THE RECOMMENDER PARTY – WE HAVE BAND

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As some of you already know, whilst we were handing out flyers for a previous show some months back, a girl took one from my outstretched hand, turned to her mate and said the immortal line without any signs of a smirk… “Oh, The Recommender parties are great! If you come once, they’ll make you come multiple times“. And so our strapline was was born.

The ONLY blog party you need to know about is back and we bring you three more extraordinary artists to salivate over. TICKETS HERE. We specialise in taking our online relationships into real life by showcasing a selection of new bands, peeled from the pages of this blog.

Alongside the awesome bands on show we get all the punters to pop into our photobooth so we can shoot them looking dumb and gorgeous. The previous photobooth results are found on our Facebook page here. Additionally we also hand out our exclusive mixtapes, (the 7th of which was given out at our last event and is now listed below for the rest of the world to enjoy). It’s made up from a selection of awesome tunes from The Recommender’s favourite artists, mixed by The Battery Powered DJs.

As if all this amazing music and frivolity wasn’t enough, we will be celebrating our editor, Mike’s, birthday, so the headliners have promised to sing happy birthday to him. This time it’s personal. You simply have to come.

THE RECOMMENDER MIXTAPE #7

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT – Being touted by NME as “the future of pop” makes this artist well worth a peek, no? We think this mix of sweet gloss and upbeat class are about as perfect as a first course could get when starting a party. This time next year they’ll be headlining.

MIRRORS- Brighton’s always been a hotbed of talent, but this is the most promising band this cities produced in years. Real promise, real tunes, real good. We’ve been behind this group since their first ever gig, so we’re so pleased to finally bring their music, described as pop noir, (but a million times more approachable than the likes of Hurts), to a Recommender crowd.

WE HAVE BAND- There’s a real connection with this band and The Recommender, having done numerous posts on them, enjoyable interviews and even a blog-wide global appeal on the day they launched their awesome debut album. Dozens of world class blogs each completed a post about the LP on the same day. We love them. They love us. Soon you will too. World class indeed.

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YAAKS

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Brighton might be known as ‘London-by-the-sea’ but it probably has a better music scene for its size than the capital. It’s pretty easy to bump into people who are coming up with fresh ideas and that’s a major thing that we love about this place. We were therefore a little surprised that it took the medium of Facebook to bring Yaaks to our attention. Especially considering one of their members, Thom, is a friend of The Recommender’s and has DJ’d alongside our residents, Battery Powered, in the past. Our bad.

Delving a little deeper we discover why Yaaks haven’t yet been shouting about themselves. For one they’re very new. Their myspace is intentionally bare offering the most basic (and cryptic) information: “Yaaks are six minds playing music to best portray the thoughts of Jean Jacques Rousseau“. They list their location, Eastbourne, (a few miles East of Brighton), the tag line “Allez.Allez.” and a few blurry, kaleidoscopic images upon their page.

We spoke to Thom about his new band, only to find him being equally as coy in person. What we do know is that he used to drum in the (now defunct-) band Your Friends Are Architects, who also called Eastbourne home. We have to suspect that Yaaks now includes a few of YFAA’s former members on it’s books. It’s been noted that Thom also produces a whole range of warm, shuffling 2-step under his alias, Leon. One thing he did clarify is that “we say the band consists of ‘six minds’, because our personalities dont have anything to do with our music” and whilst influences from his other projects our clearly evident, we’d be inclined to agree.

Fortunately, the music really does speak for itself. Despite only officially having two tracks (and half a demo) Yaaks have already got us hooked. Both songs featured below seep into existence with a sombre, Blade Runner-style soundscapes, with the track, ‘HRHRHYTHM’, sparking things into life nicely. The tight tropical percussion is littered with bongo rolls, wood blocks and steel drums, which patter away behind loose washes of synth, reverb-drenched vocals and jangling guitars. Their other tune, ‘BRKLYN FIG 1′, on the other hand, explodes in shimmering technicolour with delightful flourishes of brass and echoing twangs of guitar, counterpointing furious, muted strums from a casual bass line.

The hidden identity method has been thoroughly overplayed with bands and DJs in the last few years but Yaaks sidestep this issue by openly admitting that they’re not hiding behind anything. They just don’t have anything to give away except their music and we’re quite happy to accept that. Even though it’s still early days for the band, Yaaks have created a truly astonishing blend of dreamy, tropical rhythms that are simultaneously dance-friendly and thoughtful. We’re not the only ones to think this either, as rumour has it they’re in talks with at least one record label for a contract, so keep your eyes peeled for a release in the not too distant future.  (MA)

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