Melting Vinyl: Bringing the cream of live music to Brighton.

Donate to Melting Vinyl

Support Melting Vinyl

Posted July 27th 2021

St George’s Streamed Events

Over the last past months Melting Vinyl has presented a series of grassroots artists streamed events from St George’s with aid from Arts Council. This series has been giving a new generation of exciting Brighton based grassroots artists the opportunity to perform at the beautiful and historical setting of St. George’s Church, Brighton, a unique professional space which is usually reserved for internationally profiled touring artists. This August we present the fifth and sixth out of our seven streams featuring artists from Audio Active. As we near the end of these ongoing events, Melting Vinyl wanted to take a look back over the streams we have been lucky enough to present.

29th May – Seadog

Seadog is the project of Brighton-based musician and songwriter Mark Benton and Tom Chadd and their eclectic troupe of performers that create dream-pop songs. They combine a variety of influences into a myriad sound of lullabies with anthemic electric and acoustic samples and textures.

Having have previously worked with Phill Brown (Audio Engineer for Talk Talk, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Bob Marley) to complete their debut album “Cabin Fever Blues”, released in 2018 and with songs playlisted on Amazing Radio and BBC Introducing The South, Melting Vinyl were extremelt excited to see what this duo had to bring.

Their dynamic synth sounds filled the magnificent church wonderfully and were a perfect way to kick off this phenominal series.

20th June – Bella Spinks

The second of Melting Vinyls streams featured singer-songwriter Bella Spinks with her signature piano style and inventive vocals, she has drawn comparisons to Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Carole King and Regina Spektor, but the album’s unique, compelling and hypnotic world is all her own.

This Brighton based beauty brought St George’s church to life in this incredible event by performing her her debut album, ‘Homeostasis’ from 2018. The hypnotic music portrayed a theme that is threaded throughout the narrative of ‘Homeostasis’: ‘Noble Lie’, the story of Plato’s ‘Myth of Metals’ in which he suggests a way of keeping a society in check, the fascinating story of two identical twins separated at birth and their unique journey back to each other in ‘Sister’ and ‘Laurel Tree’, which was inspired by the Greek myth; the idea of roots being planted by a riverside so that the tree would grow forever. This stunningly haunting narrative fit perfectly with the historical setting of the church to create an unforgettable evening.

8th July – ĠENN

Four piece ĠENN (pronounced Jenn) established when Leona (vox), Janelle (guitar) and Leanne (bass), a trio based in Malta, struck up an online friendship with British drummer Sofia, made up our third streamed event.

Thos insane group kicked off 2021 with the release of Feel and Mackerel’s Funky Mission, two singles from their new EP Liminal via Everything Sucks Music (March 30) and we were so lucky to host one an event to hear these incredible releases, especially considering the on going circumstances around live music.

From this streamed event it was easy to see why the band have received consistent support from BBC6 Music, XS Manchester and Amazing Radio, Radio X playlisted both singles released this year and had an Isolation session with John Kennedy on April 2nd. Their physch-genre bending tunes rocked St George’s and their engaging nature made it easy to forget the event wasn’t in person!

15th July – Johanna Bramli

For our forth stream we welcomed the inspiring Johanna Bramli, musician, sound artist, composer and performer. As well as being a sensational solo artist she is one half of motorik electronic pop band Fröst, and co-founder of the all-female noise/feedback choir The Larsens and a media composer.

Her blend of granular synthesis, found sounds and vocal manipulation create sensitive yet sonically assaulting textures. Her sound has a Lynchean soundtrack quality to it that evoked such imagery at this event. The melodic soundscapes and cinematic experience is easy to see in the images taken from this show (as shown below or on our Instagram meltingvinyl (@meltingvinylbrighton) • Instagram photos and videos ) . From the presentation, to her French-Swedish charm to the dreamy tunes, this stream was like no other.

25th August – Audio Active Artists

Featuring a range of exciting and powerful young artists mixing hip hop, jazz, soul, garage and r ‘n’ b, the fifth stream is a bit different to the others. Brought to you in collaboration with AudioActive, a non-profit organisation that creates social change through music, we present six dynamic performers of a wide variety.

Since forming in 1999, AudioActive has built a unique community in Brighton and across Sussex which is founded on the belief that music is it’s own reward and can transform lives and soften the blows of a violently austere society. Their team of musicians and music lovers tirelessly develop artists and access arch young talents that so often fall through the cracks with every lyric rapped, sample flipped, or note hit understood as valid and everything they offer is free, whether it’s our drop-in sessions, workshops, shows or social initiatives. In 2019/20, AudioActive reached 1157 Young People with free music services and have played a part in the journey of many Sussex musicians, such as Rizzle Kicks, Celeste, SpectraSoul, Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn, ArrDee and many more and we are honoured to be working with them.

The six artists featured in this stream include; Dereck DAC, a 23-year-old proudly independent rapper from Brighton by way of Brazil and Barcelona, KIANVSLIFE who blends styles & genres ranging from R&B to Hip-Hop and Psychedelic Rock to Jazz, up and coming singer songwriter MFLC who effortlessly uses songwriting to turn her emotions into music people can relate to, R&B artist M.KUDO known for his sparkling live performances and unmatched energy, Brighton singer-songwriter Mia Blankson with her raw tone and her talent she is undeniably destined for big things and 20 year old TAMMIE who cultivates a fresh fusion of rnb, jazz and hip hop and is a prolifically poetic and versatile songwriter. 

We can’t wait for this unique stream at the end of this month, to join us get your tickets here, Melting Vinyl – Dereck Dac/Kianvslife/Miri Flc/M.Kudo/Mia Blankson Tickets | Wednesday, 25 Aug 2021 at 8:00 PM (seetickets.com)

30th September/13th October – Greenness and Oddfellows Casino

The sixth of our St George’s shows is actually in person! Along with a follow up stream of the event on October 13th.

Greenness is the musical project of French singer-songwriter Cess Frangi and English producer and composer Graham Pratt. Drawing inspiration from hybrid genres, such as trip-hop and folktronica, the music of Greenness aims to create an immersive and emotional experience through the use of various acoustic instruments merged with electronic beats, sound effects, field recordings and evocative bilingual lyrics. Based in Brighton, the pair has performed in some of the city’s biggest venues (Brighton Centre, Concorde 2, The Haunt etc), opened at a sold-out event in London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall and toured across the UK, France, Spain and Germany and we are so excited that their next adventure is to St George’s this September.

Also returning to St George’s Church to celebrate their 20th anniversary, Oddfellows Casino are back to blend their trademark pastoral psych-folk sound with plaintive orchestrations, electronica and drone. For their first gig in two years as as full seven-piece band, Oddfellows will be playing some old favourites from their back catalogue and showcasing tracks from the four (!) new albums released over the past twelve months. These include The Cult of Water, a collaboration with author and magician, Alan Moore which led to the publication of a Rough Trade book.

To join us this September or via stream this October get your tickets here: Melting Vinyl – Greenness & Oddfellows Casino Tickets | Thursday, 30 Sep 2021 at 7:00 PM (seetickets.com)


Our series of streams have received so much support from a number of Brighton based organisations, venues and press platforms like, Visit Brighton DIY Magazine, BN1 Magazine, Brighton & Hove News, Lewes Psych Fest, Brighton Source, Brighton Dome & Festival and Komedia. We couldn’t be more grateful for all of the love and support Melting Vinyl and St George’s have received, it has been wonderful to watch grassroots music thrive over the past few months particularly following the hardships of last year…. STAY TUNED!