AT HOME BY THE SEA ///
BRIGHTON, UK///
AUGUST 8, 2008 ///
WORDS: RICH HANSCOMB///

All of a sudden, my beloved city of Brighton was awash with festival fever and it was all happening on the doorstep. Hipsters – such as myself, dig? – were soon be revelling at Loop Festival. Those of us – not me – who like tofu smoothies could get all Big Chilled out to Beachdown but firstly, for the no less discerning summer reveller, was At Home By The Sea. This is a homely kind of two dayer, ostensibly a celebration of legendary Brighton venue, the Concorde 2’s twenty first birthday, mixing cult alternative acts with homegrown talents.

Being slap bang on God’s own seafront in the middle of summer and with all the, er, distractions this can bring, it’s a testament to At Home By The Sea’s canny programming that I didn’t spend the whole evening staggering around outside getting lush.. Wild Beasts were up and they were ok. I dunno. I kind of hanker for the days when Domino Records used to be about Royal Trux and Sebadoh and but I guess things must change. Wild Beasts deal in falsetto vocals, lyrics about ‘girth’ and the kind of rhythms you can imagine A and R men thinking, “Wow, just like Paul Simon, ergo Vampire Weekend. Ker-ching, boss!” They play with youthful vim and vigour though so all is forgiven.

On a different stage, my friends and I swooned to Jacob’s Stories. Essentially a Brighton boy is twenty seven year old Stewart Lee. Jacob’s Stories mash up mournful, whispered crooning with digitally refracted found sounds and propulsive acoustic rhythms. My bro and my other pal both agreed that they sound like the first Notwist album. When the chorus of God’s Rottweiler spills out in heartbreakingly slow motion we realised that Jacob’s Stories are much better than that. On a local tip, I must mention the baritone, pastoral proggisms of Sons of Noel and Adrian and the double bass deep post-rock of John the Savage who also blessed our ears with their sonic sorcery.

I spend the next hour or so talking drunkenly and excitedly to Geoff Dolman from the legendary Static Caravan Records label. He’s manning the merchandise desk and we probably spoke at length about the relative merits of Steve Albini. As such I manage to catch only half of Camera Obscura’s set. Aw gee shucks, ain’t they grand though? Massive great slabs of Brill Bulding meets Sun Set Strip via Glasgow orch-pop with soaring choruses all offset delectably by Tracyanne Campbell’s angelic albeit world weary voice. It ain’t so much syrupy as pure fucking sugar cane and who the fuck are Belle and Sebastian anyway?

After a bracing walk along the seafront during which I made sure I finished the contents of the rum filled colostomy bag Sellotaped to the inside of my leg for fear of being caught by a bouncer, my friends and I adjourned to the main stage where we were promptly scared shitless by Chrome Hoof. I mean that in the best way possible though because Chrome Hoof are utterly, transcendentally awesome, exactly the type of band you need to galvanize an audience at 2a.m. Formed by two dudes from doom-metal behemoths, Cathedral, Chrome Hoof take all the precision power you’d expect and add elements of Krautrock, disco, primitive electronica and neo-classical to devastating, bowl rupturing effect. It’s an assault upon the senses but it’s hard not to get caught up in the belligerent spectacle of it all. Like the ParliamentFunkadelic-Arkesta on ever more drugs after listening to way too much Sabbath. Something you’d want to experience for sure at least once. Thanks to the willfully eclectic roster of At Home By The Sea, I certainly did. Roll on next year.

www.myspace.com/wildbeasts
www.myspace.com/jacobsstoriesband
www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband
www.myspace.com/chromehoof