Here at Brighton’s beachbound beauty of a venue, home to dozens of outstanding, envelope-pushing shows over the last couple of years including standouts by the likes of Foals, Battles and Animal Collective, a crowd ostensibly in attendance to witness the live revival of critics’ hero Tom Vek, are about to get a taste of a South London crew who appear destined to follow in the gloried path of those aforementioned forerunners.
Over the last year Breton have cultivated a strong, savvy following around the UK and mainland Europe, ostensibly off the back of their stunning pair of EPs ‘Practical’ and ‘Sharing Notes’ but also through stellar remix work for the likes of Is Tropical, Chapel Club and Maps & Atlases. Their fans are out in good number here tonight – easily spotted as they, like each member of Breton have their Breton branded hoodies up, eyes practically obscured. It’s a faintly intimidating sight and one that speaks to their growing cult and their strong visual sense.
Opening with the tribal ‘15X‘, exploding guitar hooks falling like shattered glass around the remnants of pounding beats, we’re thrust into a parallel universe where the surreal urban imagery of the band’s projections talk as loudly as their live-triggered samples and tech-worshipping stage set-up.
Let’s not forget though, that there are tunes – vast, skyscraping ones like the orchestral glitch of ‘December’ and furious sub-bass slammers like ‘Episodes’, but the highlight tonight is new track ‘Interference’, a slightly terrifying, sideways looking meeting of man and machine that processes post-rock through an electro mesh and leaves you with a bloody, bruising future anthem.
That Breton are pushing British indie forward, whether it wants to move on or not, is not in question, and whether we’re going to tag this ‘post-step’ ‘or something even more ridiculous is also an irrelevance – the facts are quite simple: tonight, they win over a crowd of hundreds, their material just keeps getting better and they are just about ready to break whatever bracket the media would like to shove them in and take the public on an intellectual and emotional ride into the heart of darkness.
A lovely evening by the sea, for sure.
