. They have a certain style about them. Laconic is probably the best description. They are not one for massive outpourings of emotion and it suits their brand of electronica. They don't do it with so much irony as, say, the Pet Shop Boys or latterly someone like Hurts or at the very extremes, the Flying Lizards (remember them?). With F&J, it's more a natural way of singing/talking and it makes for a very effective medium for they are very good songwriters and unlike a lot of bands you can hear every word enunciated without reaching for the sleevenotes. They just get better and better with every album and this, their 4th (5th if you include a remixes album) is the best yet. It's a lot rockier than Lightbulbs, their previous long player, with the guitar featuring more prominently than the keyboard in quite a few songs and they've opted for more of a traditional band feel with the drum machine being shelved on several songs.
They remind me of a long-gone but not forgotten other Brighton Band called Frazier Chorus. They both cross the dance-indie divide quite happily, both are very much a low profile band that have written some devastatingly catchy tunes with killer lyrics and they both are delivered in a whisperish voice. Frazier Chorus were active around the very late 80s/early 90s where they made the switch from fey indie darlings to indie jangly dance music. The Soupdragons did something similar. Pop Will Eat Itself also did this to a lesser extent but they came from the opposite, rockier side. They were a cool band to name drop at the time as they had some big names remixing them, Oakenfold and Chad Jackson to name but two. They never had massive chart appeal and sadly, they kind of trickled into oblivion as Brit Pop grabbed the nation's youth.They were always too cerebral for the lad culture and as with the Beloved (the band more than any other that they tried to emulate) they found themselves very much yesterday's news. It's such a shame that they never fulfilled their potential but sadly, Brighton is the graveyard for many a music career. We're a town of slackers and dreamers.
p.s. I'm still stuck on trying to choose my favourite song for the 30-day challenge!
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