LIGHTNING BOLT (Load Records)

Last we left this amplified tribe of two was 2005's Hypermagic Mountain, Lightning Bolt were tossing thousands of years worth of musical history into a wood chipper and coming up with some chewy chainsaw taffy. Their new missive, 'Earthly Delights' (Load Records) comes after two years of intensive electro shock therapy driven recording. The doors of Lightning Bolt's practice space literally spill forth giga-liters of sweat born of echo stretched dedication to archaeology of understanding advanced musicology. Taking the lessons of extreme metal and blood-brother marrying them to expansive and explosive song form and applying it to Olympic training methods - 'Earthly Delights' uses electric stimulus to shock smile technology to worldwide domes. This is what two thousands years of evolution and the invention of electric instrumentation introduced in the tank of hook force can do to you.

www.myspace.com/lightningboltbrians

PSEUDO NIPPON

The myth surrounding Pseudo Nippon is vast and murky but what we do know is that he's a placeless electro wizz-kid that makes mad-capped Japanese inspired electro-pop from whatever house or shed he happens to be 'house-sitting' that week. Musically Pseudo Nippon sounds like a bastard hybrid of the Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares and Gay Against You if they all grew up on a strict diet of lucky charms and Manga, or as Pseudo Nippon himself describes it "pop with pochinko and little beat make yes, eating in colourful!".

www.myspace.com/pseudonippon1984

OM (Drag City / Southern Lord)

Born out of the ashes of legendary stoner doom originators Sleep in 2003 by Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, OM are a psych-space-stoner-doom band from San Francisco. Drawing from their previous projects OM use cyclical rhythm, riff and vocal intonation, as they blend metal, chant, drone, dub and psychedelia into intricate yet drawn up druggish jams that you quickly get sucked into never to return. The current OM line-up comprised Al Cisneros and Emil Amos and has seen the band release their most accomplished and acclaimed work to date 'God is Good' on Drag City.

www.myspace.com/variationsontheme

SLOATH (Riot Season)

Hailing from Brighton and recently signed to Riot Season, Sloath are an over-driven and distorted stoner-metal band of mammoth proportions.

www.myspace.com/sloathrock

JOVIAN

New to the scene in Brighton, Jovian are a sludgy riff heavy doom beast! Drawing influence from Grief, Thorr's Hammer, and Saint Vitus.

www.myspace.com/joviandoom

CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone is the musical alias of 30 year old American film school drop-out Owen Ashworth. Ashworth began his intricate ventures into abstract emotional music in 1997 after he realized that song-making was a far more cost-effective means of storytelling than film-making. To date, he has produced six CFTPA albums, released through Tomlab, that have defined a hybrid strain of raw, emotional and very homemade synth pop, this is instantly recognizable as his own. Claustrophobic two-minute character studies shuddered with reverbed beats, blown-out chords and simple but infectious melodies, all layered beneath Ashworth's bittersweet lyrical odes to love lost.

www.myspace.com/cftpa

***Casiotone for the Painfully Alone will feature on OIB Records Split Series Volume 4***

TUBELORD

The country's most exciting math-emo-pop band. Combining breakneck rhythms, anvil-heavy riffs and super-infectious choruses, Tubelord are every rock fans pop dream!!! 2009 was a pretty insane year for Tubelord, seeing them not only tour with Johnny Foreigner, Blakfish and Future of the Left, but also release their debut album 'Our First American Friends' on the cult Hassle label (Rolo Tomassi) to much critical acclaim.

www.myspace.com/tubelord

***Tubelord will feature on OIB Records Split Series Voume 5***

NULLIFIER

Nullifier are an infectious hyper-pop supergroup from Brighton consisting of Todd Jordan aka T-Jo from My Device and James Morrison aka J-Mo from The Tumbledown Estate. Padding out the rest of this insane 8-piece collective are Tom Denney (Lonely Ghosts / Help She Can't Swim), Tom Windsor (Pope Joan), Luke Hefson (Not Katies), Alex Uren (My Device), Russ Eke (My Device), and Milo Boyd (Cameltoe Comb Over). Falling somewhere between The Russian Futurists, Metronomy, and the 1969 moon landing, Nullifier are a mashed hybrid of brain destroyingly infectious synth electro hooks, filthy guitar over-drives and contagious choruses.

www.myspace.com/nullifiermotherfucker

***Nullifier will release their debut 6 track mini-album 'Most Evil' on OIB Records in 2010***

THE HORNBLOWER BROTHERS

Originally from the dark wilderness of West Yorkshire, the Brothers came to the south coast in 2007 armed with just a melodica, bontempi & acoustic guitar, and began writing songs about everything from watching car chases on the TV - to caterpillars becoming butterflies. Interested in doing little else but putting ramshackle pop to Nathaniel's rhymes, their irresistible folk-pop antics have gained them a loyal battalion of fans and earned them a string of sold out shows with Jeffrey Lewis, Noah and the Whale, The XX and Metronomy. Already lauded by the likes of Steve Lamacq, Transparent Magazine and Marc Riley, prepare for The Hornblower Brothers to blow your socks off.

www.myspace.com/thehornblowerbrothers

CURLY HAIR

Taking Brighton (and the rest of the UK) by storm, Curly Hair are a prominent part of the infamous Willkommen collective and create feel-good anti-folk-pop that sounds like a cheeky, kitch and particularly British version of Jeffrey Lewis and the Moldy Peaches. Not even a year old yet but already Curly Hair have recorded sessions for Marc Riley at BBC 6music and John Kennedy's XFM Xposure as well as shared stages with the likes of The Leisure Society, Micachu & the Shapes, Peter Broderick and Malcolm Middleton. Their debut EP 'Ivy League' is out now via their own Toy Soldier label.

www.myspace.com/wearecurlyhair

MY DEVICE

My Device are a frantic and energetic power-trio from Brighton who create intricate slabs of controlled chaos full of grinding guitars, frenzied drums and thick pounding bass. Its sure-fire indie-disco that while boasting a fun and danceable pop exterior, is wrapped up in multi-genre influenced freak outs and thick walls of fuzz and feedback.

www.myspace.com/mydevice

FOXES!

Foxes! are an indie pop explosion from Brighton who write songs with a catch and usually an unusual twist for good measure. They started out in Oxford back in 2005 and are busily readying their debut album for release next year, treading the long road to one day becoming important.

www.myspace.com/foxesfoxesfoxes

SONS OF NOEL AND ADRIAN (Willkommen)

Sons of Noel and Adrian was formed in 2007 by best friends, Jacob Richardson and Tom Cowan. After years of writing and performing together in the drunken brewery town of Burton-Upon-Trent these two troubadour guitar players parted ways for art school and European travel adventures, only to be re-united years later on the south-eastern shores of Brighton.
Having long shared a passion for rich, layered and intricate guitar music, the 'Sons…' deep musical exploration quickly developed into a unique and mesmerizing style, brooding on the dark fringes of folk, crossing genres and quickly setting them apart from their contemporaries.

www.myspace.com/sonsofnoelandadrian

ALESSI'S ARK

Alessi's Ark is the quirky folk-pop musical project of Alessi Laurent-Marke. Alessi grew up in Hammersmith, London and first got into music when her mother gave her a copy of Graham Nash's 1971 album 'Songs for Beginners' and began playing the drums at age 11. On the eve of her 17th birthday she signed to EMI and travelled to Nebraska to record her debut album with Mike Mogis at Mogis' and Conor Oberst's studio in Omaha. Following the release of the album 'Notes From The Treehouse' in May 2009, Alessi's Ark went out on tour with a diverse range of artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Mariee Sioux, Johnny Flynn, Emilíana Torrini and Cerys Matthews, as well as playing at Neil Young's Hyde Park show in London.

www.myspace.com/alessisark

O EMPEROR

A majestic name for an imperious band. Hailing from Waterford, O Emperor have orchestrated a multi layered, multi faceted sound that betrays their tender years and that, with one giant leap, puts them at the forefront of our brightest folk-rock talent.

www.myspace.com/oemperorofficial

NANCY ELIZABETH (The Leaf Label)

Nancy Elizabeth is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Wigan who mixes folk and post-rock influences to make her enchanting and dynamic music. Often found recording anywhere from 17th century cottages in rural Wales to old Corinthian style churches, Nancy Elizabeth draws influence from sources as diverse as European gypsy songs, choral a cappella and North African music as well as traditional English folk. Sitting somewhere between Matmos, Plaid, Vashti Bunyan and Goldfrapp, Nancy Elizabeth is a real original.

www.myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe

MARY HAMPTON

Delicate and sparse traditional English folk-noir from Brighton. 4/5 Uncut + Mojo folk album of the month.

www.myspace.com/maryhampton

VASHTI BUNYAN (FatCat)

Now based in Edinburgh, Vashti's story tells of the thwarted promise of early fame, disenchantment, long-term exile and eventual rediscovery. In the mid-'60s, after quitting art school to concentrate on music, she was discovered by The Rolling Stones' guru, Andrew Loog Oldham, signed to Decca and recorded a single written by Jagger / Richards. Reviews touted her as 'the new Marianne Faithful' or the 'female Bob Dylan' (though Vashti claimed to be neither), yet further singles remained unreleased, leading to a sense of despair and a rejection of the music industry.
After living under canvas in the bushes behind Ravensbourne College of Art, she bought a horse and cart and set off in 1968 with her boyfriend for the dream of a creative colony that the singer Donovan was setting up on the Scottish Isle of Skye. It took them nearly two long years to get there, by which time Donovan had left, but the experience formed the songs for 'Just Another Diamond Day', the album recorded by Joe Boyd (and featuring members of The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention) in November '69, during a trip back to London. On the album's muted release in 1970, rather than hang around to promote the record, Vashti left the city again to live with the Incredible String Band in the Scottish Borders, and then (with horses, wagons, dogs and children) on to Ireland and back - to obscurity in the Scottish hills.
The record slipped out in a tiny pressing and was rapidly forgotten, yet gradually over the years accrued a cultish currency as a lost English classic. In the late '90s, typing her own name into an internet search engine, Vashti became aware of this interest, and after tracking down the masters / rights, 'JADD' was re-released on the Spinney label - almost thirty years after she had "abandoned it and music forever" - to huge critical acclaim (The Observer Music Monthly placed it at 53 in their 'Top 100 British albums'). A host of young, new admirers emerged citing her influence, and Vashti has since recorded with Piano Magic, The Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde, Devendra Banhart, and Animal Collective. In 2005 Vashti signed with cult indie label FatCat and found not only a new home of likeminded people but a new excited sense of creativity as she released the truly beautiful 'Lookaftering' to huge critical success.
Since then FatCat have gone on to release the stunning double CD, 'Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind', a collection of Vashti's early singles and demos, dating from the period pre-'Just Another Diamond Day', 1964-67, as well as a reel-to-reel tape she'd accidentally discovered from her first ever recording session. In 2008 FatCat also released a limited edition remastered pressing of the historic 7" single, 'Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind', written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Currently working on a number of new songs for a new studio album (planned to be produced with Andy Cabic of Vetiver) Vasthi Bunyan is heading out on tour to play just six exclusive UK shows in some of the country's most beautiful venues.

www.forthstreet.demon.co.uk