Review: Sounds From The Other City 2015

Image: Sounds From The Other City 

Beginning with a sprinkling of the many ales on offer in the New Oxford Courtyard, the first musical offering for 2015's Sounds From The Other City festival came from the Grey Lantern after stumbling upon a masterclass in percussion from experimental four piece Housewives.

Opening up with a pulsating bout of rhythmic drumming, they quickly packed out the room with intrigued heads. Their set increasingly transcended into a collision of spangled noise prompted by jagged guitar hooks and a vociferous hammering of the drums. 

After the invigorating experience from Housewives to get us into the swing of things and a couple of welcome beers at Creation Cafe, a jovial space that spilled openly out onto the cobbled street, we moved on to St Philips Church.

Housed up in the rafters of what appeared to be an existing place of worship, we were greeted with the shoegaze swirl of Pinkshinyultrablast rather than the usual procedure of pious hymns.  

Interesting to see how their serene sound would hold up in the echoey confines of a church hall, they initiated their set with the metallic vigour of 'Umi', to which the openness of the venue turned out to benefit their sound, although it tended to consume the efforts of lead singer Lyubov.

Nonetheless, a solid rendition of 'Ravestar Supreme' that was followed by the bands centre piece 'Holy Forest' (above) made for a rapturous showing, ramming home their concept of breaking of new frontiers. 

Keeping with the frontier breaking motif, it would have been absurd to miss out on the formation of the self proclaimed super group, Brown Brogues x Pins. Still situated at St Philips', their slot came complete with hymn sheets for added authenticity, and opened with an impressive punk led number 'My Birthday' that quickly summoned the punters immediate attention.

 

Us and @wearepins will be dishing these out for our supergroup show this sunday

A photo posted by brown brogues (@brownbrogues) on Apr 29, 2015 at 5:24am PDT

Journeying through a myriad of cuts that laced punk rock with lo-fi and velvety textures, their set benefited from plenty of attitude from two ensembles that really packed a punch on stage. Bringing the church goers firmly to their feet, they finished with a cover of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' to round off the Sunday mass, reinforcing the merging of the bands as an emergence that we'd really like to see more of.  

After three performances on the bounce it was time for some food, and where to better to gorge on some food than the vibrant Islington Mill courtyard?  Complete with a number of street food like shacks offering varying culinary delights from all walks of the world, we plunged for some sticky pulled pork and Paella to keep us on the go - not in the same dish of course... 

After jamming out to some Chic in the high on life courtyard, we made our way inside the Mill in anticipation of Gengahr's headline slot. Housed in a darkened cavern that came complete with a scuffed up dentists chair, you got the feeling that the intimacy of the room would make for something special. 

With a debut album on the horizon, Genghar have been increasingly tipped for the top and quite rightly so judging from this polished performance. Led by the assertive presence and tranquil vocal of frontman Felix Busche, the band went straight in with their latest slab of sparkling indie pop 'Heroine'.

A further insight into a smattering of unreleased tracks from their incoming album A Dream Outside followed, arousing our suspicions that its sun soaked indie blessings fleshes the album with the potential to out muscle the competition for indie album of the year.

Their star attraction 'She's A Witch' (above), a groovy slab of indie pop that's an essential component of any prime time radio wave, meant our SFTOC experience convincingly ended on a marauding high.

Our only regret was that we couldn't take more of the festival in, but we'll be back next year to witness the refreshing output of independent music, and the incredible set up along Chapel Street that makes for a charming festival vibe free from the shackles of third party influence. 

Enjoyed this? Try Sounds From the Other City: Celebrating the idea of Independence.

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