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Month: February 2018

Brighton & Hove shows it is ready for more community-led housing

Posted on by Gary Hart

Around 200 people filled the Brighthelm Centre in Brighton on Wednesday, February 21 for the launch of the Brighton & Hove Community-Led Housing Programme.

With support from Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC), Brighton & Hove Community Land Trust (BHCLT) is supporting local people who want to start their own community-led housing projects, including co-operatives, cohousing and self-build.

Community-led housing allows local people to take control of their housing and create alternatives to the limited choices offered by the current housing market.

The new Brighton & Hove Community-Led Housing Programme supports groups of people to come together and organise, or build, their own affordable homes. Applications are open for financial support and free advice to help make people’s ideas a reality.

BHCLT Community-led Housing Programme includes:

♦ Housing Ourselves: Financial support through loans or grants to housing groups.
♦ Discovering suitable land and properties and helping groups acquire them for housing projects.
♦ Connecting local people who want to start their own housing projects and providing them with expertise and support.
♦ Raising awareness and building knowledge about housing with local people, the council and others who work in housing.

The event included the opportunity for people involved in community-led housing groups to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Councillor Anne Meadows, Chair of the Housing & New Homes Committee and a Labour & Co-operative representative for Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, paid tribute to city’s history of community-led housing:

She said: “In some respects I feel it’s national thinking that has caught up with Brighton & Hove,’ she said. ‘We have had an innovative and active community-led housing sector for many, many years and the provision of this funding through the DCLG has brought about the creation of this programme, through which we hope that more of the aspirations of this sector can be realised and more housing provided.”

Also speaking at the event was Stephen Hill, Director at C2O futureplanners and a key player in community-led housing nationally. “Communities are spending huge amounts of their time trying to put together housing projects that nobody else will,” he said. “The fact that people like you are here today is some kind of witness to the fact that policy and the market has failed so many people.”

The audience also heard from someone involved in a local success story, Martyn Holmes of Bunker Self-Build Housing Co-op. He told the story of Bunker’s beginnings – two neighbours chatting over the garden fence, both living in private rented housing that they were struggling to afford and fed up with their housing situation. Along with their families, they are soon to start work on two modular houses in Brighton, making use of a small and difficult site that a big developer wouldn’t be attracted to.

For Bunker, part of the reason for choosing a self-build project was the money they would save. Martyn explained that group self-build schemes can result in cost savings of up to 40% or more.

Community-led housing is good for Brighton & Hove because:

♦ It provides additional affordable and stable housing to those in need.
♦ It creates and demonstrates alternative ways of living which have a positive impact on wellbeing.
♦ It helps local people develop new skills as they make their projects a reality.
♦ It encourages collaboration and co-operative between local people and involves them in decisions about new housing.
♦ People have more say in how their homes are developed and managed.
♦ It creates an opportunity to make use of empty buildings and vacant land, revitalising communities.

BHCLT is working with Co-operative Housing in Brighton & Hove (CHIBAH) and Mutual Aid In Sussex (MAIS) to deliver the Community-Led Housing Programme.

PREVIEW Brighton Fringe: Daphna Baram in Sugarcoating

Posted on by Contributor

When your spoonful of sugar gives you diabetes and Brexit hits you hard, have a laugh.

Photo: Steve Best
Photo: Steve Best

Daphna Baram’s sixth solo show finds this middle eastern Mary Poppins breathless, with good reasons. Just as she came to terms with her chubby wonderfulness she is told to lose weight or lose her toes. And just as she finally gets that coveted red passport, her new country folk vote out of Europe. Will she ever get anywhere on time?

Daphna Baram, says: “Sugarcoating is a show about bodies, politics and body politics, From Theresa May’s sense of Dress and Trump’s fiddly fingers to Palestinian freedom fighter Ahed Tamimi’s blond curls, and the acceptance that with your physical life, as with world affairs, the distinction between what just happens and what you can change is hard, random, and often fickle. Sometimes all you can do is sprinkle some sweet stuff on top and hope for the best.”

Jerusalem born London-based comedian Daphna Baram was a human rights lawyer, a journalist and editor, an academic and a literary translator before a chain of events involving two weddings, Chris Morris and a heart attack launched her into stand-up in 2010. She performed extensively in the UK and Europe.

♦♦♦♦ “Masterful”…..Bunbury Magazine

♦♦♦♦ “Not only wonderful and hilarious …it is hard to find a fault in Baram’s performance”…. Broadway Baby

♦♦♦♦ “Illuminating and poignant take on tough subjects”….. The List

Follow Daphna on twitter @missdcomedy OR Facebook facebook.com/missdcomedy

Event: Sugarcoating directed by Amanda Baker

Where: Sweet @The Welly, Duke of Wellington, 70 Upper Gloucester Road ,Brighton, BN1 3LQ

When: May 10, 11 at 9.20pm, 12 at 5.40pm, 22, 23 & 24 at 9.20pm

Cost: £5 or pay what you want!

To book tickets online, click here:

PREVIEW Brighton Fringe: Passing On by Sean Denyer

Posted on by Contributor

Your Family – Forever part of your D.N.A.

Brian and Tom, together for ten years, would like to have a child, to be as Tom says, “a proper family with two dads”.

When their friend, Jane, agrees to act as a surrogate, it seems they can really have it all. But after Tom is very reluctantly pressed into finding out about his biological parents, what he discovers will turn their dream of a family into their worst nightmare,  threatening to destroy everything they have.

Passing On, a gripping new play by Sean Denyer is being producing by Acting Out and Blue Heart Theatre. Acting Out, Dublin’s LGBT theatre group recently won the 2017 National GALA Award for Irish Arts and Literature. It is Blue Heart Theatre’s second visit to Brighton following a successful run of, Couples+Pairs at the festival last year.

Writer Sean Denyer, also a Consultant in Public Health Medicine, said: “Now gay couples can, thankfully, have most of the same choices as anyone else in terms of family formation, I wanted to explore this in the context of the rapidly advancing developments in genetics and screening. We can now find out more and more about our genetic make-up, but is this necessarily always a good thing? More and more people create their own ‘family’, but are there things about our biological families that we just can’t escape from?”

Featuring a talented cast of Irish actors, this gripping and thought-provoking play will stimulate a lot of debate for audiences about genetics, ethics, surrogacy and the impact of nature and nurture. It places this in the context of a powerful and insightful examination of a close and loving relationship, tested to the limit by discoveries from the past.

Event: Passing on by Sean Denyer

Where: Sweet Werks 1 (Venue 18), 15-17 Middle StreetBrighton and Hove, BN1 1AL

When: May 21-24

Time: 9pm

Cost: £8/£6

To book tickets online, click here:

Doctor Brightons celebrate ninth and final birthday in March

Posted on by Besi

Doctor Brightons to celebrate ninth birthday under current owner on Saturday, March 10th with a party to remember.

Wayne Durant and Charles Child
Wayne Durant and Charles Child

Owner Charles Child, says: “Wow it only seems like yesterday that I was getting the keys for the pub, how time flies when you’re having fun!”

Sadly this will be his last year at the pub as the council who owns the building are not renewing the lease to the Brewery.

“Don’t worry” says Charles, “we will have a massive closing party later in the year, I’m sure most of you who know me realise that would always happen anyway. However, before that come and celebrate us turning nine on March 10!”

Charles moved to Brighton 16 years ago, an innocent boy from Norfolk (innocent my arse!? ed.). “As I look back over the years, what a rollercoaster it has been. I started working in hotels on the seafront, working my way up until I was manager of Vavoom Bar before I took the big step and bought Dr Brighton’s.

“It really has been the ride of my life and standing by my side for most of the time has been Wayne, my long suffering manager of eight years and resident DJ Tony B.

“I’m proud to say that over the years we have raised money for charities we really believe make a difference including the Rainbow Fund, Ride for Rhino’s and the Sussex Beacon.”

Last year Dr Brighton’s were the popular winners of the Golden Handbag for Favourite Mixed Venue at the Golden Handbag Awards.

Charles says: “Thanks go to our customers who voted for us in droves, without them we wouldn’t have done it.”

He continues: “Now is the time to look to the future and we have our ninth birthday to celebrate!  So come on down to Doctor Brighton’s and shake what ya mama gave ya on Saturday March 10 with resident DJ Tony B on the decks from 9pm.”

A Council spokesperson, says: “The current tenants of Dr Brighton’s have informed us they will not be renewing the lease on the property when it ends this summer. The council’s agents, Savills, will shortly be inviting interested parties to make a proposal to take a new lease, which will include the renovation of the building.”

FEATURE: Moving on – Dr Adrian Brown

Posted on by Besi

After recently stepping down as Chair of the Martin Fisher Foundation to focus on other ventures, Dr Adrian Brown talks to James Ledward about the achievements of the Foundation in its first two years.

Professor Martin Fisher died tragically and suddenly in April 2015. His work and research helped to improve the lives of many people living with HIV in Brighton & Hove, nationally and around the world. Martin always remained focused on putting patients first. His loss was felt across the local and professional community, but most intensely by his long-term partner, Dr Adrian Brown. Despite the difficult circumstance, Adrian was determined to help to take forward Martin’s vision and, as founder of the Martin Fisher Foundation, has been instrumental in developing the Towards Zero HIV Strategy for the city.
Tell me about yourself. “I’m a medical doctor, trained as a consultant in public health and I moved to Brighton in 2001. I worked for a short period in Sussex but mainly did the daily commute to London. Outside my paid work I set up the charity Maternity Worldwide, based in Brighton working to save lives in childbirth in Africa. So I had a lot of useful experience for setting up the Foundation.” 
What do you love and hate about Brighton? “I love the sea, the Pavilion, the buzz in the festival month; that generally people are very friendly across all walks of life. It’s not a hate, but I get frustrated that the city seems slow to grasp opportunities for example in regeneration and re-development – plus restaurants close too early!”
What interests you outside of work?  “I travel a lot – this includes several trips a year to Africa for Maternity Worldwide. I particularly love Malawi where the people are so welcoming and happy and generous despite often having nothing.”
Where have you got the strength and support you needed since Martin’s tragic death? “I received some professional help, but my family and close friends have helped the most, as well as some people I didn’t previously know. It has been and still is incredibly tough and at first I just wanted to ‘escape’ from things in any way possible. I understand how vulnerable we all are and that, without love and support, we are very much at risk when faced with tragedy.”
How did you stay driven and focused to be able to set up the Foundation? “Looking back I really don’t know how I managed to do this, especially organising the big memorial and launch of Towards Zero at Brighton Dome only a few months after Martin’s death. I think somehow I went onto autopilot and found strength from within.”
What are you, and do you think Martin would be, most proud of? “Within the first two years I was able to lead the Foundation to facilitate Brighton & Hove becoming the first UNAIDS Fast Track City in the UK. Martin really had wanted this and would have been very proud that we beat London to it! 
“I’m proud of leading the development of the Towards Zero HIV Strategy and being able to bring together over 20 organisations across the community to help write and endorse it.  It felt amazing taking part in two Pride parades – I’ve run the Brighton Marathon three times and the crowd is fantastic – but it doesn’t come near to the support at Pride! 
“In September last year a school, my friend and I completed our ‘Big UK Challenge’ cycling 1,402 miles from the top of Shetland to the southern most point in the Scilly Isles – also climbing the major peaks on the way. This raised around £8,000 for the two charities.”
What have been your biggest challenges over the past two years and what would you have done differently? “I’ve mentioned the personal challenges – but it was tough both leading the organisation and having to do most of the ‘doing’ at the same time. With a couple of notable exceptions, it was difficult to find volunteers to support day-to-day work. I think perhaps I was also a little too ambitious which led to spinning too many plates.”
You co-organised an event for last year’s Brighton Festival – HIV: Is Victory in Sight – do you think we can ever get ‘Towards Zero HIV in Brighton & Hove’? “The reduction in the number of new cases of HIV each month in Brighton and London is very encouraging, and although it’s not fully understood yet, appears to be a result of ‘combination prevention’  – people living with HIV being diagnosed more quickly (better testing); starting treatment promptly and becoming undetectable and uninfectious (treatment as prevention); and an increase in the number of people who are at high risk of contracting the virus taking PrEP.  
“If we further increase rates of testing and work across the community so that everyone has their own appropriate ‘personal prevention strategy’, then I think we can get Towards Zero HIV by 2025.”
What do you see as the biggest challenges in implementing the Towards Zero Strategy? “Stigma around living with, and testing for HIV, lack of up to date information and prejudice in the general and specific communities (including LGBT+) are the biggest barriers. Tackling stigma should be the priority to support Towards Zero.  We also need to support and engage all parts of the diverse communities – not just the ‘usual suspects’ and try new innovate ways to do this (for example an increased role for the business sector, digital media etc).”
What will you do now you’ve left the Foundation and what are your plans for the rest of the year? “It was always my plan to step down from Chair of the Foundation once it was up and running, after around two years. I remain committed to supporting Martin’s ethos and vision and will continue to do this. I left my paid job in June 2016 to concentrate on charity work – so do now need to start earning again! 
“I have recently set up a social impact business in Africa – using solar to dry fruit for export – and we now have our first products for sale, so very different but I think equally challenging and rewarding!”

BOOK REVIEW: Natalie and Romaine by Diana Souhami

Posted on by Eric Page

Natalie and Romaine

The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks

Diana Souhami 

Natalie Barney,’the wild girl of Cincinnati’, and Romaine Brooks were both rich, American and grandly lesbian. Natalie and Romaine met in Paris in 1915 and their partnership lasted 52 years. They were both expatriates; unconventional, energetic, flamboyant and rich.

Natalie had numerous affairs with other women: Renée Vivien who nailed shut the windows of her apartment, drank eau de cologne and died of anorexia aged 30; and Dolly Wilde niece of Oscar, who ran up terrible phone bills and died of a drugs overdose. Her Friday afternoon salons in her Parisian house were for ‘introductions and culture’ and were frequented by Gertrude Stein, Colette, Radclyffe Hall and Edith Sitwell. Romaine achieved fame as an artist.

She painted her lovers including Gabriele d’Annunzio,and the ballerina Ida Rubinstein. Her relationship with Natalie was constant and together they threw up a liberating spirit of culture, style and candour. This wonderfully warm, witty and insightful biography into their lives is subtitled ‘Paris, Sappho and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brook’- it’s exactly that and and Souhami’s style is effortless and leads you into the narrative fully seduced.

Souhami’s eye for detail and her enormously kind and generous emotional insight gives us not just the facts of their existence, but the feeling, yearning, passions and desires of two perfectly fascinating and indomitable women with the world at their feet. It’s a hugely positive and fun depiction of the lives of these astonishing, passionate women.  Souhami’s prose and sharp humor captures the indomitable spirit of these two people but also their mystery and sensuality. It’ s a heady mix which is underscored by the seriously enjoyable detail which comes from the quality of  research.   I learned, laughed and found myself delighted by this pair of inspirational women.

Out now. 

For more info or to buy the book, or read about the many other excellent books including two excellent ones on Gluck and Edith Cavel,  Diana Souhami has written see her website here. 

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar: Ms Sugar Swan asks what the LGBTQIA community means to her

Posted on by Ms Sugar Swan

This month’s Gscene theme is community and having lived, worked and volunteered within the local queer community for the last 17 years I have very mixed feelings about the community and what it means to me.

When I moved to Brighton, a fresh-faced early 20-something, I threw myself into the local community. Presenting at the time as a cis bisexual male, although read by the majority as gay, and being white, I felt that I very much belonged and the community was set up around and for people like me.

I was welcomed with open arms and this was of great comfort after growing up in places that weren’t as liberal. I enjoyed working in scene venues, going to many charity events, performing at them in drag, which was something I used to do at the time both to earn money and to help relieve my gender dysphoria.

When my HIV diagnosis came a couple of years later, I found the HIV community. I found Open Door (yes, I’m going back a few years now), where I was supported by Gary and his team who went on to create Lunch Positive. I’m off there to volunteer this afternoon to do food prep for the Community Lunch day at the B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival. If anyone finds a two-inch long pink fingernail in their food, I apologise in advance, but a girl’s got standards.

I found great support from Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and the HIV+ community of Brighton back in those early days. From my position of privilege and being young at the time, I thought the ‘gay community’ of Brighton was the most accepting and wonderful thing I had ever had the incredible fortune to find. Once I was settled into my HIV diagnosis it was time for me to give back and I worked at THT for a number of years giving my support and experience to those who needed it most.

As the years went by I’ve watched us lose community members to illness or accident, the most important one to me being the death of one of the few to ever get as close to me as he did, Mouse. His death was no different to any other I watched in the community with everyone rallying around, pulling that circle in tight, sticking together when times got tough as that’s what communities do, right?

I’ve watched the most beautiful gestures as people donated to pay for funeral costs when we lost those without family or financial back up, there’s rarely a time I can remember when we weren’t fundraising for something or other for someone or some marginalised group and that hasn’t changed. That is the Brighton scene at its very best.

It was only when I was ready to tackle my own gender identity and came out first as non-binary, then as a trans woman, then as lesbian, and then as pansexual, that I started to see the cracks in our community that had been there all along. I was no longer the safe option. I was no longer the ‘cis white gay man’ who’s always been so well catered to. I lost that privilege and now found myself in one of our most marginalised groups. One would hope that it’s our most marginalised and oppressed members that receive the most support, but I very quickly realised this isn’t the case. As I rapidly approach my 40s as a trans woman, Brighton’s LGBTQIA community means something very different to me than it did almost 20 years ago.

I no longer feel that it’s the safe space for me that it once was. I no longer feel that I’m rooted right in the middle of it as I was. I’m very much fighting from the sidelines now rather than from the core. I’ve suffered a lot of adversity and oppression from within the very ranks that I was an integral part of. I’ve suffered much verbal, physical and sexual abuse from the very demographic that I was so proud of once upon a time many years ago. This has led me to find a new community, the trans community, and finding that was possibly one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

In the trans community I’m welcome without question, these are my people. These are the people who’ve all felt the oppression from the rest of the scene and been abused in similar or identical ways to which I have. If I felt the greater community pulled ranks and looked after its own in times of trouble, I had seen nothing until I saw the trans community do it. I’m so lucky to be part of this network of people, not just in this city, but world-wide; and I’m so proud to be an out trans woman who is just trying to do her best for her community as she did pre-transition, albeit coming from a different angle.

I still fight the fight, I still do as much for my community as I can. I hold space in Gscene every month along with my other trans-related activism and advocacy work. Helping other trans people is now very much my priority and I’ll always fight for my community in whatever way I can. A lot of my work also involves educating cis people in the struggles that we as trans people face and that’s the harder part of the job as although we have some wonderful allies within the greater community my biggest oppressor is still the white cis gay man.

I do my best to help him learn about us and what we go through and I do it in the sole belief that it may help to reduce, for other trans people, the negative experiences and the oppression and abuse I’ve suffered at their hands. But there’s only so much that myself, or the trans community can do.

So, in this month’s Community Issue, I call on all cis people to support your trans siblings, to become better allies to us. To learn about us, to understand us better, to teach each other if you’re an ally in a position to do that. To call out transphobia when you hear it between cis people even when there are no trans people around. To NEVER misgender us or mention our dead names if you hold that privilege of knowing them and to elevate us, the most marginalised of our society, back in the middle of the community where we belong, for as well you know, without trans people, there would be no community in the first place.

Learn your history, and respect it – and remember, Google is your friend, use it.

“One would hope that it’s our most marginalised and oppressed members that receive the most support, but I very quickly realised this isn’t the case.”

Labour Council leader to step down

Posted on by Besi

Cllr Warren Morgan to step down as Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council and Leader of the Labour & Cooperative Group.

Cllr Morgan will not seek re-election at the Labour and Co-operative Group Annual General Meeting in April, and will stand down as Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council in May, 2018.

After fifteen years representing East Brighton ward, Cllr Morgan will also stand down as a ward councillor in May 2019. He will remain as Chair of Policy, Resources & Growth Committee until the last committee meeting of the council municipal year on May 3.

Cllr Morgan would have preferred to remain until he had served five years as Leader of Council in May 2019, but had lost the support of many in the Labour group on the city council, especially those on the left.

Activists from socialist pressure group Momentum held him partly responsible for the party’s suspension in 2016 and his threat to stop the national Labour conference returning to Brighton over a row last September about anti Semitism won him few friends.

Before the local elections in May next year all councillors will have to stand for re-selection by the local membership and Cllr Morgan decision to step down was accelerated because he feared he would not be selected again.

Local Labour activists want to put a radical socialist agenda to voters in next years elections and Cllr Morgans departure will make that more likely.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle
Lloyd Russell-Moyle

Following Cllr Morgans decision to step down Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, said on BBC TV: “I think our council has a very good socialist agenda to start with. I hope it will be even more socialist, the people of Brighton will want that. We will see what leaders come forward, but I understand there are some good candidates in the offering.”

One of those candidates could be Nancy Platts who was only elected to the council in February at a by-election following the decision of Lloyd Russell-Moyle to stand down after being elected as the MP for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven at the 2017 general election. Nancy, formerly Jeremy Corbyn’s trades-union liaison, fought two unsuccessful parliamentary campaigns against Caroline Lucas in 2010 in Brighton Pavilion and Simon Kirby in 2015 in Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven.

Cllr Morgan said: “It has been the privilege of my life to have been given the opportunity to serve as leader of the place where I was born and which I call home. However that time must now come to an end.

“Despite the enormous financial and infrastructure challenges facing the city council, leading it has been a role I have enjoyed and found hugely rewarding, even in only being able to achieve a fraction of what I would have wished to.

“None of what I have achieved as Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group over the past five years, or as Council Leader over the past three, have I achieved alone. I have been incredibly lucky to have as a group of friends, a team of talented councillor colleagues, and a set of dedicated council officers alongside me. Any mistakes have been entirely my own.

“Together I believe we have achieved an enormous amount under near impossible circumstances given the funding, housing and political pressures we face.

“I made it a priority for the Labour administration, on taking office in 2015, to tackle the city’s housing crisis. It is not easy, but we have succeeded in completing more new council homes in one year than at any time in the last thirty, and an innovative new partnership project to deliver a thousand homes affordable on the National Living Wage is about to begin. I put tackling the crisis of rough sleeping at the top of our agenda; whilst the problem continues to grow, we have ensured thousands have been helped from a life on the streets.

“I have been proud to have played a small role in securing a future for the Madeira Terraces, alongside some dedicated community campaigners. As I said last week, our city’s heritage is not something to be remembered, but something to be lived. I hope I see the restoration completed.

“The council under my leadership has made significant progress on a number of major projects; the new King Alfred leisure centre, the replacement conference centre and concert arena for the Brighton Centre, the expansion of Churchill Square shopping centre, the Circus Street development, the Preston Barracks regeneration scheme and more. Together they total over a billion pounds worth of investment in new jobs, homes and economic growth that will secure the city’s economy for the future. Two decades of inaction and delay are at an end.

“On a personal note, I was so happy to have been able to play a part in the celebrations to mark the Albion’s promotion to the Premier League, and to award the Freedom of the City to Chris Hughton and Tony Bloom.

“I would like to thank all those who have worked with me and supported me over the past five years, and I wish my successor well in taking on the immense and difficult challenges of the years ahead.”

Geoff Raw
Geoff Raw

Brighton & Hove City Council Chief Executive Geoff Raw, said: “It’s been a great privilege to work with Cllr Morgan and I’m both grateful for and hugely impressed by his unswerving commitment to this council and the city. 

“It’s ‘business as usual’ as we continue to deliver on our priorities and services for residents during this time of change.

“Annual Budget Council last week has given us a clear financial framework for 2018/19 and we’re finalising our plans on this basis; moving forward without interruption.”

A new leader will be elected in May 2018.

LGBT+ Catholics Westminster announce 2019 Rome pilgrimage

Posted on by Besi

LGBT+ Catholics Westminster, who pray at London’s Farm Street Jesuit Church, will make their third Pilgrimage to Rome for the beginning of Lent, from March 4-10, 2019.

As in 2015 and 2017, the pilgrimage programme will include Pope Francis’ weekly audience and his special Ash Wednesday Procession and Mass.

The pilgrimage will also include visits to Rome’s principal historic sites, ecumenical worship with English-speaking Christians in Rome, Sunday Mass with English-speaking Catholics at the historic Caravita Oratory of St. Francis Xavier and opportunities to meet with other LGBT+ Catholics living in Rome.

For more information, click here:

Music Review: Talma are casting you Out to sea with nothing but a paddle

Posted on by Ray A-J

Welcome to the stormy voyage through rock band Talma’s debut E.P. Out to sea.

You’re in the middle of the sea. Empty horizons surrounding you. Brisk biting winds encapsulate the air-from every direction they’re pulling at your hair, snatching at your skin as the freezing ocean slowly laps up the side of your row-boat. You’re lost. Alone. Out to sea with nothing but a paddle. And then…

A rippling melody drowning in chorus lunges out of the treacherous ocean below. The teetering water reaches over your boat. A familiar guitar trickles its solemn song, taking on the calm after the storm. An ode to the seascape, Talma’s Starless skies curls up in a gentle wave around you. A bleak amalgamation of broken vocals and weeping guitar come raining down in a slow, light downpour.

The deep Editors’ styled vocals whisper on the wind. Talma’s Henry Adams loses himself in the confusion of the rain and sudden crashing waves of drums, until his voice is an echo drifting into the background.

Unfortunately, his low vocal line comes off a little basic; the stripped back and untouched sound is drab. It almost sounds like something from a musical – there’s a restrained quality as though it’s trying desperately to be rock but without ostracising anyone. With all of the effects that saturate the Shoegaze style guitar, and syncopated lightning drums, the vocals fall flat. They’re disinterested and can’t help but be submerged in pool of soft guitar melody and thick chords – never to be heard again. All can be forgiven though, with the promising hint of a powerhouse vocal nearing the end of the track – the illuminating beacon of a brighter lightning burst.

Suddenly we flash back to the beginning of your voyage with Out to sea. The title track is taking place in the middle of a bleak night; you’re gazing out to shore with the hope of adventure pulling you into the vast ocean. There’s a darker heaviness to the guitars and bass which cast up a dreamscape of wanderlust.

You contemplate leaving the beach behind as the pop punk emo-esque vocals tempt you, stating “it’s time to look forward”. A sultry guitar dances across the grey skyline, joined by its partner of hopeful riffs.

With the pulsing drums and suddenly courageous instrumental, you charge forward into the depths of the ocean aboard a broken down row-boat.

Once again the guitar tone is dripping with chorus, but there’s a puddle of distortion added in the instrumental which demands attention in a whirling solo. It calls up a tempest of thunder in sharp, gritty chords – a precursor to the eventual storm that will leave you cast out in the ocean.

There’s a crazed battle raging here between the lightning and the sea.  The forces of light melodic guitar versus the tag team of darker barren bass and rhythm guitar continue in a back and forth, only to be egged on by the eager drums. And then, with a crack of light across the sky, in a solemn farewell the brighter guitar wins and your rowing your way into the eye of the storm.

Fast paced drums and riveting guitar riffs call up an oxymoronicly gentle storm. Waves speed up slightly. Yet, you feel them start to subside as a calmer introduction from the next track subdues your panic into a false sense of security. But not for long.

Disaster. You’re paddling frantically as the tornado of drums from Lifeline’s chorus pulls you in. You find yourself questioning “how much longer can i stay” as the vocals echo your panic. Gradually brewing, the storm is getting stronger with each repetition of a new chorus, only to fall back into a softer verse. As inconsistent as the autumn weather, the pace in this track swirls from upbeat to relaxed with each introduction of a new segment.

Finally the song decides upon a rhythm as the tension from the vocal builds into, the now common, higher pitched cadence.

Parts of your boat begin to break off, marrying themselves to an unrelenting sea. Each fragment kisses the sides of your boat, forming the sounds of In circles’ hodgepodge drum beat. Swiftly the boat seems to dissolve into the terrifying ocean below. And just as soon as the track begins, your pulled out of this scene and into the real world.

It’s a shame, but there seems to be a terribly thin drum machine loop forming the rhythm of this track. It’s disappointing as it sounds as though it was lifted straight from a digital audio workstation computer program like Logic or Garageband.

Actually, the whole of In circles seems to pull you out of a thunderous stormy seascape, and instead reminds you of the real world. It goes entirely against the escapism music provides, falling into the realms of background music. All of a sudden the rock style from the other songs has dissipated into a lazy electronic dance track, complete with cheesy backing vocals and guitar solo. It just doesn’t fit with the album.

Oh, and then there’s the dreadful guitar solo towards the end of the song. It’s messy, barging its way into the middle of underlying riff. The clash is not pleasant to hear.

And with this, the entirety of the E.P becomes tainted. The songs of before are tiptoeing into meek and sad, but they’re just not fully committed to diving into that feeling. Tracks like Starless skies and Lifeline are now only vaguely mourning and reflective – a light drizzle compared to a downpour.

Overall the album feels a bit on the safe side to be considered ‘alternative’ rock –  it’s more diluted rock. Nothing stood out as different, and unfortunately I don’t think I’ll remember them in a few weeks.

In a world of The Smiths and Editors, Talma’s E.P is blending into the background; It’s a good sound but it’s not different or unique enough. They haven’t got their own stamp that screams “we are Talma”.  Of course I can appreciate what they’re trying to do, but perhaps they’re not all the way there yet. They’ve got potential but they’re not utilising their best qualities (guitar playing ability and gorgeous tone).

If rock were a raging sea storm, Talma’s Out to sea would be the calm shortly after. They’re the cacophony of echos, not the original clean-cut blaring call.

 

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