NEWS
EVENTS
New Blood Festival @ Hoxton Square Bar and Grill
Indie | Tuesday 17th January 2012 | Osh
Held at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, New Blood Festival, hosted by PopRox and Artrocker in Association with Original Penguin offers a eclectic mix of new indie music to sink your teeth into. I decided to go on the 12th January with The Tambourines, The History Of Apple Pie, Younghusband and Ivory Seas playing. Ivory Seas kicked off the show with a chilled and beautifully constructed set. The Smith-esque voice of the lead singer enticed you even more deeply into the music that truly captured everyone in the room’s attention.
Younghusband had a very nostalgic feel throughout the whole set. The underlying darkness and grunge feel throughout most of their songs often overpowered the uplifting sound of the guitars and synths. The frontman’s voice also adds to this darkness, it being slow, deep and, again, grungy. Although these mixtures of sounds shouldn’t work, them do. In fact compliment each other brilliantly creating a completely unique sound.
The History Of Apple Pie sounded very much like the female grunge era in the '90s. The backing singer was a great touch and added body to the vocals, which could have quite easily been drowned out by the background music.
The final band, The Tambourines, had a very basic sound compared to the other bands featured. The drum pattern didn’t change too much throughout the set. It also had a more upbeat feel compared to the other bands, although the voice still had a hint of darkness in it. The drummer had a fantastic present and you found yourself more often then not focusing your entire attention on her instead of the music and the rest of the band.
To me, the whole night was a much-needed insight into the indie music scene at the moment and in the future. The line-up worked well and the chosen bands worked well together.
New Blood festival still has two more events this month so be sure to check them out at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen in Shoreditch. For more information visit: www.hoxtonsquarebar.com
