Pre-Gigbeth, the whiskey cabinet in your mind

With Gigbeth so close now you can almost hear the pasty rotund men 1..2..ing into the mics and smell the stale dance spilt lager on the floor, I decided to find out exactly what I’m letting myself in for this year. After a couple of hours acquiring a couple of tracks from each artist (purely for journalistic purposes and I will delete it all when I’ve finished, I promise) I have spent the last week filling my ears with a diverse and eclectic mash of brain sounds. I have to admit its not always to my taste, but that’s why I like Gigbeth so much, because I find my self finding those new sounds and artists – pushing myrself out of my musical comfort zone and feasting on the aural smorgasbord – that, and dancing like a fool. Here are three tracks of artists I will be trying to see because they’re not to my normal taste;

First track to stick out is Machete by DJ Hazard a brutal Drum and Bass track that, when it kicks in, hits you like a pillow full of breeze blocks and relentlessly attacks the inhibition centre in the brain, the upshot being you end up doing the gun fingers two step dance in the pasta section of Sainsburys. Sounds like what I imagine a robots brain sounds like in the middle of a nervous breakdown, I’ve been listening to it now on repeat for the entire time of writing this section and I think I’ve developed a tick. In a good way.

Next up, what I imagine will be the most attended gig at Gigbeth, is the Guillemots. Kriss Kross starts strikingly with attacking eighties synth chords that are joined by a driving, menacing distorted guitar riff. Then the chorus sweeps in, anthemic and epic, and lifts the whole song from a threat into an invitation into the dark playground of the verses, when I hear the chorus I cant help but be reminded of the Manic Street Preachers, but on Ritchie Manic’s best, least whiny day.

Barkerhound are a bluesy rock combo making slightly sleazy little numbers like Bad Books, songs dirty and throbbing enough to have some angry hate ex-sex to. Simple verses with a chorus that comes on like a hangover of fuzz guitar; it kind of swaggers into your ears and helps itself to the whiskey cabinet in your mind.

These are, of course, my personal picks, if you don’t agree with me, good. It would a terrible and dull weekend if all the music appealed to everyone. Gigbeth tickets are still available, I would urge to make the most of the weekend and see something you normally wouldn’t.