Monthly Archives: May 2014

05.05.14
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Recycle Culture – Vacation Forever

 

I have returned from Liverpool. It’s been a frenzy of a few days and when my head is less fried I’ll write all about it for eFestivals. 

 

There were definite highlights. Jungle’s performance in the pop-up venue, The Factory, will probably be talked about for years; having a chat with Raleigh Ritchie and getting some inside ‘gossip’ on Game Of Thrones, a programme I’ve never seen, left me excited for his future in music; and seeing the ball of energy that was Lizzo, jump onto the downstairs stage at the Shipping Forecast and enthrall all with her energetic, crazed rap wordplay will dazzle for days. 

But today, Sonic Breakfast isn’t featuring something that played a part in this weekend – or if they did, it was hidden away. 

Recycle Culture has been a prolific producer over the past year and a half. A quick scan of his/her Bandcamp page shows that there’s a dozen EP’s and albums added in eighteen months. Bloggers have featured tracks but still there’s a mystery about who is doing the producing. 

 

“Collector, collapser, composter, connector & constructor of complexed cultural components; classic, contemporary & contingent”, says the Bandcamp page and with that alliteration of ‘C’s’, we can’t help but wonder if his name is Colin.

 The four track EP, Vacation Forever, is perfect Bank Holiday Monday music. The sun is out, the summer’s going to last until September and we want to sit back in our deck chairs with a glass of red, trying hard to forget that for many of us it’s back to work tomorrow. Allow this track to work its blissed out beauty in your head and the temporary illusion of a permanent holiday might just kick in……

 

05.02.14
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Liverpool Sound City – Breakfast Monkey

So, I’ve arrived in Liverpool. It’s much how I remember it.

Yesterday was a fine day. I had free beer and free Falafel. I wandered into venues I’d not been into last year. There is still much to see.

Whilst having a free beer (paid for with a piece of jigsaw) I got talking to the most wide-eyed and charming band ever. Breakfast Monkey brought seven promotional CD’s to a networking event. Here’s a band with no press pack and no staged pics. Breakfast Monkey were asked to pitch their band in  30 seconds by senior promoters and festival organisers – and beautifully, they struggled to do so.

Instead, they waffled. And they enthused. They didn’t have a clue about the ‘people’ they might meet at Liverpool Sound City. That’s not to say they didn’t care. They were attentively taking on board advice from everybody who cared to offer it. They are all based in Liverpool at University.

Breakfast Monkey are playing Sound City at half past nine on Saturday in Sound Food and Drink. Clubs from Leicester play the same venue earlier in the day. The story they tell about how they were chosen to play is as charming as the band. They played a gig at which somebody from Sound City was present. That person came up to them at the end of the gig and said they wanted them to play the festival. Breakfast Monkey heard nothing for months until an E-Mail arrived in their inbox confirming the Sound Food And Drink gig. Simples..

Those people from Sound City are no fools. They know a good live act when they see one so I’d suggest that Breakfast Monkey’s understated confidence is misplaced.

Amongst acts who are desperately attempting to get profile through elaborate social media stunts, this morning I give you the simple, uncomplicated approach. This is rock rap. This is a Breakfast Monkey.